VT (for all of my design-obsessed peeps)

imagesourceunknown Peeps Sometimes you move away, having experienced a change of heart, or mind.  Whether temporary, or at times indefinitely permanent, we all change, or should strive for change, as, or since, we've now come to realize that this is the only constant in life.  Wallpaper falls in and out of fashion; brass is passed over in favor of brushed nickel, and the formal dining room, formal only in the sense that it is reserved exclusively for the purpose of dining with some degree of ceremony or ritual, is now under attack by developers, architects, and builders who, in keeping with the mode for informality, celebrate and espouse the open layout kitchen/breakfast room where adults perch precariously atop bar-stools at a counter-high island-top, all this in a manner best reserved solely for limber adolescents or the choreographed movements of a seductive dance-troupe in a music-video suitable for late, late night viewing.  Modern is an approach, not an a...

Peeps, This Kent, Connecticut garden appears unequaled in appropriateness (at least to my now weary eyes).  Designer Robert Couturier sets the stage for magical evening strolls or joyous summer fetes through the use of an inviting lawn, a backdrop  filled with simple evergreen shapes and accents provided by antique statuary,   Today, while driving through parts best left unnamed, I couldn't help but notice azaleas bushes crafted into the shapes of building blocks; nandinas resembling sad pyramids, and rhododendrons somewhat reminiscent of Snooki's previous bouffant which should have photo-shopped out (or exhibited in a gallery devoted to modern horrors).  The verdict is still pending on the persons responsible for these transgressions against nature; are the landscaping crews who thrill at the approximation of monstrous machismo, while handling electric clippers and cutters in the style of Leatherface or Dexter, guilty?  Or at fault are the d...