2009 in Review: My Favourites

As I said yesterday, some of the posts that were my favourites, didn’t necessarily seem to be yours, judging from the lack of comments!  The ones I’ve chosen have a more personal resonance with me, which may not translate to you.

In no particular order, here are my favourite posts of 2009.

In September, I did a post called Ten Castles. I realize how lucky I am to have the experience of spending time in places like these castles, especially the amazing St. Donat’s Castle in Wales. The experiences have been vastly different, from working in one to being haunted in another. Each place has a special significance and memory, including Caerphilly Castle where I spent the evening of July 4th. Another touchstone place in the UK is the tiny Kilpeck Church, which I wrote about in July. There’s been a church on this property since 650 AD, and this one has been standing since the mid-1100’s. The carvings around the roofline of the church have always enchanted me, especially the one of the puppy and bunny. It’s timeless. In January, I wrote about my friend Flip’s house, here and here. She’s taken a classic late 1800’s town-house and added her own special touches to the elegant architectural elements. Her style is unique and fun, and many of her pieces come from our friends at Housewerks and other salvagers, including this 12-foot long storage cabinet.

This has been a very rainy year in mid-Atlantic and that resulted in an incredible display of flowers all through the seasons. In May, we visited the famous topiary gardens at Ladew, just outside of Baltimore. In May, I also began seeing peonies at the Farmers’ Market and bought as many as I could. Later in the summer, there were bursts of orange everywhere in the form of day or tiger lilies.

My absolute favourite post this year was called My Heart is Bursting. I still get misty-eyed when I think of the incredible gift from House of Beauty & Culture that arrived in the post one hot July afternoon. As I unwrapped the beautiful, hand-crafted spoons in the French-Ivory pattern I’ve been collecting for years, and realized the thought, attention and love that went into this gift, I realized that I truly have incredible friends. I still have the pictures on my camera because it makes me happy to look at the spoons.

Tomorrow, one more retrospective… and it’s all about you!