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Finer Things
Pretty Flowers All in a Row in Ojai's Arts & Leisure Series
By Gerry Furth-Sides
First, take into consideration the surroundings of Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, which would explain why an A-type like me would undertake to engage in leisurely "arts." California's breathtaking Ojai Valley has a centuries-old tradition which started with the Chumash Indians as a gathering place for the health and fitness minded around 13,000 years ago. Yes, 13,000 years. Pieces of their tools are still being found on the Channel Islands; you feel it in the famous lavender sunsets.
In stormy winters the ocean side entrance to Ojai can be closed. All the better to drive in from the east and be overwhelmed by a valley mantled in a lush shawl of Irish emerald green. Or enter Ojai in summer, when 105 degree temperatures feel like the planet Mars.
The Inn's terra cotta-roofed, Mission-style buildings are all but hidden at the edge of town. Pomegranate, olive and oak trees line the road leading up to the resort, where the unmistakable scent citrus ("Cuties") from surrounding orchards fills the air.
Fresh from a $90 million renovation, the classic country club resort is nothing short of perfection. If I actually don't want to hug everything, I want to stroke it.
One lure is the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa's Arts & Leisure Series (2009-2010). Profits generated from the Arts & Leisure program proudly benefit Share our Strength.
In the flower arranging class, San Francisco Instructor Jun Piñon greets students from behind a table full of long flowers and one finished towering arrangement, so glorious it draws gasps.
It is the only time Jun stands still. From his humble beginnings working out the back of a pick up truck to becoming nationally recognized for transforming flowers into fantasy with A-list clients including Oprah Winfrey; and the San Francisco Opera, Piñon never stops proving himself.
Jun seemed determined to share with us his tricks of the trade in witty descriptions of how his firm, Piñon Design, creates entire party settings, down to specialty chairs, live trees and theatrical lighting.
He jokes about his bleached blonde hair as he deftly and carefully trims leaves and "builds" arrangement after arrangement, often "planting" one bunch of flowers atop another like some mystic architecture after lining the sides of the glass vases with banana leaves or silver bead strings to artfully hide the foam base.
We are invited to examine the arrangements up close and try our hand; with this instructor all is personal, and easy. The champagne served with the high tea, scrumptious pastries and sandwiches makes it fun and makes us brave.
In one whimsical arrangement, Jun "plants" tall baby calla lilies in hues of red and orange, held together with a rubber band around the top (and later beribboned), into a row of orange and yellow peppers set inside a low rectangular glass vase. He polishes it off with tucked-in lime green mini-pom poms around the base of the lilies. Voila!
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