That Vintage Girl

This summer I had a wonderful opportunity to visit a lavender farm in Ojai, California called Frog Creek Farm .  The farm is open seasonally in early summer when the lavenders are in full bloom and you can pick your own bundles from a large variety of lavender.  The farm is so charming and it includes a lavender shop with homemade lavender products for sale.  I was so enchanted with the lavender farm that I got inspired to plant some more French and English lavender in my garden.  In addition to being fragrant and beautiful, lavenders attract bees and butterflies.      Bundles of lavender. The lavender shop.  Fields of lavender. Many different varieties of lavender too.  Lavender picking supplies include baskets and umbrellas.   Some of my lavender bundles.  The lavender shop on the farm.  Inside the lavender shop. Homemade lavender products for sale.  One of the lavender bundles I brought home.  ...

One of my favorite flowers is the Matilija poppy.  It is native to southern California and blooms in the spring and summer months. It is a wild flower that grows naturally in coastal and desert regions where there is well-drained sandy or gravely soil. It is a very drought-tolerant shrub that loves sunshine and is loved by pollinators. It is also called a tree poppy because its stems can grow up to 8 feet tall!.  But what is most spectacular about this flower is that it produces large four to eight inch scented flowers with white crepe-like petals and a golden center.   The Matilija poppy was collected and scientifically catalogued as Romneya coulteri in the 1830s by Dr. Thomas Coulter, an Irish botanist. In the early 1900s, it was cultivated and introduced to gardeners by Theodore Payne, an English horticulturalist who called it the "Queen of California flowers".  In 1890, the Matilija poppy, California poppy, and Mariposa lily were contenders for the state fl...

The Stahl House is one of the most famous and beautiful mid-century homes in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California.  It was built in 1960 by Buck and Carlotta Stahl and the same year it was featured in Arts & Architecture magazine with the iconic black and white photograph taken by Julius Shulman. In 2024, I had the opportunity to tour the iconic home, which is still owned by the Stahl family.  The building of this home was truly an inspirational story powered by love and perseverance.   When Buck and Carlotta Stahl purchased the empty lot in 1954, most of the surrounding area was still undeveloped.  Their lot was also very sloped, which meant building challenges, but they knew this spot, on the edge of a high mountain, was special and they had a vision.   The first challenge was grading the slope to strengthen the foundation and prepare it for construction of their home.  Buck Stahl spent a few years building a retaining wall and fi...