Voyage of the Black Phoebe: To the Manor Borne

Day Eighteen evening and Nineteen: June 21^st

Georgian sensibleness: Westcove House

The view from the house

Alida Evans, Steve's sister, and Joe, Alida's husband, have rented a wonderful complex of buildings for this week-long gathering. We are all here to enjoy a stunningly beautiful sea and shore region —a place our nephew Jevon loved deeply and felt as home. The first night Steve and I cooked dinner for Joe and Alida, their son Ehren and his wife Birgit, and their two kids Tobin and Landon. Also here were Birgit’s sister Sabine and her husband Helle, their two kids Matthea and Ellie, Birgit and Sabine’s parents Karl-Heinz and Hildegard, and Birgit’s good friend Bettina and her husband Mark. Alida and Joe’s good friends Jim and Patti from Wisconsin and Patti’s daughter Emily, and Emily’s partner Joe, and Joe’s daughter Annabelle sat down to dinner. The week would only grow more full, swelling to at least thirty for dinner. Steve and I had it easy with only seventeen to feed.

Dinner was consumed with thoroughness so it must have been alright. Monica, Alida and Bettina

This place is called Westcove House. A manor house built around 1740, it is furnished in old Austrian hunting lodge furniture from the 18^th century and beautiful chinese paintings and ceramics. It is old world luxurious. On the grounds are a converted stable where most of the kids and parents are staying. Also converted to lodging is a garden cottage. There are boats and kayaks in a stone boathouse and the grounds extend all the way down to the sea and surround the cutest harbor on the planet—Westcove.

The view from the tiny Westcove harbor back up at the house.

As Steve and I were second to arrive we got to choose the room where we would sleep. We chose two rooms with twin beds and an adjoining passage. The view from these rooms is stupendously pretty, towards the sea and the big trees. As you can see from the photos it was not a huge stretch for people to start calling me Princess Monica.

My mantel with nice ceramics and monkeys

My princess bed

My princess footboard

The 18th century armoire, though I cannot believe it, except for its obviously old lock.

Armoire panel art. By the way, these were taken with my revived phone!

The view from my bed

Passage between my room and Steve's, he also has a Hunting Lodge armoire.

The rustic monk's quarters, all he needs.

The first full day here, a day of rest—Sunday, I pretty much stayed in the deluxe digs and caught up with email and the blog. It felt great to not pack so much in. Stephen and a good portion of the family went on a hike above a cove west of Westcove, shown here: