Cut Flowers? Houseplants? Antiques? Great vibe? Oh yeah…Sonder…the home garden.

Because I mentioned it a few weeks ago and also because I'm like a moth to a flame with this new shop in Peterborough, let me finally introduce your new favorite garden/lifestyle retailer: Sonder. When you look up the definition of sonder, Merriam Webster tells me the term originated in 2012 from John Koenig's blog, Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows which defined the word as "the realization that each passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own." Toss that around in your head a little bit. Kind of puts a different perspective into the minds of even the most self-involved I'd think. Well, vivid Sonder certainly is. The shop is at 107 Wilton Road in Peterborough for your GPS coordinates. Right on 101, just east of the Ocean State Job Lot plaza, it's where the former Black Swan gift shop was located. About two years ago I was the co-listing agent for the property when the kind and exuberant Susan Voss decided it was time to sell. Enter everything-she-touches-turns-to-gold, Kathy Forrest. You might know her. She owns Bowerbird Antiques in Depot Square in downtown Peterborough. You know how some people just seem to have an eye for things? Well, from Bowerbird to her new creation, Sonder, Kathy has an eye for rustic, quiet, tasteful and utterly curated without being fussy. Combine that with her business partner, Ron Higgins, a yoga teacher/contractor/creative guru and you've got a singular space that feels meditative and earthy. A garden shop that seems to be breathing deeply from the oxygen of all the houseplants while sunlight is radiating through the walls of antique windows that wrap the old post and beam barn. There are plants everywhere in the sprawling space. From budget-minded small yet unusual terrarium plants to a lusciously flowing variegated Monstera that was chest-high as I walked by, flora is the main deal here at Sonder. Stunning, colorful caladiums were perched on a table next to me as I chatted with Kathy and Ron. My eyes kept getting pulled back to their super rich hues. There are also tons of plant pots, gardening tools, natural lotions and body care, and very cool home décor pieces sprinkled throughout. Another main focus of Sonder is fresh cut flowers. Set out in multiple buckets, the volume of offerings feels very European marketplace. Feel free to pick and choose and your created bouquet will be wrapped in kraft paper and tied with hemp string for you. It's so nice to have a shop again that lets you pull your own stems. I've visited Sonder twice now and it's struck me both times as a place I'd expect to stumble upon in the Hudson Valley of New York, Northampton, Massachusetts or even in Portsmouth. But here it is right in Peterborough. If all this earthy vibe and clearly higher level of oxygen generated by the plants leave you a little tippled, no worries. There are some comfortably worn leather sofas to sink into while you contemplate between that fiddlehead ficus or the vintage birdcage. Did I mention the antiques and vintage offerings? Well, of course some of that rusted iron/scrubbed pine essence would carry over from Kathy's Bowerbird shop. Sonder gave me that cabinet-of-curiosities vibe that I love. Plants plus antiques with a little essential oil body care stimulates each and every vivid soul who enters Sonder.