Skeptickle

“Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul alike.”

-John Muir (The Yosemite, 1912)

I’m so excited to see the previews to the new documentary The National Parks- America’s Best Idea by Ken Burns. I’m looking forward to seeing it when it comes out in September on PBS. I think people don’t give enough thought about our national parks and how important it is to preserve them. The purpose of the documentary isn’t just to show pretty images of the parks but also to portray them in the framework of how innately American the idea is.

It’s peony season again! Ever since they became my second favorite flower (right below dahlias), a smile lights my face and longing tugs my heart when I see them at the market. Too bad they have a short season and they’re pricey or else I’d bring a bunch home every week! I was so sad when I found out that neither were available within a reasonable price range around the time of our wedding. It would’ve seriously costed $8 per stem with a requirement to buy 100 stems at a certain online wholesaler. I ended up using a peony-rose hybrid for my bouquet and other personal flowers, which was much less costly and is available year-round . At first I thought I was settling, but they turned out to be almost as beautiful as peonies and they had the most heavenly scent of garden roses .

Here’s the one that my brother walked down the aisle with and placed on the seat my mother would have sat on if she were there:

Anyways, I’ll do an entire post on my wedding flowers with all the details at another time. Right now I’d like to present these babies that I got from TJs for $7!

Can you believe that at this time yesterday these were tight balls of unopened blossoms? My babies grew up too fast!

Okay, I know, enough of the flower porn. I should be working on my plans for ending poverty and alleviating global warming all at the same time. Off I go!