Tea at Trianon: The Potting Shed

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, July 15, 2012

The Potting Shed

An important place for gardeners.

A clean, well-lighted place (to borrow from Hemingway) nicely describes what one needs in a potting room. Whether a lean-to on the side of the house, a garage, a repurposed laundry room or mudroom, an old shed or a new one, a potting room is the same for all gardeners—a place of our own, to do what we love, where making a mess is just fine. It's a spot to arrange flowers, to cut herbs for drying and to plot and plan your garden. A potting room is also an opportunity for letting your creativity run free—a space to lay out, decorate and style every last rake and trowel. It is your central point for all gardening activities, a management hub, your cockpit. (Read entire article.)