I forgot that I have a Moon Garden. Moon gardens are specialty gardens designed around white, silver-leafed or variegated plants. It is delightful to view at dusk or in the dark, since the moon reflects off the white blossoms.

I'll let the white and the moon be my garden guide. I have planted white phlox in large patches up against the gray picket fence. They glow. The light is also picked up from the silver-gray fuzzy lamb's ears I have carefully placed along the front of the border. I follow the brick pathline past a massive planting of white shasta daises that surround my peace pole. I move on past the spikey silver foliage of a butterfly bush. Then back around the loop again. The beauty is not just the fairytale color, it is the sweet fragrances that many plants put out at night to attract pollinating insects. The bathwater warm air mingles with the light fragrance making me heady and somewhat sleepy. It is enchanting.

The white glow reminds me that I had made this special garden for the fall because many of the plants are dying back and my garden needed something to spice it up. The full moon is Aug. 9, but it is plenty big enough for me to view my Moon Garden. I'll take a stroll each night while it lasts. How could I forget?

Because I love to eat, and I love to peruse the menu, and I love to go about town to try new things, I should have a column called Aunt B Eats. So here goes.

Yesterday, I went to the Patisserie Amie to get a sweettooth treat. I really wanted a large slice of sweet, but because it was extremely hot and the dog was waiting from getting his haircut, I could not be as leisurely as I had wished.

Patissiere Amie is a tiny shop on Front St. with a table for two outside the door, and pink and white hollyhocks growing along a rail fence at the side. It's a charming bistro with a red and white striped canopy and a window displaying bread and colorful boxes waiting to be filled. It has a perfect location backed by the river and the river backed by the bay.

Inside, one is immediately drawn to the showcase filled with delectable sweets. Pear almond tarts, bombes, meringues, and dark delicacies of chocolate beckoned. For $3.25, I chose a plum tart. It had a light pastry crust, filled with thinly sliced plums and topped with just a decorative sprinkle of powdered sugar. Not too sweet, just the plum flavor and the buttery crust. The maybe ten delicate bits of treat only made me want more.

The shop is cozy with posters, sports a large blackboard menu, and seats about a dozen. There is a long list of coffee drinks and teas. Fresh bread is baked daily and the soup of the day was vichyssoise with leeks. They have a featured omelette and daily crepes with caviar.

After looking at the coffee menu and the pastry selection, I decided that I will have to try each dessert inorder to make a fair judgement on their quality. I'll have to remember to get their early since they close at 3:00 on the weekends. Next time, big cup of French pressed coffee and a bombe. or a madeline, or something chocolate....... Bon Apetit.

TC Reads has picked Barefoot Heart by Elva Trevino Hart for the Community Reads 2006 program. This is Trevino Hart's autobiography of everyday life, going from poverty to a successful professional. Elva is raised in South Texas and at age three follows the crops with her family as migrant workers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Her father is a hardworker and expects his wife and children to be the same. Child labor laws were not enforced in the 50's. Elva, the youngest, overcomes loneliness and neglect, graduates from high school and, is the first in her family to go to college. The story is about her childhood, relationships with her siblings, and her need to please her father. It is about trying to understand her childhood, going away from her culture, and finding her way back home.

The author will be in the area to discuss this impressive, heartwarming selection. http://www.tcreads.org/

Did I tell you that I love Pottery Barn? I love to look at their catalog and use it for all of my decorating changes. Because they are trendy, my house will never be finished. But then, that's the fun of it. It gives me a change to change things around and around and around. No little kids, only a dog and now I have time to mess with it.

Now that I think about it, I must be a Pottery Barn junkie. I have:

grand black desk phone in kitchen
black bulletin board near fridg
drawer pulls on cupboards (see picture)
glassbead garland wrapped around my chandelier over the table
large metal floor lamp with large square shade
paisley sheer curtain in bedroom window
sage green throw on couch (look alike because the one in the store was too expensive)
black display shelf in living room
displays of eggs in bird's nest and shells I collected ( I had these before Pottery Barn even thought of it.)
Use rice or white buttons under candles in glass containers
Store stuff in baskets
Store stuff in blue glass canning jars
Put cookbooks on display in kitchen
Flower arrangements like in their catalogue

However, I'm not hot on all of the decorating ideas. One thing I hate is when they turn all the books around on the bookshelves so the pages face outward. Now, that's a decorating idea I don't need. Yuck! And their bathroom ideas are a little too clean for me- obviously they don't have a carpenter or sawdust in their lives.

I crave going to a Pottery Barn Store, but when I get there I'm disappointed. I think I just like looking at mail order catalogs and moving things. I didn't say moving things and dusting.

Did I ever tell you that I love books? I especially like Pottery Barn's new Home. It's more than a coffeetable book. For me it is a whole world of decorating ideas. The decorating theme is to blend comfort and beauty. It assures that your style is to put the things around you that you love.

My idea of decorating is to put the things out that I love, and when I'm not noticing it anymore, I change it around. I also watch for the new arrangements-colors and textures that they put out in the Pottery Barn catalogue. Then, using their designer eye, I try to replicate the room, surface, wall- with the things that I have. Pretty inexpensive decorating and very cool.

I also notice items in the photographs. I look at the title of books that are on the shelves. For instance, I was interested in a cookbook on a kitchen self- Home Chef/Fine Cooking Made Simple by Judith Ets-Hokin. Seems this is a great reference book and now one I'll be on the lookout for. In one of the kitchens, I liked the display of old graters on the end of a cupboard. It gave me the idea to hang up a green rolling pin my friend, Judy, gave me for Christmas. I like what they do with organizing, so I have blue jars filled with pencils on my desk.

I'm working on my master bedroom and have found the perfect paint for the ceiling above the white beadboard. Pottery Barn has a line of paint through Benjamin Moore. I want to use Hazy Lilac 2116-40. Just the ticket to match my bedding. I have been looking and looking.

So comfort and beauty and lots of ideas. I'll probably have to check this book out over and over again since I see something I have missed each time I open it.

Weddings are all about bringing families together, at least for one day, if fortune shines on the couple. They bring unique ideas to their celebration. The idea presented of the bride on a longhorn was not part of bringing our families together or a tradition passed down. Thank heaven, the bride and groom rode away on a haywagon pulled by a pickup truck. The sign read "Red Neck Limo" and on the back it said, "Just Hitched."

My niece's wedding brought two aunts together representing the family to light the family candle which the bride and groom used to light their unity candle. It was Grandma B's 84 th birthday and the groom's parents wedding anniversary. The wedding cake used four little glasses that supported the top layer used in Connie and Don's wedding cake. A birthday/anniversary cake sporting photos of the celebrities was also served. Toasts were made during the reception with congratulations all around. I thought that these were a thoughtful, sweet touch to the couple's special day and will help everyone remember the festivities.

At first I thought the Red Neck Limo might be a bit much, but by comparison to the longhorn, gosh gee, it was mild. And anyway, I'm sure the next wedding will be creative and memorable without adding the above extra touch. I really don't know if it would do too much to bring our families together. :) Don't get any ideas.