Life is what happens while you are busy fortifying the circle, Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds, two Australians worth knowing and a new film from Cedric Klapisch You know the old saying. Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. Note: The photo above is not my circle, it is inspiration. I…
Three recipes worth making, three books for the garden and beyond, and everything else I found this week Finally. After what felt like weeks of rain, the sun came out and with it a crew, a pile of stone, and actual progress on the circle. They laid the new border, planted everything, and made a…
“What is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days.” — James Russell Lowell Lowell had it exactly right. There is a particular feeling to the first day of June that nothing else in the year quite matches. Something shifts, in the air, in the pace of things. The pool…
On paddle boards and pool days, short trips, the tomatoes, and the magnificent knowledge that fall is coming I am going to be honest with you right from the start, which is the only way I know how to do things. Summer is not my favorite season. There. I said it. On a lifestyle blog….
A few things I wish someone had handed me, and what I am telling them now There is a particular kind of pride that fills your whole chest. Not loud. Quiet, the way it settles in before you even know it is there. I will feel it twice this spring. My grandson crossing one threshold,…
A four-day weekend, the trees are down and what they found inside the big one, the landscaping starts Tuesday, and a full week of beautiful things to share I love a four-day weekend. Before we get to the good things, though, a small reminder: Memorial Day is just that, a day to remember. All of…
Four recipes for the long weekend, three books, and everything else I found this week It is Memorial Day weekend. How did that happen. One minute it was New Year’s Eve and now here we are at the unofficial start of summer, trying to remember where we put the citronella candles. The weather is not…
Ina Garten’s most loved coffee cake, made with sour cream and the best blueberries of the season. There is a moment in early summer when the blueberries at the farmers’ market are so fat and so blue they almost feel like a gift. That is the moment I think of this cake. And, if I…
Gardens, France, a magical farm in upstate New York and a woman who books a flight to Lisbon on a whim — seven books I would hand you right now Spring makes me want to go somewhere. Not necessarily on a plane, though that is nice too, but somewhere. Into a Tuscan courtyard. A French…
On midlife, the things we keep putting off, and why the right time is right now I want to ask you a question and I want you to actually answer it. Not the polite version. Not the one you would say out loud at a dinner party. The real one. What have you been putting…
A busy week slowed down just enough, the circle comes up, the trees come down Tuesday, and a ninety-two-year-old woman who gets a blue streak in her hair As I mentioned on Friday and Saturday, last week was b-u-s-y. This weekend we slowed down just enough, a little work, a long walk, a Sunday at…
On rest, the history of the weekend, and giving yourself permission to do nothing on a Sunday afternoon “What is a weekend?” If you have ever watched Downton Abbey, you know that line. It is delivered by Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, played by the incomparable Maggie Smith, who passed away in 2024…
