We’ve all heard the famous axiom of Chicago Architect Louis Sullivan (1856–1924): form follows function. Frank Lloyd Wright elevated the teaching of his mentor to argue over his lifetime of work that form and function are one. So many others have argued that what we create must be aesthetically pleasing—beautiful—and…
I have loved tearooms and the tea experience all my adult life. Sunday high tea in Stirling, Scotland, in the home of an elderly woman after a walk around the village green was high adventure—and a cheery, calming presence—for a young, newly arrived college woman. J. and I fell in…
There are people we learn from over the course of many years. Earnest Alexander is one of those rare individuals with great celebrity and uncommon humility. As an international gospel singer he’s taken stories of at-risk children to the world to break the cycle of fatherlessness. J. and I have been invited…
I loved spring in my garden beds. It brought a little more fullness to the boxwood we were pruning in the Japanese cloud style. Blue delphinium, blue cranesbill geranium, pink clematis, pink and creamy English roses came into play all at the same time under the snowy watch of blooming…
Kim brought a layered berry blitz torte to our home to go with the charcuterie we served before music theatre. Maybe she brought it to step up our light food and beverage offering (an unintended pun; we saw A Chorus Line that evening). She “wrapped it” in a newspaper clip with…
We opened our door into the blinding lights of a dozen emergency vehicles, twisted metal and an explosion of glass. Two jet pilots here for training and covered in the powder of it say our new, sleek van saved their lives. Parked on the street in front of our apartment,…