Ross, California

The spirit of Muriel Waltz still haunts the land that Juliet and Ashford Wood live on. And that suits Juliet just fine. “Muriel has captured us completely,” she says. From the 1940s through the ’60s, Waltz was a famous fuchsia hybridizer who had a commercial nursery on the Woods’ property.

Juliet honors that garden. She’s retained most of the plants, built a stone wall around the perimeter, and put in a gate ― exactly in the spot Waltz had imagined, say Muriel’s surviving friends. Muriel, we think, would have loved it. The gate is a tree of life design made from hand-forged steel and hand-tinted ceramic tiles, a trademark combination of Lake County gate designer-maker Brian Kennedy. The blooms, appropriately enough, are fuchsia buds. The Freedom of Craft by Brian Kennedy, Lake County, California (707/928-5124 or www.thefreedomofcraft.com).

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