Description:
Everyone has a different idea of what constitutes the perfect "outdoor room"--for some it's a private haven for relaxation; for others it's a place for parties and family gatherings for multiple seasons each year. Whether your style is a private deck with a hammock or a grassy expanse with plenty of picnic tables, you're sure to find inspiration for creating a unique space in A Ceiling of Sky. Its lush photos, personal interviews, antique engravings, and elegant quotations are guaranteed to earn it coffee-table rights. Photographer and author Pat Ross has an eye for detail, and she's adept at uncovering the personal touches that make each garden space unique. With her camera pointing at the clothespins that sneakily attach a cushion to a patio chair in a Southwestern cottage garden bursting with colorful perennials, we hear resident gardener Charles Muise's humorous side: "If we're on the porch when we get a twister warning, we can just grab our chairs and head for low ground!" Urban gardeners annoyed by filchers will applaud Lemeau Arrott-Watt's comment accompanying the photos of the extravagant roses blooming on her Greenwich Village rooftop: "A ten-pound hammer and a crowbar became my best friends." No matter the locale, many of the gardens are evocative of New England and the tidewater area of Virginia, so transplanted Easterners may find a bit of their hometowns in these pages. Curl up and start dreaming! --Jill Lightner
| 
