Victoria March/April 2022

DEAR FRIENDS An enthusiastic child alighting on my doorstep, spring fills my window with loveliness, beckoning me out of doors with all the persistence and charm of playmates from my youth. As frosty weather melts into mild temperatures and watery grays give rise to vivid greens, I shed the fetters of age—responsibility, caution, and a tendency to dwell on serious matters—like a winter coat shaken to the grass as the sun bathes my shoulders in warmth. Our March/April issue arrives like an exuberant friend with a brilliant array of creatives in tow. On page 25, Christine Chitnis guides us through the New England Farm Coast, a region known for postcard-perfect towns set amid rolling fields and atmospheric beaches. Images from this talented photographer also survey the delights of Rhode Island’s Blithewold Gardens…

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 March/April features: Call of the Farm Coast Survey the varied charms of a region of New England, where billowing fields meet rolling seas and quaint towns offer ample opportunities for exploration. Wisteria and Sunshine An ode to The Enchanted April, our afternoon tea menu blends English and Italian influences to inspire a party as delightful as our Victoria Classics Book Club spring selection. Encouraged to Bloom Gardener Emily von Trapp, who found her bliss cultivating tulips in Vermont, shares her secrets for bringing loveliness to colder months through forcing bulbs. Southern Sanctuary An interior designer invites us into her French Country–style abode, which is as welcoming to loved ones as it is…

I recently shared the trip of a lifetime with my cousin, Evelyn. In the early 1900s, our Finnish grandmother, Esteri, immigrated to the United States at the age of eighteen. After the passing of our parents, Evelyn and I decided to connect with our family that still lived in Finland. Our purpose was to meet relatives and hear family stories, but the venture became much more. We reached out to the relatives there who we already knew and were welcomed to visit. Unbeknownst to us, they began contacting more kin. They planned gatherings, meals, sightseeing, and more to make our stay memorable. We saw where our grandmother grew up and were even welcomed to stay in the ancestral home. As the two weeks sped by, Evelyn and I shared laughter and tears.…

When I was forty-six, I discovered my sense of smell. Or rather, it discovered me, scents suddenly arriving in waves where before there might have been wafts. Why did it happen? Shifting hormones are the likely culprit, but all I know is that when the lilacs bloomed that year, the whole world turned purple. When my children walked in the door, I could tell where they’d been simply by the scents that clung to their clothes. For two weeks that spring, I chased a phantom fragrance through the house only to realize it was the smell of my own brain working. A friend joked that I could have a new career as a tracking dog, but, to be honest, I’d never felt a greater kinship with our nose-forward pup. I’d always…

The sun focuses its ancient eyes on the fertile farms and fecund vineyards nestled along the water’s edge, vanishing the morning mist to reveal newly greened meadows and nascent crops peeking from the warmed soil. New England’s Farm Coast has awakened from winter slumber and is eager to get its hands dirty, all in the cause of cultivation. Along the state lines where Massachusetts and Rhode Island meet, the Farm Coast—also called the South Coast—offers the unique scenic dichotomy of lush farmland rolling right down to the shoreline. Traveling east from the towns of Tiverton and Little Compton in “Little Rhody” to Westport and Dartmouth in the Bay State, the rural landscape belies the fact that the bustling city of Boston, with its plethora of skyscrapers and tangled, rush hour traffic,…