Turning Windows Into Doors

Doors, below, were originally windows.Standing at the French doors, above, I shot across the covered patio, below.

The coffee table, below, still filled with the debris of our gardening conversations which meandered to the dinner table & thru a dinner of fresh crabcakes & ....
Window, below, had been the back door.
New back door (seen in the top pic) flows onto patio to the left of the downstairs window, above.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Yes, that's our fabulous breakfast, top pic, after the fabulous dinner. Pics from the same garden as yesterday's post. Please know, Poppets, none of these pics are STYLED. I don't believe in styled pics. I believe in life beautifully lived and design accordingly. SIMPLY. CLASSICALLY.

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If you've got to WORK AT IT to get these types of pics. You're doing something wrong.

A Garden View

Upstairs, below, at the landing, an axis view to the garden cottage. Originally a 1-car garage plus tiny apartment. Did you notice, above, the charming angle of the rail at the landing?
Standing on the steps, above, and below, a closer look at the garden & garden cottage. Iron railing is original to the ca. 1920 home.
From the garden cottage, below, a view
into the upstairs window at the landing.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Woke up about 7:30am and got these pics; wearing gown & robe. No time to dress, couldn't afford to lose the perfect lite. A woman must have priorities. Yes, same home as yesterday's post.

Architecture in Macon, GA

W. Elliott Dunwody, Jr., FAIA, 1893-1986, designed this home ca. 1920. Not large, it's huge in perfection. Until 5 years ago it was untouched, including its single bathroom; above the front door.Exterior architectural details, below, Dunwody designed, remain.
Room, above, (shown from opposite direction yesterday) has 3 walls of windows. The room above it has 3 walls of windows too. Both rooms have a fireplace.
A living room, above, with 2 walls of windows; facing frontyard & facing backyard. None of the rooms are large, that's much too easy. Each room is scaled to nurture/enrich the human soul.

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Dunwody may have designed & built homes but his genius was building lives.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Same home/garden as yesterday's post.

Double Axis: House & Landscape

On the patio, below, looking into the backyard.
On the patio, without moving my feet, below, looking into the house. A room overlooking: frontyard, sideyard, backyard. 3 walls of windows & a fireplace wall with 2 doors. I doubt there is a smaller, more delicious room.
Incredibly exciting Double Axis. Do you have a Double Axis point like this? Get one. Then, get more!

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Tara Questions to answer about Double Axis at your home & garden. 2 pictures taken from 1 spot. Does this picture make me want to see the garden? Does this picture make me want to see inside the home?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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More pics from my jobsite in Macon, Ga last weekend.

Dogs in the Landscape

Scale, age, patina, quality, & placement; these dogs have IT.Just Let It Touch, above. The Tara Rule, foliage & focal points just touching, a winning combination.
Quiet elegance.
Lamp, shutters, leaded glass, stucco color, plantings, & dog, above, great simplicity. Simplicity so great Puppet Barbuda imagines a Jane Austen novel written/lived here.
Seeing, above, Puppet Barbuda KNOWs it wasn't done by a landscape company (you know, Poppets, mow-blow-go-testosterone-on-wheels). It reeks of Hand-Heart-Eye. AKA: charm, passion, spirit, desire, intent, choices, joy, love, intellect.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken in Macon, GA at a jobsite over the weekend. YES, more coming!

Keep It Simple Sweetie

Simplicity, repetition, color, scale, quality, comfort, timeless, flow, destination, garden room, contrast of shapes-materials-foliage, & more.
Posted on La Maison Fou several days ago, this garden room is proof;

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A lot goes into simplicity.

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Choosing to say "No" to things, isn't easy. What you keep out is as important as what you put in.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Choosing What To See

Miss Kim fern, below, is a beauty in her gorgeous urn backlit by the morning sun.Decades of shooting gardens taught me to SEE them.
Not the reality.

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It's a nice place to be.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken yesterday at my jobsite.

Scruffed Up Is A Choice

Months of the year my formal stone terrace is, indeed, formal. But I adore Scruffy Landscapes, & meadows. (Lot's of blather, internationally, about how tough meadows are. Ha, it seems I'm a Meadow Whisperer !)

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Yesterday morning, below, annual blue ageratum gracing my stone terrace & Just Touching the variegated Boxwood-In-A-Pot.
Further along the stone terrace, below, Rudbeckia fulgida fulgida, is gracing the other variegated Boxwood-In-A-Pot.
Early this spring, below, English daisies graced the pots &
Scruffed Up my formal stone terrace. How I adore this !!!

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Poppets, Scruffed Up landscapes are a choice! Boxwood-In-A-Pot works most anywhere across time, continents, styles, incomes & etc. Each of the above flowers self-seed, require zero watering and came into my life by serendipity. A bird gave me the 1st English daisy. Ageratum came in the soil with peonies I dug up from Aunt Tilly's garden after she died. Working at a nursery, decades ago, a customer gave me the Rudbeckia fulgida fulgida.

Beatrix Potter's Beehive

Sharon Lovejoy visited Beatrix Potter's home recently, below.Poppets, look at that darling BEEHIVE !!!!!!!!!!!

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Exactly what I need for my tiny property. Exactly. This feels good, already, in anticipation. If I can't find it to buy I'll use the pic & my carpenter will make it.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Never heard of Sharon Lovejoy? Gardener, writer, artist & more wondrous things.

Man vs Crew vs DIY

Susanne Hudson & I chose the site, theme, materials & designed our Garden Conservatory, below, for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival last spring in Douglasville, GA.We also had this man, below.
Fluid of movement. Body, clothes, tools, materials, site, social skills, sense of humor, (pleasing 2 exacting women), decades of experience &, most important, intellect.

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He surpassed expectation (we knew he would), came in under budget, ahead of schedule & worked alone aside from Suzanne & I doing our girlie best.

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The other gardens created for the festival? Each, created with crews of men & heavy equipment.

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Our man? Last of the Mohicans.

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It was an honor to watch him work.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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In my garden I'm mostly DIY, in my dreams I have the skills of this man.

Landscape Light for Interiors

Owner, interior designer, photographer each Get It about landscape light, below.What's To Get?

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Lamps, chandeliers, mirrors, textures, window treatments, colors, & etc., myriad surfaces inside a home, affect lighting.

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Most important to interior lighting, above? Light from the windows. A daily theatrical, landscape tainted.

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Before light enters the home, above, it is infused by the landscape. Carried inside by a joyful Providence.

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Does your interior use Providential light? Mine does, by choice. It's how I want to live.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic from Jennifer McGee Design. This girl is GOOD. Many pics of her work include landscape light. Did you notice the open door, above? In my imagination ginger lilies are blooming in the garden & their scent......

Which is the Focal Point?

Obviously the lake, below, is the focal point.Perhaps the focal point is the Illusion of Repose?
Living a busy life, what you see from your windows will enrich your spirit or diminish your energy.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken at a jobsite yesterday. A ca. 1970's subdivision with ranch & split-level style homes around a lake. I've used the landscape design style of Italy at Lake Maggiore for this home/garden. Focal point of the lake is pure. Added evergreen tall hollies to block views of neighbors. And, at the back of the home, a small flagstone terrace for enjoying views of the lake. 5 understory trees were added; the canopy layer was too abrupt with its groundcover layer. Creates a better pollinator habitat too. Odd, in hindsight, how classic-of-the-ages landscape design translates into the best pollinator habitats.