Create Nourishing Flourishing Home Utopias
Highlands Country Club in Highlands NC hosts a number of croquet tournaments in the summer..in fact, it is a spectacular success! We designed the new practice court to the right and sited the pavilion. This winter stone walls were added to provide places to perch…over 225 people might show up for a match and there is limited space!
I’m a stickler for typically British drinks and this one is the BEST! While mother and I were visiting the Museum of Garden History in London, a million years ago, an attractive set of english ladies were seated beside us and getting all giggly. They were sipping on elderFLOWER wine and having a great time….Sambucus nigra . In America, we grow the native, Sambucus canadensis.
Since then, I’ve tried making elderflower frisee, a slightly fizzy drink made with lemons, sugar and elderflower. Delicious…drink after just 24 hours. Now, I’ve advanced into wine-making. In 2008, a bumper year of elderflowers was on our doorstep. I plucked and fluffed, soaked and stewed. Not having champaign yeast, I used household yeast ( not recommended) and bottled up waaay more than I could even imagine possible. Several years (too many) I decided to try a bottle. It was a bit acid, but had a kick, so I diluted it with …muscadine wine and it was PERFECT!
This time , I’ve another bumper crop of flowers. Picked from behind Zollar’s Hardware in Cashiers, the blossoms were spectacular. I soaked them to float out the bugs, then warmed the sugar to dissolve. I prefer stevia and zylitol, but didn’t have any ready at hand. Next weekend I’ll do a trial of other sweeteners. Be sure to strip the flowers from the stem; stems contain calcium oxalate, not a great thing to ingest for the kidney stone prone. I added water, grape skin from Isons, sultanas, lemons, lemon juice and household yeast. I read that it should set up for 5 days. Hmmm, I’ve got 4 vats working and they are very pretty. I’ll report on the progress soon. First, I have to drink all those bottles from 2008!
I often get asked how to anchor a gate into a column…and here you see it!
Concrete blocks poured solid, a 6″ metal column in the center with welded gate flanges of 4 wide” metal protrude past the future veneered by at least 3″ to enable a good connection to the future hinges.
This work was done by Paul Milsap and Wayne Anders under the direction of Scott Wendendorff of Chiquipin Builders in Cashiers, NC at the Forehand residence in Cullasaja.
High Pinnacle in Cashiers, NC offers blasting winds and a glorious view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Dru and Enis James seized the golden ring with this mountain top eyrie. But where to put future family events…aka: a swing set of grandchildren? John Warren install these terraces and the next round was to plant materials that would thrice…Call in the Sedum collations. The James’ new pathway is carpeted with 7 varieties hardy to zone 5, thanks to the fine folks at Saul’s Nursery. Ron Fowler of Grady Mountain, who installed these goodies, is shown in the sunglasses, his workers follow and Enis James carries 2 flats.
When Hugh and I decided to write the next book, we thought about our lifestyle, vision and mission.
What fresh, new, creative and different ways we could communicate the transformation we offer? This appealed to us, two seasoned war horses standing and nickering at the gate.
So, we shot this little film with jimbo Marshall.
My mother is not certain she likes it since I wear make-up and a lab coat, but she is supportive. My, oh so sophisticated, European expat brother suggested it was a bit, hmmm, well…hee-haw. HEE-HAW! What did you expect when you mix a Mary Palmer in a lab coat wearing make-up, with a testimonial from a Poppy…well, just click and see!
Please join us to see more in our move to LANDSCAPE YOUR LIFE : Home Utopias to Sustain, Nourish and Heal… and find out. https://vimeo.com/43574425
Cheers,
Mary Palmer and Hugh
