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| Monet's lily ponds in Giverny were the inspiration for Pemberly Pines lily ponds. |
What does a magnificent artist's retreat in France and a humble family northern Michigan abode have in common? Aside from the obvious (which there is none), it's the engineered pond, cultivated with love and lilies.
This week's Tuesday Tea and "Tiny" Tomes is brought to you by "European Treasures" a Victoria Magazine special edition from 2015. We purchased this - on sale! - at the online Hoffman Media store last month. (Hoffman Media publishes many specialty magazines, including our favorite "TeaTiime Magazine".)
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| European Treasures from Hoffman media boast "The Best of Ireland, Great Britain, France and Italy". |
We were very interested in this special edition because its cover boasts "The Best of Ireland, Great Britain, France and Italy - romantic retreats, glorious gardens and favorite destinations". I thought we might find a few familiar places among the covers, but of the eighteen sites listed in the table of contents, there was only one we've actually visited: Giverny, France, home to impressionist artist, Claude Monet. But, that brought back some wonderful memories from 2008 and reminder as to the inspiration of our own Pemberly Pines pond one year later.
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| Monet's water lily pond - a picture we snapped when visiting in 2008 |
Twelve years ago, my husband, Chris and I, celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary with a trip to Paris, which, included a few day trips: one to Versailles and one to Giverny (blog story from 2008, Tea Tour in Paris).
From the King Louis' crazy rich palace to the rich
landscape of Giverny, the latter was impressive in its natural beauty - but
that doesn't mean it "just happened". Monet "tapped
into" a nearby river to create his pond and planted those oh-so- famous
water lilies before he painted them. As we learned on our trip in 2008, Monet
not only painted in his garden, but enjoyed a cup of tea there as well.
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| Mini Monet print from Giverny gift shop now hangs in Pemberly Pine's gallery |
And, as many of you may know, I enjoy gift shops as much as the historic places they reside in, and, I purchased a mini-Monet-masterpiece of the water lily pond.
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| Like Givery, Pemberly Pines Pond was "engineered". |
One year later, my husband "created" a pond at our up-north home. Like Monet. he planted water lilies and every summer for the last eleven years, we've enjoyed the proliferation of the pond flower garden which brings us increasing numbers of bright white and deep fuchsia blossoms. (See 2010 blog, Show me the Monet).
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| Water lily garden and blossoms at Pemberly grow in number every year |
Along with our mini Monet, we've curated our own gallery of water lily paintings at Pemberly Pines so we can enjoy nature's beauty inside and out.
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| Pemberly Pines water lily gallery. |
Although, we've only visited one of European's Treasures, we're inspired to visit more in the future. On the top of the list is the home of Beatrix Potter in England's lake district. Chris and I stopped in this beautiful area of England in 2018 and vowed to come back. If we need any arm twisting, I think European Treasures has accomplished that.
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| Visiting England's lake district, 2018. Hope to be back soon to the land of Peter Rabit! |
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