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Gardens & Flowers Spotted in PDX

Katy Elliott — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:07:11 +0000

Garden on Mississippi Avenue

I’m back from Portland, Oregon! On my trip I was fascinated with the gardens I saw exploding in the front yards of bungalows and down onto the sidewalks. Layers of color and texture reminded me of English cottage gardens—the palettes alive with amazing yellow, oranges and bright pinks. The gardens incorporated a lot of different grasses breaking up the texture and created a rustling sounds in the breeze. So different then traditional perennial gardens we see in New England.

I popped into Pastils Nursery on Mississippi Avenue to discover neon ornamental grasses, night phlox and Spanish Lavender—the ornamental heads are really cute! Chickens and turkeys roaming the nursery making you feel like your at a country home rather then the city.

p.s. the million dollar question: ~~What is the pink flower I kept seeing in Portland. Is it a butterfly bush? But the blossoms don’t cluster in the same shape? Hmm any ideas?~~ I think we have a winner! I think it’s Jupiter’s Beard or Centranthus ruber! Thanks Marissa for the help in the comments section.

Pistils Nursery
3811 N. Mississippi Ave.
Portland, OR
pistilsnursery.com

Gardens spotted in the neighborhood near Mississippi Avenue

Garden on Mississippi Avenue

Jupiter’s Beard growing out a wall on Mississippi Avenue

Spanish Lavender spotted in a garden (left) and at Pistils Nursery

Night Phlox at Pistils Nursery

Orange Sedge and Japanese Blood Grass at Pistils Nursery

Columbia River Gorge

Katy Elliott — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:01:51 +0000

I’m in Portland, Oregon for the weekend. I spent the day with Chelsea from the blog {frolic!}. She was sweet enough to be my tour guide and brought me up to see the Columbia River Gorge. It was beautiful. The air was clean, the landscape lush with beautiful wild flowers, ferns and moss covered rocks. The wild maidenhair ferns (I have in my garden!) had me snapping a ton of photos. Gorgeous.

Thanks for a fantastic day Chelsea! I’m off to bed, my clocks reads: 2:56 am east coast time!

Mt. Washington Hotel at Bretton Woods

Katy Elliott — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:56:33 +0000

Over the weekend we embraced the snow and went skiing in northern New Hampshire. We stayed at the Bretton Arms which is an inn that is part of the Mt. Washington Hotel Resort. The hotel was built over a hundred years ago is one of the last surviving grand hotels in the United States. Back in the day visitors traveled by rail to the backcountry of New Hampshire for long vacations away from the city.

When I was a kid we lived in northern New Hampshire. My older sister took riding lessons at the hotel in the summer months—I was too little and was only allowed to take trail rides on special occasions. I spent hours staring up at the big white lady nestled in the mountains from the riding ring. It was the fanciest hotel I had ever seen.

Above and below snapshots from a twilight walk around the resort. An outdoor pool on the backside of the hotel was full of kids after a long day of skiing. The kids ran down a heated sidewalk, jumped into the steamy hot pool that looked out to view of the mountains, fancy indeed!

Mt. Washington Hotel
Route 302
Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
603-278-1000

Sheepskin: Rent A Cottage In Wales

Katy Elliott — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 20:03:37 +0000

I’m dying to go to the UK. I want to see rolling green fields, sheep, and more plaid blankets than I could possibly shove into my carry on bag. Over the weekend a twitter chat brought me to Sheepskin. The cottages on the site are in remote parts of Wales many with beautiful rolling hills just out the backdoor.

Greg and I have talked about taking a trip this fall but we can’t decide. First it was Italy, then a road trip from Southern California to Seattle, but now I am leaning towards a London/Wales trip. But can we really take a trip? That damn house needs a new roof, gutters and fireplace repair ect etc this summer. Am I living in a fairy tale thinking I could possibly do both?

Ace Hotel, The Breslin and Stumptown

Katy Elliott — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:38:54 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posting this week, I’m in New York. I’ve been a busy bee working and visiting with friends and family. This morning my sister brought me over to the new Ace Hotel on 29th street in Manhattan. Design group Roman and Williams transformed the space into a hipster Brit infused oasis. Check out the plaid wing chair in the above photo. The back of the chair was upholstered in navy wool decorated with brass tacking. So freakin’ cute.

Attached to the Ace is The Breslin a British style pub run by Peter Cho and the Spotted Pig (my fav place to grab a burger) crew. I walked through pretty quickly but I was struck by the green molding. In the sunlight the wood appears limey in the shadows it becomes a dark olive gloss. Tufted benches, thonet style chairs, and brass accents give the space a cozy feel. Need a little pick me up? Hit Stumptown coffee just off from the hotel’s lobby. I had a latte and croissant—super yum with a nutty quality. Above and below photos from Roman and William’s website.

