The dining room -- a very special room

The dining room at Linderhof is a very special room -- it's the room where we share so much camaraderie with friends. Many meals have been shared with friends around the old mahogany dining table -- the table itself bought from a friend who was moving to Oregon. I think of her, the meals we shared around that table -- first at her quaint restaurant and later at Linderhof after she moved.

It's a bright room and some of my choice pieces of blue and white are in this room -- the beautiful Spode bowl, the large Spode Blue Room platter, the oriental candlesticks that we found at Tuesday Morning but were so pricey that we waited two years until they were marked down 75% before we bought them.

We have an eclectic mix of furniture -- the Duncan Phyfe table and sideboard, the shield back chairs, an Oriental cabinet which holds glasses and serving pieces and the large walnut Victorian wardrobe converted to storage for husband Jim's collection of wine glasses and my Spode Blue Room plates.
We love fresh flowers on the table and nothing suits me better than to have an arrangement in the blue and white bowl. Husband Jim says that that is the only reason I have dinner parties -- so that I can buy fresh flowers for the table. He's not totally right!!! I sometimes but rarely buy them just for me!

When the bowl doesn't hold flowers, it may hold lemons in summer, apples in fall or oranges in winter. It's a useful bowl and it even looks good empty!

These flowers were the prize that I won at the weekly Chamber coffee. They were absolutely beautiful. So beautiful in fact, that I had not one but two dinner parties so that I could not only share my table but share my flowers with dear friends.