Click on the photo to see it in the note cards/prints gallery.This hardy little shack amidst rolling dunes, beach plums, and a cool mist transfixes me. It’s the star of Cynthia Huntington’s memoir The Salt House which I reviewed here. The weathered shingles, low-slope shed roof, and humble window pair speak of modest efficiency, purposeful living, and an independent spirit in conversation with an awesome landscape. I had planned to hike to this spot, but was warned by Provincetown locals that such a trip might prove more arduous than expected. So my group of fellow sight-seers found comfortable transport with Art’s Dune Tours. Standing on a dune not far from the shack, I can only imagine the mystery of a life embedded in the rhythms of the National Seashore. Someday I hope to do more than merely imagine it.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

Training trees to grow in one plane, as an espalier, appeals to me. I am likewise enamored of topiaries. I was married in a topiary garden, and I periodically bring home a miniature, potted myrtle or rosemary topiary that I simply can’t resist. The art of shaping natural material to achieve a desired form is, in many ways, akin to architecture. This espaliered dwarf pear tree beautifully enhances the pale, blue-green backdrop of what I assume is an infilled, barn-door opening. It’s but one of many captivating garden features that I discovered at a Gloucester property last weekend during the North Shore Open Day, a program organized by The Garden Conservancy. Visit their website to find the Open Days Program schedule in your neck of the woods. I was glad I did.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

Click on the photo to see it in the note cards/prints gallery.Weaving a variety of materials, textures, and colors together, this patio pattern is a delight. The regular geometry of the flat bricks beautifully contrasts the rounded, irregular stones that infill in between. The layout cleverly combines bricks that are side-by-side, in rows of running-bond, and strips of herringbone. The soft burst of green in the mounded planting accents the masonry composition with life. The green works well with the complementary red of the brick, and both benefit from the contrasting cool, blue-grey puddles of river rock. With a little imagination, simple materials can be arranged to create a dynamic hardscape carpet underfoot.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

The Laws of Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life by John Maeda

As seen through the lessons gleaned from

My Stroke of Insight, a Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.

It’s serendipity that I read these two books back to back. Though their subject matters are divergent, they both spoke to me about the same thing: that we, as designers and individuals, have the capacity to perceive the complex with sublime simplicity, and to achieve the rewards of balance in our chosen fields and lives.

Curiously, the similarity between these books begins with appearances. Their covers are remarkably alike, both white with the title centered at the top, the author’s name centered at the bottom, and an illustration space in between. On Maeda’s, the primary image has an almost Spirograph look about it, which I took to represent the balanced middle, testing boundaries and swirling back toward the middle again. The primary circular graphic appears to be bouncing off the page to the right, while a smaller circular graphic comes into the frame, higher up and to the left, suggesting a steady stream of burgeoning ideas in development. Taylor’s cover illustration, a stained-glass representation that she made of the brain, rests on her book’s central axis. This supports her intention of sharing the beauty and clarity of the brain in balance. (See Taylor's TED talk here.) 

Maeda’s book defines nine (plus “the one”) laws of simplicity that can be applied to design, technology, business, and life. They are at once universal and specific. Since Maeda suggests that balance is vital to the laws of simplicity, I thought it would be fun to explore his laws from a left-brain/right-brain point of view, exercising my new understanding of the brain thanks to Taylor’s book. My aim was to discover if the laws of simplicity themselves represent the balance required to successfully enact them. Is simplicity a matter of left-brain or right-brain dominance, or the result of each working in balance?

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This year’s South End Garden Tour in Boston is fast approaching. Last year I sampled the tour on a balmy summer afternoon with a friend. There will be different gardens to explore in the upcoming tour, but I thought revisiting last year’s highlights might inspire you to check out the event on Saturday, June 21.

I went on the tour in large part to get a better look at the pedestrian-friendly neighborhood of nineteenth century, brick, row houses, with their trademark stone stoops and wrought iron balustrades. I’d heard that it’s a diverse district populated by creative folks, so the varied and imaginative pocket gardens tucked within it, did not disappoint.

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