a little Southern something

a new book for the editors of Garden and Gun...

The Southerner's Handbook

My brother dropped this little blue book into my hands last weekend-a charming cover, I read down-"by the editors of Garden and Gun." 

...good enough for me.

 It happens to be my favorite magazine-I am constantly trying to think of a story I can send them that would be worthy of publication. 

Nothing yet.

Suggestions?

This is a compilation of sorts-their best stories from the magazine & good 'ole new practical advice 'bout the South-but don't throw any of your old issues out-as I'm want to do with some magazine that do books.

The editor in chief of Garden and Gun, David DiBenedetto writes a beautiful introduction to the book-worth it's purchase alone.There should be a Mr Gerken in everyone's life wherever one lives. Fortunately, I had lots of them in the form of neighbors and especially relatives.

The book's first pages quote Clyde Edgerton: 

"Because I was born in the South, I'm a Southerenr, 

If I had been born in the North, the West, or the Central Plains, I would be just a human being."

I understand.

There've recently been a rash of comments creeping up on little augury like Kudzu.  

What?

I've just interviewed one of our well known sons (more to come on that lucky break)

I've been riled up by another blogger's unreasonable phobias of the South, 

just read about how Britain flocked to GWTW when it came out during WW II, 

and found out how the South is still perceived today through that movie's lens, and on and on. 

What's it all mean? 

The South will always hold an Allure, and a Distaste.

but the book holds a Delight.

There are many, many things in the book as a sixth generation Southerner-I haven't a clue about.

I rarely even say ya'll. 

I've never fried chicken-but will take a look into a recipe for great deviled eggs-though I always improvise when I make mine, Grannie did too.

Don't have a home bar-nor do I mix a good cocktail. I improvise there too, but there is a story about a still and moonshine back in the family lore.

Never even held a Gun like my grandfather did (He was from Maryland)-but I've plenty of callouses from a Garden spade-another inheritance, spade & callouses.

SO-I'm sure to learn something from the book, 

Ya'll too.

More about the book at where else-Garden and Gun hereand here

where he lived

.

Rowan Oak

the home of novelist William Faulkner, 

in Garden & Gun, here

in the pink, Faulkner at left, with Grover Van Devender at Farmington Hunt Club, Charlottesville, VA, 1960. 

(Photograph by George Barkley,the Faulkner Papers Photograph Collection, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library)

office with bed

 the plot of The Fable lines the walls of the room preserved with shellac

 from Apartment Therapy

a smoke & stretch

outside Rowan Oak

photograph by Henri Cartier Bresson, 1947.

.

Laura's BLISS

.

Laura at her shop CAPITOL

I emailed Laura to see if she would grace the pages of little augury with a Summer Chat- a few days later I heard from the her. She was in Paris and made her apologies for not getting back to me immediately- that seems to be Laura- an ever the charming, gracious woman that just happens to have a razor sharp bead on fashion. Her shop CAPITOL and her home in Charlotte have been widely touted in magazines, there is a long list, and countless blogs. It's no fluke. This Southerner has a staying power one might expect from a hard driving executive. Whatever drives Laura- it is charged with pure charm that no amount of cotillion classes could ever confer.

so I asked Laura-What were you doing in Paris?

LVP
I was invited by the French Federation of Pret A Porter for a conference and also to see the Pre-collections.

What do you love most about the South? 

LVP
A tomato sandwich made with homemade mayonnaise, Bunny Bread and a super-ripe Hillbilly Flame tomato from my garden with an icy bottled Coke…I’m not sure if that’s Southern, but it sure feels like home.

"Yet again I had recalled the taste of a bit of madeleine dunked in a linden-flower tea which my aunt used to give me (although I did not yet know and must long await the discovery of why this memory made me so happy)"

PROUST

Perfection I'd say,I’ve even written about the Proustian effects of eating a tomato sandwich- funny that does it for me too. Pure simple ecstasy! 

LAURA AT HOME

How do you balance your work schedule with motherhood?

photograph by Chris Edwards

LVP

I’m not sure that you can ever really balance, you can just try really hard…it helps to have a great husband.

photograph by Chris Edwards

What is your favorite room in your home? 

LVP

I love a window over the kitchen sink that looks out onto my out of control garden.

To sit in front of it with my family during breakfast with a cappuccino and the NYT crossword puzzle is my Bliss. 

photograph by Chris Edwards

photograph by Chris Edwards

Your favorite piece of Art at home? 

LVP

My Sally Mann photographs.

