House of Lucy · The Almanac
The Almanac
No. I · September 2026
Still unpacking.
Already inviting people over.
Dallas · September 2026
Every inch of the negotiation was worth it.
The whole point.
The branches lasted
three weeks. I would
do it again.
The September List
Figs. The season is almost over. Go now. Eat them plain, or with prosciutto, or with burrata and absolutely no bread.
Anything rosé is finished. Start the Burgundy. Buy one good bottle and open it on a Tuesday.
The cast-iron flower frog. Around $18. Makes every arrangement look like it came from somewhere. Get the large.
Before Sardinia: D.H. Lawrence, Sea and Sardinia. He arrived by boat in winter and complained about everything. Still the best guidebook by fifty years.
Cabrini (2024). About willpower, charity and America. The most gripping film I've seen in two years.
Book dinner at Quo Vadis on Dean Street. Order what the chalkboard says. Don't look at the regular menu first.
Aperol. I've said what I have to say.
The last of the summer.
From the House
August. Hector has opinions about the new house.
Six.
Hector, being unhelpful.
The last smoothie of the summer.
The whole point.
September. Not August.
Places · Private Edit
Sardinia
Where I'd stay
Capo Boi. Quieter than Forte Village, half the price. The kind of place you don't tell everyone about. Book before June.
What I'd order first
Malloreddus with sausage ragù. It's specific to Sardinia and it doesn't taste the same anywhere else. Before anything else on the menu.
What I'd bring home
Bottarga. It changes how you cook pasta forever. Take the vacuum-packed kind.
One beach
Cala Brandinchi, north-east coast. Turquoise, shallow, soft sand. Go in September when it clears out.
One thing to know
August is expensive and extremely full. September is the version worth seeing.
Currently
Marie Eiffel, on a Monday. The car was not staged.
The branches lasted three weeks.
Still fighting with the length. But the fabric arrived from Portugal and it's exactly right.
Can't stop listening to Love Deluxe on Tuesday evenings.
From the worktable.
Six.
The Larder · September
The first dinner
I want to make this fall.
I make this every September without planning to. The ingredients arrive in the house. The window is open. It happens.
The Menu
Roast chicken with tarragon butter
Bitter salad — radicchio, walnuts, anchovy
Roast potatoes with rosemary
Île flottante
Everything except the chicken can be done the day before.
Things Worth Knowing — September
The whole point.
The flower frog
Cast iron, around $18. Makes every arrangement look like it came from a garden. Buy the large.
Leuchtturm1917, A5
Forest green, ruled. Start with the date and one word.
Buly Thé Matcha
Officine Universelle Buly. Smells like September in an apartment that isn't yours yet.
The granite mortar
The cheap ones don't work. Get the large. It will be the thing your kitchen was missing.
Sade, Love Deluxe
The whole album, not just Smooth Operator. At any Tuesday dinner. It makes everything feel considered.
Crespi d'Adda
A tiny UNESCO village in Lombardy. Built by a factory owner for his workers. Worth a serious detour.
Normal People
Still. Sally Rooney. Read it twice if you've read it once.
From the Worktable
Something is happening in the Cabinet. I'm not ready to show all of it yet. But here is the beginning.
Some of it will become available. Some of it won't.
Tell Me FirstFrom the Cabinet · October
Something is happening
in the Cabinet.
A ribbon. A glass strawberry. A lemon. A box from Poland. The Cabinet opens in October.
Tell Me FirstFrom the Cabinet
Letters from the House
A little of The Almanac,
delivered by letter.
Useful, opinionated, occasionally very funny.
Never more than you need.