With a loo dating back 700 years, and diamond encrusted insects pinned to stone walls, Roberto Baciocchi’s Tuscan home is popping with wonder and whimsy. Gio Ponti chairs, vintage velvet sofas and graphic 80’s rugs all set within a beautifully restored 18th century house make for a surreal experience, indeed. It’s the wall colours –– ochre, terracotta and sage green –– that I love most. The painted art (below, and throughout) is so clever and unique.

I rode the subway yesterday for the first time in two years. I handed over my token at Spadina station, as I have a million times before, and walked down the escalator to catch my northbound train. I didn’t sit, but then again, I rarely do. My mum says that many Londoners on public transit defy mask rules. My train was filled with them. Surgical ones, cloth ones, butterflies, flowers and gingham. I never knew the trains were built in Thunder Bay. I noticed long, high-gloss acrylic nails on at least three other riders. And more people were reading books than staring into their phones. As we neared Davisville station, I thought about what lovely respite above ground corridors are, and how much I enjoy train travel. Today my daughter rides the subway on her own for the first time. Seven stops, three changes. I’m inside out at the thought. I’m excited for her, too. Oh, the places she’ll go.

Tea sandwiches are the best sandwiches.

Richard Avedon and Sophia Loren, 1966.

Found nature in origami boxes made from old books.

Menno Aden’s aerial room shots.

Maids of honour at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1953.

It’s been a big week, Toronto. My heart swelled as I watched kids making their way to school on bikes and skateboards. Parents gathered with coffee cups and backpacks to breath a collective sigh of relief. Hope and gratitude filled the crisp September air. It’s been a big week, Toronto. Let’s keep this spirit alive.

The surrealist paintings of Gertrude Abercrombie.

Crip and colourful porcelain pottery from The Granite.

“Be faithful to your own taste, because nothing you really like is ever out of style.” The work of Interior decorator, Billy Baldwin.

Pistachio, apricot and orange blossom cake.

Victor M. Alonso’s seascapes.

Sarolta Gyoker’s trees.

Lynette Yiadon-Boakye’s imaginary portraits.

Bosco Soldi‘s highly textured –– he paints with a mix of  sawdust, pigment, water and glue –– monochromatic canvases.

Cottage life.

Nigel Slater’s orecchiette and broad beans.

Martin Bogren’s glorious ocean scenes.

I love those summer weeks when we wake to thunder and lightning, only to eat lunch under a bright blue sky. By 5 p.m. the sky is bruised again, and the rain comes down for long enough to wash the chalk art off the pavement. When evening sets in, our gardens are lush and lilac-hued; we breathe in that beautiful petrichor like it’s a prayer. Drizzle, sun, deluge, thunder, drizzle, sun, lightning, deluge, sun. A million moods in a day. A million moods in a week.

Etchings by British landscape artist, PHIL GREENWOOD.

A portrait of Cy Twombly in his studio by UGO MULAS.

WHITTEN ARCHITECTS‘ New England homes.

Asparagus, feta, lemon and dill.

Norwegian designer, KRISTINE FIVE MELVAER’S boldly patterned blankets.

Ceramic artist, FREYA BRAMBLE CARTER’S singing stripes.

Trays of Baklava.

The weathered stone walls at Casa Mina.

Rose is one of my favourite scents, especially when it’s peppered with something that breaks its sweetness. This beautiful film, created by fragrance house, La Labo, whisks us away to the small town of Fayence, just outside of Grasse, where the Rosa Centifolia (otherwise known as the Rose of May) is grown. It is the rarest, most fragrant rose in the world and can only be harvested at dawn. Plucking the flowers is an exercise in patience, sensitivity and intuition. “You have to trust your senses, and your ability to find the right moment,” says one of the rose farmers. “It’s like they are talking to me.” Anytime we’re able to see the many steps to creating something, the time and work, and the passion and reverence of the people involved, we earn a greater appreciation for the end product. Just imagine all those Rosa Centifolias distilled into a small bottle of olfactory heaven.