Gardens, Paper Clothing and Pho

Plot bought tickets for the Noe Valley Open Gardens Tour yesterday. The tour ran from 10am to 3pm. Plot and Duck, however, both forgot completely about it, despite the tickets being on the refrigerator door, until Plottie was watering his garden at 1:30. "Yikes! Duck!" He and Duck flew out of the house and still managed to see 7 of the 9 houses, two of which were particularly memorable.



This one was the prize -- a terraced garden up near Diamond Heights with views of the whole city, terraces, a greenhouse, rare bulbs and beautiful design. Best of all one of the owners told Plottie he can come back in August and take some rhizome divisions of their gorgeous Siberian Irises, one of the few irises that actually do well in this little climate pocket.

Last night, The Greats Mushnik and Silent Bill came over for dinner. Mush mentioned that she would get Plot and Duck in for free to the Legion of Honor early Sunday morning if they wanted to come. It was really spectacular.

The Israelis dug up a 1700 year old Roman mosaic in the town of Lod in the mid-90s, and have spent all this time restoring it. The mosaic will sit in a museum in Lod eventually, but for the time being they have figured out how to move it to four museums in America. The Legion of Honor is one of them. Each tiny piece of mosaic is no bigger than the fingernail on your little finger.



But as cool as this was...and it was...



...it doesn't come close to how fabulous the Isabella de Borchgrave exhibit is downstairs. The woman, who is Plottie's age, has basically created a history of Western fashion, and made these extraordinary dresses out of paper! Paper! You cannot describe it.




Plotnik knows, and usually cares, not one whit for fashion but after this morning he may change his mind. Here's what Queen Elizabeth I or Eleanora de Medici wore, and why, and how much it cost, and what the purpose of that bodice or petticoat or hoop was, and then you move all through history right up to the present. And these gorgeous pieces of 'clothing' are all made out of regular ol' paper. Two kinds: the main paper is just that thin stuff you use to mark sewing patterns on, and the thin stuff is what you use to clean your glasses. Nothing fancy in the materials, but the craft is mind-blowing. JJ-aka-PP, you would flip upside down and back again.



And if you're lucky, you can head over to PPQ Vietnamese Restaurant on Clement for lunch and taste this delicious beef sate pho.