A like foray unearthed two 11 foot sidelights that had been rescued from an historic building. They were far too beautiful not to add to our stash of mounting booty. Regular jaunts around the countryside produced yet other contenders for the yet to be determined project. The”piece de resistance” was the collection of Gothic windows that presented themselves when I was feeling somewhat insouciant and caution was thrown to the wind and they were quickly secured. Together, with the treasures we had tucked away we had sufficient to encourage invention. Only a few drawings on a napkin at dinner produced a plan.

It is not that one needs a two story edifice in the middle of one’s garden. It is that it can be designed using an apparent disjunct collection, and yet individually charming pieces of salvage. There are no restrictions, you can let whimsy take your heart on a journey!

Early in life I knew I was not going to be a mechanical engineer and all the aptitude tests verified what I already sensed. Abstract reasoning scores approaching 100% just told me what every fiber of my being sang to me- I was born to create! I draw inspiration from any pile of junk and see it for it’s romantic possibilities. Salvage, scraps of torn vintage lace, broken antique china, piles of discarded windows- the very essence of quirky charm just waiting for a caring touch to weave each piece together into a whimsical creation. Everything has the potential to be something, oh so special!

Often when you take on a dream, if you trust your instincts, the reality is even better than your imagination can sketch in your brain. Such was the case with Lavender Cottage. Together all the squirreled away finds produced a cottage with such allure that people would come in off the road and just wander in through the 1800’s entrance and marvel at the captured sunlight dancing through the imperfect glass of the vintage windows, each strategically placed to allow a beguiling glimpse of the garden at every turn of the head.

Another structure- another occasion to decorate. It was obvious to me the old trees, since milled to lumber, now in place as walls and floors , invited whitewash to enhance the changing patterns of light that flirted with it at different times of the day.

The second floor, a loft, needed just the right railing, patience rewarded us when we chanced upon an exquisite old Victorian radiator cover leaning , carelessly neglected against an old barn. It was just the right length and height to secure for itself the position needing to be filled.

We had for some time a fascination with circular staircases and now saw the perfect excuse to indulge this fancy. Now, the personality of this wee cottage was making itself known and I then knew it was prudent, rather than crazy , that I had bought those creamy, well worn shutters some time back and put them in my stock pile. They were perfect to dress the windows we had redeemed from a previous project and pressed into service here. As always the palate was set by the first contenders. Everything played off the layers of creams and white peeking through the scrapes and bruises of past years of lives lived by the unpretentious little shutters standing proud at their new station. Big overstuffed chairs of various shades of fade were slipcovered in a creamy white and placed beside the tables of peeling white paint. Cushions made from extraordinary scraps of vintage garments graced the chairs. Primitive cupboards adorned with chartreuse paint, paled with time took their places against the walls. Layers of old lace, elegant antique china and  vintage prints made their pleas to be part of the cast. I have never been one to refuse a volunteer to the stage.

Decks were added front and back and when I came upon just one very unusual but qualified baluster for the railing I was not daunted. I know how to use a jig saw and I had my pattern- too easy! You may not be surprised to learn I already had a cache of finials just waiting for the day to be dusted off and strut their stuff.

Landscaping was in order. In front of our building was lawn- never quite understood lawn. It was undeveloped space in my mind. We could remedy that! I can dream and Bill can make dreams come true. I had in my mind an arbor, front and back. This necessitated a trip to the local recyclers. If you roam through the debris you spot things begging for a new life, like the time I was looking for a fence that was strong but I could see through and I came home the proud owner of a cast off conveyer belt much past it’s prime in my favorite color- rust! It was so heavy you practically needed a bulldozer to move it in place. The smile was not on Bill’s face that day! Country Living appreciated it’s beauty and it graced the pages of their magazine. This time though we came home with an odd assortment of scrap metal in a matching shade of rust and Bill crafted two wonderful arbors.

I immediately went out and bought about 100 rose bushes to entangle themselves around my arbors. It was a happy coincidence when I arrived home feeling a little sheepish about my splurge, I suddenly realized it was our anniversary and so my story took form- ” I was saving you all the trouble of trying to think of the perfect anniversary gift for me so I bought a few rose bushes”  And so it was-Bill bought me a rose garden that year for our anniversary. Who can argue with what makes one look so good?

