Inspiration

I love beauty. Beauty inspires me. Seeking beauty, chasing beauty, making something beautiful takes courage, demands it, it makes your heart fierce. I collect beautiful things, images; I tuck them away like tinker toys buried in a coffee can in the back yard, a time capsule to which I can return for inspiration. I savor them, even when I cannot dig them back up. I know they’re out there, hidden, safe and protected. Here are some of my old and new discoveries.

La Casa Azul: The Blue House, the house in blue, the most stunning display of simple, pragmatic beauty and the absolute impetus for Biddan Ridge. These pictures of Geninne & Manolo’s home in Mexico was my muse.

Verana: A small, secluded hotel in Mexico to which I have never been but dream of and will make a destination. I promise. Plus the music is luscious.

Garden & Gun magazine: When it arrives every other month, I savor it. I hoard it. I am a devourer of books and serialized TV shows but this magazine I savor, taking weeks to read fully. In it I discover things like Richland Rum. I go searching for the music of The Alabama Shakes and am mesmerized by a black girl singing and playing the guitar with such fierceness. And then there is the perfect biscuit.