When life gives you lemons...

'Lemon Tree' painted by Yael Berger @ Etsy

Under the lemon tree...

When life gives you lemons... I say, embrace them

Lemons have been tricky to find in Saigon, you often ask for a lemon and often get a lime instead. I love limes so I can not complain but sometimes only a lemon will do. Citrus fragrance notes resonate with me...give me an earthy, woodsy, 'citrusy', clear, fresh fragrance note and I will swoon. How many of you love the smell of freshly cut grass..a field of it? If you do..you know what I am talking about...but let's not get carried away..because today I want to talk about lemons.

When life gives you lemons...drink them

My sister started me thinking about lemons..she suggested lemons to flush out toxins, enhance skin and reduce bloating. Who can say no to that? She boils up a pitcher of water, throws in slices of a whole lemon, lets it cool and sips away throughout the day. There are plenty of health benefits to drinking warm water and lemon too, you can read healthy lemon tips here.

via Mind Body Green

If you prefer the sweeter variety...make lemonade. I prefer the fresh variety with a few sprigs of mint but if you are after the sweet, why not try Ina Garten's pink lemonade?

When life gives you lemons... eat them
I am not sure if I ever mentioned that I have a sweet tooth..and a nose to seek out the finest lemon scented/flavoured sweets. There is nothing I love more than rich lemon bars, tangy lemon tartlettes,  a  moist lemon cake and that nice hot drizzle over Lisa's luscious lemon loaf. I am telling you now...that I can type this without regret as I am about to take off to the gym..where surely I will be thinking of lemons.

Kitchen art 'Lemon Meringue Pie' @ Etsy

Sarah @ Thyme... Les Petites Tartlettes au Citron 

When life gives you lemons...bring out the veggies

The lovely thing about lemons...is that they create so many wonderful taste sensations. I love them on veggies..especially grilled asparagus with a touch of lemon oil. Take fresh asparagus, drizzle a little olive oil over them, add one or two slices of lemon and toss the on the grill..a Henriques family favourite. Lemon and fish..a winner. Black olives, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, fresh herbs and a dash of olive oil and tug of lemon...sigh..delicious. Even better, a simple and healthy Pasta with Fresh Herbs and Peas with lemon zest. Who can pass up a healthy alternative, especially after thinking about all those rich desserts? How about you? What do you create when life gives you lemons?

Pasta with Fresh Herbs and Peas

When life gives you lemons...breathe them in.

I mentioned fragrance notes..of a earthy citrus variety. There are a few that never leave my dressing table and I have Jo Malone to thank for that. I adore Orange Blossom and Grapefruit..especially when the sun shines and heavy, heady tropical air hangs about. These two fragrances are like a call to attention..they lift me up and get me going. To that I add French Lime Blossom and Lime Basil Mandarin...they suit Saigon weather perfectly.

Jo Malone Grapefruit collection

and there you have it...

when LIFE gives you lemons..

I say.. 

embrace them, 

drink them, 

eat them 

and breathe them in

and if you are feeling particularly creative

paint them too!

Jacob van Hulsdonck 

Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Pomegranate

c.1640

via

A lemon link recap...

Recipes abound.. 

 Healthy lemon tips
Ina Garten's Pink Lemonade

Ina Garten's Lemon Bars

Sarah's French Lemon Tartlettes

Martha's Lemon Cake

Lisa's Luscious Lemon Loaf

 Pasta with Fresh Herbs and Peas

Jo Malone Fragrances..

Orange Blossom

Grapefruit

French Lime Blossom

Lime Basil Mandarin

Prints and Paintings...

  'Lemon Tree'  

 'Lemon Meringue pie' 

Still life with Lemons, Oranges and a Pomegranate

It seems only fitting that I should end 

with a reading selection for you...

Lemon Book Love..

For you..

The Lemon Table by Julian Barnes

The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan

BTW...the movie version 'Lemon Tree' is fabulous! You can view the trailer here.

The Toss of a Lemon by Padma Viswanathan

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

for children..

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

for cooking...

where lemon is quintessential to great food

Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Hamimi

Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon by Claudia Roden

The Mediterranean Prescription: Meal Plans and Recipes 

to Help You Stay Slim for the Rest of Your Life

When life gives you lemons...
SMILE!

