This week's Sunday Scribblings prompt is bed. Of course, there's more than one type of bed.
The wrought iron day bed - All my life, I wanted a wrought-iron day bed. I had rejected dozens before finding the lit de fer that sang to me. But at the last minute, the seller backed out, preferring to lease it for a movie set! So when my friend Gabrielle decided to sell this circa 1870 day bed, I jumped at the chance. The mattress had recently been handmade in the traditional French method.
As it turns out, the idea of this bed was better than the reality. It's so heavy it takes three people to lift it - even though it retains its original castor rollers. In our guest room, the day bed serves as a cozy nook for reading or as an extra bed when a family with young children is visiting. But will it go with us when next we move? Doubtful, due to the difficulty of maneuvering it.
The bed we actually sleep on is a wonderfully-firm Serta queen-sized bed from San Francisco. The only time I've slept on a better mattress was at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. My husband and I had flown non-stop from Paris and my neck was aching from the uncomfortable airplane seats. The moment I reclined on the hotel's "Heavenly" bed, I felt like I was in heaven! Sheer bliss. This inspired me to go to Macy's and buy a "Heavenly" pillow. Even though I would have liked to take all those "Heavenly" accoutrements back to Paris, alas the pillow was the only thing that would fit in the luggage.
Flower beds - When I was growing up in the South, everyone I knew had beautiful flower beds. Both my grandmothers had gorgeous hydrangeas and rosebushes and we always had lovely flowers growing in the yard. These days my parents enjoy cultivating their property with trees, plants, flowers and a waterfall and fish pond.
In Paris, my choices are a little less exotic. But this balcony-grown hydrangea - or hortensia, as the French call it - has bloomed each spring for four years, despite winter frosts, numerous lashings from storms and being doused with toxic sand-blasting chemicals by an over-enthusiastic construction crew. Originally the hydrangea was blue, but acidity in the soil turned its blossoms a bright pink.
My British husband reminded me that in England, a county called Bedfordshire is abbreviated as Beds. And in that county there's a town called Sandy, so the postal address is known as "Sandy, Beds."
Funnily enough, the first thing that came to mind when I read the "bed" prompt was a little poem my daughter Jordana wrote at the age of eight:
Air can go through the moon
in the sky
Air can go through the sun
and the light
Air can go through your hands
and your head
Air can go through your feet
in your bed
Air can go through a pencil
and eraser
Air can go through a man’s
shaving razor
Air Air Air can go through...
Au lit, les enfants! (Off to bed, children!)
up the wooden hill to bedfordshire... (or mountain) i'd completely forgetten about that! flower beds is an inspired interpretation - i wish i'd thought of that.
great writing.
btw, you will probably know of a bed called a ''half-tester''. my wife and i had to sleep in one shortly after we got wed. but we misheard our hostess describing it, we hoped she thought it was funny too. :o)
Posted by: ian russell | 20 June 2006 at 14:39
I love the different perspectives especially the flower beds. The hydrangeas are gorgeous. I rarely see pink ones like that.
Posted by: Thea | 20 June 2006 at 14:28
That poem is lovely, lovely, lovely. Great take on the prompt.
Posted by: Miss Meep | 20 June 2006 at 11:29
love the image of the flower beds. yes. a wonderful take on the prompt. and the day bed - it is gorgeous, but i understand the challenge of moving things that are heavy. eeks.
now the heavenly pillow...hmmm...might have to check into that.
Posted by: liz elayne | 20 June 2006 at 07:28
I love your daughter's poem. I hope she still writes. Also, that's a lovely daybed, a perfect space in which to read and write and daydream.
Posted by: tarakuanyin | 20 June 2006 at 04:41
Love it all Tara but most especially a handmade mattress. How sheerly and purely decadent.
Posted by: annieelf | 20 June 2006 at 04:40
LOVE that poem!
Posted by: josephine | 19 June 2006 at 18:40
Love the day bed and your enduring hydrangeas.
Posted by: mikim | 19 June 2006 at 15:28
Such a creative interpretation of this week's theme!
