Saul Steinberg - Legend

Jamie and I already have 4 Steinberg prints in our home, however we enjoy very much coming to The Home of Steinberg aka Woody Bay Hotel to see the larger collection. Jamie's current fave is this one below.

If you aren't already familiar with Steinberg then you should make it your mission to become so. His works incorporates elements of calligraphy, collage and cartoons and doesn't lose its freshness over time. This is the one I like:

Holloway

For me, one if life's great pleasures is the giving and receiving of books. While you might normally be the best judge of what you want to read, often someone else's view can open up a whole new avenue. I love to receive books from the Garden Poet and The Mother and I also try and make sure that I share these in return.

Having said that, the 3 books I bought the GP for Christmas were not really avant-garde selections. They were all about travel and poetry which is definitely his bag and the most obviously suitable for his canon was Holloway.

So, the reasons why the was a no-brainer addition to the GP's canon are:

• One of the writers is the wonderful Robert Macfarlane 
• It's inspired by Roger Deakin, another approved writer
• It's a beautiful book - hard-back, illustrated and no longer than it needs to be
• It fuses history, poetic prose and personal experience

Which brings me back to my original point. A great joy in life is the giving and receiving of books. The most ideal course of events is giving someone a book they really love which you later have an opportunity to read. So share your books and your recommendations because you never know the joy this could bring.

Small headed and delicate Hydrangea

From Marwood - proof that most plant families have one for everyone. If you don't like large and blousy Hydrangeas you may still fall in love with the water colour delicacy of this one.

And if you've not had enough of Marwood yet..

The first time Jamie and I visited Marwood we popped along to the church and graveyard and now it's an integral part of the visit. Not for any nefarious or smutty reason, but first because it's a beautiful space and the archetypal English rural setting. While I have no desire to leave my urban home for a picture postcard village, I can appreciate the beauty and the effort that's gone in to keeping it just so.

Like most of the churches in North Devon, the church in Marwood is Norman and towers over the village with it's stony walls and simple shape. The graveyard is most notable for the amazing job nature has done, with a little help from a strimmer and a laissez-faire maintenance style. The second reason why the graveyard is notable is the average age on the tombstones - even 3 centuries ago the average lifespan was in the 70s and 80s. Maybe there is an argument for being surrounded by beauty? Or something in the water.

Lovely Style at Woody Bay Hotel

I'm an avid fan of Pinterest and spend a lot of time poring over different home styles. It occurred to me recently that the aesthetics in the living room of Woody Bay Hotel are amongst the best I've seen.

Now you could say that this is bias as the style team behind this triumph are the Garden Poet and The Mother. I do however think they have a knack of making the diverse and at times mis-matching elements fit into a harmonious whole.

That's not to say the effect was achieved through a calm and Zen like process. GP and TM will have tested the design through a rigorous process of to-the-death arguing and took a while to get to this final point. The main thing is that this is a calming room to be in and when you are in it listening to the grandfather clock ticking steadily, your normal life feels a long way away. I think a lot of my own style pretences come from this room - muted eau-de-nil shades, books everywhere and light flooding the room. It's a good place to start any design ethos.