Initial Thoughts

It’s a Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood

This perfect early fall weather (and a calmer pace after the freneticism of summer) has prompted many walks around my favorite neighborhoods, each route including one architectural treasure after another.…

Fall’s Fresh Occasions for Delight

From the greater parklike landscape to the tiniest garden container, this time of the year provides such a wealth of details. I find myself stopping the car as I wind…

Dahlias, a Prelude to Fall

September is the most beautiful month of the year, as Newporters will assure you. One of its highlights is the dahlias that are at the height of their season throughout…

“Bellevue and Beyond” Garden Tour

I’ll start this post not with my own words, but with kind observations from a visitor to Parterre over this past weekend during the garden tour….”The lovely French inspired design…

Postcards from Edinburgh

Arriving back in Newport from our Scotland trip just as Labor Day weekend started…so this post was created a bit on the fly, sharing “Postcards,” as I like to call…

Dunrobin Castle and Garden, Scotland

While we would usually be in Newport mid-August, a lovely invitation prompted a re-consideration. So off we went to visit Edinburgh and then cruise the eastern shores of Scotland and a…

Coaching Weekend, Starring Rosecliff

And just like “that”, Coaching took over the island the weekend of August 15-17. With 2 separate “drives” on Friday and Saturday and one Sunday morn, the number of people enjoying…

Reliving the Gilded Age: Coaching comes to Newport

Living in Newport, with its many exceptional homes, gate houses, stables and carriage houses, complemented by grand specimen trees on manicured landscapes, gives one the sense of existing in another…

Designing with Hydrangeas

Though late to bloom this year given our wet and wonky summer, these Newport signatures never fail to make their statement…and complete many a landscape’s je ne sais quoi. Look…

Newport’s Vistas and Viewscapes

This is a follow-on to last week’s post on “Evening at Home,” with its views and landscapes that are at the heart of the success of the Aquidneck Island Land…