Spring is Coming!
Editor’s Letter by Carrie Edelstein
Spring is in the air, and although the calendar marks January 1 as the beginning of a new year, Mother Nature acknowledges it with the first bloom. Witnessing green spears of foliage shoot up from the ground is my favorite part of being a homeowner. I often stop in my driveway as I pull into the garage to snap pictures each day on my iPhone to reflect on the magical blooming process. If you don’t stop to see it, it’s so fast you could miss it.
But without water and underground sprinklers we all have become accustomed to, there would be no greenery. Sure, there are the dull hues of cacti in deserts, armed with spikes to keep what little air, water and dignity they have protected. They are nature’s example of true fighters, and a call to us as humans to try to fathom how millions of Earth’s inhabitants can live without the fresh, clean water we take for granted. I remember being in a village in Tangier, seeing a young boy running barefoot through a marketplace with a huge jug. I followed him to a small faucet coming out of a wall protected by tents. He clearly was filling up for the day, and I wondered how far back he would have to carry the jug. Sometimes it’s only when you get out and see the rest of the world that one is able to return home with a new perspective and appreciation for life and what we take for granted.
Bret Schnitker has traveled to more than 60 countries in his role as CEO of Stars Design Group. In our 10 Things feature on page 79 of the print magazine or linked online right here, he lists water as one essential he can’t live without, and it’s specifically the water in Ethiopia that is his favorite. That’s one of the many places in Africa’s Horn I first think of when it comes to water shortages, poor sanitation and lack of access to clean water. Yet somewhere among those conditions, there is pristine water.
Travel north and it’s unreal how in places like Switzerland, one would struggle to find a spot that is anything but breathtaking as Michael John details his picturesque stops on page 40. When we visited last year, my dad rented one of those fabulous European vans with a middle seat up front. We let our daughters alternate who had the turn sitting with Grandma and Grandpa for a front row view of the ascent into the snow-capped mountains of the Swiss Alps, and the roller coaster descent back down toward dynamic waterfalls and springs. We still talk about how amazing it was that a) we didn’t crash and b) you can drive from snow to water in so many places in the world!
For our cover, when I saw this perfect merging of water and greenery– even though it’s a “water installation” as many designers would call it– I felt it spoke about the simplicity of Mother Nature, and what is so precious aesthetically, emotionally and realistically. More stunning gardens like these can be found in a brand new book from Rizzoli, featured in our bibliotaph section: “Garden Design Master Class: 100 Lessons from The World's Finest Designers on the Art of the Garden.”
So if you see me parked in my driveway snapping pictures, now you know it’s because there is so much more I see than just a spear popping through the ground. Slow down and appreciate the cycle of blooms. We’d love to see how your garden grows this spring– tag us in your posts @sophisticatedlivingmag.