Lavender Cottage made it’s debut in Country Living magazine and an encore in La Vie Claire as well as being the subject of newspaper articles.

For many years, old abandoned and now derelict beach houses stood alone and neglected by the beach. On many trips to the village  these houses beckoned me to come visit, but I never heeded their call. I had this romantic notion they would  take my breath away once I passed through the old gray weathered chip board entrance.

This day would be different. I could resist no longer. I had to see the inside.

These buildings had been for sale for over a decade. The location was exceptional, the ocean view breathtaking. I could not understand why they were still here with a For Sale sign on the lawn. It had been there so long that it was just barely hanging on. Even the real estate sign looked like it had long since given up hope, having found its final resting place.

Did I say “they would to take my breath away?” More like “had the wind knocked out of us!” You know how people say when they step into a house “it spoke to me?” That did not happen to us. Never even heard a whisper! Bill and I just stood there in silence like statues frozen in time. Neither of us said a word as we made our way to the door; none of the usual back and forth we could do this or we could take that wall out, move this here. Not a word. Just silence.

I am not easily thrown off by sights like dirty orange shag rugs with matching scanty orange Priscillas. Or windows with broken seals. However, this time the degree of dilapidation was debilitating. We just got in our car and headed for home.

About half way home I said to Bill, “It couldn’t have been that bad could it have? Let’s go back! ” You know I have to hand it to him - he is pretty good-natured. Back we went. And what do you suppose happened this time? Exactly the same thing. Long silent stares of disbelief. It was still the dreariest, darkest, most forlorn dungeon-like place we had ever been in. I was quite sure there are prisons that are more inviting.

Back in the car, we headed for home, again. We got just about the same distance  as we did on the previous trip home when I broke the silence again. ” Let’s do it anyway!” And so we did!

Once we were the dubious owners of these two black holes, I went over to visit them a few times to just sit and think, wander around and plan. After getting over to the shocking ugliness of the place, I realized what had to be done. The whole side facing the water had to be torn off and the inside structure had to be changed, all the windows and doors had to go, we had to gut it to the bare studs, all the floors had to be redone, walls had to go up, walls had to come down and we had to tear a good portion of the stairway out. Then I thought we could move ahead!

Is this starting to sound like an enormous job requiring bags of money? If that is what you are thinking you are right on the big job part. But with a little ingenuity it could be done for less money than you might think. This is where reusing, recycling, and creativity come in.

When you renovate a house, never throw anything away until the project is done - not even a broken cedar shingle - it makes a great shim. You just don’t know when and how you might use that piece of seemingly useless material. You can always throw it away when the job is complete, but you may have to pay full price tomorrow for something you discarded today.

A project takes on a life of it’s own and it begins to tell you what it wants to be and you have no control over it. You just have to go with it and gently guide it to be the best that it can be.These houses told me they wanted to be rustic but light and airy beach houses that reflected the light , colors and atmosphere of where they proudly stood on rugged coast of the Bay of Fundy.

Why would I put in a fancy oak staircase with carved newel post and graceful balusters when outside my door strewed all over the beach was a gift left by the particularly high tide unique to the Bay of Fundy - a gift of the most unusual, interesting, creative staircase just waited to be gathered up and put in place. How interesting? How many times have you entered your house with your hands full and left the door open and when you went back to shut the door you found about 20 people staring and remarking “that is one cool stairway!”

The frail little brown rails that seemed weary of holding up the house, we replaced with sturdy, silver grey beams, tossed by the tides until smooth-as-a-baby’s-bottom.Now we had unlocked the doors to creativity. When we started to think about furniture my walk on the beach outside the door every day brought about a solution. Always a new tide, always new possibilities.

How though, were we were to get that exceptionally beautiful very heavy piece of drift wood off the beach? I remembered Bill’s words “don’t think it can’t be done- just figure out how it can be done “. A chain saw could very quickly make 4 table legs out of it. A recycled large piece of glass on top would not obstruct the beauty of the legs and continue that open airy look we were being swept along in.

( We always enjoyed the innocent queries of those who saw this table “How did you ever get four pieces of driftwood exactly the same height?” )

Inspiration will make you do wild things. I once spent a few hours on the bench with a hacksaw cutting a spike off to free up a rather desirous piece of drift wood. (Who says girls don’t sweat!) But I arrived back to the project victorious with my coveted flotsam. Why hang a painting on the wall when this work of art was laying at my feet for the taking. It wasn’t that easy but it was worth the effort!

