Sandra works with a woman named Margaret and after the recent garden tour I went on I sent her my pictures. She said to me, “I have a friend that you might want to meet…she collects pansies’. This immediately sparked my interest and the description that Margaret gave was quite amazing. Margaret organized an evening with her friend, Pansy Pat. Tuesday after work 6/2/09 I came home did a few things and then left my house at 5:45 to pick up my gardening friend Pat. Using the GPS system and a printed map –because I still don’t trust it - we arrived safely at the pansy house, We could tell we were at the right house because of the painted mail box-all decked out with pansies. The house was in an older neighborhood where each house is different with character and a quaintness about them. There were pansy decorations on the door and on the doorstep. Pansy Pat opened the door to her home and we stepped into a world like none other that I had ever encountered before. Why pansies? In college it was her sorority flower-I didn’t know that there was such a thing. Pansies were everywhere: in a special display cabinet/table that sat next to a chair. It was filled with her most special keepsakes, of small boxes decorated with pansys, some painted some with 3 dimensional designs. A stained glass window that in the morning catches the light to set off to it’s best advantage the purple and yellow pansy design, the chairs covered in muted hues and the fireplace with beautiful oak woodwork on the surround and then the pansies set into a tile about 4 inches high and 6 inches wide, with a background of a pretty muted green. And we were only 3 feet in the house. Pictures on the wall of family that had passed on, of beautiful prints. A desk with plates, and trays, figurines and greenery, All with a pansies on them. Pansies were on every surface you could imagine. The dining room that had so many tea sets it was incredible and I was reminded of Grandma and Grandpa with their special cups. Now I know you are thinking at this point that it looked cluttered and unorganized, but the house was beautifully decorated and arranged. It was stunning. The tour went through each and every room in her house. The spare bedroom with a bedspread that had been saved for 17 years before there was finally an empty room and bed to put it on. Little mini dress making busts covered with broaches and jewelry …all pansies. A tray on the bed with little books on it with pansies on the cover; a teapot and flower arrangement. On every shelf, table, in nooks and crannies was something as a backdrop for a pansy to be on. In the bathrooms, on the walls in hallways and kitchen….Pansies, everywhere. The house had been remolded and had a dream closet in the master suite…and pansies were in the closet in the form of a heart shaped otter-man covered with pansy fabric. My friend Pat and I were constantly saying things to express our utter disbelief at something so beautiful. Pansy Pat is a collector, a decorator and a designer, her home reflects her love of beautiful things. We had salads together for dinner and talked of how she had started her collection, her family and her professional life. She is an interesting woman with an interesting life. After dinner my friend Pat and I walked around the house again, seeing things that we had missed the first time. We left feeling …happy, how can you not be happy when you have been truly surrounded by pansies and their happy faces.
No comments:
Post a Comment