It’s too bad, in terms of trying to express the full impact that Trasierra has on its guests, that we are not yet able to release the scent of a place.  Trasierra, a 20-room hotel that is more like a private home located in the Sierras one hour from Seville, ensnares you on so many levels.  But its perfume – a mix of jasmine and rose and lavender and baked earth – is the first of its charms that hits you.  The bird song, of course, is the next for they are in heaven in this place dripping with flowers (don’t forget that this is also that magical time in southern Spain, the Spring, that brings flamenco and flowers in to the open).  And then there is the aesthetic charm of the architecture and decor, all built over the last 30 plus years by Charlotte Scott and her four children.  Charlotte, once an interior designer in London, has had a love affair with this ruined hamlet of a place that she found, bought and slowly rebuilt while raising her family and, eventually, hosting guests.

A full-fledged hotel – Tatler has called it one of the 101 best in the world – it’s rooms are clustered in what were the stables or the pig stye or some other out building, all joined by stone paths edged in jasmine or lavender.  Still retaining the feel of a hamlet, you can lose yourself at one of the swimming pools or in one of the great rooms, glass of wine in hand, head buried deep in a book.  Play tennis or hike in the surrounding hills, drop in  to the yoga class held every evening at 7:30 or have a massage on your individual terrace.  One thing you won’t want to miss is meal time – 2:30 or so for lunch and 9:30 for dinner (or frankly, as this is the anti hotel, served at any time you want and anywhere you want) – for the food is stunningly good.  In fact the food is unsurpassed.  Everything (barring the fish which is brought from Seville) is local and all of the veg and fruits are grown organically in the Trasierra gardens.  Salads abound with fresh peas, mint and goat cheese, rice dishes, meatballs light as a feather, pear tart that melts in the mouth.  Wines and liquors and fresh lemonade are always on ice somewhere to be self served or, if you prefer, to be brought to you by one of the charming staff who are virtually invisible until you suddenly decide you want something and then, magically, they are there.

Come for a weekend and stay a week. Come for a rest or recuperation.  Come with your extended family for a celebratory birthday and take over the whole of Trasierra, knowing that you will have a home of your own deep in the Andalucian countryside that comes with easy comfort, superb service, divine food, and – oh yes – that perfume!

http://trasierra.eu/

Hand crafted in Bali with integrity and named for the Hindu Goddess of the arts, beauty, knowledge, and poetry, Saraswati Papers are even more special for they are created using recycled and other sustainable materials.

Australian, Kali Sari, founder of Saraswati Papers, recognized that Bali was struggling with ever-increasing pollution caused by a growing and modernizing society. With this concern and a life-long interest in all things paper, she started to put her kitchen blender to new use and began to experiment making handcrafted paper from recycled materials.

A paper-making course later and with the support of the Wisnu Foundation (a not-for-profit foundation concerned with the conservation of the Balinese environment), Saraswati Papers was born in May 1995.

Working out of her house and kitchen for the first six months, Kali enlisted a team of Balinese village women to learn the skillful art of papermaking. The methods used were the ancient and traditional process of blending, dipping and pressing sheets of paper by hand and hanging it out to dry. The result was exceptional hand-crafted paper.

Each folio of their hand-made paper is made using 100% post consumer recycled paper collected from schools, offices, hotels and homes around Bali. It is colored using natural dyes taken from the earth, roots and leaves, and is textured with the addition of sustainable plant fibers such as bamboo and flower petals. No chemicals, bleaches or unsustainable practices are used at any stage of the paper making process. The variations and irregularities, which occur in thier products are a reflection of the art itself and distinguish Saraswati Papers as a handmade product of environmental integrity. There is no sort of production line, the papers and products are handmade – from start to finish – in their garden-front studio by their group of creative local women.

Over the years the cottage business has become a unique boutique business in that the specialty of Saraswati Papers is the team’s ability to create and adapt designs and products to a customer’s specific needs. I came across Saraswati when I received a Christmas card from Amanresorts, Bali – a card that pictures the mother mountain and a Balinese hamlet in the foreground.  It has now been framed, so special is the texture, the image and the source.

http://saraswatipapers.com/

 We are all different kinds of travelers.

 Some of us thrive on rubbing shoulders in the marketplace, skipping to the urban tempo,

finding friendship in the artisan’s handshake.

 Others travel with a sensory repertoire disengaged from the human sort.

They find deep meaning in stillness,

and recalibrate the orientation of their lives against the simple perfection of the natural world.

Harbingers of Spring..we all wait for them, no matter where we are.  A jonquil, the cherry blossom, pansies, tulips, jettisoned coats.

I look for the Bradford Pears to bloom because my street in Manhattan is one of the most beautiful in early spring. An alley of arced branches, graceful in white, make of my street an almost blessed nave.  It doesn’t last long and, with a good strong wind or a drenching rain the petals are gone from the branches, to carpet the sidewalks as if after a wedding.  Special indeed.

The art of calligraphy finds a new voice with a broom in the hands of Riusuke Fukahori.  His work is extraordinary, not only the large calligraphic paintings he creates, but also  his unique style of painting in which he uses acrylic on clear resin which is then poured into containers, resulting in a three-dimensional appearance and lifelike vitality.

See his work here: http://vimeo.com/32967940

Seeing Fukahori’s goldfish painting created with his broom brought to mind the work I have always loved of Fabienne Verdier   I first saw Verdier’s monumental calligraphic work in an exhibition in Paris a number of years ago and was completely entranced.  The canvases were magnificent but it was the photographs of her wielding her huge calligraphy brush, suspended from the rafters, and using her entire body to give it motion and direction that impressed me.  Graphic art – something that is static – was suddenly transformed into a body-hot,  motion-filled creation.

It is hard, when you live in the city, to think slow, to think small, to think consciously.  And yet it is as compelling a need as feeding oneself; in fact, it is feeding oneself.  And many of us starve.

I look for people who have recognized this need and acted on it. I am compiling a list and, if I do not know them personally, I try to read their writings, look at their photographs, eat at their tables, feast on their aesthetic creations.

Devin and Marybeth Mills have married their culinary professionalism (they come out of NYC’s finest restaurants including Le Bernadin, Picholine, Gramercy Tavern) with a heightened appreciation for essential elements that go into creating good food in a lovely setting.  They  moved to the Catskills, restored a country farmhouse, and bought locally, supporting the area’s growers by changing their menu daily to take advantage of their freshest ingredients.

They bring beauty and well-being, consciousness and an uncomplicated sensory experience to the diner.  And, no doubt, they live in a kind of balance that others yearn for.

http://www.peekamooserestaurant.com/

A really delicious new restaurant in an old space in Noho, Acme serves up locally grown fare beautifully presented and prepared.  We shared bulgar wheat, pot-roasted cauliflower and a warm kale salad to start and then branched out with orders of lamb, arctic char, chicken with eggs.  All of it startlingly good, healthy, light.

Downstairs is a very cool space for pre or after dinner cocktails, small plates, and, on certain evenings, jazz.

http://acmenyc.com/