Caramelized apples, pecan streusel and a spash of Bill’s bourbon mek the most delicious apple bourbon loaf cake There is one hour of my life when I am guaranteed to sit still, and it happens in a salon chair. Cape on, color setting, nothing to do but read whatever is stacked on the little table…
Gifts for book lovers and bibliophiles, with the books I am giving this year, cozy things for the reading chair and a few treats for the library lover. I will read anything. Cereal boxes, the back of the shampoo bottle, the little card that comes with a bouquet. I grew up in a house where…
A homemade holiday gift they will actually use Every October, I start thinking about the people on my gift list. Not what they need (most of us have what we need) but what might make them stop for a moment, open something unexpected, and feel genuinely thought about. A jar of homemade pear-apple chutney, tied…
A heavy weekend watching France, a fire in the fireplace at home, a romance for fans of Addie LaRue, and an hour with Stephen Fry I have been watching scenes this weekend from my beloved France, specifically Limoges burning. On Saturday, at the end of a protest, a group of hooded rioters broke into the…
No Is a Complete Sentence, Even When Three Generations of Women in My Family Said Yes I am learning to say no in midlife, and it did not start with any big decision. It started with arithmetic. I used to stand in a room full of strangers, smiling, doing math. How many minutes until we…
Dries Van Noten on collecting, Will Fisher’s Camberwell home, Mel Campion’s shell studio in Anglesey, and permission to put the tree up whenever you want Good morning, friends. I scrolled through Instagram this week and realized I am not the only one who has been called a nut for wanting the tree up early. Let…
Pumpkin lasagna, sheet pan chicken, three October reads, and a Stockholm home with a box bed Good morning, friends. Happy Friday. Is it still fall? The weather here has been so beautiful this week, warm and sunny more like a late spring afternoon than October. I am not complaining. The view from the porch stopped…
Anglophile gifts for everyone on your list who loves England, with British books, afternoon tea, classic British brands and a few Christmas traditions. I was fifteen the first time I went to England, and I have been going back ever since. My brother lived there for ten years, which gave us every excuse to return…
What to do when you come home from the orchard with too many apples There are miles of peach and apple orchards not far from where we live, and we drive out a few times every year. Every year we come home with more apples than we can possibly eat. I have apple bread, apple…
On a fall morning, an open door, and the photo I did not take Stop and smell the roses. It is a common saying, and obviously it is all about stopping, taking in the world, and enjoying the sights and sounds of nature and life. The golfer Walter Hagen is often credited with the sentiment…
Kate Heartfield’s historical fiction, Lucy Worsley at Hampton Court, and a cosy autumn weekend Good morning, friends. Happy Columbus Day. I work for myself, which means technically it could be a holiday for me too. I am choosing to count it as one, at least until the gift guides pull me back in, which, knowing…
Forty-five years after my mother’s diagnosis, here is what I know and what I want you to know. Forty-five years after my mother’s diagnosis, here is what I know and what I want you to know. My mother turned 81 this month. She was thirty-six when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I was…