They told her not to look...

It was but a whisper... 
the sound of her footsteps 

as she crept quietly into the room. 

She grasped the key snugly in her hand

her breath quickening at the thought 
of what she would discover.

They told her not to look,
that was their first mistake
or was it hers?


Having a little fun
this Friday afternoon in Saigon
as the thunder claps and the rain dances
on the rooftop of Chateau Mango.

If you were holding the key,
what would you hope
to find inside the box?

The world is your oyster
let your imagination run wild...

~~~

Happy Weekend!

Jeanne xx


Photograph taken by me..
any guesses as to where?

I spy a studio...in a barn

Calling all creative, clever and artistic types..that means you.

I need those of you who may have an inkling of an idea

of what I could do with the space below. It is the hayloft in our barn. 

I have to admit, when I was first looking at the property,

those few months ago and climbed the staircase from the first floor,

it took me all of two seconds to get excited about this space.

Am I wrong? 

I looked at the door and thought one big window..

via

This is what you could potentially be looking at.

If you look the opposite way...more possibilities. 

I see a space..

via

where you could spread out 

and let your imagination run wild.

via

a place where you could think it out..

via

of course..this is Mrs. H thinking.

Mr. H might have ideas of his own.

All I know is...I saw it first!

I am thinking...

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it just might be, that Mr. and Mrs. H retire from this expat life,

live in the barn one day...and are never seen again.

:)

So what do you think?

What would you do with space?

We have an architect working on this with us...

he would love to know our thoughts.

Virtual penny for yours?

Our inner child and imaginary worlds...

Into the forest...

I wonder how many of you, as a child, liked to play in your own imaginary world. How many of you let curiosity get the better of you and set off to discover something new? This thought came back to me at 2:30am last night, as I woke from yet another jet lag stupor. It was clear that my mind was not going to rest until I wrote the following..so I did.

A story...

When I was seven years old, we lived in a home with a deep forest behind us- trees and stone walls stretched to eternity in my seven year old eyes. I had a merry band of travellers in my brothers and sisters and the local neighbourhood kids. We liked adventures...the forest was our playground. After school and on the weekends we would set down a path at the back of our property, starting with the stone wall at one end and meander along it’s path. There was a creek that quietly gurgled alongside it and it was there that we pretended to carry out the day to day routines of American pioneers long before us. But not before we reached our secret place under the biggest pine tree in the forest…with graceful sweeps of thick pine boughs that lovingly draped to the floor below, sheltering us from the outside world. It was heaven.. an earthy pine scented green heaven.

and into an earthy pine scented green heaven where bloodroot grows..

We took frequent trips to this tree, it was ‘our place’- we never told our parents...for of course, at that age we felt they just wouldn’t understand. It was our secret world. We kept ourselves busy-pretending we lived there, each assuming tasks, foraging for curiosities-anything that could help us create the perfect shelter. It was exciting, it was our own and I have never forgotten it...ever.

where we foraged for curiosities.

 That was nearly fifty years ago and it came back to me like it was yesterday..just last week as I walked around our property at Tahilla Farm. I was with a landscape architect, a forester and my sister-in-law, exploring the land, looking for opportunities to enhance a meadow and expand our view to a mountain on the east side of our property.

Today, a view to the east side of our property...

We walked along, creating a path as we went, talking about the beauty of the trees and the animals that lived within. As we walked... I found my steps quickening… for I had spotted it…a hidden stone wall that extended from one end of our property to another. Could it be? As we walked, the pine and hemlock trees thickened, pine needles forming a thick carpet below our feet. I looked for signs of water..I looked for the sweeping mass of pine boughs cascading from the top of the enormous trees around us. I could feel my imaginary world opening it’s door.

where a hidden creek quietly gurgles and meanders...

We stopped in silence and noticed that we were standing in what once was a meadow; long overgrown…it was the perfect spot. We talked about the pros and cons of our plan, I listened intently, all the while gazing around me…making a mental note of which direction I would head on my next adventure into the woods..to pick up the trail and explore the imaginary world that still exists within me…fifty years on. You can be sure..that when I do, you will be the first to know.