 

Sally Mann is a favorite of mine too.Her work defies description. 
What are a few of the pieces you have in your collection?

LVP

I have pieces from Immediate Family, Deep South, and Still Time – all gifts from my husband.

What artist’s work would you like to own above all others? 

LVP

Sally Mann and Cy Twombly…I must have a thing for Lexington, VA.

 Scenes from Twombly's Rome-photographed by HORST

When you have “down time” what is your favorite thing to do?

from my visit to CAPITOL Fall 2010

LVP

Cook for my family.  I am a failed painter, so I think I feel a little creative success when I cook…I know very quickly whether I’ve made something spectacular or something terrible.

one of Laura's Summer Remedies

 

Salty Spicy Sriracha Bloody Mary

 

 2 ounces vodka
4 ounces tomato juice
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce olive juice
1/4 teaspoon horseradish
2 pinches celery salt
3 dashes sriracha sauce
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce

Combine ingredients with ice (stir, don't shake) and garnish with pickled okra. recipe from laura's blog at CAPITOL

What about the creative success when you cook- What is your favorite thing to cook & do you follow recipes to the letter or find yourself improvising? Cooking risks- as it were! 

"A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness." Elsa Schiaparelli

LVP

I can ONLY improvise…
I am literally the worst baker on earth, because everything has to be exact (and you can’t really taste along the way, it seems.)  

My favorite thing to cook is a full Sunday supper with cocktails…most recently it’s Gin Rickeys, chilled Ambrosia canteloupe soup with jalepenos and basil, Julia Reed’s roast lemon chicken, cucumbers and tomatoes from my garden, zucchini and herb casserole and homemade salted caramel ice cream.  
I like a whole production.


this must be the recipe of Julia Reed's Laura made-taken from JR's PICNIC feature in the NY TIMES

Elizabeth Frink's Roast Lemon Chicken

(Adapted from ''The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook'')
1 3-pound chicken
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 lemons
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh parsley.
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the chicken in a large baking dish and season inside and out with salt and pepper. Rub the peel of one of the lemons over the outside of the chicken. Then cut the lemon into 8 pieces and squeeze juice over and into the chicken. Put the lemon pieces inside the chicken along with the garlic cloves. In a small pan, melt the butter in the olive oil and pour on top and inside the chicken. Tie the legs together with kitchen string.
2. Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the leg registers 180 degrees, basting every 15 minutes with pan juices. Half an hour before taking the chicken out, pour the juice from the second lemon over the chicken and sprinkle with parsley.

"A good dinner is of great importance to good talk. One cannot think well, 

love well, 

sleep well, 

if one has not dined well." 

Virginia Woolf

What are  your reading this Summer?

LVP

I always have a few books going…I still haven’t finished Life by Keith Richards.  Also, Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra, and The Last Warner Woman by Kei Miller.

Did you get that Lagato Romagnolo puppy for Christmas?

LVP
Oh my gosh…Sadly, no!  But Santa brought my daughter the most amazing creature…a Siberian kitten.  She is divine and hilarious and a puff of pure joy. Definitely the most puppy-like kitten I’ve ever met (although no truffles.) 

Cats have tremendous personalities! 
Who got to name the cat?


LVP

Fifi…She started out being "Pepperpot Sugarplum," and pretty quickly became just Pep.

fifi and pep in their respective hideaways

photograph by Chris Edwards,left.PEP at right from LVP

LAURA AT HOME & AT WORK

photograph from Garden and Gun

Your atmosphere at CAPITOL is so inviting. It must bring visitors in as well as shoppers. The Patrick Blanc vertical garden is a must see ! 
Do you have people calling and stopping in just to see the wall?

from Garden & Gun photographed by Stacey Haines

LVP
All the time.  It has been an extraordinary addition to all of our lives, honestly.  To be able to work around a piece of Patrick’s work and to be able to be enveloped by such indigenous beauty is inspiring every day.  It is a gift that I really didn’t anticipate when Perry and I decided to include the piece in our store. We had worked for 10 years in a space with no windows and I didn’t realize what life would be like with this garden.  It has changed my life.

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree” Emily Bronte

 CAPITOL's Vertical Garden, photographs from my fall visit

“I was very excited to do the project because the biology is incredible in the South,” Blanc says. “I was able to work with species that hadn’t been available to me before.” But no one was more enthusiastic about the collaboration than Vinroot Poole. “I was so flattered that he agreed to do a project in my hometown and so proud that we were able to build it for Charlotte,” she says. from Garden & Gun

Fashion and interior design overlap so much. Your shop is a perfect example. 
Who did the design work in the shop? 

