Low Down Articles
Houses of the Gatineau Hills
Low Down Articles
Houses of the Gatineau Hills
Article 46 of 74
This article first appeared in the "Houses of the Gatineau Hills" column in the July 28, 2010 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
o o o
Canadian home in harmony with forest and wildlife
by Gavin Thomson
Beneath the deck of Maureen and Andrew Salkeld's white pine log house, perennial flowers spill down a steep rockery and into the front garden. Trees and crafted wooden fence border the garden from the road. The fence is made from rounded branches that curve like giant twigs and the garden is shaped like a water drop. The centre is coloured by a flowerbed and the tip narrows through a wooden arbour made of wood shaped in the same artistic fashion as the fence. The idea behind the garden, Maureen said, "is that you come into the garden and are drawn in, and want to go farther in."
Past the arbour is a shaded nook with a bench under a willow tree. Up the hill the right side flowerbeds are bright in the sun, but the left side is shaded. A footpath leads to the "patio garden," beside the house where the forest and the Canadian Shield meet the small paved garden. On the far side of the house is the third garden - the croquet lawn surrounded, of course, with more of Maureen's flowers and shrubs. Maureen and Andrew planted trees 17 years ago so that the gardens could be a place to sit quietly, read, meditate or drink a cup of tea or a glass of wine with friends. "A garden should be a place to sit in, not just work in," Maureen says.
Behind the gardens and house are two acres of forest. On a hill higher than the house, the Salkelds have built a delightful wooden gazebo, hidden in the forest. Inside there are two hammocks and a yoga mat while many wooden carvings adorn the window shelves.
The house itself, which sits in Morrison Heights in Wakefi eld, is a clean, well lighted-place. "It doesn't matter where you look," Andrew said, "There are windows on all sides and most of the doors of the house are made of glass."
"Everywhere you look, there's light."
It's quiet, too, no sound of pipes or air conditioning. With the help of Russ Zietz, a local house builder, carver and artist, the Salkelds started building their 2,300 square foot home 20 years ago with the plan that it would harmonize with the surrounding forest and wildlife. For that reason, and because, according to Andrew, "if you're a real Canadian, you should live in a log house," the entire structure is wood. Even the staircase and railings inside are designed just like the fence outside. The steps bend as wood bends, and the railing curves like a long branch, with stubs and dips where branches used to be. The forest seemingly approves. Birds visit the feeders around the deck, squirrels eat from a little wooden box that distracts them from the garden, bats visit the bat houses under the eves, and sometimes woodpeckers even knock on the walls and look in the window at the Salkelds as if to say, "What are you doing here?" The house is "a beautiful, living thing," Andrew said.
The furniture and furnishings are quite international. Andrew and Maureen have travelled extensively for work and pleasure. Their paintings, plates, carpets, musical instruments, tables, chairs and more come from, among other places, Thailand, Iraq, China, Cambodia, East Africa, Turkey, and, of course, England, where Andrew was born and where Maureen went to boarding school as a girl. But yet, the overall look and feel of this beautiful home is distinctly Canadian. "Everything comes with a purpose, but only as a result of aesthetic choice," Andrew said.
The Salkelds enjoy their privacy, but always extend an invitation to the elderly and those at the Manoir Home to visit and enjoy the gardens.