Cottage

Grammy-winning singer Sheryl Crow has listed her compound in Hollywood Hills West at $15.95 million. The 11-acre property includes a Spanish Revival main house, a 1909 Craftsman, a cottage built in 1885, an infinity-style swimming pool and a pergola with a fireplace and barbecue. The main residence, built in 1914, features a two-story foyer with wrought-iron stair railings, a step-down living room, original Spanish tiles, beam ceilings, a library, a wine cellar, a music room, four bedrooms and 31/2 bathrooms.

Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon has listed Libbey Ranch in Ojai for sale at $10 million. Designed by celebrity architect Wallace Neff, the ranch was originally built in 1923 as stables for glassware titan Edward Libbey. Details include original hardware, turrets, original stonework, plank floors and Spanish tiles. The two-story main house features beam ceilings, a massive stone fireplace in the living room, a library loft with a fireplace, four bedrooms and 31/2 bathrooms. Three guest cottages, a carriage house, a swimming pool, a barn, stables and pasture complete the 7 acres of grounds.

BORODINO, Russia - Dozens of war buffs in fur hats, capes and tights rode prancing horses, practicing for the battle reenactment. Workers frantically laid tiles, paved roads and touched up monuments in a skirmish of last-minute activity before Sunday's anniversary festivities. But 200 years after Russian forces fought Napoleon's men in the apocalyptic Battle of Borodino, leaving 70,000 people dead and the ground soaked with blood, a new enemy is on the march on the edges of the iconic battlefield immortalized in "War and Peace.

The Venice compound of the late actor, photographer and artist Dennis Hopper has sold for $5 million. The property includes an industrial-inspired main house of about 5,000 square feet, a pool house, a guest cottage and three two-story condominiums for a total of seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms and 9,595 square feet of living space. The main house, with a corrugated metal exterior, was designed by Brian Murphy; the condominiums by Frank Gehry. Hopper, who died in 2010 at 74, starred in and directed "Easy Rider" (1969)

This Pasadena cottage has been reinvented with a modern, 500-square-foot addition. The two-tone exterior of lime and white plays the new off the old to create visual interest. Location: 541 Avon Ave., Pasadena 91105 Asking price: $795,000 Year built: 1923 Addition design: OKB Architects House size: Three bedrooms, three bathrooms, 1,597 square feet Lot size: 7,663 square feet Features: Fireplace, built-ins, interior archways, island with sink in kitchen, rooftop deck, raised-bed gardens, flagstone path, lawn, detached garage About the area: In the first quarter, 19 single-family homes sold in the 91105 ZIP Code at a median price of $956,000, according to DataQuick.

The first dish served on Miles Thompson's five-course tasting menu during the Vagrancy Project's residency at Allston Yacht Club on a recent Monday was called "Oyster. " But it was so much more. The 24-year-old chef had encased a raw oyster inside a translucent oval of rosy kimchi gelée and placed it on top of a bed of crushed dashi gelée redolent of fish and earthy soy sauce. He then added a soft, pink mound of pied de cochon , a few rounds of pickled radish, some crunchy agretti and slender scallion slices.

This Spanish-style compound on the water in Venice includes a three-bedroom main residence, one-bedroom canal-fronting cottage and a dock. A central arched window frames a view of the canal, which is lined with sidewalks and crossed by bridges. Location: 431-433 Howland Canal, Venice 90291 Asking price: $3.65 million Sales history: Sold in 2000 for $871,500 Year built: 1983 House size: Four bedrooms, four bathrooms, 2,500 square feet (including guesthouse)

Thomas Kinkade, the self-styled "Painter of Light" who died Friday at 54, once said he worked to "create images that project a serene simplicity. " But despite his astonishing commercial success with luminous seascapes and paintings of cottages and street scenes, Kinkade's life in many ways was neither serene nor simple. Millions of his paintings and prints hang in homes around the world, popularity that translated to more than $50 million in earnings for the artist from 1997 to 2005 alone.

This Victorian in Monrovia called the Monroe Cottage was constructed in the late 1800s by city founder William N. Monroe. Built as a temporary residence while his permanent house was under construction, the Queen Anne-style structure is capped by a hipped roof with gables. Location: 225 Monroe Place, Monrovia 91016 Asking price: $1.45 million Year built: 1884, second story added in 1887 House size: Three bedrooms, four bathrooms, 3,116 square feet Lot size: 0.45 of an acre Features: Wide clapboard siding, boxed eaves, carved brackets, front and back porches, second-floor balcony, 12-foot ceilings, nine pocket doors, guesthouse/studio with kitchen and bathroom, saltwater pool, outdoor fireplace, four-car garage, Mills Act tax benefits.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer was at his Caribbean vacation home late in the evening one recent Thursday when a man wielding a machete cut his way through a screen door, walked into the living room and demanded "money, money, money," according to Colin Smith, the gardener. The thief on the island of Nevis "looked more nervous than we were," Mary-Anne Sergison-Brooke, Breyer's sister-in-law, said in an interview from her home near Oxford, England. "Nevis is such a nice, friendly island.