gardens at middlefield

gardens at middlefield

What are you up to this weekend? We’ll be knocking around the neighborhood and also going to our friend’s house for dinner tonight. (Our contribution is the strawberry cake:) Hope you have a good one — take it easy — and here are a few fun links from around the web…

Love this pretty shirt.

A home makeover in Vermont.

How to listen completely. “When people talk, listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say… You should be able to go into a room and when you come out, know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling. Try that for practice.”

Summer salad.

During this hot weather, I’m really into this natural deodorant. Subtle scent, really works.

A bath with a view! (NYTimes)

What kind of books do you like reading on trips? I recently packed Save Me the Plums, Ruth Reichl’s latest memoir about her time as editor in chief at Gourmet Magazine, and it was wonderful. (Caroline had recommended it.) Her writing is so entertaining, I felt like I was watching a movie.

Five women try out red carpet hairstyles.

The strangest person in the world.

“If you are very very quiet you can hear the clouds rub against the sky,” and other lies I’ve told my three-year-old recently.

Amazing what a can of paint can do!

Plus, two reader comments:

Says Jenny on realizing your bisexuality after marriage: “Being intimate with women has changed the way I think about myself and my performance of womanhood. Feeling electrified by a butt with cellulite, really wanting the jiggle of a thigh, experiencing little back rolls as soft and devastatingly cute…it’s opened a door to how much male gaze has taught me to hate myself and now I’m learning to love those parts of myself.”

Says Veronica on your most awkward dating story: “I met a date for the first time at a fancy restaurant. Seemed handsome, professional, normal. The hostess guided us to our table, where an older couple was already seated. This must be some mistake. Nope. Turns out…they were his PARENTS. HE INVITED HIS PARENTS ON A BLIND DATE WITH US. Did I stay? Yes. Why? Not sure. I was too frozen. Too awkward to leave. They paid for his bill and my salmon. Sometimes I wonder how Dave and Cindy are doing.”

(Photo of the garden at Middlefield by Gil Schafer and Deborah Nevins, via Abbey Nova. Parenting book via Storq. Three-year-old lies via Swissmiss.)