a contented goodbye to the old garden

Today is closing day for the buyer of the former Tangly Cottage.  (The business name moves with us, but I will probably think of that house as Tangly until the new residents give it a name of their own!)  Any minute now the papers will be filed at the courthouse up in South Bend and Jon will be the new owner.

The change is not as poignant as I thought it would be because I could not be happier with the sale.  In 1993, a year before I bought the little cottage, I was invited into a tiny house in Seaview, where I saw the most cunning and beautiful built in storage areas and wood inlays from driftwood collected on the beach.  The brilliant carpentry work was by a man named Jon, and after I acquired my own tiny house, I often thought that if I did not spend ALL my money on the garden, I would love to have him come and make the inside of the tiny house perfect.

So, many years later, who should be the buyer of my little house but the very same Jon!  It is a gift to the house, which was well loved by me, but whose potential has never been realized.  Jon already has plans brewing, and the lack of extreme poignancy in the sale is the fact that I will get to see the results.

We had a walk through the garden before the sale closed and he showed a great interest in the plants and mentioned that he would have to learn Latin names now.  True, a lot of the plants I left behind don’t even have common names.  Jon’s partner, and a friend of theirs, are good gardeners, so the garden will be well loved also.   I thought I would have to do a last farewell walk around and say goodbye to the plants left behind, but I feel no need because I know they are going into good hands. Jon’s a civic minded chap, so I also think his residency here will be a gift to Ilwaco.

Allan kept an eye on the house for the last week because of freezing cold weather.  One day when he went over to make sure no pipes had frozen, he took some photos of the house and garden in snow.  So here’s a farewell slideshow:

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It certainly is going to take awhile before our new garden has the kind of quirky character that 16 years brought to the old one.  We almost tried to take those two big lower arbours to New Garden, but when I asked our real estate agent, Cheri Diehl of Discovery Coast Real Estate, if she thought it would make a difference, she said “Wait a week!”, with an air of mystery that let me know someone who appreciated the garden as it was might be thinking of buying.  I had told her I hoped for the perfect buyer, and her agent, Warren, certainly found me one.

When we went in to Discovery Coast Real Estate Friday to sign the final papers, there were hugs all around…between Jon and I, realtor Warren and I, glowing happy faces.  Would that all  home sales had such swift and happy outcomes. I picture the little green, purple and blue house  eagerly waiting for someone who will lavish lots of love and skill on the inside.  Little house, today is the day that your new life begins!

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