Lily Pond through a different lens
I was looking through my photo collection taken earlier this summer and I came across this lovely album of pictures sent to me by Robert Tramontano, the husband of our CEO, Robin Marino. Robert and Robin stopped in to see me when they were visiting the Hamptons over the Fourth of July weekend. The roses were in full bloom and the gardens looked lovely. As you know, I take many photos to share with you on this blog, but it's always fun to see familiar places through someone else's lens. Robert has an artful eye and this collection of photographs clearly displays his serious hobby of photography. Please enjoy!
What wonderful, wonderful photos. The roses and the whole thing just looks so Victorian. I loved it very much. Thank you for the wonder full eye candy Martha. I appreciate you so much.
Posted by: Lin Valentine | August 7th, 2009 at 12:53 am
What? No trumpet vine? Or did I hear once that you eschew red flowers?
#26 is fabulous. I have a little single rose in pink and yellow that that reminds me of called Happy Chappie. Also the delectable peach colored rose is so much like an Austin rose I have, a climber called Ellen, except I think my foliage is a bit more blue-gray.
Very pretty.
Posted by: jw | August 7th, 2009 at 1:24 am
I envy you your photo collection - whether taken by you or your friends - you always share with us the best of the best. Thank you Martha!
Posted by: Donna Olson | August 7th, 2009 at 1:38 am
This is magnificent. It has taken me years to build great climbers then we move! Kills me.
Posted by: The Blushing Hostess | August 7th, 2009 at 6:01 am
Such dimension!
I can even smell the tea up and beyond the succulence of roses.
Posted by: Andrea Spencer | August 7th, 2009 at 6:04 am
Again thank you for an educational tour/blog. Yes it is fun but also important to see things from another's lens. As photographers we can always learn and do better by observing other's works--not that we have to conform just learn.
Posted by: Margie | August 7th, 2009 at 9:03 am
I wonder how the Lily Pond house looks on the inside these days?
I am planning an asian inspired lily pond birthday party for my daughter whose turning 5. The main color is green of course, with a hint of pink and orange accent. I have used many of your ideas for inspiration. I would love to see what the Martha Stewart team would do with this theme? I have made fern frond blow outs, specimen labeled jars filled with gummy frogs and green candies. I want to make fortune cookies dipped in chocolate with personalized fortunes. I put tiny doll house plant leaves in your clear wedding bubbles. I am going to hang green paper lanterns with smaller pink and orange paper lotus flowers. The pool will have floating lily pads and a swan. The obstacle course will include a green hop ball for a frog and a crawl through tube covered in faux bois fabric for a log. I want to make tree stump cup cakes and put marzipan ferns on them like your woodland cake. I thought they would look great under glass domes. I will use square plates with a water lily on each one like your tea birthday party. I bought lucky frog charms, rubber band butterflies, wood frog music makers etc.. for favors. I always have lots of ideas but not enough time .
Posted by: Melisa Coyle | August 7th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Hi Martha,
Yes, Robert Tramontano took some lovely pictures! I always did like the view of your house in picture #1 but I don't remember ever seeing the pool and the back porch pictured together. I wondered how close to the house the pool was and now I know. Some pictures don’t quite reveal the distance. Anyway, your pool is fantastic – it must be 40 feet long or more! Of course your roses are beautiful and so are the huge bushes trimmed so nice and round. I only have Ixora and Ficus which I could never trim that way.
You have no idea how exciting it is for me to see everything you share with us. It is all so beautiful – you make me dream! Thanks again. Trish
Posted by: Trish | August 7th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Martha,
Love your pictures of Lily Pond! One of my favorite houses of yours.
The roses are beautiful. What is the variety that is the light pink climber on photo #18? Looks like a David Austin rose?
Someday you should do a decorating book on Lily Pond! Love the Victorian accents and seaside decor!!
Thanks for posting the photos! I could garden in your yard all day? Want a volunteer? LOL
Paula
Posted by: Paula M. | August 7th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I am fond of Lily Pond in that it is an old home with wonderful architectural features. The plantings and pool are just lovely, too! All the roses are right in their prime, as they photographed p-e-r-f-e-c-t-l-y! I don't even think I saw one fallen petal! They compliment the house, too, as a befitting companion, especially to the shingled sides. Wasn't it out of one of these windows where you and PawPaw would 'greet' us at the start of a previous half-hour Martha show?! (I LOVED those shows, by the way...the home/gardening/cooking shows...lovedlovedLOVED 'em!)
