Linking About: Artful chicken coops, killer bugs, and restoration on every level

At the end of a day where work (and/or the world) has run me especially ragged, I like to sit in front of the TV and watch something that works as a brain balm: thoughtful, earthful and beautiful, with a predictable positive outcome. For a while that’s meant sitting down with an episode of The Lost Kitchen. No matter how hard they tried to create tension and plot lines throughout the post-pandemic seasons, it’s the same thing every time: Erin French makes something beautiful and delicious, tops it with edible flowers, everyone loves their meal and goes home happy, the end. Having run out of eps, I’ve been on a hunt for garden-related bedtime stories of this sort. I’m looking for shows interesting enough to learn something from, sure, but still just a quiet moment for a weary brain to take a breath and savor something regenerative. I stumbled onto HBO’s The Garden Chronicles, which was more amuse bouche than snack even, and now I’m watching Jamila Norman make vegetable gardens for people on Homegrown. If you have favorite garden-related shows, please share!

And I’ve got some great links for you to explore—

• This vintage French cop car turned chicken coop, featured on The World of Interiors, is praise hands all the way

• While we’re at TWOI, let’s take a wander around the botanical museum of Florence

• “People always ask me which pesticides I spray to keep my flowers so pretty. These are my favorite bug killers.” (Bug killers. See what she did there?)

• When I was a kid there was a stretch where I wanted to be an archaeologist, and that sort of digging-detective work is what I especially love about garden restoration projects. So I’ve been enjoying following the restoration at @benton.end and especially the discovery and rehabilitation of an old cistern nobody expected to find under the debris.

• Speaking of debris, hopefully you’re aware of the global, grassroots unpaving movement. (People everywhere simply striving to replace hardscape materials with permeable greenness.) This Meandros Column concept from Lauren Bon/Metabolic Studio in LA — repurposing landslide debris from the catastrophe there — is truly next level. Related to that catastrophe and recovery, I’ll be chewing on this conversation for quite some time.

• And circling back to the idea of a moment of stillness in a world gone mad, I give you Mary Oliver reading “When I Am Among the Trees” (Here’s the text if you just want to sit with it)

Have a restorative weekend!