Pearly Dewdrops

Something I like about living in the Northwest is our early and lengthy spring. It is my favorite season. Here in Portland, even the scrappiest, most average-seeming front yard explodes in a riot of haphazard blooming, often before it's warm enough for us to really want to be outside, often before we've cleaned up last year's spent hydrangea crowns and withered oak leaves. A melancholy sky and its pale, chilly light makes those luminous pink petals glow and blush, a tangle of flickering candles.

Naturally, I've spent almost every waking moment this week staring at the computer (now backing up for the third time, renaming, and finally transmitting all 227 hi-res images for the book, which is taking about 780% longer than I expected), escaping only to get out for a lap or two around the block with Clover Meadow. There is so much to smell and see right now. Every picket fence and rock wall circumscribes green things she's sniffing like a tiny hound. Sometimes someone will have brought in a load of mulch already, and in that yard the nose goes absolutely wild.

Thank you thank you thank you for all the Country Girl orders, both dolls and kits! Thank you! I'm keeping all orders open through tomorrow, as I mentioned, remaking dolls that have been ordered more than once, so nothing will officially sell out until sometime Friday. I'll leave all the photos up on the site, too, in case you want to look at them while you're making your kits. I'm just so thrilled by the orders. Thank you so much.

Comments

[Leigh]

I adore your photos! I am in the mood for spring!

Yipppeeeee! I just ordered my baby and my kit!!!! It took me forever because I could not decide which little girl needed to come and live with me!

[Laura M]

I lived in Portland for 2 years after college and spring was a revelation! The whole city smells like roses and lovely, blooming green things. Unlike London, where spring can also be lovely, but it mostly smells like pollution and sometimes errant bodily fluids.

[Leanne]

some grumpy old you-know-what just told me today that we are going to have another 6 weeks of winter........i'm thinking positive. everyday i notice the lilac buds are getting chubbier.
i wish your photos had smell.
xo

[Nancy ~ Fete et Fleur]

Beautiful!

Nancy

[Molly]

"A melancholy sky and its pale, chilly light makes those luminous pink petals glow and blush, a tangle of flickering candles."

What gorgeous writing! Thank you for sharing this post. It was beautiful.

[Sanctuary arts]

Oh this is so pretty and springy... "Hop" on over to my blog, I'm having a giveaway!
Jen R

[Jenna]

Such pretty photos. My mind wants to smell those flowers but like a forgotton word on the tip of my tongue, I can't.

[lissilulu]

beautiful blooms....up about two hours on the coast from you in Grays Harbor.
My 13 year old daughter called me to the kitchen window tonight when the sun was setting to show me that the gigantic Japanese Cherry tree is getting buds. When this tree flowers out it looks like large puffs of pink cotton candy because it is so large and the neighborhood gets pink snow when it blows off.
love that tree.
lori

[Miss Ifi]

I am so jealous of your SPRING, here in Ottawa, Canada.. well we don't know when spring will be here and I just need to see some green leaves and some beautiful flowers!!!
Those pictures are amazing!

[Bree]

Gorgeous!!!

[cindy k]

gorgeous photos! can't wait until your weather makes its way east. happy spring!

[Jennifer]

Oh Alicia! The way you talk about the North West makes me want to buy a plane ticket right now! I am from Portland but living in New York City for the past 18 years. When your surrounded by nothing but concrete you realy cherish natural beauty. The Oregon Coast, evergreen trees, pine cones, early springs and yes even the rain, mud, and slugs. Thanks for your beautiful photography.

[rebekah at elizabeth anne designs]

Beautiful! I visited Portland a few years ago in March and was amazed at the pink blossoms at the Japanese Garden.

[Tanja]

Your blog is wonderful! Tanja

[Kristin Nicholas]

Oh boy - what lovely flowers. We still have inches of snow here and another dusting last night. Hope the computer problem stops! What a nightmare. Happy Easter.

[susaninfrance]

and we are thrilled that you have offered them!! I missed out on the Lucias, so I'm so happy to have been able to order these!
beautiful clematis!!

[Samantha]

Oh, it's beautiful! Just beautiful!

[Samantha]

Oh, it's beautiful! Just beautiful!

[samantha]

oh thank you for the pictures alicia! they are so beautiful.it is still so cold here in colorado...the spring bulbs are just now coming up. after spending 18 months in kalispell montana
with springs like yours that seem to last forever,
i'm really missing all the green and blooms of spring
living here on the front range plains.
i especially miss the peoni and the lilac.

[Anja]

Burn a DVD or CD and fedex it - much quicker! Beautiful flowers. We've had snowstorms and rain this week, not very good for gardening at all. But those photos do make me want to get out there.

[Kristin]

Spring has definitely sprung! Congratulations on all the progress!! :)

[Marta Mourão]

I love spring! Your flower pictures are so sweet!

[paula luckhurst]

Such beauty.

[Caitlin]

I just wanted to say that I really love your site and you're one of the people that inspired me to start my own. Everything you do is just pretty (I can't think of a better way to put it) and fun. Thanks for being awesome.

[susan]

oh geez, i totally missed it. waaaaaaaaaaaaa. will you be doing any more kits for the dolls? sniff sniff, i would really love to get one sniff sniff
the flowers look like the smell divine