My Desk

Neo-onerous work demands a gorgeous desk this week.  It will be done overlooking the Bay Terrace.  Filed an extension with my new CPA in April & now refinancing my garden, aka home.  Any excuse stops me from the work.

2  arrived in the mail yesterday !  How could they not be perused?

Monty Don has been a favorite garden writer for decades.  His style with mundane tasks thrills my soul.  You know where his book is this morning, by the bed.  And you know my accounting work isn't done.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken to get distracted during my work yesterday.  

Victorian Harvest Table

Table is contemporaneous with the 1897 house.  Tables,

 fully leaved, above.  Never seen one in current times, only historical pics.  Perhaps it should be called a Victorian harvest table?

A 3rd table, with 1 leaf, nearby.

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Garden & Be Well,           XO Tara

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Pics from Skyland Camp for girls.  Amazing how 3 seemingly small tables have been serving oodles of little girls for a century.

How To Arrange Prints

In the foyer.

Every bit history.  Nice to see an original arrangement of framed prints not a decorated styled copy.
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Front & back doors open all day, sun or rain.  Inside smelling every bit like the Great Smoky Mountains, rhododendron, pee gee hydrangea, moss, meadow, oaks.....
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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
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More Skyland Camp for Girls. 

Chinoiserie Porch Rail

Miles of historic Chinoiserie

porch rail.

 A sweetness of scale.

Doesn't block the eye sitting in a chair.
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Garden & Be Well,           XO Tara
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Oh , I get it about 'code'.  But this sweetness of scale is a joy.  Built as a hotel, 1897, when the train north only came as far south as Clyde, North Carolina.  More pics from Skyland Camp for Girls, ca. 1917.

Tree Seat & Tree Swing

Simply constructed of stock lumber, below, tree seat.

 Better, tree swing, below, is hung from a fallen branch.

Simple.
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If you sat in yesterday's cane bottom chairs this is a portion of their views.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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Tree swing & tree seat were in much use last weekend during Skyland Camp for Girls 95th anniversary.  Not by me, I had a favorite seat & vantage point for viewing, reading, and just 'being'.  AKA, go-away-leave-me-alone-I'm-feeding-my-spirit.

Front Porch

At the front door, below, you're already understanding a great deal.

 This isn't a place concerned with 'decorating' or 'style'.

Those have existed here so long, and simply,  they are mundane.  This family is concerned with feeding the spirit, paying attention to nature, exercising the body, enriching the mind & connecting friendships.

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Built in 1897 & operated as Skyland Camp for Girls since 1917 this remains a family endeavor.
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Lucky me, I was able to go to their 95th anniversary celebration last weekend.
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara

Lunch View & How To Open A French door

Last Sunday's lunch, below, taken from my table. 

Had just climbed Chimney Rock, below.

 Fascinated with how the servers opened the French door.  Yes, that's my table in the reflection.

 Obvious.

But I would have never thought of this.
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Garden & Be Well,             XO Tara
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Fresh crabcake sandwich with coleslaw & fries.  Local beer on tap with slightest hint of peach.
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Seems to me even a dog could learn to open this door.

Summer Lunch, Nigella Lawson

Both women work for international corporations, they're neighbors, each have beautiful lake views, and like to cook.  Garden too, they're my clients.  Finally, I had them to lunch in my sweet garden.  What was I thinking?  Me cook?  For them?

 Peach crisp wasn't too much of a stretch, above.  Used agave syrup for the 1st time.  Needed corn starch for a bit more thickening.  Crust was rolled in a box.  Perhaps the puff pastry from a box next time.

Nigella Lawson's, Forever Summer, cookbook beckoned, above.  Salad with chicken, mango, lime, scallions, cilantro, touch of peanut & sesame oil.  She  mentioned serving it on a platter.
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Too humid & mosquitowy for lunch in the Conservatory we were inside at the harvest table.
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We 3 were on vacation at this lunch.  At least that's what it felt like to me. 
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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
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pics taken last week.

Glass Top to the Rescue

Wicker table, bought at estate sale, had great patina but a sagging top.  Try putting a drink on that.

Found glass top at a thrift store.  First & only time to grab something at the exact moment another person did too. 
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The glass top had a pedestal base.  Eye to eye we smiled, I spoke first, "I only want the top."  She said, "I only want the bottom."  We split the cost!
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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pic taken last month.  Pink lemonade with pink book.....

Blue Lamp in the Conservatory

 In honor of good service, the peacock blue ginger jar lamp with original shade.

Been in the library for years & now rotating off duty from 2 years in the Conservatory.

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We are each allowed to love a hideous lamp.  This one is mine.  She will resurface. 

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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

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Notice the tassel hanging from the key on the French door?  A punctuation of delight.  Who needs drugs with these amusements?

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Pic taken last month.  Conservatory view is to the new French doors in my kitchen.  A bit of gardening still to be done at the landing.  Life is good, a gardening project awaits!

What Is This Kitchen Missing?

Practically perfect, below, but missing

lamps.  Sconces too.
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Garden & Be Well,              XO Tara
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Imagine this kitchen without the outdoor dining, aka Vanishing Threshold, amazing how SMALL it becomes.
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Pic via Brabourne Farm

Lynn Coulter Interview & Lunch

Lynn Coulter, author, was squatting in a garden taking pics when I met her last month.  She asked to interview me for her Home Depot blog & was immediately asked to lunch in my Conservatory.  Tomato sandwiches, coleslaw & cantaloupe with lemonade.   

 We talked about pollinator habitat.  My discoveries of Italy & cottage gardens of England with their lush flowers not for beauty but, historically, for pollinator habitat.  Her article, here.  Important topic, yields can be almost doubled with increased pollinator habitat.

 How I never knew of her books is a mystery.

She enriches my library.  Pinch me, I'm in girl crush, she's my new friend. 
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Visit Lynn Coulter's site & about her books, here.
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara
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Lunch pic from our lunch.  Tomato sandwich with bacon & vidalia onion!