Immediately the drive opens into a meadow where stands, morosely in the bright sun, a small cottage. From the meadow, the view reveals the fields and highway below, and the unfortunate burgeoning development above. Then, once again the drive penetrates the protective green of vegetation, the verticality of the trees. Behind the cottage and below the drive down to the main road creeps a tangled wood of rank old apple trees and blueberry shrubs. The road continues, twisting, until on the left, about halfway up the mountain, sits the house, nestled among large boxwoods and protected by hemlock, dogwood, beech, oak and hickory.
Birds sing, the thwack thwack of woodpeckers resonate through the woods.
The interior, of course, reflects the vision of Jonathan's parents, Ben and Georgette, who over their years together conceived and crafted Skywinding Farm on Happy Hill. That visit them. This rug, with its folksy homily has become emblematic of my visits to Highlands. The honesty, the directness, the loveliness, are all there as we walk across it numerous times during the day and night. For me he expresses the strong, isolated groundedness of the Celtic race.