There was a house in the Fall 2010 issue of Country Home magazine that I was besotted with and saved the pages in my Autumn idea file. The house belongs to Katherine Whiteside, garden author.
The kitchen has been pinned many times on Pinterest and it drives me crazy that there weren't more pictures of it other than the one on the right, above, and a closeup of a cupboard below on right.
It must be a small kitchen as Katherine is quoted as saying, "A chef once complimented me by telling me I must be a good cook because I didn't need a lot of counter space."
As Katherine also is co-author with Robert Arbor of one of my favorite cookbooks, Joie De Vivre, I suspect she is indeed a very good cook.
There are so many things I love in Katherine's house and ten years have not dimmed my love of it. Her reading corner, left above, with it's gallery of paintings has a south facing window where she forces bulbs in winter. She has a book called, forcing, etc. that I would love to have.
Those pumpkin colored walls? I adore them! They remind me of the orange I painted my eldest son's bedroom when he was about five. I have a picture somewhere, must find it. Katherine says that she painted the rooms the colors of sunrise and sunset colors that are so beautiful where she lives and because they compliment complexions.
I am so enamored of her window with the gourds and glass pieces. I have a few big gourds on the front porch and am thinking about bringing them inside so I can enjoy them more. The glass pieces remind me of the top of the vintage cabinets in our son and daughter-in-law's house where she has a gorgeous display of clear glass pieces.
Katherine had been an organic gardener for over 25 years at the time the article was published.
I have to admit that this is one of the few houses I've seen in magazines that I could move in and be happy as a tick on a fat dog.
Touches of orange always make me happy and I was thrilled when I glimpsed a flash of orange outside our kitchen window this morning, snapping a series of pictures, only one of which was not too blurry to recognize as a late visiting monarch butterfly.
I hope he/she catches up with the others migrating so far away. Maybe the latest hurricane is throwing them off course. They're so fragile it is a wonder they ever make it to southwestern Mexico. One of God's many miracles.