A cast-iron daybed is such an appealing, romantic notion - I just hate when gravity refuses to bend its rules and cooperate with my decorating ideas (I've recently had some run-ins with gravity and some cast-iron shelf supports : )
The hydrangeas are lovely! My great-aunt always claimed that the iron from a rusty nail would help them retain their blue hue - whether there's any truth to that notion, I don't really know (but she did have blue hydrangeas - which I called "fairy flowers" in her little garden).
How sweet that your daughter's poem was the first thing to pop into your mind for this prompt - and what a great budding creative writer to come up with that poem at only 8-years old!
Posted by: tinker | 19 June 2006 at 09:08
That daybed looks just right for napping, and I can picture little sleepy heads zonked out...
As for hydrageneas - I love them! My favorite flowers! When I was young I called them "snowball bushes".
Posted by: samantha | 19 June 2006 at 05:48
You've covered all the beds, haven't you? Great interpretation of the prompt. BTW, thanks for your comments on my last poem. I really appreciate the encouragement.
Posted by: Dani | 19 June 2006 at 03:58
Love the day bed and the hydrangeas. You have such a great life--thanks for sharing this piece of your life with us.
Posted by: January | 19 June 2006 at 03:26
Awww that is so cute! How old is she now? Does she ever write poetry anymore?
Posted by: krista | 19 June 2006 at 03:03
Oh what a beautiful bed! I can imagine you reading a good book on a lazy Sunday afternoon, while laying on that bed. Or perhaps that is where you write your Sunday Scribblings?
Posted by: susanna's sketchbook | 18 June 2006 at 23:12
I'd love a daybed like that in my studio, for reading and dreaming. Maybe they make them a little lighter? Your daughter's poem is lovely.
Posted by: Catherine | 18 June 2006 at 22:52
what a beautiful piece! I love that bed. I have always wanted a wrought iron bed myself. Just gorgous! I love the poem too. You're daughter is very talented.
Posted by: michelle | 18 June 2006 at 22:48
thanks for your journey through beds - i absolutely adore that day bed- yummy! and i have that same variety of hydrangea right by the back door into my garden. not fully in bloom yet, though!
Posted by: bb | 18 June 2006 at 22:11
Ha! Flower beds - I had not thought of that one. I've always kind of wanted a day bed but never really had a good place for one - love yours with its spirals! Very nice post for the scribble.
Posted by: Kara | 18 June 2006 at 20:57
Hi again... Wow what a mature and beautiful poem Jordana wrote! I have always loved wrought-iron beds too...
I think your daughter is very gifted!! As her mom!
Ann Marie
Posted by: Ann Marie Simard | 18 June 2006 at 20:28
What a wonderfully written collection of all things bed...thanks for the trip!
Posted by: Verity | 18 June 2006 at 20:13
The flowers and bed makes a sweet combination
Posted by: cathy | 18 June 2006 at 19:43
this is great. i never stopped to think of all the "other" beds there are in our lives. you're so smart.
Posted by: ally bean | 18 June 2006 at 18:40
Your daughter's poem was so sweet...I also loved that you wrote about flower beds--this is something I didn't even think of! Your wandering, winding words are so lovely.
Posted by: C. Delia | 18 June 2006 at 16:49
how lovely to see a child inherit such a wonderful talent, and only at the age of 8!
Posted by: duhhhblond | 18 June 2006 at 16:46
like mother, like daughter (but please don't tell Jordana I said that..you know how they can be when people make such comparisons :-)...facinating observations emBEDed in colorful words.
its so funny you should mention a hotel in connection with bedding...a few years ago i stayed at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle (highly recommended!)...the mattress was a pillow top and i fell immediately in love. the weekend after my return, my husband and i went to the matress store and bought one...King size! i thought they would never get it up the stairs in our small townhouse
beautiful day bed and what lovely pillows...makes me want to cuddle up there with a book on a rainy day
Posted by: susanlavonne | 18 June 2006 at 16:38
Ooh -- I want that day bed, heavy or not, for my new writing room! Sigh, it wouldn't work there, I need to be practical and put in a fold-out bed or day bed with trundle, but I do love your iron one!
