East Hampton Memorial Day Highlights

If you’re in a small town and they have a parade, you must always go because you are guaranteed to feel good. Parades exist for the sole purpose of show, smiling and cheering. Memorial Day parades in particular honor our military and all who serve country and community. In East Hampton and small towns everywhere… Continue reading East Hampton Memorial Day Highlights


(So Good You Want to) Slap Yo’ Mama

The last time I was in LA for meetings I spied this food truck parked along the street. It must be good. A hundred years ago when I was working for Style Weekly in Richmond, I laughed out loud reading a restaurant review by the brilliant and adorable George Stoddart – no longer with us,… Continue reading (So Good You Want to) Slap Yo’ Mama


Fabulous Rooms #2: Victorian Writing Room at the Greenbrier

This second Fabulous Rooms post is in response to the first (Living Room at Lyford Cay), wherein I solicited favorite rooms from readers. Paige Ward wins a nickel* for submitting the Victorian Writing Room at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia. Originally decorated by the legendary Dorothy Draper and carried on today by her protege… Continue reading Fabulous Rooms #2: Victorian Writing Room at the Greenbrier


Desert Blooms, a Labyrinth, and a Little Dust-up

The last few weeks have got me discombobulated and now back in hectic New York, where workmen are hanging on a scaffold outside my office window and apparently in the process of drilling the building into kingdom come. So I’m calming myself–and you too, maybe–with a walk through the Sonoran desert in Arizona. Can it… Continue reading Desert Blooms, a Labyrinth, and a Little Dust-up





Albert Hadley: In Memory and the Value of Sketching

John Danzer, longtime friend and the beauty and brains behind Munder-Skiles outdoor furniture, had a party for me on the occasion of my first book, Atlanta at Home. It was around 1994, and I was still living in Atlanta then. Well there I was in John’s chic upper east side atelier,  and up I looked to… Continue reading Albert Hadley: In Memory and the Value of Sketching


Wild Sweet Peas in the Vineyard, and a Painting

As His Grace and I left the ranch last Friday for New York and parts East for a few weeks, I felt a twinge for the days of early spring I will miss there. Here’s an idea: Surely these wild sweet peas came last year, but dawg if I remember them. That’s the thing about… Continue reading Wild Sweet Peas in the Vineyard, and a Painting



A Wedding at Lincoln Center

Well it’s a big day. Our friends Preacher and Partner have flown to New York for Partner to sing Mozart’s Requiem at Lincoln Center. Lincoln Center. And as if that weren’t enough, they are getting married in the lobby of Avery Fisher Hall at intermission. The ceremony will be a few minutes long, with champagne… Continue reading A Wedding at Lincoln Center


How Hunt Slonem Celebrates

When all else fails, looking at something beautiful can put things right again. Or if not to put right, to remind. To remind us that there is beauty in abundance in this sometimes-ugly world, and that it is often created by people who are talented, disciplined, and devoted to using and celebrating their God-given gifts.… Continue reading How Hunt Slonem Celebrates