We met a kid drumming to the setting sun over Portuguese Beach Craving some time out of time to relax and refresh, we traipsed up the coast, rambled along riparian paths of redwood and red alder to remote gulches and beaches, snoozing, snacking and staring into the waves. We had a Now Day, checked our […]
Category Archives: bioregion/vernacular
Milling the Pecan Tree
My friend Sean Gavin mills logs on site with his portable Wood-Mizer I spent an action-packed weekend milling my first tree, a mature pecan (Carya Illinoensis) that grew in the sandy soil of a nearby horse pasture. The tree was beginning to die and had been dropping large branches, threatening the safety of the horses. […]
Fog Studies 1
Fog Study 1 Fog Study 2 Fog Study 3 Fog Study 4 Sand Pattern 1 Sand Pattern 2 Apart from the redwoods, who loom at silent attention, the fog is the most distinguishing feature of our stretch of coastline. I think of the fog as redwood’s muse, a gargantuan creature, shy but willful, overly self-conscious, […]
Comparative Utopias
I love the patterns that emerge on my chopping block I think we can all agree that over the past decade, since the publication of Dwell Magazine and the increasing ubiquity of companies like Design Within Reach in the marketplace, mid-century modernism has emerged as the default style for design-savvy Americans. This observation may be […]
Snyder’s Garage
Snyder’s Garage, Nederland, Colorado I’m excited to be reconnecting with my old pals Mike High and George Elvin over a new project we’re teaming up on in Nederland, Colorado. It’s been 25 years since the three of us worked together as Providence Builders in Alexandria, Virginia, a short-lived design/build company I helped found soon after […]
Pear Harvest
Stored in a cool place, these freshly picked pears will ripen in a few days. “There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson We’ve been harvesting our pears in phases over the past week; the fruit seems to ripen unevenly on our […]
Wowhaus Safari
I love this tiny ‘Carpenter’s Gothic’ cottage along the railroad tracks in St. Helena Whenever Ene and I are feeling cagey and uninspired, we like to seek out the unexplored edges of where we live, sometimes just to see what’s changed after our last visit, having now lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for […]