On The Crush List because…
We all need to work a little whimsy into our landscapes.
I’d love it if someone would ask me to organize an International Folly Tour for them. No, not that kind of tour. I mean a tour where we’d visit a variety of famous follies, or “buildings that are often eccentric in design or construction” that look useful but are really just for decoration. Buildings like the Swallow’s Nest in Crimea or the Creaking Pagoda in Russia. Much of our tour would need to be spent in the UK, which makes complete sense in a droll, dry-humory kind of way. And apparently Ireland is jam-packed with follies, not because the Irish are such pranksters but because folly constructions were popular government make-work projects during the Potato Famine and as a result the country is a gold mine of “roads in the middle of nowhere; screen and estate walls; piers in the middle of bogs; etc.”
Round Top’s best examples of the genre can be found in the form of birdhouse-styled garden follies by Ludmil at Willow Nest. I saw my first one along the entry walk at N°3 in Round Top and fell in love with the country chic styling. Good thing I had the chance to see Willow Nest’s gorgeous booth at Marburger on Preview Day last fall because when I went back three days later it was pretty much shopped clean.
On a personal note, my house came with a sort of pitiful little structure in the yard that I’ve found looks a whole lot better if I tell myself, “It’s not a shabbily constructed gazebo, it’s a folly!” If you also have an unfortunate structure in your view, you might want to give it a try.
I’m assuming the doves were sold with their gorgeous cage but I didn’t ask so here’s hoping they didn’t become a pot pie. (Too droll? Sorry!)