LVP

My husband and Barrie Benson are great collaborators.  He has the best taste of anyone I know and he and Barrie really push each other.  I’m crazy for her and her sense of Southern-ness. 

Do you expect your style to continue to evolve in fashion and in interiors?

LVP

I hope so!  I think if you are not learning and listening and evolving then you are dying, no? 
Being stagnant is the end of the world to me.

 Laura's style file

in Lanvin, Celine and very vintage Leonard

far right Bill Cunningham caught Laura at Fashion Week September 2010

Would you be surprised to find yourself clearing out everything in 20 years and embracing a completely different style?

LVP

Yes – I am so sentimental about my childhood and really about my whole journey. 
I think every part of what you’ve seen, heard, touched, smelled, experienced…every person that you’ve met along the way makes you who you are and informs your style and taste.

I couldn't agree more about family and roots. 
Did someone in your family particularly inspire you as a child? 
What are a few special pieces that were passed down to you? 

LVP

Oh, gosh…everyone in my family inspires me.  I feel totally inadequate when I’m around my family because they are all such adventurers and lovers of life…I treasure anything that reminds me of a journey, whether it is from an actual trip or one I wish I could have taken.  Some of my most treasured pieces are actually kitchen utensils of my grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Certainly being able to use their silver and china is special, but it feels particularly intimate to use my great-grandmother’s tea strainer  or lemon juicer from the turn of the century.

"To be happy--one must find one's bliss." Gloria Vanderbilt

 

So many people tire of their surroundings. Do you find yourself wanting to redecorate often?

LVP

I live with an architect, so I am resigned to the fact that any of our spaces are a perpetual work in progress.  It would probably drive most people nuts, but I’m used to it.

I know you sell diptyque candles in the shop. 
What are your favorite scents and do your favorites change from season to season? 

LVP

I adore Santal and Cypress, every time of year. 

 

What is your favorite perfume?

LVP

Aqua di Parma’s Arancia di Capri.  

In the fall I wear a pure Anatolian rose oil that I got in Istanbul.

LAURA AT WORK

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.” 

Joseph Campbell

 

portrait Laura by photographer Stacey Haines

What is your favorite summer “go to” look?

LVP

I love a men’s crisp white Charvet shirt.  

My poor husband has his closet pilfered constantly.

You are known for finding those special things to offer at Capitol-whether it is wearable or not. What is in your shop now that you love that can’t be worn? 

LVP
Madeline Weinrib’s new bright, almost neon pillows, Diptyque’s vanilla-rose scented special edition candle and Celine’s bright French blue box bag. Also the book from the Met’s McQueen exhibition, Savage Beauty. 

Madeline Weinrib's pillows are seen throughout the shop

What are you anticipating to be your personal favorite pieces to wear this fall? 

LVP I’m excited about Gregory Parkinson 

Rue de Mail

Meadham Kirchhoff, Proenza Schouler, 
 & Rodarte.  

"Capitol has things that literally no other shop in America has,” says Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte

Do you encourage your clients to take risks when dressing?

SUMMER looks at CAPITOL

 

LVP
Definitely.  I think that’s my job!  I always want the client to look and feel like herself, (only better),

"I think always evolving and changing is part of that, 

while keeping the core of your taste and personal history close to you."

photograph of LVP from the blog ISTOCK

Who has been your personal style role model? 
Who in today’s fashion world has it heads above the rest of the pack?

LVP

I love writers and editors…Sally Singer, Virginie Mouzat, Grace Coddington, and Emanuelle Alt.  

the style of Virginie Mouzat

top photograph from Vogue.com 

I question the overuse of the word CHIC in today’s lexicon. 
How do you define it and Who really has it? 

LVP

Sofia Coppola.  She always looks natural and confident, and she always looks like herself.  Nothing is forced.   

"Let’s face it…looking uncomfortable in your clothes, not to mention in your skin, is not chic!"

Laura and Perry Poole's latest cover this Spring was Charlotte's Home & Garden magazine. 
It must be all in a day's work - and play for the pair. 

