Natural Southampton

Perfect beach day (click on photos to enlarge)
Last weekend TD and I went to Southampton to visit my brother Thom and his family. Boy, is that a beautiful corner of the world. The long lanes down to the beach are lined by tall green hedges that reveal peeks of grand old houses. In the village of Southampton, the houses are covered with grey weathered shingles and trimmed in white. Everything is pristine and preserved, picturesque and perfect.
One day I took a bike ride into town. These flower boxes decorate the village streets – I love the combination of the red, white and blue flowers for the Fourth of July.

There were clouds of hydrangeas everywhere.

These are hydrangeas outside of Thom's house. I just love hydrangeas – they are romantically old-fashioned. I think there were hydrangeas at 611.

We took a long bike ride along Meadow Lane which runs along the ocean beach. This is Shinnecock Bay. The landscape reminded me of Martha's Vineyard. It's great that this extremely valuable real estate has not been developed.

A family walked along the little beach there and played with their dog.

Meadow Lane is strung with mansions – Calvin Klein is building a big house there which is right now only a construction site. But this was my favorite house – it looked like an old English stone country cottage smothered with overgrowth.

Further on down Meadow Lane we passed Saint Andrew's Dune Church which is built right on the dunes with the ocean on the other side. It has that similar, charming, English vernacular country architecture. Pretty place to get married.

Later in the day we went to the beach. Spectacular weather.

On Sunday it was a little overcast so we took a car ride through East Hampton to Montauk where we had delicious lobster rolls at a cute and popular restaurant called Lunch. Then we had a quick walk through East Hampton. Here at the Ralph Lauren store, a rainbow of lavender, blue and white hydrangeas welcomed shoppers.

Flowers plus art: White impatiens mixed with modern sculpture at Gallery Valentine.

It was a pretty dreamy weekend, quiet and relaxing. Many thanks to our hosts.
Hope you had a great holiday weekend too.