Ace Hotel
20 W 29th Street
New York, NY
212.679.2222
acehotel.com

The Breslin
16 W 29th Street
New York, NY
212.679.1939
thebreslin.com

Simon Pearce: Quechee, Vermont

Katy Elliott — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:08:35 +0000

We spent the a very cold January weekend in central Vermont. With the temperatures hovering around 10 degrees; snowshoeing was out of the question. Taking off my gloves to snap a photo was brutal enough. We spent the afternoon indoors visiting Simon Pearce’s workshop and restaurant in Quechee, Vermont.

Simon Pearce first opened his glassblowing workshop in Ireland. In the 1980′s Pearce moved his operation to a historic woolen mill in Quechee, Vermont. The Ottauquechee river roars just below, providing hydroelectric power for the glass furnaces along with electricity for the entire facility. Visitors can browse the retail store, watch potters and glassblowers at work and enjoy lunch or dinner in the restaurant overlooking the river.

Greg and I found the glassblowing process fascinating. Each piece is gorgeous and completely handmade. I made a mental note of all my favorite glasses, bowls, and pitchers to purchase once our renovation is done. Below photos of glassblowers and potters at work. How cute are the wool plaid curtains I spotted in the ladies bathroom? At the very bottom is the hydroelectric generator used to power the facility. Find out more at simonpearce.com.

Vermont Cheese Trail

Katy Elliott — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:02:24 +0000

Consider Bardwell Farm

I dying to go to Vermont to check out their Cheese Trail. Vermont’s artisanal cheese industry has seen a big boom as more consumers become interested in handmade cheeses. I began my love affair with cheese back when I worked in new york. Every Friday I would pass through Grand Central Station to treat myself to a new selection of cheeses from Murray’s Cheese Shop. Murray’s selection is amazing and their staff is incredibly knowledgeable. Thinking back about all the wonderful cheeses I have tasted makes me salivate. God, I love cheese…maybe even more then chocolate. Well maybe not dark chocolate but it’s close.

The last few days it seems everywhere I turn I’m hearing about Vermont’s cheese movement. In the Novemeber 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living is a lovely story about five Vermont cheesemakers. The cheesemakers were featured on her tv show today, click here for clips. On twitter, I found an articles on nationalgeographic.com and bostonmagazine.com about the cheese trail. I’m sensing a roadtrip. Have you ever gone cheese hunting in Vermont? Check out the cheese trail map here.

cheesemakers featured on martha
Blue Ledge Farm
Consider Bardwell Farm
Saxelby Cheesemongers
Thistle Hill Farm
Willow Hill Farm

p.s. I was checking out the farms and it looks like april-october is the best time to go.

Golden Seagrass In The Fall

Katy Elliott — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:59:15 +0000

A few more photos from my Sunday afternoon in New England. Along the northern coast of Massachusetts are beautiful inlets you can hike and drive around. As the leaves on the shores turn vibrant reds the seagrass in the marshes turn into a sea of gold. It’s one my favorite things to see in the fall. The shots above and below where taken in Ipswich. The glow of the grass is unreal. It seriously looks like this in the afternoon…no photoshop tricks. The texture of the grass reminds me of a lion’s mane. Check out the location on google maps to investigate the inlets.

Picking Apples & Eating Cider Doughnuts At Russell Orchards

Katy Elliott — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:11:25 +0000

Yesterday was a perfect sunday. Greg and I took full advantage of the gorgeous fall weather and went apple picking at Russell Orchards in Ipswich, MA. The sweet smell of apples lingered in the air as we wandered through orchards picking galas and cortlands. Before we left we grabbed a bag of a 1/2 dozen apple cider doughnuts which we promptly opened and devoured on the car ride home. Hot, moist, and cinnamony…heaven. Find my recipe for making apple cider donuts at home here. Read more about Russell Orchards in the recent issue of edible boston here.

Shaker Village & Hard Drive Died

Katy Elliott — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:38:04 +0000

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. My hard drive on my 2-year-old imac died on Sunday afternoon and had to be replaced. The ordeal was pretty traumatic and I cried a lot. I tried to stay calm knowing I had backed up my files a few months ago on an external hard drive. When my imac returned home on Wednesday I plugged in the drive to find nothing on it. My stomach sank. For some reason my perfectly new external hard drive had nothing on it. My boyfriend and I are pretty techy and can’t find a reason why the files are gone. All my photos, music, videos are gone. Thankfully, I have a lot photos uploaded to flickr and to my blog. All my funny and personal photos are gone forever. I’m trying not to dwell but I feel miserable.

Above and below are the first photos to go on my new hard drive backed up by my new external hard drive. Greg and I went up to NH on Saturday and checked out Canterbury Shaker Village for some house inspiration. We had mixed feelings about the visit. Our tour guide talked a lot about religion and seemed offended by questions about design. Taking photos inside was against the rules. Above and below a few shots of the rolling fields displaying gorgeous skies and colorful fall leaves.

Canterbury Shaker Village
288 Shaker Village Road
Canterbury, NH
shakers.org