I was really on a roll now - driftwood pieces were used to build beds, chairs, sofas and believe this or not I was getting people asking if they could buy my creations as fast as I was making them! I could have had a side business going on here. Tempting, but I had to stay focused on my project!

On one of those beach strolls in search for new materials I found a huge flat rock on the beach that was begging to be a table in the beach house. My helpers were starting to get pretty worried whenever I went for a walk! It seemed I could not coach, dare, nag, or even embarrass anyone into helping me get that rather elephantine find off the beach. Time to throw a party!

I invited the right people. I taunted them that no one seemed to be able to get that rock to where I wanted it.The rock was soon in place and you might be amused to learn that the first volunteer was a rather able senior citizen. A little tip, you better know where you want the rock to end up, because this trick only works once!

The walls and ceilings that we stripped in the houses had boards with a very stunning golden patina from years of being bathed in sunlight. I took each board and pulled the nails though backwards so as not to destroy the wood and stacked them off to the side to lay as floors later. These were 100 year old houses and the result was floors that looked like they were original to the house.

There were some really ugly pieces of furniture in the house and you guessed it, they took on a new life. I am sure most people would have taken them to the dump. You just have to look past the avocado green frayed upholstery and realize if this chair was dressed in finer clothes it would be quite beautiful. Structurally it was very sound and it had very graceful lines. Upholstery can be expensive and it might cost more to fix it than it is worth . You might consider a slip cover. A material like unbleached cotton is very durable, washable and inexpensive, and you can match up an odd assortment of chair couches and ottomans. Add a bunch of recycled cushions covered with soft contrasting fabric ends easily found at a fabric shop for a song. The bonus is, all pulled together it looks like no other and is totally unique.

After salvaging what you can, you may have a bunch of ” stuff ” that is just not going to work left over. I still don’t want you to head to the land fill with it. Everyone knows the old saying ” One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. ” You can often trade these pieces in for something that works with your renovation - sometimes with a friend or at a “buy and sell” business or even sell it at a yard sale - just keep it in the re-usable loop instead of adding to the mounting landfills.

You might assume no one wants a table with a missing leg or a missing drop leaf. You are wrong! I rejoice when I see that kind of thing. We needed a cupboard that would fit in with the whitewashed, peeled paint look we were decorating with. I ended up using the leaf of a table, an old door and a bookcase and a couple of recycled boards to build the perfect solution. The leftover legs I liberated from the table, became part of another table. This table we made by cutting a very large door into three pieces to make a pretty special drop leaf table. It cost nothing and it was a real conversation piece.

On one occasion we had a writer along with her husband, stay in the cottage that housed some of our inventions. Friends were scheduled to join them halfway through the week. Before their arrival she had her husband take all their luggage out of the cottage and put them back in the car - just so the arriving guests could see the cottage just as it was before the couple arrived earlier that week. She said she did not want to “mar the beauty of the decor.”

My only question was “how did she convince her husband to do that?!”

Especially if you are decorating or styling an accommodation you are renting to tourist is it important that it be an exceptional experience. It cannot be a cookie cutter of everything else they have seen on their travels. You never want your guests to ask “have we been here before?” If it is a one-of-a-kind experience they will urge everyone they know, ” You just have to go to this place to stay, it is so unique! ‘ You just cannot buy advertising like that!

It was a lot of work. Canadian Gardening magazine featured these houses under ” Great Escapes …worth a visit” and there were only a few places chosen for the article. Also, Coastal Living magazine thought they were worthy of photographing for their magazine. Hundreds of people who came to vacation in them described them as ” beautiful, relaxing and fresh”, “a difficult place to leave”, “truly beautiful,” “a fairy tale vacation”, “lovely”, “delightful”, and “remarkable.” The ugly duckling did indeed turn into a swan!

Do you have any ugly ducklings you need transformed? Call us, we would be delighted to work with you.

The hen house had more than one life as well. All the original parts were recycled materials. It too has stained glass windows with a different chickens portrait in each pane.

