Heritage Harbour couple goes with the flow

The community's 1,683 residences that line streets and cul-de-sacs are bordered by the South River to the west and Route 50 to the north. Its golf, tennis court and clubhouse complex boasts nine tennis courts and a nine-hole golf course. The Lodge, on River Strand Loop, is the heart of the community and features the usual small-town smorgasbord plus an auditorium, library, woodworking shop and TV studio.

Robert and Barbara Farrell live in a single-family, three-bedroom residence that is attached to its immediate neighbor. The two homes share a common wall along their garages. From the street, the homes look like single-level structures, but their lower levels open in the rear onto a wide stretch of shady woods and a gully that runs behind the properties.

Inside, the Farrell house showcases a colorful blend of Barbara's humor, her eye for unusual artwork and many carefully culled family antiques. Incredible, off-the-beaten track souvenirs of Barbara's globe-trotting across 32 countries are on display throughout the airy, artsy home.

Her wanderlust began after her first marriage ended and her children were grown.

She spent 10 days among the Hill People in Thailand with a girlfriend she's known since their halcyon days at Julienne High School in Dayton, Ohio. With her sister, Ginny Carr of Arnold, Barbara sailed down the Amazon River and visited the Galapagos Islands. She has even worked in a mission compound in Honduras guarded by a man wielding a machine gun.

The day Great Britain relinquished its colonial control of Hong Kong, Barbara was there for the celebration. She's floated over a great African plain in a hot air balloon, photographing migrating herds of zebras and wildebeests as they galloped beneath her. A carved elephant and an intricate gilded painting are souvenirs from India. Another painting of St. Basil's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia, reminds her of her travels through that country, Estonia, Latvia and Turkey.

Exhausted yet? Barbara also hiked and rode a bike through parts of China with friends.

"We rode out from Beijing and camped by the Great Wall," she said. "We got caught in a Gobi Desert sandstorm and I climbed the fifth-highest mountain in China."

On the move

Now retired but hardly in one place for very long, Barbara taught at South Shore Elementary School in Crownsville for 27 years. "I taught third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, mostly the fourth grade," she said. "My own kids range from 52 to 47 years."

The Farrells moved to their current home six years ago, not long after Barbara and Robert married. Prior to meeting Robert, Barbara had lived for many years in the Arnold community of Ulmstead Estates. "I didn't want this wonderful man to be mowing a half-acre lawn all the time," she said, explaining the move to Heritage Harbour.

Along with a border collie named Scout, the couple maintains a second home in Bedford, Va. Barbara acquired Scout, a lackadaisical sheepherder, from her son's sheep ranch in Utah.

"Heritage Harbour is a great place to live," Barbara said. "There are all kinds of wonderful things to do here. There are college-level courses offered by Anne Arundel Community College, clubs for singles and those for widows and widowers, quilting groups, bridge, dancing and a great Dinner of the Month Club. Anything you want is here; you just have to sign up for it."

"I'm a member of The Crones," she said, smiling. "It's a group of wise women over 50. We have monthly meetings and picnic on the beach, go kayaking and make pottery."

And that's not all.

"The athletic facilities here were just renovated. The indoor pool building has a hot tub and there's an outdoor pool, too," Barbara continued. "There is a pier to launch small boats and pathways along the South River. The association fees pay for water, mowing the grass, trash removal and snow shoveling."

Throwing her front door open wide to greet visitors, Barbara stepped aside so visitors could get a view. One sweep takes in the hallway; a kitchen to the left; the dining area, also to the left; the living room straight ahead; and a sitting room, also on the left. A quick right leads to the two upstairs bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Downstairs, there is another bedroom and a large, cozy recreation room.

Throughout the house, there are scraps ofpaper tucked behind pieces of furniture and objets d'art. "For (name of grandchild) when Grandma kicks the bucket," reads one slip.

"I heard a lot of giggling one night when two of my grandsons were visiting. They went around putting their names on the antiques and furniture they wanted to inherit," Barbara said with a chuckle. "I love my grandkids. I usually take two at a time on my trips. Emmy's been to England with me."

Emmy is Emmy Torre, 22, one of Barbara's 10 grandchildren and a 2010 graduate of Duke University. She is currently living with the Farrells until she is established in a full-time job. She has a degree in graphic design and definitely shares her grandmother's love of travel and appreciation of the art of indigenous peoples around the world.

Fond of Flow

When the Farrells moved in to their Heritage Harbour home, the previous owner had just painted the kitchen walls a sickly shade of green that clashed with the pink countertops. They quickly repainted the walls a soft white, a much better foil for Barbara's collection of Flow blue ceramic pottery and plates. Most of them are hung above the cabinets and kitchen window.

