Last Valentine’s Day, my husband surprised me with a visit to Huntington Gardens for their yearly Camellia show and sale. This thoughtful gesture on his part saved the day from a morning that started with him dropping and shattering the blender into a million pieces, while I burnt the English Muffins that were to be a very crucial part of my Valentine’s Benedict and using phyllo dough instead of puff pastry for my homemade cinnamon rolls (one word, ick.). Oh Valentine’s Day….we’ve had some doozies. Sometimes the pressure of attaining perfection will literally blow up in your face.
But alas, we entered my borrowed “Secret Garden” and the day became that which it was intended. Hand-in-hand we strolled along the tables filled with over a thousand prize-winning blooms of all colors and sizes, dreaming of taking up the hobby of growing these gorgeous works of art in our own backyard. I can assure you that if we had had a place to put them, we would have purchased a few of the plants, and attended one of the demonstrations on how to prune them. As I’ve been told, I’ll do anything once, as long as there is a cute outfit (or in this case, cute supplies) involved.
So as this Valentine’s Day snuck up on us, I knew that I wanted to recreate what ended up being the perfect February 14th. Who knows if I’ll have mustered the energy to serve a 3 course delightful breakfast in bed or whether or not my husband will have thought to pre-order exorbitantly overpriced roses on Sunday. What I do know is that we’ll be hand-in-hand once again, strolling along in “our spot” as though time is all we have.
INFO: The show runs Saturday, February 13th (1pm-4:30pm) and Sunday, February 14th (10:30am-4:30pm). General admission to The Gardens is $20. The show is free.
Huntington Library & Gardens. 1151 Oxford Road. San Marino, CA. 626.405.2100
Yay secret gardens! 🙂
That is really sweet.
Here is to Secret Gardens!
I’ve never been there, but I keep hearing it’s beautiful. I wonder if they have a kids area. I’ll have to check it out!