 When I need a little patch of the  garden worked I put the chickens out into the moveable pen and they can be moved to any spot I want them to work the ground and weed and fertilize. The chickens are there to compost and work the ground. When the garden is weeded it takes a long time for that to break down in a compost pile - give it to a few little chickens and it is beautiful reusable dirt in half a day with fertilizer added and as an added bonus they give you a few eggs for your considerate offering.

 “Great Expectations” in the Hen House

 A very young friend brought me, in her careful arms, one very large egg , nestled in a strawberry box. Her father found this yet to be hatched unknown in the woods and brought it home to his daughter. This little girl knew that if she could just locate a warm nest with just about any willing bird she might just find out what the potential of this beautiful large egg was! (I should tell you at this point that I had a suspicion she had been carrying this egg around with her for a long time and maybe sleeping with it at night!) She looked at me with those beautiful pleading eyes and made her request. She wanted my little Bantam chickens to take over the incubation.

 I did not want her to get her hopes up, so I told her it probably was not going to happen. Still I knew there was no appealing to reason in this case as this was a matter of the heart. Off we went into the hen house and dropped the large egg beside the three little setting chickens. To my amazement, three of them just stretched out their wings, welcoming the orb as if they had been just waiting for the donation!

 A Tale of Two Sittings 

 In the mean time a predator started to show some interest in the occupants of the hen house. We decided to move chickens to a safer location for their protection. We picked them up and put them in a box for transport. The chickens did not want to go anywhere with out their yet unhatched egg under them. At this point Bill, endowed with more practicality than patience, was all for throwing the alien egg into the bushes, and making those “dumb birds come to their senses and start laying again!”  In the end his compassion proved to be even greater than his sense of expediency, and Bill let them keep their charge.

 We carried that card board box in and out of the greenhouse for it seemed a very long time and thought the chickens might never get out of it ever again until one day out from under a wing popped a little fuzzy bit of life. I could hardly believe my eyes - it was a duck!

 It was the best of times…

 As you might imagine this dysfuntional family made for some humorous moments. This duck who was being raised by chickens tried to adapt to their culture.  The chickens carefully tried to teach him to scratch and unearth worms but he would laze in the sun and when they scratched something up of interest he would jump up and eat in, only to return to his resting place in the shade waiting for the next morsel to appear. The chickens roosted so the duck attempted to roost. And of course since chickens don’t swim, the pond was off limits!

 This earned him the name Chuck Dicken for obvious reasons - he was a duck but thought himself chicken; in short, he was one befuddled fowl. He grew and he grew to the point that, when he insisted in getting under his three mothers for warmth, they were all sitting up in the air on this huge baby duck.

 His adoptive mothers tried their best to teach  to be a chicken - and we tried our best to teach him to be a duck. None of us succeeded. One day Bill threw him in the pond knowing that instinct would take over. In a panic Chuck Dicken beat his way to shore and looked at us as if to say, “What are you trying to do, kill me? I am not going in the water…I’m chicken!” 

 All of Our Twists

 The only thing we felt to do was bring in a very lovely looking female duck. At first Chuck was terrified of such a big scary-looking thing in the pond, still convinced he was a bantam chick. Now I know that many creatures aren’t supposed to have self-awareness but, something happened that was like an epiphany for Chuck. One still day when the crystal clear pond had not a ripple on it, and well lit from the sun, Chuck went to the waters edge for a drink and caught a glimpse of his own reflection.  Suddenly he seemed to realize he looked an awful lot like that big bird he saw swimming around out there in his very large drinking bowl. 

 This new fact forced Chuck to rethink his position on the intruder. She was rather attractive - and Chuck was now smitten. And what do you do when you are in love - whatever you have to - even if it means learning to swim. And so Chuck Dicken accepted his “Duckiness,” and he and his new friend lived, I suppose, happily ever after. ~Mary

One day, as I was poking around a used building supply yard, I had a serendipitous moment! Undiscovered treasures awaited me just around the back of the main building.  I ran to find Bill to tell him of my valuable find. Bill reluctedly came to see what generated such excitement only to find a stash of douglas fir windows and a carefully rescued set of vintage french doors. But it was more than that - it was a greenhouse waiting to happen!

Bill had to agree douglas fir was perfect for a greenhouse and it all definitely had potential. After assuring him the 100 mile distance from our house was no obstacle and what a necessary addition this was to our happiness he graciously consented to the scheme.

