House Guests

The above quote is from Terry John Woods’ book, Summer House, and I love it completely.  In so many ways it reminds me of our own home.  Our house by the beach isn’t just a summer house, it is our year round abode, but I hope when guests come they feel they can breath in the fresh salt air, curl up on our sunny deck with a good book and relax.  I hope they feel they are in a little seaside oasis here on the Irish Riviera.

We actually have some house guests here at the moment.  Our friends, Nathan and Jessi, are visiting from Nebraska and we can’t wait to share our part of New England with them.  They went sailing the other night around Hingham Harbor and today we’re heading to our favorite beach, Minot Beach,  to soak up some sun:

Summer is still in full swing at our house.  I haven’t had the heart yet to change the mantel to fall.  I mean it is going to be 80 degrees today so it just doesn’t seem right to put away the sea glass and shells. Maybe I’ll pull the fall decor out next week…

Nautical pennants hang in John’s room year-round:

I never tire of looking at these flags from his bed.

Like Terry John Wood’s summer home, our kitchen is always a jumble of chaos.  Play dough and legos are done at the kitchen table.  There is always a piece of furniture being painted over in the corner of the dining room and a pot of soup usually simmers on the oven or bacon sizzles in the cast iron skillet (as it is while I type this and, boy, is it making me hungry).  We’re looking forward to doing a mini New England clambake for our friend on Saturday night with fruits from the sea and fresh produce from Sweet Georgia P’s.  

We plan on taking them to our favorite restaurants and also a trip to Plymouth to look at antiques and Plymouth Rock.

I’m a summer girl at heart and  I hope my “summer house” is a relaxing retreat this weekend for our friends.  Hope you all have a lovely, relaxing weekend, too!