The Summer Cottage - One-Time Box Purchase

In June 2024, subscribers met the Summer Cottage.

Although the sun continues to rise and set over its garden, the Summer Cottage is a place where time moves differently.  Here, there is ample time to reflect and convalesce; and to turn one’s hand to idle pastimes. Visitors spend the slow afternoons reading, sewing, or simply gazing out the windows. Those who lead the busiest lives sometimes discover that, in the absence of pressing chores and errands, deferred emotions unexpectedly well up. 

The sunlit, whitewashed rooms are full of drawers, bookshelves, and other crannies to explore. A large mirror in an arched frame is propped in the parlor. Visitors who contemplate it realize that the reflection doesn’t quite match the room. The light has a pale green, watery cast; the vases of flowers are arranged a little differently; the mousehole in the baseboard is missing. This is a place of overlap, a place where the veil is thin. Spirits, too, can visit here, nourished by the scent of flowers.

The Summer Cottage Box includes an abundance of beautiful objects; hints and additions to expand the story; a mysterious document; and a lore card.  

Some items are available for individual purchase.

• Mysterious Document
• An instructional document is augmented with marginalia which will help you interpret clues.  It is available only in the Summer Cottage Box.

• Lore Card
• The Summer Cottage are introduced in a full-color collectible 4x6 inch lore card.  The artwork for this month's lore card was created by Joanna Rzepecka, a Warsaw, Poland-based illustrator. She says, "My work is inspired by biodiversity, mainly animals. Through my work, I'm trying to capture moments where nature is untouched by humans. Peaceful scenery, colors, and rough textures are some things that I enjoy the most."

• Flowers for Quickening - Floral Decor Transfers
• The low-ceilinged rooms of the Cottage are filled with flowers from the garden, perhaps to signal welcome to ancestors. Someone – a previous visitor? – has added floral motifs to the mantle, the door frame, and several cupboards. Quicken your own home with flower transfers, assigning a meaning to each one. Designs and colors vary.

• Beeswax Oilskin - Traditional Food Wrap
• The Bees in the hives outside are responsible for the extravagant bounty of blooms in the garden, the fruits and jewel-toned jars of preserves on the table. Not only do the Bees create food for Cottage visitors, but they also help preserve it.  The cheeses maturing in the cellars are coated in beeswax. The butter dish is covered with a colorful wax-coated wrap. Use it to cover bowls or fold it into an envelope to hold snacks. Designs and colors vary.

• Floral Ice Supplies
• You find a packet of colorful dried flowers and an ice tray. Floral ice is a Summer Cottage tradition, and it is typically served with cold drinks in the afternoon. Remember to raise a glass to honor the spirits. Colors vary.

• Botanical Teaspoon - Flower-Shaped Spoon
• You continue to explore the Cottage’s cupboards and drawers. Many of the housewares and utensils you discover, such as a can opener, appear mundane. They might have come from your own world. But then other items are wonderfully strange: a bag filled with seeds that have grown holes like buttons; a seashell that opens and closes like a box; a miniature painting of a house, inhabited by a minuscule cat, twitching its tail. The flatware drawer resembles a garden, with flower-shaped spoons. Designs vary.

• Kitchen Witch Kit
• You find a tiny poppet in a nook over the stove.  She’s a friendly kitchen witch who wields a spoon as a wand. She watches over the boiling pots and ensures that the loaves are baked to perfection. In a cupboard, you discover the supplies to make a kitchen witch charm of your own. Colors vary.

• Lucinda’s Scrapbook
• You find a small book in a bedside table.  It’s a summer scrapbook, left behind by another visitor to the Cottage.