noramurphycountryhouse.com

After 18 years, we left our beloved Connecticut country house in Newtown, and started a new chapter at our now beloved Connecticut country house in Hadlyme. Actually our friends were calling it that way before we were! Our 1820 Samuel Brooks Connecticut Country House is right by the fabulous Connecticut River. The beautiful historic house itself, the amazing location, our wonderfully welcoming new friends, and the breathtaking sunsets on the river, have helped so much in kicking off our new chapter.

Two weeks from today, we will have sold our beautiful 1767 Connecticut country house in Newtown to a lovely couple from New Jersey, and moving to a newer (1820) Connecticut country house on the Connecticut River in Lyme! We knew we wanted the next country house to have historical integrity, and to hopefully be in a familiar area where we would set down new roots. We’ve been visiting the shoreline area of Essex and Lyme for as long as we’ve been a couple, so part of our hearts definitely live there. We will miss the sweet family of hummingbirds that return every year, and the unbelievable fragrance of the mature Viburnum shrub/tree by the back stone walk that always blooms in time for Mother’s Day.

Being homebound, I’m looking to the gardens outside our windows that are ever so slowly coming back to life. This is what I look forward to each year. But this year, with all that we are dealing with, these gardens mean more to me than they ever have before. They represent life, as well as hope and faith that they’ll keep coming up every year.

Spring is literally around the corner next week, and even though my long bank of Forsythia at Connecticut Country House is not yet in bloom, the faux forsythia wreaths and bouquets at my entrances certainly are! The way I look at decorating my doors is to follow what’s flowering each season. This makes my doors look like there’s a natural connection to their surroundings. On WFSB’s Better Connecticut, I thought this was a fun and timely thing to share with Scot and Kara.