A week in NOLA with old friends, a circle update, three beautiful homes and a Suffolk garden that slept for forty years
New Orleans, we loved you. And I am so happy to be home.
We spent the week in NOLA on our annual trip with six of Bill’s grade school and high school friends, and it was everything those trips always are: laughing, eating a great deal, walking, talking and seeing many wonderful things. I will tell you more about it soon, once I have had a chance to go through my photos. I will be honest that I did not take many, except in the gardens, which tells you something about my favorite things to see in New Orleans. More on that later.
Before we left, we purchased every deer deterrent known to man. Sprays, stakes, motion sensors. And they worked, with one small exception. A sliver of the circle they found anyway, and the new honeysuckle was completely decimated. The whole plant has to be replaced. Thank you so much for all of your suggestions over the past few weeks. I made a list and I am working through them. I know that this is probably a losing battle in the long run, but I am going to give it my absolute best.
Summer arrived while we were gone, by the way. We came home to 90 degrees, heat and humidity and I have a feeling the cool mornings are behind us for a while. Prepare yourselves for my ongoing weather updates and complaints. Kim, Juliet and I have lots to share this week. Let’s meander.
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Home Tours and Interiors
Three this week, and I could not choose between them.
Emma Sherlock in Hampshire’s Bourne Valley is the first, and it is the kind of home I want to curl up inside for approximately a week. Emma has a background in Fine Art, Architecture, History of Art and a long career at Vogue, and every room in her countryside home reflects that layered sensibility. Nothing overly staged, nothing precious. A sitting room anchored by her grandmother’s vintage curtains. A kitchen filled with collected ceramics and art. She talks about mixing pattern fearlessly, embracing imperfection and always designing with comfort and longevity in mind. My kind of designer.
Peter Mikic is known for five-star hotels and luxury yachts, but his own home in the Oxfordshire countryside is something else. A hot tub surrounded by banana trees in the garden. A surprise hiding in the basement. Every room and outdoor space offering a different experience. Architecture that celebrates imperfection and encourages relaxed living. You have probably never seen a home quite like this one, and neither had I.
And then Patrick Williams, which is my favorite of the three. Patrick is an interior decorator who specialises in period buildings and restoration, and this conversation is about so much more than design. He talks about grief, inheritance, memory, and how the places we inhabit keep us connected to the people who shaped us. His practice is named after the house in France that his parents restored over twenty years during his childhood, a project that became central to their family story. He shares a family recipe he calls The Truth. He talks about proportion, acoustics and the accumulation of patina over time. Pour yourself a cup of something and settle in for this one. It is beautiful.
In the Garden
This week I came across a film about Benton End in Suffolk, a garden with one of the most interesting stories I have heard in a long time. In the mid-twentieth century, the property was home to an unusual art school run by two remarkable men, artist Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines, and it became a magnet for artists, poets, cooks and gardeners. Cedric, who spent winters collecting plants across southern Europe, became celebrated for his iris hybrids, cross-pollinated by hand. After he and Lett died the garden was closed and left to sleep for forty years. It has now been revived, after philanthropists bought the property.
One More Thing
I did not know that Martha Stewart collects peacocks until this week. Over twenty of them, on her more than 150-acre farm. In the latest episode of On Display, she shows host Joe La Puma around the property, explains how she has daily conversations with her peacocks, how she feeds them brioche croutons, and how she started collecting them in the first place. She also shares stories about celebrity visitors including Snoop Dogg and Pete Davidson. It is as entertaining as it sounds.
Last week on Weekend Meanderings I shared Colours of Time, the new film from Cedric Klapisch. I watched it on the plane and loved it. If you missed it, go back and have a look.
Before you go, what is on your weekend schedule? Tell me in the comments.
Don’t forget to visit Juliet at Make Mine a Spritzer and Kim at Northern California Style — we always have lots to share.
If you enjoyed this post, I would love it if you shared it. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterestand X — I would love to have you along.
Have a wonderful weekend, friends.
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