Delectable Duet: Foliage and Dining Rooms

I picked this extraordinary 

flowering Aralia from the garden,

to place on 

the dining table for a bit of drama.

The round balls are seed pods, 

formed after the little white flowers fall.

And the glossy deep green leaves

are rather gorgeous too!

Images: blue fruit

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Journey into a Secret Garden

Let's go on a journey, 

into a secret garden.

One that is disciplined & ordered.

There is a sense of quiet 

in this garden.

No wonder it has been shortlisted 

in this year's "outside" category of the

House Awards. 

Graveled courtyards make up 

rooms of secret gardens, within the garden.

And there are lots of lovely places

to sit and stay awhile,

to just, well, live the moment. 

No surprise that an art lover lives here. 

There are marvelous sculptures dotted throughout 

the garden, as treasures waiting to be discovered.

The front garden is extremely restrained.

Rigidly formal & clipped.

While the journey through to the back garden

is a half-way point, 

a meeting ground of formality & verdant excess.

See what I mean about verdant excess?

Deliciously full-blown luxuriant growth. 

Almost bursting out of the corten steel edging. 

We better have a look inside too. 

So you can get a sense of the garden's integration.

Magnificent front doors, aren't they?

Oh, clever.

Low height peep windows allow

sneaky views to that side garden we saw.

And full height windows allow the house 

to float within it's garden frame.

It's still a young garden, 

but one that will ripen with age

into a place of extreme beauty,

creating a secret garden with many charms.

Do you like it?

Jane's House & Garden, SA.

Landscape Design: Taylor Cullity Leathlean

Shortlisted in 2011 Houses Awards

Architecture + Interior Design: Dimitty Anderson + Nexus Designs

Photography: Earl Carter

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What's Weekend and what's Week time?

It's movie night for the boys & me, 

so I have been hunting for 

somewhere yummy to grab supper 

after we see the latest Pirates of the Caribbean.

 After looking at these gorgeous images,

I desperately want to check out the 

new Hare & Grace in the city. 

Love the smoke bush ceiling twigs, 

and the anatomical

animal drawings on the walls. 

Sadly for tonight's escapade, 

it is only open during the week.

Really?

But I kinda like the idea of keeping

a restaurant special for the weekdays only.

So it is a lovely little respite, during a busy working day.

 With such a blurring between work & play, 

sometimes we lose the distinction 

between weekend and working week. 

It's an interesting concept,

don't you think?

Images & restaurant: Hare & Grace

located at 525 Collins St, Melbourne.

Interior Design: Joost Bakker

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When Simple is Best...

A sculptural black + white box, 

set amongst the gum trees,

was designed to focus on the garden,

in this extension to an old cottage.

Would you like a splash of orange 

with your black and white box?

This is the work of

Sydney architect Christopher Polly.

It's so simple. 

And yet, the simple designs 

are often the hardest to achieve.

It's all about getting 

the proportions

just right.

It's a narrow space, 

but the spectacular ceiling height 

makes it feel open and full of light.

While the emphasis is all about the garden. 

Neat, and simple. 

It just works. 

Images: Haines House by Christopher Polly 

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Golden Glamour. I like mine Dark, not Frothy. Bold Gold.

When I was a little girl, 

every birthday I would ask for golden shoes.

My mother believed that golden shoes 

represented fripperies and froth, 

so they never appeared in the birthday wrappings.

She laughs now, wondering why she had such a notion.

Fripperies & froth gold may sometimes be, 

but it can also have an underlying deeper, darker edge.

Especially when mixed with black.

On the runway, at LMFF, Little Joe 

mixes gold with fabulous dark heels,

guinea feathers and black to create drama.

Love this. 

No frippery or froth in sight. 

But the gold filigree gives the outfit glamour,

while balancing the drama with long, long legs of black.

For a gold lover like myself, 

there is no such thing as too much gold. 

Oriel House obviously thinks so too.

Why not have gold handles on golden drawers?

Gold and dark just seem to go together in a sultry mix.

If this exquisitely detailed light by Emma Davies

had a backdrop of anything other than gold,

it would change the mood entirely.

A light sprinkling of gold can give an air of decadence,

to these gowns, & the setting, by Gwendolynne. 

While Bold Gold exhales confidence of style.

Bold Gold means using lots of it, 

with other darkly dramatic elements,

like these inspired curtains. 

What a brilliant foil to the gold velvet sofa. 

And always having a hefty drop 

of dark, dark 

texture as a contrast against the glitter.

 So lustrous, in this vintage image from the 1960s.

And of course, 

a sense of wit doesn't hurt 

Bold Gold's success either.

Would this scene work so well, 

if the frames were dainty, 

and if there were no Converse sneakers 

tossed upon the floor?

This much loved room, by Studio Ko, 

pushes the glamour of gold to it's full bold limits. 

To sink luxuriantly into these gold sofas, 

in such a beautiful space, 

would be decadently fabulous.

Why, it doesn't have a touch of froth or frippery about it!

Images: 

1: Alexander McQueen pumps net a porter.  2/8/9: design by SR Gambrell.

3/4: little joe.  5: Oriel House via 1st option.

6: emma davies artist.  7: Gwendolynne.

10/11: My Vintage Vogue.

12: photography by Monolo Yllera. 13: Studio Ko.

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If a Rose by any other name would Smell as Sweet, how about Pigface?

Sometimes I wonder if the name of a plant

has quite a bit to do with it's popularity.

Like the Pigface plant, 

shown flowering here in my garden.

Of course, Shakespeare was onto this 

in his famous quote.

The unfortunately named Pigface, 

or Carpobrotus Glaucescens

(not much better)

is in fact an absolutely fabulous groundcover.

 It's a seldom~planted edible Australian native, 

with the most wonderfully juicy succulent leaves.

My grandfather used to pick it for salads,

while warning us we might turn into pigs if we ate it.

{He was a wag!}

So despite it's odd little name, 

I was keen to plant it in my garden,

because it is a tough little cookie,

surviving on scant water and happy to live 

on rocky faces.

But I just had to show you this glorious garden, 

inspired by the impossibly bright colours of Pigface.

It's by Eckersley Garden Architecture.

Do you see the lovely plant cascading 

down the grey planter box?

That is the beautiful Pigface.

When it errupts into flower, 

the colour will match the floor. 

Imagine! 

The designer, Myles Broad, 

has used this ancient plant as a springboard

for a wonderfully inspired colour scheme of purples,

glaucous blue~greens and greys.

It is a rambling garden,

my personal favourite kind,

where the visitor is allowed to wander

and find shady spots.

Another Australian native, Liriope, 

is repeated throughout the garden.

The purple flowers are colourful exclamation points.

"Hello!" they seem to say.

Can you imagine a Sunday lunch 

on this terrace?

Oh yes please, it will be lovely.

Climbing Morning Flags 

positively jump against the rich purple walls.

It's a garden where the garden designer owner

has had some fun with bold colours.

And it just makes me ponder, 

if this gorgeous plant had a prettier name, 

would we see it a little more often?

1/2/3/4 blue fruit garden

All other images & Coastal Cottage garden 

by Eckersley Garden Architecture

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