THIS PAST WEEK, we were back in London, thinking it might be the last time in a long time again that we would be able to be out and about before another national lockdown. We were also there to celebrate the holidays and two anniversaries. When we were last here, it was May, and things were only tentatively opening up again. All the pubs and restaurants were outdoor seating only, which mean it was difficult to find a table without booking the good places in advance through an app. The weather was unseasonably rainy and cold and we wondered if it had been a good decision to come ...
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IF YOU'VE NEVER dreamed of running away to Italy to open a B&B with your husband, Valdirose will change your mind. A family-run Bed & Breakfast situated among the hills of Lastra a Signa, not far from the centre of Florence this beautiful place to stay is situated in a 19th-century building 14 km from the 15th-century Basilica of Santa Maria Novella and Boboli Gardens ...
ON SATURDAY a wild winter storm resulted in a rare red weather warning for parts of the UK. There were extremely hight winds, some places had a beautiful snowfall, while here it was just really windy and rainy and by 10:00pm Saturday night, we were sitting by firelight and candlelight and no wi-fi due to a sudden power outage ...
IF YOU'VE BEEN noticing Japanese things (products, music, philosophies, décor) everywhere lately, you're not the only one—the country and its culture have been captivating sophisticated online circles for awhile now. I came across Osaka-based Truck Furniture a few years ago, but forgot about it until an image from their Instagram feed fell across my path that was so atmospheric, immediately needed to see more ...
A SCHOOL FRIEND once remarked that I was good at seasons, and when I thought about it, I realised that she was right. I actually really do love to capture the feeling and moods of the changing seasons, the excitement that comes with arrival of the first snowdrops in winter, just as the days start to get longer, the way the sun's rays deepen in colour at sunset. And at the other end of the spectrum, when summer fades into autumn, we realise with the changing leaves and cosy evenings with their flickering firelight, that endings can be beautiful too. We learn, every autumn what it is to let go...
YOU MAY HAVE noticed that aside from last week's Links and one set of articles on Monday, there were no new posts this past week. We spent the entire week in London, taking time off from everything and it was wonderful. We ate Italian food in Marylebone and discovered a wine club housed in bare-brick vaults and lit by candlelight ...
HAPPY DECEMBER! Can you believe that it's already the last month of the year? Feel like 2021 just flew by and don't really know what I did in all this time. Know that had meant to get through more books. I did complete a web design and launch that had been planned long ago, and definitely got a lot of decorating done at the cottage since we've been homebound for the last two years ...
WE HAVE BEEN collecting things we like for the past little while and realised that they all looking lovely together and have a sort of running theme: neutral tones and cosiness, soft light and a kind of wintery feel. There are chunky knits with long cashmere scarves, comfy chairs and coffee table books; slipcovered sofas and quilted handbags, warm wood and winter whites ...
TIG NEWSLETTER subscribers always love Weekend Links best—in fact, it's also one of the most popular regular features on the site and I've often wondered what it is that readers like so much. This weekend was one of those cosy homebody types of weekends: a fire, some drinks, and P made Aubergine & Cauliflower Korma, a vegetarian dish with toasted cumin and coriander seeds, ginger, desiccated coconut and flaked almonds. It was delicious!
I READ AN article this weekend about the things you can do to increase your chances of living to 100 and felt smug that I was already doing many of them (Strength training? Check. Dark chocolate? Yes. A Mediterranean Diet? Of course.). The ones that I wasn't doing, I started immediately, buying a box of green tea and ordering a high bar to install in the door frame outside our upstairs home gym ...
ON FRIDAY NIGHT enormous fluffy snowflakes fell furiously here in the countryside, covering everything in a mesmerising blanket of wet snow. You may have watched it falling on our Instagram Stories, for we knew we had to capture it as it would not last. Within an hour or so, the rain fell, and by morning, it was gone, but for a little while, things felt rather festive ...
I MUST CONFESS that I have a thing for beautiful packaging, so when Hermès announced the next chapter in their beauty range—a new nail enamel collection—I knew that I wouldn’t be able to resist.
THOSE WHO KNOW me know that I can't watch films that are violent or scary, or gory or too intense or sad. I just get far too upset and emotionally invested, and often replay the entire film in my dreams later that night. I'd thought that I was unusual, but as it turns out, we make up 20% of the population, those of us who are highly sensitive. According to Genevieve von Lob, a clinical psychologist, when highly sensitive people receive information, they process it much more deeply and more elaborately ...
I AM WRAPPED in quilted jackets and wearing boots exclusively now, just as the trees are half empty of their leaves. The fallen ones are strewn everywhere and can't help but be drawn to pasta dishes and saving brioche bread recipes that I will never make. Darkness falling at 4:30pm takes getting used to, even if it happens every year, but we passed a house with a Christmas tree up already, all lit up with fairy lights, so that's one way to deal with it ...
IF YOU ARE LOOKING to truly get away from everything, look no further than Captains Rest, possibly one of the most remote Airbnbs in Australia—an 80-year-old heritage listed absolute waterfront cottage in Lettes Bay Village, just outside of Strahan, Tasmania, with its own jetty at the front to be precise. Lettes Bay Village itself is a heritage shack community—busy in the summer and quiet in the winter ...