Spring is a time of hope and regeneration. Nothing is as stunning an example of this as the bulbs I dropped into the soil on a frosty day just five months ago. Click below to see the new glory of my garden AND also the destruction of the deer...

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Daria and Jarek live in a timber-lined cabin in the Tatra mountains, sell beautifully handcrafted kitchenware online, and live close to nature. It sounds like a fairy tale, and based on photos of their home, it looks like one too.  More

With the arrival of Spring, I decided it was time to bust out and build a tree house for Ursula, which I'd never done before. I remember having one as a kid and loving it. I wanted one that I could build in a day, wouldn't be too high up so as to worry me or other parents, and which was SIMPLE in design to maximize playtime and allow for adding on later. It's light, open and can go up and down easily.

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You really can start planting for the new year between Christmas and New Year's day! Continuing on my big bold bulb experiment (see "Summer to Fall" here), I finally got my act together, found a few hours and got some glorious spring and summer bulbs into the ground yesterday before it got really cold out here on Long Island. I even made a little movie of me shivering in the rain. :)

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Every now and then I stumble upon some interiors that totally get me excited - giving me ideas for how I'd like my home to be one day. Some of them are a bit extreme, but the ideas embedded in them stick and I find myself daydreaming in this direction for weeks. When I saw these pic of Host Restaurant in Copenhagen I fell in love. More

I used to think that bulbs were only for planting in the fall and seeing flowers in the spring, but learned this past summer that I was dead wrong. In fact, I was told by my new bulb friends that you can plant bulbs in the fall and spring and get a constant parade of flowers popping up late into the fall and kicking off again early in the spring (great for the lazy gardener as well!). When I heard this, I decided to ask for help and test it at my house in The Springs, NY. This post is just the beginning.

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As the days get shorter and temperatures drop, I long to hunker down in a cozy cabin full of wood and wool and candlelight. But finding that impossible, the next best thing is to throw myself into a book that takes place in a cozy cabin on a river. David James Duncan's The River Why is a favorite autumn read, full of wood and candlelight, but also a fascinating character in search of meaning. More

Check out this dinner table! If these folks can do dinner for 200 in an orchard, think of what you can do at home next weekend. In a great earth friendly summer celebration, this past Saturday night I attended the Peconic Land Trust's annual At The Common Table Dinner at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett. All of the food and wine came from the farmland we were sitting on, a neighboring vineyard and from the sea nearby. All of the chefs donated their time, and all the tickets purchased went to conserving working farms and natural lands on Long Island.
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While Stockholm is a major design destination, sometimes you crave the calming sensation that comes with a trip to the countryside. These country homes, all located in Sweden, offer both a serene environment and stylish design. More

Thinking about travel this summer? Here's a great experience from last year. Ursula and I flew to Rome and then drove up to a beautifully restored group of farm buildings which my mother had rented for the family and friends for two weeks.

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