House and Garden May 2016

ANNE MASSIE Designer and painter There are two things that have been constant in Anne Massie’s life: her close relationship with her brother Will and her love of painting. As children, a summer project for Anne and Will would be to grow tomatoes and corn, and sell them to restaurants for pocket change. In their twenties, they bought and restored a historic house close to their hometown in Virginia. Years later, when it came time for another creative project, the two ‘wanted to do something we believed in’. And so McKinnon and Harris, their garden furniture company, was born. Today Anne lives with her husband in the house she and Will bought, where her other passion, painting, can be seen in almost every room (from page 92). ‘I look at the house…

Foraging was a part of my childhood – in fact, some of my most vivid memories are of crawling through the undergrowth looking for mushrooms, slightly frightened by what my father was going to find and suggest we eat. When I was six months old, he and my mother spent a worrying 24 hours waiting to see if what they had eaten was actually a death cap masquerading as a blusher, after reading that in dense woodland this can sometimes be the case. Summer holidays on the North Cornish coast were all about extracting whatever we could from the sea – winkles were our favourite, plucked from the rock pools and painstakingly picked from their shells with a needle, then eaten on brown bread and butter with plenty of pepper…

AVID LOTHIAN; CLIFF COLGATE/SPIKE IMAGING. PIXELATE IMAGING; JAKE FITZJONES PHOTOGRAPHY. PIXELATE IMAGING; BJARNI B JACOBSEN…

London is packed with craftsmen hidden away behind the most unassuming of doors, but it was not long ago that much of their trade took place in the city’s streets and squares, where hawkers and peddlers would sell their wares to passers-by. Rachael South is a third generation chair caner; her grandfather, Michael South, was once a prizefighter and bare-knuckle boxer, but as his career in the ring waned, he took up chair caning. He would sit on his tool box and ply for trade, eventually teaching his son the craft, who in turn taught his daughter when she turned 14. Rachael now works from a studio in east London where the walls are lined with bundles of rushes and coils of rattan. When I visit, there is a handsome William…

GO AND SEE Trelissick Garden in Cornwall, pictured right, is famous for its rhododendrons, which are at their best at this time of year. There are over 400 acres to explore, with winding woodland paths and one of the best bluebell displays in Cornwall. Views of the Fal Estuary are the icing on the cake. national trust.org.uk Glow on Hang this lantern from a tree or pergola, or stand it on a terrace. Made from painted bamboo and wood, the ‘New Blake’ lantern by Broste Copenhagen has a central glass hurricane insert designed for a large candle. It is available in two sizes: large (33 x 53cm diameter, £59 plus p&p) and small (26.5 x 43.5cm diameter, £46 plus p&p), from greige.co.uk. SHEAR JOY Jakoti Hand Shears will prove endlessly useful for clipping box, cutting…