On a hill outside the old town of Ingrandes, stands a charming chateau called St Victor la Grand’ Maison. I fell in love with this place a couple of years ago, when we spent a blissful week exploring the region of Berry. Less well known than the Loire Valley and so much nicer, with rivers, forests […]
We have just returned from France, where Mr Z was participating in Music at Albignac, a series of piano summer schools run by pianist and author Paul Roberts and his partner, arts journalist and fabulous cook, Jenny Gilbert. Mr Z knew them at York University but they had lost touch, only to discover recently that […]
A glorious day at West Dean gardens Time for the annual visit to the gardens at West Dean, just north of Chichester, for which the Edwardian architect and landscape designer, Harold Peto, designed a stunning pergola for owner and philanthropist Edward James. I met my husband at West Dean, in 1984, when the gardens […]
How I envy Lady Ottoline Morrell – well, perhaps not her features (Augustus John, who painted her, said she had a ‘prognathous jaw and bold baronial nose’ – not that these prevented her from having numerous lovers, including Roger Fry and Bertrand Russell), but her life. With funds and time and bold tastes she created […]
Had a wonderful week in Amsterdam last year, staying on a super cool houseboat in the Jordaan. One of our favourite museums was the Jewish Historical Museum, arranged over four synagogues near the old Jewish quarter. In the first section, the various Jewish festivals are described. One of these is Purim, which celebrates the story of Esther, […]
Last year I started buying antique documents and experimenting with paper collage and a little mixed media. One document was so exquisite I had it printed across a width of linen and made a bolster, embroidering a little in the margins – my first attempt at machine embroidery (I have been doing a lot more […]
I have been to Sissinghurst many times, but it is always more fun to go back with someone for whom it is a first visit. My friend Jane shares my passion for plants. I have been with friends who like gardens, who stop and admire the larger view, but this was the first time I […]
The annual Decorative Living Fair at Eridge Park, a beautiful country estate on the borders of Kent and Sussex, has been run over the past ten years by textile designer Caroline Zoob and antiques dealer Henrietta ‘Hetty’ Purbrick. Over the years they have discovered wonderful dealers selling a wide variety of antique, vintage and decorative […]
The Decorative Living Fair is returning to London! Chelsea Old Town Hall will be full of wonderful decorative antiques, vintage and antique textiles and products made by designers and artisans, many of whom are exhibiting in London for the first time. We are giving away 10 pairs […]
Those who visit my stand at fairs will know that I like to include vintage bottles in my displays. I like the shapes, the uneven, cloudy glass and the different colours and textures (vivid greens and blues with a ridged edge for poisons). Most of all, I like the chemists’ dispensing bottles with their intriguing […]