I appreciated the little bumblebee on the rose in the very last photo. I love these little guys - they are as industrious (to me) as a honeybee (except, I don't think they manufacture honey...) Earlier this week, I had hung out some wet clothing on the clothesline - later in the evening. They didn't dry before dusk, and I left them out overnight. The next morning, the sun had shone on the garments just enough that they were dry before I left to open my business. The quantity was so few, that I could take them all down with one hand, and hold the clothespins with the other. Welllll...I grasped one waistband, then let out with a hardy 'ouuuuuch!', and a bumblebee fell to the ground. He must've been on the back-side of this pair of shorts, and he stung me! My very first thoughts were, as he seemed to fumble thru the grass, 'awww, I wonder if he will die because he stung me?' Honest! I tho't, 'poor little guy'...I was worried more about his welfare, than the burning sensation in my one finger! (Now, yellow jackets and wasps who like to build nests in my salt-glaze pottery birdhouses?...that's ANOTHER story...entirely!)
I will bet that at all your homes, you'd like to spend more time. They're all so lovely and have your individualistic 'footprint' on each. Making a house a home usually doesn't happen overnight!
Have a wonderful weekend, my friend!...warm weather is coming for the northeast...hope you enjoy it!
=^..^=
"Your friend is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving."--Kahil Gibran
Posted by: Cindy Bricker | August 7th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
well,i've been cutting and baling hay for the last three days.no spring chicken me,but pleasently tired.i just couldn't pass up all those roses.hope you bloggies enjoy.
When the dew sets upon the rose
It makes my girlish heart suppose,
While I breathe the perfumed air
I wonder if you're somewhere there?
Do you hide betwixt blades of grass
Or tumble with the leaves that pass?
Petals slowly fall and bare the hips
They seem to tease my trembling lips.
I want to sit alone and often stare
Hoping you are,somewhere out there.
As the withered blooms,they fall,
So do thoughts that you may call.
But,if your heart could ever care
I will,find you,out there,somewhere.
Posted by: celia stock | August 7th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
I didn't have a chance to look at all your picture but the two I did were great.
I think little art in garden is always nice. Like your churbs.
I don't have any roses now.
Coffee is on.
Posted by: peppylady (Dora) | August 7th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Martha, Lilly Pond is so charming and I too would love to see how it is decorated these days. The roses are so sweet I can almost smell them, beautiful photography. Do you have any problems with Mexican bean beetles. Any ideas on how to keep them off my roses? I cannot stand those bags that you can hang up as they smell terrible,
Posted by: Pam from Indiana | August 8th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Hi Martha --
These photographs are beautiful -- your roses are exquisite. And the little bumblebee in picture 28 is quite busy, isn't he? When our rhododendrons (we only have a very few) are in bloom, I "talk" to the bumbles, much to my husband's - let's say he thinks I'm a little nuts -- but after I talk to them a while, then I can pet them -- they're so very soft, and they really are useful creatures, and so sweet.
But I was talking about your roses -- beautiful, beautiful, beautiful !! Thank you for showing us them, and thank you for all you do for us.
Posted by: Virginia Dionne | August 8th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
The beautiful picture of your home would look really nice in an oil painting.....So pretty.
Posted by: Sherry | August 8th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
A beautiful garden, no doubt more beautiful in person than in those lovely photographs!
Posted by: Eliza B. | August 8th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Hi Martha, What a beautiful set of photos Robert Tramontano produced of your fabulous Lily Pond home. It's fun to see how someone else views the property that you have been photographing for us for a long time. I love all of his photos, especially the gorgeous ones of the swimming pool. The weather looked so nice that day. Oh, how delightful it would be to swim in your fabulous pool. Hope you are having a delightful weekend. Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | August 8th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
As always, absolutely gorgeous!!!! So love your blog, such an inspiration!!!
Posted by: Teresa | August 8th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Ooo! Lovely roses! And that pool's not to shabby either! ::dives in::
XOoOX <3 Üdo
Posted by: Üdo | August 9th, 2009 at 10:13 am
(too)
Posted by: Üdo | August 9th, 2009 at 10:13 am
WOW so pretty. I know this has nothing to do with the house, but can you tell me what skincare products you use? Thanks
Posted by: Arlene | August 9th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
ok Martha...so glad the tomatoes were not all my fault! I still don't have any!!
Posted by: tina miller | August 13th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
.
Celia,
The poem! Perfect, perfect. I see it all....
.
Posted by: andyjspencer.blogspot.com | August 13th, 2009 at 10:04 pm