As promised, here is the exquisite Hacienda de los Santos in Alamos, Mexico, where we visited during New Year’s. In case you missed, here is Thursday’s Mexico Part 1. We did not stay at the Hacienda but the lovely owners are friends and we ate there every night. It does not hurt that playing at dinner is a very… Continue reading Hacienda de los Santos – Mexico – Part 2
Art & About
Hola de Mexico! – Part 1
Prospero Año de Mexico! After a wonderful Christmas visit with family in Atlanta, we flew back west to Mexico to ring in the New Year–a little off the beaten path. Not Cabo or Cozumel, mind you, but an old Colonial city called Alamos, founded in the 17th century in the western Sierra Madre, following the… Continue reading Hola de Mexico! – Part 1
How Green Is Our Valley?
How green is our valley? Green. When the Santa Ynez Valley turns gloomy and rainy, which it does in winter though not often, everything turns green. It happens almost instantly. You go to sleep in oak savanna and wake up in Ireland. It’s a miracle. Nature is miraculous, of course, in all its heart-stopping beauty and staggering… Continue reading How Green Is Our Valley?
Nativity Scene No Place for a Peanut: Part II – I Take It Back
For not the first time, a reader has proven me wrong. Jewelry designer Sissy Watson wrote in response to Tuesday’s post, Nativity Scene No Place for a Peanut that I might want to reconsider that headline, because she in fact had a crêche with all the characters made from peanuts. I asked her please to send a… Continue reading Nativity Scene No Place for a Peanut: Part II – I Take It Back
Notes and Sketches From Canyon Ranch
My last full day at the spa… The property here is beautiful, built around a belle-epoque mansion called Bellefontaine surrounded by woods of maple, pine and birch, and just a few miles from The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home. Canyon Ranch’s resident artist and outdoor guide Cathy Palmer is incredibly knowledgeable about the area, from every… Continue reading Notes and Sketches From Canyon Ranch
“Autumn Is a Second Spring With Every Leaf a Flower.”
“Autumn is a second spring with every leaf a flower.” Albert Camus said that, and I never heard it until this very autumn. Bust my britches. Camus probably never said bust my britches, which in French would be something like Eclatez mes pantalons! Now I’m certain he never said it. Did you know Camus was the… Continue reading “Autumn Is a Second Spring With Every Leaf a Flower.”
My Wife-in-Law and Woods Lake
How beautiful is this? It’s Woods Lake in Colorado, and this picture came to me from another Frances along with an invitation to come up there and paint sometime. She won’t have to ask twice. Now Frances is Frances the First, who also happens to be His Grace’s first wife. (For new readers His Grace… Continue reading My Wife-in-Law and Woods Lake
Out of Africa: A Suzanne Kasler House, James Givenchy Jewels, and a Benefit
Africa is on my mind lately, though it is always close to my thoughts. House Beautiful’s October issue with its inspiration from ’round the world features a fantastic compound of thatched cottages on the northern slopes of Mount Kenya, designed by Suzanne Kasler in what she calls a “weaving of African and British traditions and… Continue reading Out of Africa: A Suzanne Kasler House, James Givenchy Jewels, and a Benefit
Thankful for the Harvest
We’re having a good harvest this year in the Santa Ynez Valley, and a good one from our small Oak Savanna Vineyard here at Rancho La Zaca. Last year a late frost spelled disaster. So we will toast this year to the heat and sunshine that makes these babies ripen. I will not bring up… Continue reading Thankful for the Harvest
Lessons From House Party of Painters
The nicest notes came last week from a group of gals from North Carolina who came to Rancho La Zaca to visit and to paint. I had long wanted to organize a workshop here for my awesome Aunt Gray and her painting buddies. And by dern we finally got around to it. Had a wonderful time,… Continue reading Lessons From House Party of Painters
Yayoi Kusama at the Whitney
I have been meaning to write about this for weeks, though I confess to a certain reluctance about people and things I cannot pronounce. But I have been practicing: Yayoi Kusama. Just like it’s spelled really. I don’t know why I go so worked up about it. I was walking down 5th Avenue minding my… Continue reading Yayoi Kusama at the Whitney
Flowerful Aspen and People From Texas
I knew Aspen would be pretty in the summer but I was surprised by how pretty. There are flowers everywhere, spilling over sidewalks, billowing from containers, bordering lawns, bursting from window boxes. We nipped out here for a short while to catch up with my Cowboy’s good buds from all over and to have a… Continue reading Flowerful Aspen and People From Texas