Olive Has Moved!

Hello Devoted Readers!

Its been awhile since you've heard from me. That's because I've been busy dusting, painting, and buying new furniture for my new home! No, I don't mean I've finally bought my beloved cottage by the sea. What I have done is create a fresh virtual home! You can now find me sailing on An Olive Sea (www.anolivesea.com).

All my old posts are archived there, and new ones are already up! I've also integrated my other blog, Olive Reads, onto this site.

Before I take down this blog, would you be so kind as to subscribe to my new site? No spam, I promise! Only good reads, sweet outfits, and cups of tea.

I look forward to giving you the grand tour of my new house! Should we start in the library, or the closet?

Olive

Recipes That Work: Easy-Peasy Strawberries and Sour Cream

Does Olive like to cook? What an interesting question. Let's see how to answer that... Olive likes to cook dishes that are easy, reliable, and require little experimentation. Experimentation in the kitchen scares Olive; she has endured one too many burns and cuts to be overly enthusiastic in the land of stove and knife.

But this! This is a recipe I can go in for, says Olive. Three ingredients. No heat. No pesky measurements. No imagination necessary! Just the enjoyment of...

Easy-Peasy Strawberries and Sour Cream.... That Tastes Like Cheesecake!

1. Wash some strawberries....

2. Dip said strawberries in sour cream (full fat, please).....

3. Roll concoction in brown sugar....

4. Eat with one hand -- with the other hold a book that transports you as much as these gorgeous darlings will!

Moving for Art's Sake

Moving. What can one say about the disorder of boxes, Sharpies, packing tape, and broken glass? Not too much, Olive says rather grumpily. Yet, in the interests of positive thinking - it is the May long weekend, after all, and how can one complain when the pond outside is rippling deliciously, and the birch tree waving with such languidness - Olive has decided to turn the upset of a change of address into an inducement for a fresh decorating spree!

The first order of business must be art on the walls. I'm so sorry, says Olive, but I can't go in for the mass-produced Ikea variety, as snobbish as that sounds. No, I'm not aiming for a Renoir, but some real paint, or at least a limited edition print would be most welcome.

With that in mind, I was enchanted by British wildlife artist Eileen Turner, featured in the March issue of British Country Living. If Olive had been born a lady of the manor (is it too late?), she would have been of the kind that had ever animal on her estate lovingly painted, and Turner would have been just the sort Olive would have hired. Luckily, she sells prints of some of her most popular work in an online shop, so there is no need to despair that one has been born without a title.

Don't you love "Listening Ears?"(Those two boxers above are "March Hares.")

What hangs on your walls, dear readers, to seduce you as the light changes?

Explore more of Eileen Turner here.

"The world's favorite season is the spring.
All things seem possible in May."
-  Edwin Way Teale

 

Read With Me

You must all know by now that Olive is, first and foremost and forever, a reader. Raised on a diet of Nancy Drew and Anne Shirley, tremulously stepping into adulthood with the help of Jane Eyre and Bertie Wooster (disparate, she knows), and flowering (hopefully) under the watchful eye of dear Hemingway, Chandler, and Fitzgerald (where to stop?), there is a good reason Olive owns seven pairs of glasses.

Thus, it was probably inevitable that the Olive tree should spring a new branch. Indeed, it is with great pleasure, and not a little bit of parental pride, that Olive is pleased to present... Olive Reads! Here she shall continue those "genial voyages of imagination and elegance," but with a more literary bent. Please do pop over for a visit! There is a special place reserved for original visitors to the Olive universe, those fellow travelers just like yourself.

With a nose soon to pop back in her book,
Olive