Of all the photos that have filled our papers and screens of the Queen, I can’t help but love this one taken by Patrick Lichfield in 1971. Inspiration!
Don’t you love the cover of the new Royal Academy magazine by Grayson Perry? A wry and gentle commentary on the demographic, tastes and products of the RA’s Summer Exhibition visitor̷...
Don’t you love this time of year? And when summer finally arrived—with a brilliantly hot, sparkling week—the garden, like the countryside, burst into life. I’ve been missing Dorset so muc...
We know this to be true, don’t we? The smallest details matter. This is as true of one of our architecture projects: the architrave around a door, or the design of a chimney piece, as it is in ...
It was rather nice to get recommendations, posted both here and on twitter, for the better-looking Moscow. Now I look forward to a next visit and some proper exploration. In doing a bit of reading ar...
Just when you think you’ve seen enough weirdness to last a lifetime, Moscow would get weirder. Ruth, from the office, and I, went for a 36 hour trip to meet our new clients for whom we’re...
“But you enjoy blogging” a friend said to me this evening. “Well I do, but it’s hard to keep up when there’s so much to blog about, and no time to write”. ThatR...
We’re getting very excited about the exhibition of new works by Ed Kluz next week! Ed has kindly sent me a few photographs showing him at work in the Studio recently, and of several of the draw...
I am sitting writing this at the end of a fantastic day at the end of a fantastic week in the perfect lakes: an area that I have longed to visit for years and have only driven past en route to or fro...
In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve got a bit of a thing for black tulips. Queen of the Night, Black Parrot, Black Hero. Well, to be honest, for all tulips of all colours. As a result things...
Over here at Ben P towers, we’re obviously great supporters of The Royal Family in all their glory, as you will have learned from previous posts: Prince Philip chic, anyone? Or Princess Anne ch...
The garden’s gone a bit bonkers in my absence in Scotland last weekend. I’m not sure if it is super-happy-exuberant or bordering on municipal authority flowerbed, but the tulips are comin...
I don’t know what it is about Easter time and the fact that I’m sitting in my kitchen in Dorset FREEZING. What happened to the balmy spring? Hello?!? Well anyway it is that time of year. ...
I got back from Inverness on Monday night, after a fantastic, head-spinning day picking paint colours and making plans for the huge, romantic castle that I am beginning to help with a bit, in the Hig...
Do you follow one of my favourite websites, The Selby is in your Place? I’m sure you already do, but if you don’t, have a little browse. Well anyway, those happy people at The Selby have...
One of the things which makes me happiest, I think, is being able to combine life in the country and in London. From time to time I get worried about headlines like “SECOND HOMES CRISIS HITS DO...
It’s been a busy two days in the office and I haven’t had time to post a few photographs since getting back from Dorset. It was a sparkling happy weekend of sunshine and showers; I’...
What’s one of the most inspiring things you can do? Change your colours. As many of you know, we recently did a bit of a revamp in the shop, which at the back is now a glorious Indian Yellow th...
A little while ago, back last autumn, I took a walk across London on a sparkling October day. I called that post London, beautiful city. A moment when I, for one, had a look again at this fantastic ...
I’ve been in Scotland, back up in the Moray Firth for a few very happy days working on our architectural project there – shaping the early development of a new town near the coast just to...
Our new look home page. The website elves (well, specifically, our brilliant web designer Joe Smalley) have been hard at work making a few tweaks which hopefully will make it a little easier and more...
It was the sort of day in Dorset that you dream of. We woke to clear, brilliant sunshine and after breakfast went down to the sea, for a walk on Chesil beach. The sun was remarkable, beating hot, and...
Don’t you love the perfect simplicity of this advertisement, which I found on a little browse around Google this morning? (And which came from a rather extraordinary, very simple, one page web...
A tiny bunch of flowers for the Sunday lunch table; will you look at how beautiful the crocus and snowdrops are? But what I really wanted to write about this weekend was a book, which has been a bit ...
It was a beautiful weekend in Dorset. It feels like a little while since I’ve been at the Old Parsonage, and towards the end of last week we were getting busier and busier in the office. So,ver...
What’s on your coffee table right now? A few weeks ago my friend Will produced a ticket to the Hockney exhibition. It was interesting to see (noting, I have to say, my friend Chris’s comm...
Don’t you love quiet weekends in London? If you are anything like me you anticipated the snowfall last night with a little hint of childlike excitement. Is it, perhaps, the muffled silence of ...
“A few people are worried you’re working too hard” said the text message from my friend Ben. Hmmmm, I thought. Okay. They have a point. Except that if you’re quite as busy as ...
One of the advantages of living in the tiniest flat in London is that you don’t have to go very far for things. I tumble out of bed early and in two footsteps I am making a cup of tea. Having p...
Did you see their animated bookshop posted by Simon Lewis over at all things considered? If not, I think you might love these films. The third really made me smile! The Joy of Books: Organising the ...
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