Site of three memorable Flora and Henri photoshoots over the years, The Beach has an immeasurable, sweeping and generational place in my heart.

For whatever relatively unfathomable reasons, we are never there before Memorial Day or post Labor Day, but those dates mark the unquestionable bookends of ‘summer’ for me. 

A site that began with a modest beach house and big deck on a bay on the inside of a sandspit on Puget Sound, added to bit-by-bit over the past 50 years by parents and their vision for an enduring family retreat, has become a place of generations gathering, of time in nature – with both flora and fauna – and of sea and sky and sand and wonder.

As I return from the starting line of Memorial Day, I am reminded of all the things that this place has built in me, from my love of gardening, the design of simple open airy space where family can gather and be cozy no matter what the weather brings, the nearby nature reserve where we can run and walk dogs and escape into the oxygen-rich forestscape, and of course, where I can stand by and assist as my magnificent Australian beach-loving husband fishes and gathers and cooks and sits us all around an extended family table.

THE GARDENS

Never the same from day to day, or from year to year.

I am old enough to see the connection to the products and environment of Flora and Henri and how it is all tied together, along with how much this place has influenced the lifestyle I promote and present at the shop. 

FLOWERS IN EVERY ROOM

The gardens come indoors in our ever changing bouquets.

NATURE RESERVE

Viva Summer!

~jane