Saturday, June 15, 2019

At home in her lovely garden with Landscape-Architect, Bunny Guinness, Cambridgeshire





We are currently in the middle of refreshing our garden.  I want it to look neat and lovely from the windows, with a small raised bed for a kitchen garden, flowers of course for vases, and a stylish space for entertaining by the pool.  I have long-admired English gardeners with their seeming ease and dexterity of plantings: gorgeously unruly flowers, and vegetables in manicured beds.  I was thrilled to find an article in House & Garden of Cambridge's landscape-architect, radio host, and columnist Bunny Guinness who frankly never disappoints, always inspiring and makes a weekend gardener announce with great confidence and sincerity to her husband:  'Of course, you know... we can espalier the apple trees next to the pottager.'   

Bunny's half acre formal garden surrounds her charming stone house, along with a kitchen garden, gravel and stone paths, espaliered apple trees with glorious riot of flowers in and out of the vegetables, and another eight acres of orchard, including twin avenues of pleached hornbeam in the pool garden, woodland, and pasture for livestock.



"I tend not to put all the similar things together, as you're supposed to do, so I 'll grow a few runner beans here, a few there, and throw everything in together.  
It seems to work."










"My husband farmed before he became an accountant, and we have always had livestock, so we have our own meat and eggs, and I grow a fair bit of what we need in the vegetable garden.  We eat what's in season."






















"More than anything else, though, the garden is an antidote to the pressures of a busy working life.  I need my gardening days.  Gardening really takes your mind away from everything else, and it gives me the exercise and fresh air that I need.  And there's always something new to try.  You always think you're about to get to the stage when the garden feels finished, but it never is."







To view the entire House & Garden article written by Clare Foster and photography by Andrew Montgomery please view here.  Enjoy!










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Sunday, June 2, 2019

Sunday Chic: Australian Designer Cameron Kimber's Love of English Country-House Style






Inspired by the late American Philanthropist Bunny Melon, Australian designer Cameron Kimber built a new home in New South Wales and filled it with his love of English Country.



"I wanted a simple House that was quite cottagey, but I had some big paintings and collections, so I just stirred it all together"




It is in his "stirring" that his home and his designs frequently are featured in magazines, blogs, and Instagrams, and are worth revisiting again and again.  His pale neutral rooms are the perfect backdrop for his large-scale furnishings, he says, "I like everything to be comfortable", and changing or adding to his collections of vintage fabric, English and Chinese ceramics, antiques, layered rugs, and oil paintings allows him to do so with ease.  He also includes a snug room with rich colors for evenings:  "In all my houses, I've had a room that feels cocooning and enveloping." 




"I like the way English interiors have a handed-down look.  It doesn't matter if something doesn't quite match or isn't perfect, and it's OK to have the dog bed in the sitting room.  Things are beautiful and comfortable, and that's really all that matters."




Along with his gorgeous designs, it is this 'Intentional Living' that inspires me most.  Living with items you love and in the way your family's life and home functions best.  Our homes should be beautiful, welcoming, appointed... but they should have "us" in them, regardless of where you live.  Welcoming friends and family into our homes is a gift to them and us.   Here is some Sunday Chic for inspiration!   Enjoy!

































House & Garden article:  Here
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