Making Plans

As we often do, we discussed the possibilities and made our plans carefully over some delicable morsels of food. We decided to leave the floor dirt to enable me to maximize the square footage that could be used for planting. Of course, we made sure there would be room for all the antiques - like chairs and benches - so you have a place to sit while you have a cup of tea or read a book as you watch the plants grow. Of course you need to find all the accessories, like old organ parts to put candles on, pots of flowers, collections to display, watering cans and old clay pots. After all, it has to be a place you enjoy being in if you are going to work in it.

We were able to rescue, a commercial-grade stainless sink - complete with drainboards - that just fit across the back wall, from going to a landfill site.  It was just a perfect place to repot plants and  do other dirty work!

Ready for Planting

The first thing I plant in the greenhouse in the early spring is lettuce. The sun through the glass warms the earth enough to germinate lettuce and give a good crop long before you can plant outside in the garden. I let the chickens compost the lettuce in the greenhouse and then plant peppers and tomatoes right in the dirt floor. Anywhere else I can put pots of basil. When the ground warms up enough  I  then plant lettuce and the like outside.

All the window sills have little pots of flowers - some just for color and beauty - but others are working as suppliers of edible flowers. Once it is too cold for the peppers in the fall I moved them to my indoor greenhouse where they produce for me all winter. In the winter the greenhouse provides a home for my ducks. The pond can be frozen over in our Northern climes, so the greenhouse offers safe haven for the ducks including protection from anyone seeking them harm. In return the ducks compost and nourish the ground for the spring crop. It’s a real symbiotic relationship!

Greenhouse II

We have another greenhouse that was also made from reclaimed windows. It has a unique and  amazing entrance system that was originally  made for a movie set. When I came across this marvel in a renovators warehouse I have to tell you my heart beat furiously in my chest! Much to the entertainment of the fun-loving lady on duty that day, there was some serious lobbying and negotiating that took place. I just could not let this one get away!

Now that we had our focal point we needed to build around that. Having found such a treasure, all the work of loading this extremely large piece onto a flatbed truck and the 100 mile trek back home was more than worth the effort!

An Immense Project

To build this greenhouse, we had to cut a hole in the side of our studio that was about eight feet by nine feet. That was  a bold step to take. I remembered one of those exercises Bill gets participants to do in in one of his management courses: “Rather than tell me why it can’t be done let us think of all the reasons it can be done!” And so it was done  - and what a thing of beauty it turned out to be! How often does a whole project come into being because of one outstanding piece that needs to be showcased!

The entrance system had some wonderful stained glass that beautifully filtered and reflected the sunlinght.  From a previous day’s mission, I had  three pretty antique lead cane windows stashed away for just such a project.  These windows were delivered to me folded up in a drawer. (If you are having trouble picturing that don’t worry - you would have trouble making sense of it even if you were looking right at them - I know I did!!)  I knew then that when the day came for me to be inspired I would not find it so daunting!

The day had come and I carefully unfolded the mangled windows and assessed their new life potential. I carefully removed all the old lead cane and broken pieces and washed up what I felt was usable for my new project. I set the other pieces aside to be revisited another day.  Necessity calls for invention so I squirreled them away again until another project would call them out of the drawer again.

I now took my clean and very unusual old glass pieces and refoiled them individually, pieced and soldered them together into what became two very large and very beautiful windows. These graced the glass walls of the greenhouse and filtered the sunrise in such a special way as to make you feel you always wanted to spend every morning working there. Special moment like these just shouldn’t be missed and not left to chance.

The bricks in the walkway of the greenhouse came from an old chimney we tore down. We cleaned up the bricks and laid them down to create a path.

To increase the usable space of the greenhouse we put plants on pulleys and built big indoor window boxes to grow basil and added shelves under the windows inside to put pots of rosemary and other tender herbs on as well as shelves wherever there was space to maximize what could be grown in the space. There are always pots of flowers just for color to make you feel happy.

You would be amazed how much you can grow in a small space if it is laid out right. ~Mary

I was looking for a potting shed. On a drive down a little dirt road I spotted it.  There it was hiding behind a house recently sold  and scheduled to be torn down. It was a tar-papered, rather bedraggled little outhouse, a bit past it’s prime - but perfect! As is often said of old houses …it had “good bones!”
You really need to have your eyes wide open when you are driving around the countryside…there are possibilities everywhere! Do not look at what it is, look at what it wants to be!

