Greetings! Click to read more about me.

  

This photo of my twin brother David and me was taken by my mom, circa 1968 (when we were about 7). How could I not be inspired to be a gardener and artist while waltzing though a purple haze of delphiniums at such a young and impressionable age? And look at those funky eyeglasses I was wearing... aren't those back in style?


Visual inspiration is everywhere! On this blog I will share my everyday inspirations—photos, films, books, art etc. that influence my bella vita—paintings, and my culinary and garden creations.

Things I love, in no particular order: sauntering in my garden with my husband Dan; my cashmere bathrobe; Julia Child; vintage films; not-so-vintage champagne; heaps of garden books; gorgeous gardens; Renaissance art, architecture, and history; Bach's Sonata No. 3 for cello; thick stationery; Harper's Index; Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire; Old Holland oil paints; fireflies; Cheez-itz; Jane Austen; French tulips (white); linen napkins (white); crisp cotton shirts (white, of course!); Mozart's Mass in c minor; my homemade chocolate truffles; Dooney & Bourke handbags; the scent of RL Polo Black on my husband; Pepperidge Farm Goldfish; Cary Grant; Katharine Hepburn; Bette Davis (Y'arnt); my Hermés scarfs (don't ask, don't tell); kale (seriously); Borghese skin care products; John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany; anything my mom cooks; my Santa Maria Novella perfume (bought in Florence!); colorful food; a colorful life, lapsang souchong tea; Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince; monograms; Gérard Mulot pâtisserie, Paris; creative people; summer nights at Tanglewood; The Bach Cello Suites; Jeremy Irons' voice; Agatha Christie's Poirot; Lilly Pulitzer; the Turner Classic Movies channel; rainy days; The Tao of Mr. Rogers; Crane's Beach; being in a foreign country; being home; the song 'You Only Get What You Give' by the New Radicals; Alice in Wonderland; The Wind in the Willows; picnics; James Taylor; iced tea with lemon (preferably Meyer lemon); Spring peepers, Summer crickets, Autumn geese, and Winter silence; the wit of Oscar Wilde; shoes (ahem); anything PBS Masterpiece; particular scents—such as oil paints, lemons, balsam pine pillows, fresh lavender, bread dough rising, fresh vanilla pods, garlic cooking in olive oil, freshly grated nutmeg and peat burning in Ireland. I could keep going you know...

Things I don't love: plastic forks!

So what else makes Diane, Diane? Read the blog and find out.