Things I noticed this week
Week commencing 13 July 2026
A week in Greece has reminded me that designers never really go on holiday.
We may leave our houses behind, but our eyes never seem to stop working. I came home with far more ideas than souvenirs, beginning with a flight home full of notes about Corten steel steps. Ours at home suddenly feel rather ordinary. The ones leading down to the sea at our villa had been cut into the rock and then faced with weathered steel. Mixed with timber decking, I think they would look wonderful in our dry garden. A holiday for most people; another design project beginning in my head for me.
In the evenings we wandered into Fiskardo, a place I first visited twenty-five years ago. The faded Venetian buildings remain every bit as beautiful, but the harbour itself has changed beyond recognition.
The superyachts have arrived.
I found myself wondering, not for the first time, when enough almost imperceptibly becomes too much.
I have nothing against wealth. Quite the opposite. But sitting there, I realised the greatest luxury wasn’t moored in the harbour.
It was swimming before breakfast.
Fresh tomatoes and grilled fish eaten beside the sea.
The scent of fig trees on the walk home.
Time with all six of us together.
It made me think how often we mistake more for better.
The rest of this week’s observations are for paid subscribers.
This week I’m also writing about:
why faded colours always stop me in my tracks
what Roman ruins taught me about originality
and why I think I’m forever searching for exactly the same balance in gardens, houses and life.
If you’d like to keep reading—and receive Things I’ve Noticed This Week in full every Monday, along with The Notebook and my weekly essays—I’d love to have you inside.
