Magazine inspiration

 I think I have mentioned before that I have a small problem when it comes to magazines. The problem is that I am addicted. The central library used to have a great selection of international gardening magazines, and I enjoyed making special trips into town to pile up as many as I could carry home, to feast my eyes over the gorgeous images. Unfortunately the central library has been a no go zone since the Feb 22 quake, and I have no idea what happened to their subscription magazines - they haven't come to my local library. So I'm having to buy magazines. (I'm not as sad about this as you might imagine.)

 The good thing is that I'm amassing a good home library of beautiful pictures, and the bad thing is that international magazines are so damn expensive, and also the wrong season! But, by the time they hit the shops here, they are a couple of months out of date and therefore pretty much only a season ahead, if you think of it that way. 

 Anyway. This is the August issue of Gardens Illustrated, from the UK. I love the colours of the late summer plants pictured above... I really must get myself some honesty seeds. And I would love a bower like in the second picture - but I will settle for making myself a bench out of some rustic planks (got plenty of those lying around).

 Now, get ready for something exciting. This is La Chatonniere in France - and check out that potager shaped like a rose leaf!!! I do think that is the most beautiful potager design I've ever seen. I'm just so excited by it. If I were starting my potager over again, I'd try to incorporate this design. Of course, I'd need a castle and a humongous estate to really do it properly.

There are several themed gardens throughout La Chatonniere and each has a name. The potager is the Garden of Abundance. My other favourite is the Garden of Dance - thousands of narcissi and other spring bulbs planted in this beautiful pattern, which sway and dance in the spring breeze. Have a look at the La Chatonniere website for more photos and information on the other gardens, including Intelligence, Romance, Luxuriance, Fragrance and Silence.

On my reading table

 Annnnd... it's another Country Living magazine! This is the March issue. I had to buy this one as well, giving myself a stern talking to all the time. You see, I have a bit of a magazine addiction. That is why the library is so great - I bring home as many as I can carry, they are free, and they don't sit around cluttering up my house for long. For I can never bring myself to throw away something that I spent so much money on, nor can I bear to rip out the pages. However it is nice to know they are there to go back to.

 On the cover, it's spring! I love the terracotta pots, and the wicker basket with the spring flowers... pasque flowers if I'm not mistaken.

 This vignette could be adapted to any season just by changing the flowers. The warm colours are quite autumnal.

 I love open shelving in a kitchen, especially when your utensils are pretty as well as practical. I really want a woven mat like that one!

This lady makes limited edition prints from potatoes! Come on guys, we could all do that one. Look how cute her mice are though... I guess that takes a special kind of skill.

On my reading table

 I've just finished the first three books in the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse series, by Charlaine Harris. I've been a fan of the True Blood TV show since it started, so reading the books is of course the next step. (If I watch a movie or TV show and find out it was based on a book, I always get a bit obsessed with finding and reading that book.) Luckily my very dear friend has the series and lent me the books, otherwise I would have been tearing my hair out trying to get them in order from the library - if there's one thing I hate it's reading a series out of order!

It's interesting how much the same and yet how different the two mediums are. TVBill is very much the gentleman, polite and chivalrous, while BookBill is quite feral and definitely unhuman. TVEric I found to be a rather cliched Lestat-like character, but BookEric is a lot more interesting. Pam I love in both TV and book.

Any other True Blood fans out there?

 The latest NZ Gardener magazine popped up in my mailbox last week (I was lucky enough to get a subscription for Christmas). It's feeling very hello winter with stored spuds on the cover, and featuring tips on pruning and some recipes for home brewed booze.

 There are some recipes for kumara and Maori potatoes.

And a feature on chrysanthemums, quintessential autumn flowers.

On my reading table

 Oh library, I've been missing you. Most of the libraries around town are open again but not my local, which means I had to resort to actually buying magazines. The Mobile Library has been in the neighbourhood (this is a library in a bus - very cool and I'll see if I can get some photos when I go next weekend), but it is by nature small and rather heavily depleted at the moment.

 So a couple of weeks ago I went to Borders and fulfilled my craving. Country Living (British edition) is my absolute favourite magazine, I love its seasonality and I usually get the issue that corresponds to what season we are in here in the southern hemisphere. Unfortunately I couldn't do that in the shop, so I got the January issue (which was cheaper, I guess because it was about due to be pulled from the shelf). Winter will be here soon enough, I figured. I also got Country Gardens (US edition - spring), it doesn't matter quite so much what the season is with this one as they always have beautiful photos.

 As usual with Country Living, the most beautiful page is on the cover. I wish I could get my kitchen to be pretty and functional, unfortunately it tends to be just functional and completely messy.

 Bright ideas for dark days - I like the hyacinth bulbs in the tin pots, and the bird feeder in the terracotta pot. I think I'll make some feeders like that.

 Country Gardens has cute ideas for spring posies - my favourite is the ostrich egg vase in the lower left corner.

 And a primula auricula theatre - apparently this used to be the way to display your primroses! "...the tradition dates to the 16th century in France and Belgium. Legend has it that Huguenot weavers carried their beloved auriculas with them when they fled to England. By century's end, primrose pandemonium was almost as hysterical as 17th-century Tulipmania with prized specimens going for small fortunes."

Can't say I'm all that keen on primroses, but maybe if I had a darling little theatre like that to display them in. Guess I've got all winter to construct one!