Happy Short Story

Happy call yesterday, they bought it!  A client, living in their dream home, found another.

She called a couple of weeks ago about the 'possibility' of the new house, & would I do a drive-by. 
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Older, it looks like a miniature version of an embassy home in DC.  But it's the backyard that sold them! 
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Proud of this couple.  They are thriving in a bad economy the old-fashioned way.  Hard work.
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Garden & Be Well,                XO Tara
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Pic via Things That Inspire from Architectural Digest.  Adore this part of my career, knowing the stories of so many happy events.

Bruce Barone Shot Queens Pot

Pots must be so fabulous

they can remain empty.
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The Queen's Pot!
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Sustainable before Christ was born.  Been doing it myself for decades.
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Touring the grounds of Glamis Castle I saw a huge urn in the distance.  It beckoned my name.  The urn grew larger the closer I got.  Upon discovery it was sentinel to an arboretum over a century old.
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What garden center advocates empty urns?
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pic by Bruce Barone.  Love & adore inventing garden concepts & The Queen's Pot is mine....!

Bedroom Changes

My bedroom is in the hunting/gathering stage.  26 year old carpet was removed & heart of pine flooring now matches the rest of the house.  Researched headboards on Velvet & Linen, and, Things That Inspire.  This headboard, below, is what I ordered. 

 A couch & ottoman will be ordered for the foot of the bed.  Need a couch in the music room too. 

Debating if the 2 new couches should 'match' in case they end up together in a new space.
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Need the lampshades, above, too. 
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The bed was moved and I'm loving new views into the garden.  Can't wait for the couch, it's views are thru a different window.
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Decades planning/planting in the garden it seems strange to be fixating on the interior.  After a quarter century has passed, it's time.
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Garden & Be Well,           XO Tara
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Top pic via Things That Inspire
Bottom pic via Velvet & Linen

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!

Garden Room

Romance of windows opening inward.

 Small, not even  8' x 12', it is perfection.  A nurturing space

 A place to draw, deeply & richly, inward into yourself.  Read, nap, lunch.

And the garden beckoning.  Palpable.  A room knowing what the soul needs.
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Garden & Be Well,              XO Tara
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Pics taken last month.

A Garden View

In their historic cottage is this huge morning glory.

 At least it seemed like one to me.

 Appropriately, the gramophone

has a garden view of the carriage house & perennial border.
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Have you already chosen this way to live?  Every view a garden view.  It's where a Landscape Design begins.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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Pics taken last month.  Yes, was able to poke around in the carriage house too! 

Love Gift: Chicken Coop

After major renovations to their home & garden her beloved

 built her this chicken coop.

 Of course their girls (roosters were sent to a rooster sanctuary) got the same front door color

as the house.

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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara

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Pics taken this week.  Love-love-love this story.  Married for decades, kids finally getting married or out of college and this sweet couple starting to be a couple again, not just mom & dad !  Was stunned when she said her beloved built the chicken coop.  He's got a huge career yet took the time to build this love gift for her.

Front Porch

A disintegrating brick, too small, front stoop when I arrived.

Covered, lighting, doors, stone terrace, new paint colors, columns, iron rail, ceiling fans, furniture.

   The view, below, has been there, ignored, for over 3 decades.

Now it's honored, and lived in.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken this week at a past client.  Her house & garden the most perfect HORRENDOUS before.  Of course she's going to be a before/after story.  Best part is how it's changed their lives.  Literally.  House is amongst many in a subdivision near town, yet it lives like Piedmont forest. 

Outdoor Kitchen Planning

At the pool an outdoor kitchen is planned under the new room addition.

 Yesterday's meeting included lighting choices. 

 And space planning.

 Kitchen island, yes you're sensing the presence of Magic Man again, will be on wheels & made of teak to match the cabinets.  A stone banquette in the corner will have her signature custom cushions with Magic Man making the table to her exact dimensions.

Outdoor kitchen yesterday morning!
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Client is an interior decorator with a specialty in space planning.  Quietly successful, she's word-of-mouth only. 
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite yesterday morning.