This was not just your run-of-the-mill outhouse - it was an outhouse with an addition! The former owners, long since upgraded to indoor plumbing, converted the outhouse into a woodshed. My imagination kicked into overdrive, and I saw the possibilities.

Before embarking on the dubious task of convincing my husband Bill that I had indeed found something “very-special-that-was-impossible-to-pass-up,” I  had to persuade the new property owners that they could part with the outhouse.  Should have been easy enough-after all it was just an outhouse. To my surprise they informed me they would have to discuss the matter with the Board of Directors!

Time to start high level negotiations. Bill and I were running The Fairy Tailor Restaurant. Our cheese cake was pretty well known- some would say “World famous in the Annapolis Valley.” I told them there was a cheesecake in it for them-  “Negotiations 101″ - you have to make them an offer they cannot refuse.  It worked! I was now the proud owner of a rather pale privy.

I wish I could report that Bill was overjoyed.  But as you might agree, “I want to bring home an outhouse,” is not a confession that most are prepared to receive!  However, Bill also likes cheesecake, and so the building would find a new resting place.

The Move

What is involved in transporting a little decrepit building from one village to another? Let me acquaint you with the process. You need a flatbed truck to haul it on. To get it on the flatbed  you probably need a crane. We did not have a crane. Time to improvise. We had an electric  power saw so we planned to cut the structure in two pieces (it was almost there anyway!)  To use a power saw  you need electricity.  Since there was no power on the property we had to get a generator. Still, to get the two pieces on the flatbed with no crane, you need lots of man power-what are friends for?

The expedition was all coordinated and we were  good to go.  My really good friends don’t question my judgment…they have been here before and they know it would be pointless!

Things always take longer than you think.  No one brought lunch. (Was that my job?) Thankfully, there was a plum tree growing beside the outhouse. It was just loaded with fat, lucious plums- ripe to the point that they practically hopped off the branch into our welcoming hands. Our crew ate their fill and then stuffed their pockets for the trip.

We meandered our way through the little village with our bisected outhouse. The tattered  tar-paper flapped in the wind as we drove. As our crew continued consuming the plums they had cached in their pockets,  I could not help caution them, “If you eat anymore of those plums I think we might be glad we brought an outhouse with us! “

The Transformation

We arrived safely to our destination and deposited the outhouse in its new place of honor. The neighbors were horrified! Not everyone shares my impeccable perception! I asked them to be patient, it would soon to be transformed.

First we put a new floor in the shed and then a new roof. We resided the walls that were threadbare, added windows and a skylight. I made a cupola with a hoe on top to make sure their was no mistaking what it was to be used for. I stopped all other work to make stained glass windows from my scrap glass to fit the spots that cried out for them. It was ready for the furniture!

I remembered at this point there was a rather special little primitive drop leaf desk at one of the antique dealers and so I gathered what ever I thought was needed for a good trade and headed out to make my deal. While there I noticed a particularly suited mantle that would fit the patina I had going on and would just fit under one window for my collection of old clay pots.

Now we had our most important pieces we could build on this. In came a couple of chairs, a little table, a bench, an old stove piece with wonderful hand painted tiles, hooked rugs, a little child’s spool bed to attach to the wall to hang the tools off of. It is good to have a stash to go to when you have project like this and all you need is one thing you love that works and then all the other things will just fall into place. It could be one old pot, a chair, a plate, anything to set the stage for patina, color, style etc. It is the morsel that gets the digestive juices flowing.

Now we had to marry the “Potty Shed” -as we now called it-to the garden. Nothing could have been easier. We had to expand the garden up to meet it and add window boxes filled with edible flowers and herbs. Some things are just for beauty but everything has to give something back if it wants to occupy space, even a window box!

The Unveiling

Now we were ready to face the world, and face the world we did when the “Potty Shed” was featured in Country Gardens magazine as the “Structures Award Winner.” Later it was featured in Country Living magazine and was mentioned in Garden Shed.

Did I mention it was also a useful building? (That’s for Bill’s ears.~Mary)

…the first reaction is disbelief. It doesn’t seem real. It can’t be possible. Is this a dream?

Tovah Martin- La Vie Claire

Come to Lavender Walk , a place of dreams that promises to make you smile.

Trusts our instincts and let us take your heart on a journey…

As you make your way through the cottage entrance, a tangle of roses, ivy and wisteria, into a room adance with sunlight, you will know with all your senses you have entered a refuge where you can be a world away.

The little Nova Scotia cottage has the most romantic of settings, in the middle of “Monet’s” garden, a dazzling tangle of pink, blue and white- a perfumed confetti of roses, foxglove, delphinium, poppies…

Lovely small touches are everywhere to give a welcome as fresh as a summer breeze- lavender on your pillow, fresh flowers in every room and special treats you can only imagine came from an angel’s lunchbox!

As evening cloaks the garden with intimacy and candlelight mingles with starlight, the lavender scented breeze sweeps through the bedroom as you tuck yourself between your crisp sheets of your summer nest. Surrender yourself to the serenity of the night.

Awaken to the sun-washed rooms that hold promise of another day that will be the stuff that dreams are made of.

The rambling gardens lapping at the door of the little Nova Scotia garden cottage  are yours to enjoy. When summer is in full bloom, walk the garden to see what is fresh and blooming and return with whatever inspires you. If it is your fancy, make some jelly from some of the  ripe, juicy,berries that hop from the garden into your hand. Relax on the deck as you slip into a chair with say a Lemon Balm tea dressed up with festive ice cubes frozen with bright borage blossoms which add a faint hint of cucumber. Mary will be happy to show you how to savor some of summer’s bounty.

Where does good food start? With great ingredients! You cannot substitute anything for fresh organic ingredients and expect to get any where near the same results.  If you can grow it and pick it just before you need it so much the better!

That is how we did it at the Fairy Tailor’s Restaurant.  If you  glanced out the window during your meal here you might catch a glimpse of Mary searching the garden.  What is fresh and most appealing and what inspires her? Then back to the kitchen with it  to put the finishing touches on the pick of the menu. And if you ordered a pot of herbal tea you might see Bill dash out the door, hurdle the fence to the garden to pick it. You can’t get it any fresher than that! 

So, we have the fresh ingredients, now we need to marry the flavors harmoniously. It has been suggested some have an extra sense that allows to create their culinary concoctions.  However, with good instruction, just about any of us can create a tantalizing enough offering to tease the taste buds into pleasure mode.

Recipes work - if you know when to follow them

How closely must  the instructions be followed? So glad you asked - I have a  couple of stories for you. One day, I was asked for one of my recipes  and I happily shared it. I went to visit the recipients some time later and they offered me the results of their effort. They mentioned they had substituted a few things. I am sorry to report that it was unrecognizable.

On the other hand I was given a recipe once by a friend and I substituted fresher, higher-quality ingredients. As it happened,  I served this to my friend when she visited and she raved about it  and asked me if she could have the recipe. I did not have the heart to tell her it was her recipe!

Ingredients should also be chosen for texture and color. Visual qualities enhance the ingredients. It is the artful marriage of cooking and presentation.

We need to keep in mind that food, like clothes, has a style and we don’t want to be wearing clothes that are way out of date any more than we want our menu to look tired and like yesterday’s news. However we don’t want to be so trendy that we forget our main focus - making good food that is timeless. A well chosen combination of ingredients should be like a symphony to our taste buds rather than a heavy metal group that is banging and screeching away on our palate.

You may not have your own garden, and even if you do, you may not be able to grow  everything you need.  So you need to source out high quality, reliable suppliers. How do I find them? How do I get the quality and service I need?

“If you build it, they will come?”

Sorry folks - but if you hear a voice whisper to you as you walk through your cornfield, promising that if you build something customers will come - seek medical attention! Stuff like that only happen in the movies. Merely opening a restaurant does not guarantee that that you will have a successful business.   If your dishes are insipid - or worse yet - unpalatable, customers will not visit more than once. And world of mouth will undermine your efforts to publicize your establishment no matter how much you spend on advertising if your food (or service) is bad. Focus on making good food and people will find you. 

Cuisine does not have to be a passive experience - eating what someone else has created. People need to know what makes your dishes so unique and wonderful. Educate them. Getting others involved, will almost certainly ensure that they enjoy the whole experience. 

Do you want people to hear about you?  How do you find the best suppliers? How do you get the quality and service?  Let us help you do so. We are here to help you - contact LavenderWalk for a consulation.