house & garden inspiration- Bunny Mellon

Hi everyone!

A dose of beauty for today...

Items from the estate of gardener and style icon Bunny Mellon will be auctioned off by Sotheby's this month. Enjoy Charlotte Moss's description of the beauty of her collections and lifestyle.

Read more about the auction in the NYT article here.

Make sure to view the video in full screen!

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

garden designer Peter Fudge

His name would be perfect for a character in a children's book but it belongs to a Sydney, Australia landscape architect that designs the most beautiful gardens! Take a look....

Peter Fudge does not design in one particular style, it seems he adapts to the special needs of the space for each project. This formal French inspired garden reminds me of Loi Thai's garden in Maryland.

This box hedge planted with steps looks cool.

I love the low maintenance and the shape of the shades of the landscape lights of this ground cover filled garden.

This one is Asian inspired and modern.

This light coastal garden with pool is accented with pastels that compliment its waterside location.

For a wooded suburban lot, he uses lots of sleek decking and grasses.

In this symmetrical garden, Peter Fudge utilized lots of hedges, both tall and short to create privacy and define garden "rooms".

This French styled parterre looks like a lot of work to me!

He uses low blooming succulents in an artistic way.

The other view....

Love the simple design of this fountain or maybe it is just a reflecting pool.

all above images property of Peter Fudge

Aren't these Australian gardens just beautiful? Visit the website of Peter Fudge here for more.

This is the reason I am trawling the internet for garden beauty today.

First day of spring in my neck of the woods! 

Happy spring everyone!

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

this week...food and books

 I made Ina's Blueberry Crumb Cake from her Barefoot Contessa at Home cookbook. It was delicious, more like a coffee cake because it is not too sweet and has a thick crumb topping. Too much topping we thought, overwhelms the moist yummy cake below. Seemed like half cake, half topping.

Next time, will make much less topping. I used a springform pan to make releasing the cake from the pan easier.

We tried her Mustard Roasted Fish recipe from Back to Basics. Very tangy and good, everyone liked it. Much richer than our usual grilled fish. The color was kind of blah and unappetizing. The food stylist made the fish look prettier for the book. Made her Roasted Potatoes in the oven at the same time. Same method we all know for this dish. Used a separate plate for the salad, this would have been prettier with some green on the plate.

I have been receiving beautiful books in the mail. In January, I go though my Amazon Save for Later cart of book titles. I add them whenever I hear of a good one throughout the year. I then purchase several after researching for the best prices and narrowing down the list. Once they arrive, I ration them, reading through them very slowly to savor each one. It takes me months to go through them. 

I have just started Martha Stewart Entertaining, A Year of Celebrations that was published in 2011.This book is huge and gorgeous! It is the new version of her amazing first book Entertaining that is full of beautiful ideas and does not seem dated.

Each page is a visual treat.  Her gardens, her homes, her collections of every kind of tableware, glassware, etc. the presentations, the recipes, the serving ideas, it is all quite astounding! I am loving this book! 

I also purchased her Martha Stewart Gardening, a Month to Month Guide book which for some reason came without the cover but here is a page from it, equally as pretty as her Entertaining books.

 Here are a few others I bought....

And my husband was sweet to order Carolyne Roehm's Flowers and surprise me after seeing it mentioned on the blog.

These books will keep me company throughout the winter, simple pleasures.....