C'est Inspiré is simply that - what is inspiring. Where the words end, images continue to speak. Seeing all that is around us, we seek some aspect of something that is life enhancing... something that you would like to be reminded of - to revisit. Something to capture and bring into your world, not leave behind... . That is why I take a camera everywhere; have spent countless hours organizing images in scrapbooks and pouring over them later to revisit the place, the people, the memory.
So, C'est Inspiré may be a single photo - or it may be 50, it may mean one thing to me, another to you - the meaning isn't important. Did it inspire? Did it make you smile? Did it bring back a pleasant memory? One or all of the above will do.
During a brief period of his life, the legendary art historian Bernard Berenson kept diaries where he wrote about how to see - and what he saw. These diaries were published under the title The Passionate Sightseer and edited by Raymund Mortimer.
Anyone, anywhere, anytime can be a passionate sightseer - just look.
Never one to pass up a bookstore, I felt the magnetic force to Read it Again, Sam as I walked up the downtown mall in Charlottesville recently. A few out-of-print classics went home with me as gifts for friends, and part of my ‘stock’ for future birthdays and Christmas. Gardening volumes, wildflowers, Virginia recipes, a bio of Elizabeth David, and books on Lee Miller, Palladio and Audubon were amongst the cache. It is impossible to walk into a bookstore and walk out empty handed. An undeniable truth.
Read it Again, Sam
Dave Taylor, Owner
214 E. Main Street
Charlottesville, VA
May 10, 2012
...Some More Ideas! : Leap Day is the gift of an extra day.
Leap year. The gift of an extra day was the email I sent on Feb 29th reminding friends and family that 2/29 was a gift of a day, make it count, make it memorable, you won’t see another for four years. Invited by friends to have dinner at La Grenouille to celebrate a belated birthday, we chose Leap Day as the perfect day to gather.
The conversations were at break-neck speed juxtaposed with perfectly timed service. It is always a meal to be savored with a little liquid effervescence, and last night ended with a soufflé of Grand Marnier.
The owner, Charles Masson, is the master of the infamous floral decoration and is always there to greet and keep a doting eye on his guests. The table bouquets were a collection of carnations, and the bar’s tall bouquet cast a shadow on a glass vase of Hellebores with an unusual coloration of green petals dappled with deep claret.
In the restaurant, forsythia branches burst from vases like sun rays towering over guests while occupying the coveted banquettes. They are interwoven with yellow oncidium; and are anchored with white lilies, yellow callas and alstroemeria. The arrangements at La Grenouille are at the same time an appetizer and a dessert. In all of this elaborate beauty, there was the quiet reminder that even a single blossom can speak volumes. Heaven knows we did that evening…
A little Leap Year math:
An extra day!? Well not really, just a way to keep the calendar on track. Pour quoi? Well, it actually takes the earth 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and a few odd seconds to completely circle the sun.
If the spirit moves you, you can do the math, but trust me…it works out that if we did not add an extra day every four years then every 100 years the calendar would be off by 24 days…..
Filofax…Outlook…an elegant Hermès diary….whatever you use. I wouldn’t want my calendar messed up…would you?
From our archives, articles about La Grenouille and Charles Masson….
March 2, 2012
Not exactly what most young ladies you know carry in their purse. I can remember novels where ‘certain ladies’ had flasks in their handbags and the neighbors would talk……the gossipy kind like the ones you detested in “The Help.” Or in western films, where saloon girls would reveal a petite silver flask strapped to a black lace garter halfway up the thigh of their dancehall gams. And also at Edwardian shooting parties, where they thought nothing of a small flask under the cape when out in those bone chilling fields. But then again, they turned their heads to all kinds of behavior, and not just a tiny flask.
But somehow a flask still suggests…You know??
Well Leontine Linens is giving respectability and style to the Hooch smuggling vessel of yesterday. On a recent trip to New Orleans, Jane Scott Hodges, owner of Leontine, took me to her NOLA shop. I have been doing business with Jane Scott for years, but always on her visits to New York, the Hamptons, or chance trunk shows at Capitol in Charlotte, NC. As we walked around the shop I spotted the flask…my mind immediately went to the ugly visual of attractive women walking down the street drinking from industrial size water bottles as if it were their last.
Remember when you were a child…IF YOU EVER drank from a bottle before pouring something into a glass. Well, my mother would have words for me. Today, times have changed. We are trés trés mobile. We are more health conscious and always with the ubiquitous Evian or Fiji bottle in our hand, our bag, or on our desk.
The decorator in me, combined with my Aquarian nature, account for my inability to fight the impulse to improve. It is an involuntary reaction, so be it. So I ordered myself a monogrammed flask cover and three extra flasks - it just makes me laugh…one for water, one for EmergenC, and the other for a green concoction most people would not even look at, much less drink. Depending on what I am doing, where I am going, I have my beverage of choice. I’m NOT drinking from THE bottle…It’s not strapped to a garter…But one thing I am sure of, it will certainly turn some heads and get those tongues wagging…
This time I am sure they are whispering – Do you think I can get one in pink and green??
Leontine Linens http://www.leontinelinens.com/
February 3, 2012
For more ideas – and a great selection of prepared
foods, try these websites -
Perhaps the most expansive selection for your hunting menu – D’Artagnan – which sells prepared game meats, as well as all the fixin’s…foie gras, truffles and caviar….
www.dartagnan.com
For prepared wild game meats, Cabela’s has everything from a game steak variety pack to their signature “Tur-Duc-Hen” for the daring poultry lover.
www.cabelas.com
Smithfield Marketplace – famous for their hams – also has a huge variety, including hostess gifts and tailgating favorites. You don’t have to be at the dinner table to exhibit your hunting chic!
www.smithfieldmarketplace.com
To spark your gourmet food imagination…as well as wine, cheese and desserts – check out Gilt Taste.
www.gilttaste.com
For Fleur de Sel, great cooking oils, spices and spreads – try The French Farm, out of Houston.
www.frenchfarm.com
And Blackberry Farm is nestled in the Smokey Blue mountains, but if you can’t make it there be sure to check out Sam Beal’s Blackberry Farm Cookbook for inspiration and recipes – ‘Foothill Cuisine,’ as they call it, and shop their products on Taigan.
www.taigan.com
December 15, 2011
