At Niermann Weeks, Springtime is Just Around the Corner… No, Really!

At the grocery yesterday I saw my first flowering daffodils of the season and they made my heart jump with happiness!  In my yard the daffodil bulbs are desperately forcing bits of green leaves up through the frozen earth, but seeing actual flowers really lightened my mood.  For about the last month the Annapolis area has suffered from unremitting cold, made worse by deep snows and bone-chilling rains.  My psyche needed to see those lovely yellow blooms of spring. Now I know that the darkness and cold of winter will give way.

By my father’s birthday, February 18, my crocuses will bloom again along the driveway, and the great cycle of life will re-start.  I’ve already started ogling seed catalogs, and now I can dream of eating breakfast on my front porch.  To celebrate this moment of delight in the renewal of life, Niermann Weeks created our statue Primavera.  She is based on the Roman goddess Ceres, who is usually shown picking flowers and grains.  Unfortunately over the centuries our Primavera has lost her head and arms, but her right arm still clutches a sheaf of flowering things.   We finish her either in a faux terra cotta as below or in faux grayish stone.

Two weeks ago, my daughter Eleanor’s Primavera, which is finished in a faux stone, stood forlornly in her backyard the snow. In my yard even the birds were hiding.

But, and now I’m dreaming, soon Joe and I can enjoy the coziness of the brick terrace in front of his studio. Primavera can watch over us as we lounge in our Italian Arm Chairs or sit properly for a meal in our Loggia Dining Chairs at our aluminum Trevi Table.  In the dusk, I put our Caribbean Lamp on the glass table and light the candle.  When we were in Barbados, we saw this style of hurricane lamp and think it’s much more elegant than a glass shade encasing a candlestick. I like to use it with thick candles, but NW can electrify it.  I bet there is even an LED candle on the market which could be popped inside the glass cage.

Joe likes to keep a potted evergreen in our Leone Urn, but I clean it out for parties.  Both the Leone and our smaller Positano Urn make unusual ice buckets for drinks, as does our Quatrefoil Planter.

When we were freezing in the Paris flea markets several years ago, we first saw the mother of our urns. 19th century factories in Rouen fabricated these blue and white cast iron pots in various sizes and shapes.  Obviously this antique urn was way too big for use except as an inspiration. Instead of cast iron which will rust, we use fiberglass, an all-weather material that can simply be hosed off. And we developed our decorative patterns based on a conglomerate of original patterns.  The antiques always were painted white and blue, the colors of France’s royalty, so we kept those colors.  Nonetheless we will happily customize the colorways, as yo u may remember this photo of NW’s custom Leones from an earlier blog .

My all time favorite spot, however, is our front porch, even though it is often flooded with sunlight. The cats and I live there if the temperature exceeds about 50 degrees. At 60 degrees, I put my seed starter kits along the sunny edges of the porch, so my garden will include favorite annuals like tall zinnias and marigolds. Colorful, tall flowers cut the best for my summer floral arrangements. Sitting in our Loggia Knole sofa, I can watch the birds and insects enjoy my flowers. In the right background you can see a Leone Urn. The cats like to hop up on its rim to drink wild water from the water garden it’s holding.

Having now seen my first daffodil of 2010 reminds me to make sure all my outdoor upholstery is clean for the spring.  The fabric is all Sunbrella, making cleaning quick and easy with just a brush and a hose. Right now I can also pot up some ferns, azaleas, and pansies to happily grow in my sun porch until the weather allows them outdoors. That daffodil did a great job of snapping me out of my winter doldrums.

At Niermann Weeks we’ve already begun this order for outdoor furniture for delivery in March to a home in Alabama. These people have selected a pair of dining tables, dining chairs, and one chaise lounge.  We’ll finish them in a faux verdigris, and I’m looking forward to our upholstery shop completing the chair cushions in a funky floral pattern with a contrasting welt. They will look very cool.

Since this is a blog on the Niermann Weeks website, you too can use it to get in your own outdoor furniture groove.  Our lighting can be wired for use in a covered outdoor location like under a porch or along an exterior staircase. Many of our accessories are also outdoor quality.  For our seating and tables, the key words are:

o Italian
o Loggia
o Mustique

If you have any questions, please send me a comment on this blog or call one of our showrooms.  Warmer days are inevitably returning, and we need to be ready for them!