Introducing Winterhill

The last 12 months has brought many exciting new things for our family – first and foremost the birth of our daughter, Murphy, last November (how has it been a year!?). Second only to her arrival is the news that we have returned to full-timing living in the northeast and have purchased a new home in beautiful + historic Guilford, CT. The house is light-filled and spacious, but it's the sprawling property and gorgeous surrounding land that we just couldn't pass up. Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Winterhill.

The view from our back porch looks out onto an enormous lawn with the forest beyond. The ridge just recently came into view once the trees lost their leaves.

Michael and I came up with the name Winterhill together and it's origins come from a mix of inspirations. First, we're Game of Thrones fanatics and we have a running joke that we've "returned to the North" a la the Stark family (who's home is called Winterfell.) Second, we didn't want to be copycats and were also eager to have the character of the property come through which is where "hill" came into play. Our property slopes upward from the road in a series of hills that crest and then flatten about 2/3rds of the way before descending into the woods. The house is set up on the hill giving us a beautiful vantage point to the property and surrounding land (mostly rural and a mix of meadows and forest).

Our neighbors to the east have a small horse farm.

The front of the house has a generous porch and spacious planting beds that spread out along the foundation. The beds have a few specimen trees and mature evergreen shrubs (which I'm mostly thrilled about) and tons of open space to fill up with perennials. The cherry on top is that it's south-facing. I also love that our driveway is long and a bit curvy as it brings you up the hill to the house.

Our long driveway curves up and through the lawn with the a large meadow to the east and stand of pines to the west.

We're so excited by all the possibilities of all this new space and are amassing a grand wish list of things we want to do here (patio, pool, greenhouse, flower-beds galore, orchard, etc.). I'm also interested, and admittedly, a bit nervous about the biggest new challenge we face here: deer. There is clearly a large community of deer that live here as we see them constantly. I know I'll need to be very strategic (and realistic) about my planting choices to keep from providing them with a new unlimited buffet and myself unlimited frustration.

Colt watches one of *many* deer here munch it's way through the meadow.

The backyard is a blank slate oozing with potential. Right now, we're doing lots of walking around to get a feel for the land, the light, the flow, and how we might envision ourselves moving through the space. I'll be starting a new section and tag just for Winterhill to keep you guys posted on all the goings-on and plans that start coming up here. Stay tuned!

Colt and Michael are thrilled about our newest piece of lawn care equipment.