Flowers on Sunday and Some Book Thing Finds

During six months of the year, my friend Julie and I have a routine. We meet at the Farmers’ Market in downtown Baltimore at 8:00 a.m. sharp. We do a looking lap and then a buying lap at the market, all while greeting and chatting with friends we see.

Following that, we head somewhere for breakfast. We have some favourite places, but are always looking to find a new place, which we did today.

After breakfast, we go to Book Thing, where Julie, an amazing cook with an awesome kitchen, heads for the cook book section and I head for the design and decorating section.

Come on along with us!

There were still some peonies at the market, but I am really just sick of the smell of them. They can be so sweet and cloying and I am over them for the season, surprisingly!  I found some beautiful Bachelors Buttons, an easy plant to grow, and one which comes in some beautiful shades of blue, and pink and white.

For breakfast, we headed to Grand View, an interesting place at the top of a senior living facility! I’d seen a sign for it recently, and realized that it was probably the highest point in Baltimore. As we suspected, the view was indeed grand, with sightlines in every direction. It was clear enough that we could see all the way out the harbour into the Chesapeake Bay. We were both amazed to see what a green city Baltimore is. Although you do get that sense driving around, it’s verified by an aerial view.

A quick trip to Book Thing yielded two treasures, including Architectural Digest’s Celebrity Homes, dating from 1977. The selection of celebrities is interesting: it ranges from Senator Edward Kennedy to Julia Child, from Pauline Trigere to Diana Vreeland. The other treasure was Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, by Janet Wallach. This book will be a great read, and it’s got a lot of images that I haven’t seen before. Although I haven’t had a chance to read through either book, I am sure I will be fascinated by them both.