An Affair With A House

Hidden up in Falls Village, a blink-and-you-miss-it hamlet in the green hills of Connecticut, there is a house that has become famous the world over. It is located down a winding road with a curious name, a road that actually changes names several times so that you need to get out at the cute little white wooden General Store in the village's main street to ask directions. It is a house that so enthralled its owner when she first saw it, it immediately inspired a love affair with architecture and gardens that has lasted more than 30 years.

The house has changed significantly since that first inspection, thanks to the owner's great talents as an interior designer. She has taken a grand but neglected country manor and transformed it into an extraordinarily beautiful rural retreat. But what is perhaps more surprising is how much this house has inspired and transformed the owner in return. Bunny Williams may be the owner of this gracious Connecticut estate, but the house is very much the architectural muse. As Winston Churchill once said: "We shape our buildings, and then our buildings shape us." Bunny Williams must know this more than anyone.

We had the good fortune to visit Bunny Williams' beautiful home yesterday, a property that is so renowned it has been featured in countless magazines as well as the bestselling book An Affair With A House. We also had the good fortune to meet the inimitable Ms Williams – who is as lovely as her interiors. (When she heard I had flown all the way from Australia to see it, she gave me a warm kiss.) The experience of wandering around this enchanting home on a brilliantly sunny Sunday in May is one that will never leave me. It is quite simply one of the most beautiful houses I've ever seen.

Here are a few photographs of this sublime country home. We arrived right on the opening time of 10am, so we were fortunate to capture the gardens without too many other visitors wandering in and out of the shot. I also met the gardener, Eric, who was as lovely as his employer. It is a difficult property to describe, so I'll simply direct you to Bunny's book, An Affair With A House, for more details. However, I will say this: I have rarely seen a more elegant private garden, anywhere in the world. The chicken pavillion alone is extraordinarily beautiful. Add in the parterre tulip garden, the conservatory, the guest barn, the mauve garden, the pool house, the potager (vegetable garden), and the rambling orchard and bluebell wood, and you have what must be the loveliest of small private gardens in all of America.

PS I would post captions, but we're just about to pack up the suitcases and head off to Boston for the day (and my partner is making those huffing noises that males make when females are dithering and running late!) But I promise to post more photos later today. The New England weather has been glorious these past few days, which has made for some gorgeous photography. It's certainly been a temperature shock after the dank wet winter that descended on Melbourne last month. A friend who is looking after our house told me that our garden looks like a horror movie compared to the garden shots  of Connecticut that I've been emailing home!

    

Bunny Williams and the Trade Secrets

It was Hunter wellingtons at fifty paces yesterday at Connecticut's annual Trade Secrets fair, one of America's most beautiful garden and antique fairs. As the sun danced upon the topiary bay trees and the smell of well-composted soil and old Connecticut money mingled in the May air, well-heeled (or well-wellingtoned) gardeners vied for the best bargains at what has become one of the Green Thumbed and Design Set's most loved social outings.

And what an outing it was. It was such a beautiful sight that at one stage I thought I'd fallen into a Ralph Lauren shoot. In fact, if Ralph hasn't decided to do a new homewares collection called 'A Connecticut Garden' he perhaps should. It would sell like posies of pink peonies at a Manhattan flower market. There were splendid white marquees, antique urns overflowing with ivy and specially planted spring bulbs, extraordinarily gorgeous farm buildings and chic little stalls full of rare plants, vintage bird houses, quaint old garden tools, refurbished orchard ladders, enormous wicker baskets, beautiful old French linens and cute straw garden basket. There were also hats. So many straw hats. I haven't seen this many beautiful hats since Ascot! Everyone, it seemed, was donning either a natty little hat or a natty little French-style straw bag. Beige J Crew-style pants and a pretty shirt were mandatory too. I tell you, these were seriously stylish gardeners. There were no dirty fingernails and soil-stained gardening smocks on this lot.

I didn't see Ms Martha Stewart – by the time we arrived at 10am, 2 hours after the fair had opened, all the serious shoppers (including Ms Martha) had come and gone, taking their plant-stuffed SUVs with them – but I did glimpse the fair's lovely co-founder Bunny Williams (above) and a few other celebrities. As I was told, the people watching was as wonderful as the plant sales. Here are a few photos snatched through the day. Apologies they're not better quality – I was too enamoured with the whole, glamorous, gorgeousness of the event to concentrate on capturing it on camera.

Tomorrow, I'll post another treat: photos of Bunny Williams' famous house and garden, which we're seeing today. And to all those who have posted lovely comments, thank you! I was so touched to read them. I'm going to reply tonight (we've spent the last week in transit) so I do hope you'll bear with me. It's always so lovely to hear from people, whether by comments or email, so once again, my sincere thanks. It's so lovely to know that The Library has such beautiful readers!

Above: Lion Rock Farm, the site of the Trade Secrets Fair. Have you ever seen a more splendid farm?

The 'barn' at Lion Rock Farm. Imagine having drinks with friends in this space?

Truly Beautiful Book Covers...

Sandy Cull is one of my favourite book designers. I first noticed this Melbourne-based freelancer when she designed Carla Coulson's gorgeous book Italian Joy, which was, literally and aesthetically, a book of sheer joy. Since then, I've started noticing that some of my favourite book covers are Sandy Cull ones. I thought I'd share a few of them with you here, along with some other beautiful covers I've noticed recently. (Yes, the top image does seem to be a real cover. Witty, isn't it?)

While we're chatting about books, designs and covers, I would like to wish everyone who has a book up for an award in either the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs, also known as the ‘Academy Awards’ for books), or the Annual Book Design Awards, all the very best of luck. Winners in both competitions are being announced this week as part of the Sydney Writer's Festival. The ABIAs are being announced at a gala dinner at the Ivy Room in Sydney on Friday May 18, and the Book Design Awards at the Powerhouse Museum on Thursday May 17. My little book Paris: A Guide To The City's Creative Heart, is nominated for 'Illustrated Book of the Year 2012' in both competitions, which is a very great honour indeed. I'm very touched to be considered, but all the congratulations must go to the hard-working editors at Plum and the designer Michelle Mackintosh. My photos were only a very small part of the overall design.

So here, in tribute to the talented book designers out there, including Michelle Mackintosh and Sandy Cull, are some of the prettiest book covers floating around in the market at the moment. If, as they say, you can tell a book by its cover, then these look like being beautiful reads, indeed.