COFFEE TABLE LIBRARYEastern standard Unless you plan on relocating to Japan and building a new home, Marcia Iwatate and Geeta K. Mehta’s Japan Houses is unlikely to provide ideas about how to decorate your living room. However the striking, almost alien, re-definition of luxury that it presents is domestic titillation for the minimalist mind. Focusing […]
SECRET INGREDIENTTastemakers Dried spices can sit on supermarket shelves for a long time, growing dimmer all the while—and how long has that cayenne been in your pantry? You know it’s supposed to be spicy, right? To perk up elderly spices, toast them briefly in the oven or fry them in oil at the beginning of […]
GROUND RULESPeekaboo Early bulbs tease in and out with varying temperatures. No need to worry: Fickle weather is their middle name. A lesson to us all, they grow as fast as they can when conditions are good and batten down during difficult times. Give liriope its yearly haircut this month, but use a light hand […]
Traffic lights go dead and chaos erupts on area highways today after high winds knock out power for thousands of customers.
Behind closed doors Cleanin’ out the closet is more than a now-sort-of-passé Eminem song. The yearly act of actually purging one’s closet hasn’t gone anywhere, and now—with outdoor tasks at a minimum—is the time to do it. Wouldn’t it be nice to see some empty hangers in the closet? Daunted? If you begin with a […]
Natural walls, from Japan to home As if there wasn’t enough to worry about, the EPA recently concluded that, due to chemicals in our homes, indoor environments are potentially up to 100 times more polluted than outdoors. Hence the proliferation of greener, nontoxic materials, including the so-called earth plasters—clay-based materials troweled onto walls to create […]
Out on a limb Apples are an edible expression of regional climate and adaptability, and there are thousands of varieties to taste! Thanks to cider-loving colonists, Mr. Jefferson’s enthusiasm, and modern day Central Virginia fruit growers, we can enjoy distinctive heritage varieties such as Gold Rush, Razor Russet, Stayman Winesap, Virginia Gold, and Ashmead’s Kernel. […]
Winter work February begins the quest for that hopeful time of year memorialized on innumerable seed packets: “when the ground can be worked.” A shovel full of rich Virginia clay faithfully amended with leaf mold and compost will crumble like cake when the moisture’s just right, but wet soil with meager organic matter renders mud […]
Off the table Question for Gordon Latter at Kane’s Furniture: How can I protect my wooden dining room table when my kids use it for arts and crafts? Answer: Latter tells us there are two main tactics for keeping glues, paints, inks and all manner of liquids from marring the centerpiece of your dining room. […]
Modest at first glance, this little cottage off Rugby Road charms us more the longer we look: There’s that organic-looking stone wall and the big boulder in the driveway, lived with rather than excavated, which connect the house to its site. There’s the sheltered entrance a little below street level, and the classy standing-seam roof. […]