House Tour With the Landscape

Only 2 years ago this antebellum home was enlarged slightly. Indian artifacts & antiques predating the Civil War, many inherited, fill the entire home.

Every bit of this room, below, new construction.

Only a few feet beyond the window views, above, is a neighbor's home.

Sconces, below, were rescued from an old home. New ones were made to order.

I adore copying table tops, below, for shrub & understory tree placement in gardens.

A portion of the home was removed and placed freestanding, below, as a dependency.

Yes, top pic, she served mimosas & I didn't say 'no'.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last month in Athens, GA. Same home/garden as the previous post.

Shotgun Lot

Only a few feet from this window, below, are the neighbors, below.

From a front room view, below, see the brick chimney? It's where this antebellum home was 1st located. As family fortune increased they built a new antebellum home on the same site, moving this home to its current location.

In the same room, as above, another view, below, on a different wall.

With a smile & sparkle she proclaimed her home the "first mobile home in Athens, GA."

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Yes, poppets, this is the same home as in the previous post.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last month in Athens, GA. Stay tuned for more interior shots. Beautiful views from shotgun lots are among the hardest achieved.

Same Spot: 2 Views

Shooting pic, below, in a tiny garden. Feet remain stationary, below,

& shooting a pic in the opposite direction.

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Double Axis never ceases to amaze. Being on the same line with night & day views.

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Can you do this in your garden?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last month in the same antebellum garden as the previous post.

Accessorized For 2 Views

Afficionado of lamps, old baskets & how others accessorize their tables I knew before going into her home it was going to be inspiring.

Intuitively she knew to accessorize in 2 views; from the garden & from the house. Majority rustic antiques with hints of antique crystal & silver, yes, I knew I had to see the rest of this house & garden. More importantly, to know the person behind the magic.

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The garden is teeny/tiny. You don't know that from her views out. Instead her tiny garden becomes paintings on the wall.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics from the same home & garden as yesterday, taken last month. Can't wait to show you more tomorrow.

On The Porch

Everything on her porch told me I adored her, & we hadn't met yet.

Intuitively knowing she did the decorating for interior/exterior.

By the time a woman uses Kimberly Queen ferns, she KNOWS what she's about.

Vanishing Theshold, combining home/garden were a given, before I went into her home. I KNEW it.

Sherman, blessedly, didn't burn this antebellum home. Poppets, as Anne Shirley said in Anne of Green Gables, 'There is so much scope for the imagination..."

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken in Athens, GA, last month, same afternoon as the previous 2 gardens posted. I was in Girl Crush the moment we stopped at the curb. Had to know the woman creating the magic....

Depth in Simplicity

Simplicity. Flat wall softened into 3-D with: light fixture, bell, foliage, arbor. Kinetics of bell, gate, foliage, light, invitation for eye & foot. Repetition of color. Just inside the gate, below.

Piquant surpise, below, look closely, an outdoor shower.

Not far away, below, more depth in simplicity with stones in the wall.

Surprise, a second gate, below.

A curve, using iron instead of brick & wood amplifying depth in simplicity.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken in Athens, GA last month. Same Italianate garden as previous posts. Begun in the 70's this garden is still evolving, enjoy walking thru it. A landscape design class could be taught here.

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Notice the diminutive light fixtures? Perfection. Leaving intact a design feature of th Edwardians.

Sojourns From Italy

At the property line, below, a hedge & faux gate. Look close, it's mirrored. Hints of an English cottage garden, below.

Double axis with a potager, below, viewed from the frontyard.

Potager, below, viewed from the backyard.

Little details, oozing water ball, abound, below.

There are no wrong notes in this Italianate garden.

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Surprised to see sojourns from Italy in the same garden as the previous post?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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I knew, 20 minutes into the hour spent in this Italianate garden, it was a book. The owner, after my nonstop questions & pictures, finally relented to my rudeness and asked me into her home. Poppets, you know I had to see her Vanishing Threshold. ODG, garden views from inside her home are a day's worth of shooting.

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I would love, love, love to write & shoot the book of this garden.

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Beauty & something to learn on each page !!!!!!!

Double Axis

Looking along a path, below, in one direction. Looking along the same path, below, in its opposite direction.

DOUBLE AXIS. (Same garden as yesterday's post.)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Double Axis, my landscape design invention (la-ti-da). I noticed the best gardens have beautiful axis, and when you turn around they are beautiful along the opposite axis, DOUBLE AXIS.

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So, dear poppets, it's not merely good enough to have a beautiful view. You must have a beautiful view in 2 directions along the same line.

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Of course you can throw a roundabout into your Double Axis and create a Double Double Axis. Life is good when these are your musings.

Subtle Focal Points

Walking into the garden room, below, (from yesterday's post) is the tennis player (have I mentioned winning the district tennis 4-A womens singles tennis championship 2 years in a row?). Opposite the tennis player, below, is St. Fiacre. Circa 1930's he is an inherited piece.

The tennis player & St. Fiacre book end the garden room, originally a tennis court.

Another doorway, above, in this garden room (apologies poppets, didn't ask its name).

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Dry stack stone wall & drystone steps. (Paying attention guys at the stone supply? Yes, you, who told my client last week it was 'impossible' to dry stack wall & steps as I drew in the plan. Please skip Scotland, Italy, my past clients in the states & etc.... you'll discover centuries worth of dry stack. By-the-way, I sent those clients to you, paying customers in a bad economy. They bought no stone from you & called me afterward confused. No worries, I got them going again & sent them to a different stone store!! 7 tons of fieldstone is your lost sale.)

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Tennis player & St. Fiacre are subtle focal points. Not subsidiary focal points & not main focal points. A delicious garden.

Create Seductive Doorways

Invite people thru your garden with doorways. Use a pair of pots, pair of vertical stones, pair of plinths, pair evergreen shrubs, arbor & etc. Drama of a step, narrowing to the path, above, less than 3' wide, lines of boxwood creating a hallway. Focal point on axis, creating a foyer and

beyond is another fabulous living room.

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Doorway, top pic, leads from the terrace in yesterday's post.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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It is this simple. Doorway, landing, hallway, foyer, living room. Gorgeous & low maintenance too.

Pot Display

When the setting is right a pot display is de rigueur.

Choice morsels to delight the eye and

invite perusal.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Have seen Pot Displays from Italy to Ireland & points between. Here, a delight in the same Italianate garden in Athens, GA as previous posts. This garden is about 1 acre.

Foyer, Hallway, Doorway

Welcome to the foyer, below. Beyond the terra cotta urn on a plinth is a hall leading to a frontdoor (iron gate). Ah, creation of mystery & privacy.
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MORE, poppets, if you can stand it !!! Gate & terra cotta urn are on axis with the bronze hatted girl in the previous post.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara