Suzy Chase: And your mother is one of the Americans responsible for the renaissance of Monet's home and garden, too.Īileen: Well, she is the most significant in the duo, that's for sure. I'm just one of the people who's out there trying to preserve the legacy and the beauty that Monet created for all of us. That's really what I'm trying to do is help. I'm not the most sentimental person in the world, and I am proud of myself, because I maintained this envelope and this sprig of lavender to this day, and happily I got to take a little photograph of it and place it into Everyday Monet as a sort of representation of history, and a spanning of the decades, and the beauty of Giverny and also stewardship of preserving. A place where she and a number of other Americans were busy trying to restore what had fallen into ruin for many, many, many, many decades.Īileen: I was so overwhelmed by the significance of it at the moment. That this was a sprig of lavender that came from Monet's garden at Giverny, a place where my mother was now residing. I immediately could smell the gorgeous scent, and thought, 'Oh, this is just so lovely.'Īileen: It took me a few moments to realize, or to take it in, that this wasn't just any sprig of lavender. I actually had been dating a man from England and was receiving many of the same similar configuration, and then realized this one was from my mother.Īileen: I opened up this envelope quickly, and then quickly stopped opening it quickly because I realized that she had placed a beautiful sprig of, at the time of course, fresh lavender in the envelope.

I opened it up just as if it was any other correspondence of the time.

Well, you know, I had entered graduate school, and I was sitting in my apartment and received this envelope, which is your typical kind of envelope that comes, at the time, that was sent for email, not email, but for airmail from England and France and the like. Suzy Chase: Describe the beginning of your journey at 23 when your mother sent you an envelope.Īileen: Ah. This is Aileen Bordman, and I'm the author of the new book Everyday Monet.

Suzy Chase: Welcome to Cookery by the Book podcast, with me, Suzy Chase.Īileen: Hi.

Everyday Monet by Aileen Bordman