Laura's comment on Chic is something anyone seeking fulfillment-whether it be family or fame or fashion should heed---being comfortable in your clothes makes for CHIC.
Being comfortable in your own skin-makes for Bliss.

laura's hot weather cure alls on her blog here
proust and tomato sandwiches here sally mann on pbs.org here 
take the tour, photographs of the Poole home via Charlotte HOME & GARDEN here
video of Capitol's vertical garden here 
my visit to Capitol Fall 2010 here
more Coppola style at the NYTIMES here
other photographs from the Poole home from the Domino archives
CAPITOL website here
ALL IMAGES HAVE BEEN LINKED ABOVE OR IN THEIR DESCRIPTIONS


.

gorgeous Laura

.
& her Capitol garden.

photograph by Stacey Van Berkel-Haines

from Garden and Gun magazine

read about Laura and how her garden grows here

read my Capitol and Duquette story here

.

Giving Garden & Gun OR touting the South

.
.

One of my favourite magazines to come out in the past year or two is GARDEN &  GUN. It brings so much of the Southern aesthetic to Southerners, curious Northerners-& humour aside- honestly, anyone who appreciates tradition with a SLANT (emphasis on the slant). All the pretty photographs are there, the good writing- but it is the top notch substance that  makes GARDEN & GUN special.

When the magazine first appeared on a clients coffee table- my eyes and hands went right to it. Though I am certain my client was saying something immensely important-It went something like this "blah blah blah."
I was distracted.
THAT Magazine?
I reached.
I needed to see what was inside- I needed to subscribe.

Several months later- I mention the magazine to a friend- her reply went something like this "I can't believe You have already subscribed to that magazine? I thought I would beat you to it and sent you a subscription."
Oh well- You'll have to think of something else.

Since its inception some pretty great endorsements and honours have come GARDEN & GUNS way.  It has buzzed about the internet. Its title? All the info is out there in the blog annals.

Last year I sent an old (in the sense that we have known each other since grade 1) friend and her husband a gift subscription for Christmas. When I mentioned it-Her comment went something like this-" I saw a copy in my dentist's office-It looks great." I know she loves it- how could it miss. She lives smack dab in Virginia hunt country.

One of my friend's appeared in the magazine as one of 50 people that make us proud in the feature BEST OF THE NEW SOUTH.

The magazine has had its share of struggles. It has been the year of magazines demise. You miss them too. GARDEN & GUN can't slip away. It would be a doggone shame! One funny story about the magazine's placement in a noted book chain store- the Magazine was shelved with the Guns and Ammo publications. Funny-but sad too. Obviously said store does not know or understand its content.

This from the magazine's NEWSLETTER just Friday-

Hanging Tough

Dear G&G Friends, Fans, Subscribers, and Club Members,
I don’t have to tell you that this has been a tough year for magazines and media companies. We have seen some great ones go down, including Gourmet and Southern Accents, among others. But we have built something special at Garden & Gun, and we’ve been determined to weather this financial storm by being nimble, creative, and aggressive in securing our future, and in continuing to deliver this great publication. 
To help shore up our business for 2010 and beyond, we recently made the difficult decision to skip our October/November issue. This was a painful thing for the G&G team, and we hate to disappoint you, our loyal subscribers. However, please rest assured that you will receive the full number of copies you ordered when you subscribed or joined one of our club levels. (We will handle that for you, so no need to call our customer service.) And know this: We will never compromise on the quality of the writing, the photography, or the beautiful paper that Garden & Gun is printed on.
The next issue you receive will be a December 2009/January 2010 issue (above, right) that will be mailed to subscribers in late November (and that will appear on newsstands December 8). It’s an issue we’re very proud of, and it will be loaded with great writing, great photography, and timely content, including a special Southern holiday gift guide. In 2010, you (subscribers and club members) will receive a full run of six issues. And if you have joined the Garden & Gun Club at any level, you will receive all of the benefits and privileges for which you signed up.
We hope you understand the necessary steps we’ve taken to move into 2010 in a strong position, and we trust you’ll stay with us as we strive to capture the Soul of the New South in print, on the Web, and through an expanding array of auctions and events. Thank you for believing in the mission of Garden & Gun, and for your commitment to preserving the best of Southern culture.
Rebecca Wesson Darwin
President and Publisher


I applaud their decision. I can not say enough good things about this magazine. Along with the magazine- the GARDEN AND GUN website is chock full of content: Two great blogs-Belle Decor and Big Bad Chef , podcasts, videos, magazine articles and archives & amazing Luxury Auctions. I know this magazine will survive.

It could not miss as a surprise gift subscription in any friend's mailbox. I am giving it to a list of friends.Do the same.

& one more thing-here's a story about Chapel Hill, just down the road a piece.
& another thing- 100 things you simply must eat before you die

here are a few takes on the mag from fellow bloggers
Cote de Texas
Lucindaville
An Aesthete's Lament

.