Like all good travel reports, my Sardinian highlights focus on the plants on people’s balconies and also, pink and yellow buildings. First, here’s a quick swatch of the beach where we spent most days, just south of the island’s capital Cagliari.

To the left, a lagoon for breeding flamingos – I never saw any here, but there were loads just near the airport in Cagliari. To the right, warm turquoise sea, which only came up to your waist. Perfect for all those buff Italian women showing off their abs.

Cagliari is a port town, winding up high through churches, a university and loads of pretty pastel buildings with peeling-paint edges. We stopped for lunch at what seemed like the top, overlooking the city and the sea. Here’s a glimpse of the Italian-style urban gardening we saw en route.

A LOT of cactus around. And here are the pink and yellow buildings. Also, balcony envy.

And then, I managed to pap inside someone’s door – of course, the one undergoing a big home decoration project. Is that the local answer to Ronseal? How about those tiles.

Seems illogical to lay them on the diagonal, but on that wiggly, hilly street it made total sense.

Late night reading

Like everyone else in this city, I’m finding it hard to sleep in the heat and easy to pick up my phone at god knows what hour to read terrible nonsense into the wee night. Sometimes I hit on good stuff though, such as the Whistles blog. It involves house tours, which are sort of Closet Visit-style, […]

Trend! Wicker chairs

Woven, wicker chairs are everywhere, and I want one. I was reminded of this by Habitat’s new Sura chairs, designed by Naoko Kanehira of their in-house design team. Here are some other pictures I’ve been saving up. Aren’t they wonderful? Like a basket for your bum. That’s not me by the way, but I have […]

Hooky

Just back from glorious perfect Sardinia. While I whittle down my hundreds of pictures of pink and yellow buildings (trend!) and spiky pot plants, here’s a house thing I’ve been thinking about. Hooks for coats. A hallway sorter. Back in our second ever post I was extolling the visual delights of plugging door handles into […]

Inside a cabbies’ hut

Well sort of. I read earlier in the week that the Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded £69,000 (what a bargain) to maintain London’s remaining cabmen’s shelters. If you know London at all you’ll have seen these shelters, though you may not have known what they are. 61 were built between 1875 and 1914, mainly, it […]