Victoria September 2021

DEAR FRIENDS During my formative years, summer seemed to prompt a scattering, with friends traveling to distant shores for vacations, sleep-away camps, and other far-flung adventures, while autumn represented a gathering in, as families settled once again into their own neighborhoods for children to return to school. I remember vividly my eagerness to reunite with teachers and classmates after a long three months apart. Decades later, something as simple as hearing the rumble of a school bus evokes a sweet nostalgia for the keen sense of homecoming that came with the turning of the calendar to September. “For there we loved, and where we love is home,” Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote. “Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” In the town where Writer-in-Residence Jan Karon grew up, we anticipate…

Visit our website to read this issue’s online stories and to find more of the content you love. Take a closer look at some of our favorite September features: Romantic Charms Discover Farringford, an estate on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom, which was home to Alfred, Lord Tennyson in the nineteenth century. Experiencing Thyme Take in the unique setting of this hospitable village in the heart of the Cotswolds, and sample an exclusive recipe from chefs at the esteemed country house hotel. Decorative Delights Step into the dreamy environs of Susie Watson Designs, where British style can be found in the loveliest of vignettes, brimming with goods handmade by craftspeople around the world. Threads of Serenity Through the eye of her needle, English artisan Nicki Franklin offers glimpses of loveliness. Learn more about her business of…

Located forty-five minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge, Novato, California, was still a small country town in the early 1960s. We once counted thirty-one kids living on the cul-de-sac where I grew up. Between my three older siblings and me, we knew them all. Summers were hot and dry and just perfect for riding our bikes everywhere. We spent the entire day outside, often swimming in our neighbor’s pool, the only one on the block. They had a ‘Santa Rosa’ plum tree, and the game was to throw a plum into the pool and dive in after it. Many a board game was scooted under a large bush in our yard in favor of that pool. Most of the women on the block were stay-at-home moms. I have such fond…

I suppose everyone’s first adventure is that of being born. Think about it. One minute, safe and secure; the next minute, into the fray. It’s pretty impossible to top that for sheer theatrics, but through the ages, some of us keep trying—scaling a cliff face with bare hands, shooting over waterfalls in a barrel, trying to make pasta from scratch. In recent months, I’ve had time to indulge memory and to recall several formative adventures—all the way back to age three. My sister, Brenda, was still a baby in the cradle. My grandmother, Fannie, aka Mama, had been given two little granddaughters to raise and must have needed a break. And so, together with her friend, whose name or face I can’t recall, Mama set off with a toddler and an infant…

For more than twenty years, decorative-paint maven Annie Sloan and her family have lived in a circa 1870s townhouse, close to Oxford’s multicultural quarter, where grocers and restaurants offer an exotic mix of regional specialties, from Tibetan to Slovakian. The cosmopolitan nature of the area inspires and energizes the artist, whose love of vibrant hues and travel weaves a thread through all aspects of her life. “My home is probably my greatest project because it’s a Chalk Paint® story, a family story, and my own personal creative refuge all in one,” she explains. “I wanted to create lived-in, informal beauty, somewhere that’s beautiful to look at but doesn’t feel as though you can’t touch anything—tidy and a little bit chaotic, colorful and lively, calming and comfortable.” The living room is an…

“THE MUSE’S FRIEND, TEA, DOES OUR FANCY AID; REPRESS THE VAPORS WHICH THE HEAD INVADE; AND KEEPS THAT PALACE OF THE SOUL SERENE ….”—Edmund Waller…