HI THERE! I'M BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI, FREELANCE WRITER, HISTORICAL RESEARCHER, & PERPETUAL SEEKER OF THE HUMAN CONDITION. WELCOME TO MY SPACE WHERE I SHARE THE BOOKS I'M READING, MY SPIRITUAL FINDINGS, FLOWERS IN MY GARDEN, AND LOST STORIES. ALL ARE WELCOME HERE.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Finally finished this! Took me two months!! 🙄 Mostly because every time I picked it up I fell asleep. It didn’t help that I had Ennio Morricone film scores circling in my mind, as I’ve been listening to his arrangements with Yo-Yo Ma on repeat for two weeks. So that music perpetually in my … Continue reading The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson is an epic poem about King Arthur and the Knights of the round table. They search for the Holy Grail which is an allegory for material possessions. SPOILER ALERT: most only find wandering fires. 🔥 😉 . . . Yes, I read this. And would probably read … Continue reading Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson
I would like to...render thanks now to this graceful iris which arises from reedy stems in delicate flower-heads of dark purple, lavender, and white. It varies in its colour[sic], and that is one of its most attractive characteristics. -Vita Sackville-West More For Your Garden June 27th, 1954 If you've read my post, Snatching Velvet in … Continue reading Why Love The Iris?: An Interview with the American Iris Society
Another vine which is giving me great pleasure at the moment is Vitis heterophylla, an East Asian. You can't eat it, but you can pick it and put it in a little glass on your table, where its curiously coloured berries and deeply cut leaves look oddly artificial, more like a spray designed by a … Continue reading Porcelain Berry Bright…
What about Tropaeolum speciosum, the flame nasturtium, with brilliant red trumpets among the small dark leaves? This is the glory of Scottish gardens... -Vita Sackville-West In Your Garden November 24, 1946 Something rather peculiar happened when I was planning my garden back in April. I knew I wanted to plant seeds, two in particular; the … Continue reading Vita’s Wish For Nasturtium…
The marvel of Peru, Mirabilis jalapa, is familiarly called four o'clock, because it opens only at tea time and shuts itself up again before breakfast. It is an old-fashioned herbaceous plant, seldom seen now, but quite decorative with its mixed coloring of yellow, white, red, or lilac, sometimes striped or flaked like some carnations. -Vita Sackville-West … Continue reading Just In Time For Tea
My liking for gardens to be lavish is an inherent part of my garden philosophy. I like generosity wherever I find it, whether in gardens or elsewhere. -Vita Sackville-West March 26, 1950 In the quote above she speaks of pruning. From her books I gather that Vita thought pruning in the Spring a foolish way … Continue reading Life After Deadheading
People often ask what plants are suitable for a shady situation, by which they mean either the north side of a walk or house, or in the shadow cast by trees. There are so many plants that no one need despair. -Vita Sackville-West A Joy of Gardening; 1958 Astilbe and the Romanovs, perhaps that will … Continue reading Astilbe & The Romanovs
Within minutes of arriving Vita was 'flat in love with Sissinghurst'. 'The place, when I first saw it on a spring day... caught instantly at my heart and my imagination. I fell in love at first sight...It was Sleeping Beauty's Garden: but a garden crying out for rescue.' Standing in the middle of the vegetable … Continue reading Fresh Eyes
The bees think that I have laid it for their especial benefit. It really is a lovely sight; I do not want to boast, but I cannot help being pleased with it; it is so seldom that one's experiments in gardening are wholly successful. -Vita Sackville-West In Your Garden June 18, 1950 A couple years … Continue reading Survival of the Fittest: Milkweed
BRIANNE TURCZYNSKI 