Christmas hostess gifts and holiday gift ideas for every dinner party, cocktail party and Christmas Eve on your calendar. The invitations are starting to arrive, and before long it will be time to eat, drink and be merry. If your calendar is filling up, it helps to have a few Christmas hostess gifts tucked away…
Clodagh McKenna at Highclere Castle, Hay-on-Wye, London crafts, and a cosy autumn weekend Good morning, friends. Pumpkin soup, apple crisp, a cosy throw, a new book, and a comfy chair. That is my plan for tonight, and I will not apologize for a single minute of it. After a morning in the garage (yes, the…
Two birthdays, a dinner, two appointments and a garage that is not going to sort itself. Three recipes, three reads and three books. I am tired this morning. I sat here trying to figure out why and then I remembered the post I wrote this week, the one about how October is supposed to feel…
October means slippers before chocolate, pups running rug to rug, a weekend in the garage and a mystery novel I could not put down I do not know about you, but since the page turned to fall it feels like someone has quietly sped up the calendar. Halloween is around the corner, and after that…
Milwaukee in Fall, the Cornell 7, RAINN, four home tours and a Karl Lagerfeld film coming to the cinema The first few weeks of fall have been lovely, and there is nothing quite like fall in the Midwest to remind you what the season is actually supposed to feel like. I was in Milwaukee visiting…
Back from Wisconsin to find monarch butterflies in the circle, three recipes for the ber months, three books and a garage project that may have to wait for the rain Welcome, October. The light is different this month. The air is different. Even the colors through the window look like someone turned up the contrast…
The best gifts for hot chocolate lovers, plus an easy DIY hot chocolate gift basket you can put together in an afternoon. Good morning, friends! Every fall, somewhere around the first cool morning, the hot chocolate moves to the front of the pantry. (I won’t lie, it never really goes to the back. I drink…
A painter who found her audience in her seventies, champagne at Ina’s kitchen table, and a short film about what stays unfinished Good morning, friends. Fall arrived on the calendar this week, and I was dancing a jig. Not literally, but in my mind. After a few days of much needed rain the weather has…
The rain arrived, September changed the cooking list overnight, and I am seeing a friend this weekend for the first time in far too long It has been raining, and cool, and I am grateful for both. The circle and the trees have been droopy and sad-looking after a long hot summer. This week’s rain…
Tomorrow at 8:04 pm it is officially fall, which my calendar and my ancestors have been waiting for all summer Tomorrow at exactly 8:04 pm, it is fall. I will be waiting for it the way Charlie Brown waited for the Great Pumpkin. Faithfully, hopefully, and probably a little foolishly. Sadly there will not be…
A caterpillar, a dance, a castle, and everything in between, with Kim and Juliet How can one be so excited by a caterpillar? I have been asking myself that all week. As you know, the circle, as I affectionately call it, is my pollinator garden, designed to bloom from early spring through fall and to…
Hello friends, it’s Friday, though I suspect you don’t need me to remind you the weekend is almost here. It’s still hot, as it is in many of your towns too. Don’t let that get you down. Light your fall candle, drink your pumpkin spiced latte, wrap yourself in your lightest cashmere in the air…
