From My Renovation Archive: The Bath House

For some unknown reason, I stumbled upon some long lost shots of a favourite renovation we did of our first beach house overlooking Jervis Bay quite a few years ago. This house is long since sold, but one of my favourite things was the bath house in the back garden. This quaint little sleep-out building, circa 1930, was too cute to demolish so we re-invented it.

If I had to do it again I would probably do much the same thing. The lesson to be learned here is that classic design does not date as quickly as decor that follows fads.

Petersham Nurseries

After a few days running around in London, my plan is always to spend a day out at Richmond with a visit to the very stylish Petersham Nurseries. This trip coincided with the Petersham House's open garden day, which made it all the more special.

We stayed at the nearby Petersham Hotel from where you can walk across the meadows to the village of Petersham which is like an old country hamlet in the middle of parklands in London suburbia. There's only a handful of houses, one of which is owned by the Nurseries owners, Gael and Francesco Boglione who bought the old run-down nursery almost a decade ago and transformed it into a model of garden style and eco-conscious practices.

Perhaps their best decision was to entice Sydney-born chef Skye Gyngell (sister of Nine Network chief, David) to cook for them in the restaurant and it now has a Michelin Star as well as a star-studded following. When we were there I was almost bowled over by the Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood. An interior designer friend who lives in Richmond also adores the Nurseries and says last time she dined there Madonna was at the next table.

Lunch is served in the greenhouses on delightfully rustic vintage metal tables surrounded by vintage garden artifacts, old armoires, chandeliers and potted plants. This inspirational atmosphere feels more like a Lucianna Arrighi set for a movie than a plant nursery.

It was lovely to take a stroll around the gardens of the house. For me, the highlight was the kitchen garden which supplies fresh produce for the restaurant and the Boglione's conservatory. One of the main features of the garden is the 50 metre long herbaceous border - a very English folly which was flowering madly.

House Love -it's in the blood!

A spot of Jane Austen, anyone? The thought of listed fountains and bridges is rather daunting.

Gorgeous hand-painted silk wallpapers - this green chinoiserie-style example is to die for.

The lovely coastal setting - but how cold would it get in winter?

The main reason for our trip to the UK was to celebrate a a milestone birthday with my father-in-law. It was also a chance for my husband to spend some time with his father where they were both born in the north of England.

No trip would be normal for us however without some sort of property diversion....

I feel a bit awkward writing about this but a good friend and blog follower has been asking and asking me to post about it so here goes.

Don't know if I have mentioned this, (probably not as I am slightly embarrassed to admit it) but in my spare time I have I have been working on the family history with my aunt and mother, really just putting it all on computer and doing some editing and online research. They have kind of handed it on to me to carry on the tradition. Lucky me.

Well, one day I was checking out some details on this rather adventurous great, great, great grandfather and googled his 'house'. Lo and behold up it popped on a posh UK property site, and it was for sale!

I had heard a few tales about the Scottish side of the family, but you know, you think "yeah, yeah, yeah". Well, this house was an absolute cracker. Designed by the most famous architect of the time, it is a Grade 1 listed estate complete with listed fountains, ramshackle but once manicured gardens, a fabulous listed bridge and rolling green pastures.

It was bought by the current owners from "the Family" about 20 years ago and it was too tempting to go and see it and consider the remote possibility of buying it back. Being married to an architect who is a heritage specialist comes in handy at times like these.

It is a long way from London, but we decided to drive up to the Highlands to check it out. "The Pile" as we call it, sits on a rise over looking the ocean, not far from Inverness. It is at the end of a long drive, hidden like a secret garden behind huge, ancient trees.

The house was the passion of my ancestor, an enterprising young Scot who was forced to leave Scotland because of the uprising against the English in the 18th century. He went to Madeira and founded the wine industry and then, as the eldest son, returned home to resume his family "seat" and built this fab house. He must have been as mad as I am about houses as he commissioned the most famous up-and-coming architect of the day, Robert Adam, to design it. Adam was Scottish, so my guess is that they knew each other.

Because of the cold climate, many of the original hand-painted wallpapers are still in pretty good condition and there are many old "Adam" fireplaces and features. Despite being well lived in over the years, the house is still in quite original condition, though a few of the lesser rooms were re-decorated in the seventies.

It could be an interesting project - what do you think?

Now You see Me..

I am back in the blogosphere having taken some time to recover and catch up with things since my trip to London, Scotland and Paris.

I have to share in some shopping highlights before I do anything else.

No trip to London feels right without an afternoon or two hitting the high streets. In the busy Oxford Street area I popped in to Liberty, Zara and Anthropologie.

Both Liberty and Anthropologie have fabulous merchandising and really quirky, imaginative products.

Eclectic style reigned at both stores with a big doses of crafty and hand-made accessories. Yes, there was even a bit a macrame spotted at Anthropologie. Bright colours were everywhere and texture was a feature at Anthropologie as you can see here.

Unfortunately I had to limit my purchases to what I could take on an aeroplane, but you will see some quirky knobs and cushions popping up in my beach houses shortly!

Coming up for all you style mavens out there:

Petersham Nurseries Open garden

London's East End Style

No Place Like Home

The last roses of the season.

A winter view - fruit trees bursting, bare branches on the plum tree, clear winter sky.

My first winter harvest - grapefruit, lemons, tahitian limes, tangerines.

This weekend was spent entirely pottering around the garden. We didn't leave the property once with the exception of my husband dashing out for takeaway dinner and milk on Saturday night!

After a month of long distance plane flights, big cities, fabulous hotels, meeting people, huge drives and many miles covered, there is no relief better than a weekend spent digging in the dirt. Simple pleasures of picking fruit and flowers, flying kites and just hanging out are a welcome change.

I remember as a child my father used to come home from overseas business trips and the thing he loved to do most was gather wood from our bush backyard and cook a barbeque lunch.

Being the start of winter, it is a great time to reassess the garden - what has worked and what hasn't, to pull out weeds and cut back dead growth. Its also the best time of year to make new plans for the garden. We did plenty of that, with lots of chatting over cups of tea.

My famously feral vegetable garden was, not surprisingly, completely unruly after a month left to its own devices. The local rabbits had also moved in and feasted on lettuce leaves and the weeds had a field day. Most of one day was spent pulling out the last of the killer tomatoes, hundreds of tiny weeds and nasty prickly paddock weeds that had jumped the fence.

The most satisfying thing of all is gathering up the produce and cooking up something straight from the garden. Last night I cooked one of the last of the crop of butternut pumpkins and made roast pumpkin and rosemary soup. Yum.

I will share some of the travel inspiration next time...