Orchids (always white) on the dining table
Luxury lifestyle is actually simple. It is what a girl gets when she wants it, or did not know she wanted it. This time a week ago I was checking into the fabulous ‘new’ Rosewood Hotel Georgia, where the original 1927 wood panelling of the lobby is highlighted by modern art, the lovely pearls the women on front desk wear with their grey suits, and by lots of displays of white orchids.
Yes, orchids must always be white. I always have white orchids on my own dining table back home – here they are shown to advantage against my lush, theatrical curtains and my own original panelling, 1842 vintage.
The must-read for anyone over 20
Luxury lifestyle is also feeding the mind. Take the book Younger Next Year for Women (Live Strong, Fit and Sexy – Until You’re 80 and Beyond). It seemed all my Vancouver friends were reading the guys’ best-selling version.
This one is also by an eternally young septuagenarian, Chris Cowley, and his much-younger doctor, Henry S. Lodge.
The forward is by Gail Sheehy, who met them when she was researching Sex and the Seasoned Woman. Of Younger Next Year, she says ‘Jump in for the rest of your life’.
Younger Next Year is totally compelling, with lots of family, friends and fun. The one key word is exercise. And that is mantra when I am home from a trip.
Walking in the rain through growing corn in 'Mrs Fox Field'
Off-bike, propping up a tree in a forest of heather
Just before leaving for Vancouver I went walking in the rain through the edges of a corn field near my home. Just after arriving back home, I went cycling in an area of open forest that we call ‘Scandinavia’. The heather at this time of year is breathtaking, and the sky overhead was blue.