Flow ceramics, embellished with transfer printed patterns, scenes and decorative motifs, were first produced in England around 1825. Unlike the Chinese ceramics they sought to imitate, the transfer patterns were slightly hazy - they "flowed," or bled, on the surface.

As decades passed, Flow china became increasingly popular in England, Europe and the United States. The style reached its peak in the Victorian era. Though there were other colors, like pink or brown, blue was the most sought after.

"Flow china was on the table when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox," Barbara said.

Barbara inherited some of the pieces from her Ohio grandparents; others she's purchased in shops around the world. "I buy a piece wherever I go," Barbara said. "It's been fun to collect."

High on one shelf in the kitchen is the silver shaving mug her grandfather used daily. Just below it is an Irish cut crystal water pitcher her grandmother cherished.

Resting in the kitchen window is a small table with an enameled metal top attached to an old wrought-iron treadle sewing table. Atop the table is a Grecian terra-cotta sculpture of a woman's head that's been hollowed out to hold a succulent plant.

The attention-getter in the dining room is a wooden armoire that has been painted to resemble a Fauvist flower-filled bower overlooking a sea of sailboats. "A friend bought it at Woodward & Lothrop's and couldn't get it up her stairs, so she gave it to me," Barbara said.

Atop the armoire is a classical-looking bisque bust decorated with swirls of cockleshells. Opposite the armoire is a large Impressionistic painting of her three daughters when they were children. "It reminds me of Ulmstead Beach," Barbara said.

In the sitting room, Emmy painted the white TV cabinet with a black grid and polka dots to match the graphic, black-and-white window treatments created by a local seamstress. The walls' bookshelves are lined with decorative artwork and souvenirs, including a wooden stringed Thai puppet dangling from a window sash.

The graphic black-and-white theme continues in the living room with black polka-dotted lampshades, a black-and-white patterned sofa (a reupholstered Goodwill find) heaped with matching buffalo plaid pillows, end tables covered in ticking, and a white wicker coffee table topped with a glass oval.

The room held more memories. "I had to make the tour guide in Venice understand I needed this mirror," she laughed, pointing at one beautiful acquisition. Nearby is a small wooden Ferris wheel from New Mexico that celebrates Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Its bucket seats are filled with tiny, grinning skeletons.

One wall holds a watercolor painting of poppies by Ann Bradshaw, while attached to another wall is an Art Nouveau plaster bust of Andromeda, the princess from Greek mythology, finished with a mahogany patina. "It hung over the piano in my grandmother's Ohio house. I remember her looking up at it while playing the piano," Barbara recounted. "It's a golden moment in my life."

Scattered throughout the home are several red, hand-loomed Persian carpets. "Some, I got at auctions, some came from a warehouse in Farmville, Va., and others were gifts from a son-in-law in the Special Forces," she said.

Beautiful bedrooms

In Barbara and Robert's periwinkle blue bedroom, one wall is enlivened by a large, colorful Tatouage transfer mural of a flowery field. A vintage, snowy quilt covers the bed, which has a decorative white headboard. The room dances with light, thanks to several mirrors positioned to reflect and amplify ambient light.

The master bath resembles a beach cottage, with white tongue-and-groove beadboard and soft lavender walls. In the second bathroom, it takes a second to realize the mirror is framed by a silver-plated tea tray, complete with handles. One of Barbara's finds, she had a craftsman glue an oval mirror onto the bed of the recessed tray.

In Emmy's bedroom, the focal point is the red, tobacco, Flow blue and cream "Dresden Plate" quilt that covers the brass bed. Embroidered on the pair of vintage pillows are the words, "Gold angels guard our slumbers."

At the foot of the stairs in the lower level, Barbara has put up a map of the world. It's covered with pushpins denoting the countries Barbara has visited.

The lower level bedroom features a circa 1850s oak bed with a tall, carved headboard. "We found it in the attic of my childhood home when my parents moved in. Previous owners abandoned it," she said.

Who would like a beauty like that behind? Certainly not the Farrells, who don't intend to leave Heritage Harbour anytime soon. Or ever.

"We love this place. We're never going to move!" Barbara said. "We can lock it and leave it to go on a trip or to Bedford. The neighborhood is quiet, and the neighbors are nice and welcoming. I love it!"

Would you like to see your house, townhome, condo, apartment or cottage featured as The Capital's Home of the Week? To nominate your home, e-mail Wendi Winters at wendi@quantumstep.com. Include your contact information and details about your residence.