It was getting on for time when Nyel and I should be preparing for our afternoon House Concert, but we were reluctant to get back to the world outside those iron gates – even though it was to the magical world of Oysterville!  At Leadbetter Farms there was always something just around the next corner.
       For instance, the “Toy Room.”  It was actually a three-car garage,  jam-packed with ATVs and bikes and hand-fashioned push/pull carts for kids.  And then there was the pond… Even on a cold, wintery day, it invited lingering.
     I tried to determine if it would really be possible to water ski on that pond.  Maybe…  That was one of the many rumors we had heard over the past several years.  And then there was the barn.  It was the first building to go up, probably a decade ago, and local workmen had told us many stories about it.  I thought it might be cheeky to ask, but curiosity got the better of me.
     “Is it true that the stalls are all teak-lined?” I asked Annie.  “And that the second story is the living quarters for the person who cares for the horses?  And that the third floor is a gigantic party room?”
     Her big smile told it all.  “You’ll have to see for yourself,” she said.
     The erstwhile stalls were of stone and oak – no teak in evidence – and had long ago been transformed to bedrooms for visitors.  The upper floors, too, were living quarters.  There were bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, and a dining room with the longest refectory table I’d ever seen outside a Greek monastery.  Party room?  No.  More like a party house.
     She also shared with us that owner Craig Tillotson gets a kick out of the various rumors that make the rounds.  Apparently, he doesn’t actually start them, but if someone asks, he is more likely to smile or give an equivocal answer to keep people guessing than to do much explaining.  Somehow, that did not surprise us.   His sense of humor and appreciation for whimsy surrounded us.  We had the impression that he was a man who was serious about not taking life too seriously.  Not this part, anyway.
     There were more tree houses to be seen – the ones equipped with flat screen TVs and who knows what other electronic wonders to amuse the modern-day Peter Pan.  Nyel and I left the Rose City Mixed Quartet to check them out while we headed back through the lion-guarded gates.  There was so much that we had seen that we hadn’t taken in.  And so much we hadn’t seen at all.  We can only hope that we’ll be invited again.  Thank you Annie and Deb!  It was grand!

Captions:
Mark and the Sea Serpent
The Barn “Stalls”
In the Toy Room