Posted by: Laini | 18 June 2006 at 16:34
I keep seeing daybeds in many design magazines and they are all outside under trees, on lawns. They look great but I always wonder at the panic that must occur when it start raining or, as often happens here in Provence, a huge wind blows.
Posted by: Linda | 18 June 2006 at 15:40
those hydrangeas are a gorgeous colour. My grandma would water hers with all types of things to get them to change colour. I love the name hortensia - I may just have to call mine that from now on.
How long is the trip between Paris and San Francisco? Between Sydney and L.A it is approx. 14 hours. yuck
Posted by: ms*robyn | 18 June 2006 at 13:59
Wonderful post! Love how you spoke about flower beds. I adore hydrangea and have always wanted to grow them. Now that I know you can grow them on balconies I just may have to give my green thumb a try!
By the way, your daybed is just gorgeous!
Posted by: JavaCurls | 18 June 2006 at 13:50
I've always wanted a day bed too - and yours is how i imagine it would look - gorgeous!
Sx
Posted by: susannah | 18 June 2006 at 13:08
I know it is difficult to move it but set up that "heavenly" day bed by the flower bed of pink hydrengeas and let me rest there..listening to more
peoms! Wonderful post!!
Posted by: naturegirl | 18 June 2006 at 13:06
Beautiful bed.
Scintillating words, as ever.
The flower beds made me moisten as I hadn't thought of beds like that and my grandad grew the neatest, lushest beds for him and the neighbour.
Yes, Bedfordshire, never been there, but I do send my daughters 'up the wooden mountain to bedfordshire' nightly. How we chuckle.
Posted by: Jemima von Schindelberg | 18 June 2006 at 12:42
Both your "beds" are beautiful.
Posted by: meredith | 18 June 2006 at 09:59
Wow, I love that wrought iron day bed - heavy or not. I can just see myself on it :-)
Posted by: Hundred and one | 18 June 2006 at 07:55
What a neat post! That bed is very frenchie-french! Love it.
What is the view from your balcony?
:)
Posted by: amber | 18 June 2006 at 07:45
lovely daybed, pretty hydrangeas and sweet poem... perfect entry. So wonderful
Posted by: jennifer | 18 June 2006 at 07:15
I am seriously lusting for that daybed...practicality, be damned!
What a delicious life you have...I want to step right into it. :)
Posted by: Mardougrrl | 18 June 2006 at 06:38
Oh - I loved the hydranga. I have three of them in my garden and their my favorites. I love them because they are so strong and hardy and when they find a place they like, they THRIVE. Just looked at your post dedicated to your dad and the picture was wonderful - he was such a dapper looking young fellow. Thanks for sharing about him.
Have a wonderful week!
Posted by: KimG | 18 June 2006 at 05:49
Your day bed is beautiful. I'm longing for the day that I have a place of my own and can buy the things I want for it!
Posted by: Kay | 18 June 2006 at 05:05
lovely daybed!
wouldn't it be fun if next time, the prompt is "baths" since there's also an english town with that name, i recall..
Posted by: paradise | 18 June 2006 at 04:54
I had a day bed in when I was a college girl living at home. I loved it! It was so pretty and "in style" at the time.
When I was younger, I had a canopy bed. I should have wrote about all of my chlidhood beds. I went a different route this time.
Too bad I did not read your post before I wrote and published mine. :o)
Posted by: Chelle | 18 June 2006 at 04:09
Oh I had to grin and nod my head when I read this post... I too wanted an iron antique daybed and bought one a few years ago. They are very heavy and difficult to move.... but so pretty. DH shakes his head when we have to move it.
Posted by: diana | 18 June 2006 at 02:31
Gorgeous daybed, and very clever the use of flower bed. My literal (and black-thumbed) mind wouldn't have made that connection.
Posted by: boliyou | 18 June 2006 at 02:02
Ha. Love the bed and the interpretation of flower beds!
Posted by: GoGo | 18 June 2006 at 01:13
Oh, that daybed looks incredible - I can just imagine curling up in it underneath a sunlit window, reading a novel..
Fabulous!
Posted by: Aly | 18 June 2006 at 01:02