So I ask you..were you a child with an imaginary world? Were you encouraged through books, stories or did you set sail under your own steam? I know many of you will have smiled from the start of this post..I am certain we lived parallel lives in our childhood.  You are my merry band of what my children used to call my 'imaginary blogging friends'… until they discovered that blogging took my imaginary world and turned it into a reality with Tahilla Farm. They are now believers.

Do you still believe? 

Do you ever let your inner child come out to play? 
For surely, we are never too old...

never say never...
via

To help you along your way, you can start where I started last week, with a song...

Wishing you a wonderful weekend...imaginary or not!

Jeanne xx

What I learned...at Tahilla Farm

It is amazing what a difference a week can make. Last Sunday I was simply contemplating travelling solo and within a day my life turned upside down. I arrived to Tahilla Farm on Monday to brisk biting New England winds and the last remnants of snow. Saigon was a distant memory...

I admit I was nervous as I drove along the dirt road to our new home. What if I realised I made a mistake? What if what I felt when I last saw the house in October..was just a passing fancy? It was too late to turn back..we owned it..my thoughts continued in this vain...there was lots of deep breathing as I nervously clutched the steering wheel of the car. 

I parked...and looked through the trees to the mountain.. phew!...it was still there.  It was just as I

remembered. I then turned towards the house..a warm feeling welled up inside of me. I took that as a good sign. I approached the kitchen door and turned the knob..this was the moment I had been waiting all these months for. 

I have to say there was a slight pang as I stepped inside and looked around..it was not as I had remembered. For the past six months I have been staring at realtor photos..the wide angle, well lit kind. I had to do a double take..the proportions were smaller. I held my breath and continued..slowly meandering through the house..taking in every detail. As I turned from one corner to the next, it came back to me..that feeling...the reason why I took the leap of faith to buy it. It still spoke to me..we were on the same page.

That was Monday...it is now Saturday evening and I am tucked away into yet another historical B&B, listening to the hourly church bells chime and reviewing my notes from the past week.

This is what I learned this past week..

Our 150 year old tree, the one we affectionately call the 'Martha Stewart' tree..must come down. After lengthy discussions with an arborist, I was advised it has lived it's life and now risks taking out one side of our house. There is a chance it could split down the middle which as you can see from this photo...could have devastating consequences. I don't think I can bare to see it come down..we all made the decision with deep regret.

On a brighter note, after a morning with a wonderful landscape architect...who I plan to write about in more detail one day soon...we decided our first step for the property is to open up our views...first to our stone walls and then to the mountains surrounding us. Our house was built in 1790 and once sat amongst pastures and mountain views for as far as the eye could see...The house and property speak volumes to the history of the land and I am only on page one. I am a novice to the world of antique homes and historical  properties but I can grasp the beauty and importance of the land around us. It is time to bring it all back to life.

I have met with tradesmen to discuss chimneys, water systems, oil burners, propane gas heaters, wood floor treatments, pest treatment and the list goes on... We hired a groundskeeper, identified numerous trees and shrubs to be culled, decided on a simple kitchen garden and made plans to meet with an architect later in the week to discuss opportunities for our home. The ball is rolling at a steady pace. I have one more week to go and wish I had two.

Tomorrow I am consulting with a forester who I am told is a poet..who has the eye...for opening a landscape to it's best advantage. On Monday, I start addressing, dry wells, security systems, paint chips and stand by as a new water system is installed. But that is Monday and this afternoon all I wanted to do was explore. My sister and I headed to the woods..where I grabbed this piece of tree bark..for I am sure something can be done with it...one day.

Sometimes I wonder what I got myself into..and other times I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. I am dead tired at the end of the day...but the good kind of tired for it is a day filled with busy feet, a busy mind and clear, cool...fresh air..the kind you know is good for you. 

Best of all...is the time of day, when I drag the camping chair (for it is all we have at the moment)

to a sunny corner of our garden..just before the sun calls it a day.  I grab a beer...which I love at the end of a long outdoorsy kind of day, and contemplate life...the collage of life. :)

Here's to another day...may yours be exceptional!

Jeanne xx