LEISURE LETTER Nº5
Editor of D&D’s Sunday Paper
LEAFY GREENS, HERBACEOUS THINGS AND OTHER SUCH BALMS FOR SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER.
We always want what we can't have. That's why today's recommendations are an ode to things that grow. Leafy greens. Herbaceous things. Signs of life in general. Because everything in Brooklyn is frozen and dead, and that's where I presently live.
First up is D&D's new fern print, for example: all dark, moody blues with swoopy, golden fern leaves. It's tropical and opulent. If the Howie is a beach day, the Fern is a slinky evening by the pool, where the lights are low and the sky is dark and the water is the same temperature as the air.
BTW: QUILTS! ARE! FULLY! A! THING! AGAIN! Quilts, yes. The sort your nana likes. I genuflect mostly towards the ones made by Lisa Corti, patron saint of chic Italian things, but if push came to shove, I'd sell my own mother for this this rosy guy, or this silky green number too, come. to think of it. Between that and what could only be described my own personal scatter cushion renaissance, I have more ideas than beds.
Anyway. If the theme is green, it’d be rude not to mention Dyptique’s Philosykos - a study of the fig tree, from root to milky sap. But if you hate perfume (...weird) but fear not! This guy does too, and has made one that smells of spring - flowers, green shoots, wet dirt and a bit of moss, anyway. How does one distill that sort of thing? I am in awe.
There's also, THIS candle, made by local coffee-and-plant shop, smells more like a tomato garden than a tomato garden. basil and berries and soil that’s been rained on.
Speaking of vegetable gardens, this book, which is set in the sort of rambling, dilapidated country house you'd find in a Curtis rom-com, makes me want one. So that I can do with fresh vegetables the sort of breathtaking things that Hetty McKinnon does with fresh vegetables. If you’re looking for something to cook today, look no further than this. And if you have spent all your money on glamorous quilts, it's nice to know that cabbage does not have to be boring either. (Nor do dried herbs, according to these handsomely packaged ones.) If you feel like being particularly iconic, serve your cabbage on this cabbage plate.
And if you like things that taste good, pair it with this wine, Honey and cloves and the sort of swollen, explosive apricots that must be eaten over the sink. The end bit (wait for it!) tastes like actual toasted bread. How? Lord knows. I'll forever be gobsmacked. If I was confined to just one wine for the rest of my life, it would be this one.
Anyway, Happy Sunday !
SUNDAY UNIFORM SUGGESTIONS
