Cyprus topiaries.

Luckily I have access to the wonderful Daisy Hill greenhouse in Hunting Valley for super little topiaries like these. In cast iron urns, swathed in a bit of Spanish moss, they're the perfect Spring pick me up.

Buon Compleanno!

A delightful early Spring afternoon. Sashimi lunch, a visit to the newly designed late 18th, early 19th c. galleries at the Museum. Fell in love with this painting, A View of Naples through an Open Window, 1824. Wondering if that window swag was artistic license.

A sconce I'd love to have. Well, it is my birthday.

Saw a similar pair at a local antique shop recently. Molto caro!

A new Fragonard. I'm enamored of the frame.

Lamb chops e coniglio.

Asparagus is in season.

Spring comes quickly

...and now, the promise of primavera.

John Fowler, decoration, design, and winter decor

But it also does look good on the cocktail table.

Recently finished reading Martin Wood's surprisingly good book "John Fowler: Prince of Decorators", 2007. Why good? For one thing, I wasn't expecting more than the usual coffee table, pretty picture book. Far from that, Wood approaches the life of England's master decorator with a true art historian's eye and an historian's mind. The in-depth research into Fowler's life and the minutiae of the projects is commendable. Randomly flip to any page and you get, rather entertainingly:

Lady Olivier's [yes, Laurence's wife] bedroom was hung with chintz with cabbage roses in reds and pinks on a white ground. The chintz was gathered and hung loose at the base,a very luxuriant and indulgent use of fabric that was striking and unusual at the time. Above the fireplace the fabric was pulled back to show a pink-painted wall hung with a Venetian mirror. Vivian Leigh was difficult to deal with, often awkward and bad tempered. Turning over finishing the job to an excited assistant John remarked 'Be careful dear boy. There are claws beneath those velvet paws.'

Or, more to the point:

When John first decorated the sitting room the walls were painted a pale French grey, but later he changed the color to Sienna pink, a color which, when actually on the wall resembled cloth Elastoplast. A sharp yellow chair and sofa and a deep green pouffe were set upon a fawn-brown carpet, a colour which John and Nancy Lancaster always referred to as 'dead mouse' (actually it was 'Hair Pile' carpet), and the finest piece of furniture that John owned was also placed here. An Adam serpentine -front satinwood commode might have seemed too grand for so modest a space, and yet it lived happily with the look of the room.

'Dead mouse', don't you love it?

I came to learn of Fowler rather circuitously. From living in London, I was well aware of the Colefax & Fowler shop on The King's Road. I remember mainly dismissing it as "too chintzy" and Queen Mum-ish, whereas neighbors on the street such as William Yeoward's Neo-Georgian windows and Tricia Guild's Designer's Guild wowed me with their English color and updated English aesthetic.

Flash forward to this past year, and my reading of the Chatsworth House books written by Deborah, the Duchess of Devonshire. Debo absolutely adored Fowler and coined the subtitle of Wood's book. Fowler became the darling and aesthetic arbiter of the true Uppers and landed gentry from the 1930s-1959, throw in the odd chosen celeb such as the Oliviers. I guess he could be compared to Billy Baldwin, Sister Parrish, or Mario Buatta -- who knows?, Interior Dec 101 wasn't in my graduate curriculum.

Reading this treatment got me to reexamining my love/hate relationship with decoration, designers, and Design itself. The idea of setting out to Design a House, as if picking out an entire wardrobe of clothing, is largely repellent to me. It reeks of Architectural Digest, new money, and those design shows (Top Design anyone?). What does appeal to me is using what you have, putting things away, brushing off some old pieces from storage, rotating art and objects, maybe putting out a few fresh pillows and vases. Nothing wrong with filling in from a favorite dealer, eBay, basics from a chain store like Smith & Hawken.

For me, the photos in the Fowler book are an amazing test of just how decorative to go. His signature pelmet, swag and tassel window treatments are way overboard in my eye, but then there are the effortlessly arranged sitting rooms in stunning panneling and subtle colored coffered ceilings. At the end of the day, I think I like the grand country houses themselves more than what Fowler did to them. Give me a raw window with a Roman shade, a threadbare Aubusson rug, and a whiskey and I'll be fine!

Given all of the above -- dramatic sigh -- I've worked my hand at decorating the mantle in our main room for post-Christmas winter. It's the one area of the house where I can have a bit of fun and add a decorative element.

Okay Designers, here's your challenge: create an atmospheric mantle arrangement that describes winter, yet keeps in mind your client's aesthetic proclivities. You have no budget. Go.

Answer: African branches, old crystal vase, whole walnuts in some extant Pottery Barn votive holders and a Christofle silver and wood box bought a few years ago.