Coast Guard Beach, Eastham, MA Nov. 2012
corner of the guest bedroom, Stephanie and Jessie’s house, Orleans, MA
seashore marsh, Nov. 2012
back stairs
bureau tableau
Coast Guard Beach swell, Nov. 2012
vignette on the bureau
Nauset Beach buried by Hurricane Sandy
a warm fall day on Nauset
bedside detail
three generations of Cape Cod girls
a mantel
dining room
dining room
taking a rest by the seashore marsh
living room
Coast Guard Station
Oliver at Nauset
a quiet corner of the master bedroom
winter berries and bay
Thanksgiving table
Solvi and Gram at the National Seashore walk
I deviated from my regular format today because I couldn’t bare to interrupt the narrative recounted by the pictures above. Their’s is a tale of a home’s interior, completely in tune with the landscape outside. And that landscape is Cape Cod in fall.
If you happen to stick around that long, you will find the Cape in autumn to be a very different place. After the fleeting, frenzied abandon of summer tourists, one is left with quieter, more nuanced, Cape. Here you will find that the dancing contrasts of deep azure and amber gold have soften into more symbiotic layers of sand and silver and pale blue. The smells of suntan oil and fish fry have been replaced by the more subtle aroma of bay berry and salt marsh. No longer people, Nature is now the central character in this dynamic landscape. With each storm she re-sculpts the landscape, reworking her canvas with each passing sunset.
This is the landscape that I found while documenting the annual activities of our family on Thanksgiving weekend. Here, while unpacking my things in my Aunt’s guest room or watching the dog show in the master bedroom, I discovered in the interior, the same cool warmth and quiet dynamism of the world outside.
For, just as the architecture of a home should relate to its surrounding site – its planes echoing the topography, its windows absorbing the view – so too should the inside be informed by the landscape. And not in the form of, say, nautical paraphernalia all around your beach home, but in a more subtle reflection of the colors and textures outside.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
simply. beautiful.
Dear Justine,
These photos bring me to Serenity and Gratitude. Thank you.
Love & Light,
Valerie
The perfect Thanksgiving! I always want to be on the East coast in autumn. I love the West coast, but in autumn, the East coast is the place to be.
I’m so excited I just found your blog! It is truly delightful to see all these images from the cape. I will be moving from Northern CA to Dartmouth for grad school next fall. So fun to see such beautiful and fresh images. Thank you!