Hydrangea Hill Cottage: cottages

Showing posts with label cottages. Show all posts

Monday, April 04, 2016

Windover 1 & Windover II

Good morning!

Here I am in Nova Scotia again........came over last week to stay with our grandchildren while their parents are enjoying a little getaway.

It's really, really cold here this week with a bit of snow yesterday, but I still have cottages on my mind.

The cottages I'm sharing today are really unique in that there's a main house and then a cottage/guesthouse/boathouse. How would you like that?!

They're located in Muskoka, Ontario.........an area well known for it's posh weekend living with over 100,000 summer residents who live in mega mansions. (Year round residents number about 60,000.)

According to Wikipedia, "many of the seasonal properties are large mansion-like summer estates, some of which have been passed down through families from generation to generation. Most of these expensive properties can be found along the shores of Muskoka's three major lakes: Lake Muskoka, Lake Rosseau, and Lake Joseph. In recent years, various Hollywood and sports stars have built retreats in Muskoka, including Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Mike Weir,^[2] Martin Short, Harry Hamlin, Cindy Crawford, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell."

That gives you an idea of summer living in Muskoka!

Enjoy!

Windover I

The main house.

Windover II

Guesthouse/Boathouse

Just park your boat next to the living room!

Love this living room in the boathouse.

The family room.

Muskoka Living

Thursday, November 12, 2015

TBT - Now and Then with Toby West

Good morning, Everyone!

I can hardly believe it's Thursday again.......seems like it was just yesterday.

I have a real treat for you today. How many of you remember Toby West?

Toby West is a southern interior designer whose work was published in many magazines during the past twenty years or so. However, in recent years he seemed to have disappeared from the media. I tried to find out more about him a few months ago and discovered he had opened (and since closed) an antique shop in Cashiers, NC.

I had a few of his homes from some old issues of Veranda magazines that I wanted to share with you. I picked one, at random, off my shelf last night and there was a Toby West home in it. Later, as I was catching up on some of my usual blogs, I found his current home in Cashiers on 'A Ribbon in my Journal'..........a blog by Phyllis Hoffman who happens to be the publisher of Southern Home magazine, Victoria magazine and others. So, Toby's current cabin is in the latest issue of Southern Home which is on the stands now.

I absolutely love his cabin in the mountains of Cashiers. His warm red interiors (I'm a red lover, too) are so homey and inviting.

Now:

Apparently, Toby designed a number of interiors in Seaside and Watercolor, Florida over the years. So, in the past, his look had softer, coastal colors - but always a very traditional and comfortable vibe.

So, here we have his cabin in the mountains and a cottage in Florida.

Enjoy!

Then:

Which would you choose - cabin or cottage? Let me know!

Have a wonderful day!

Friday, December 02, 2011

There's No Place Like Home......

As mentioned in my previous post, we were off on a little break to Harbour Island in the Bahamas. I was hoping to see 'The Lone Tree' which had washed ashore years ago during a hurricane, but alas, Hurricane Irene had blown through in August and taken it back!! So much for a picture under that tree!

It's like the time I went to London and eagerly anticipated visiting the bookstore on Charing Cross Road that was written about in 84 Charing Cross Road........loved that story and movie!! However, by the time I got there, all I found was a plaque on the side of a pizza restaurant commemorating the well-known shop which had closed years before.

I must say, though, that this visit to Harbour Island was lovely by any standard. Warm, balmy, picturesque and slow paced......it was a perfect place to relax and enjoy two weeks of sun, sightseeing and great food. And three miles of pink sand beach was pretty spectacular!

The fact that there were virtually no vehicles on the island appealed to us as well......getting around by golf cart, or by foot, was just what we needed......for the first week, we walked and then we rented a golf cart for the second week.

Trying out the various inns at lunch and dinner was a real treat, as they all have executive chefs, so the food was outstanding.

But, all in all, I was quite happy just wandering around taking pictures of some of the delightful little shops and the array of pastel colored cottages surrounded by white picket fences. The town of Dunmore is an artist's dream!

But, at the end of the day......there really is 'no place like home'!