It's crazy, but, the recent pandemic has worn on me. Do I want to live in the city, close to the energetic hustle and bustle, in the big mix of things, the family included? Post-lockdown, I sense it may be a while before we head into a normal way of life, the way it used to be. Some days, it looks like we are there, but, came up short when it was inspected closer. That is when I started looking a little further out from the city, but, not too far to be isolated and I still like neighbors.
Driving up the long driveway, you need to pause for a moment or three and take in the landscape. Nestled in the foothills of the mountains, in the midst of a massive nature preserve, I take in the 30 acres, rolling pastures, pristine forests, a vineyard to the side, and trimmed out in mountains. Just the kind of environment I had been hoping for. I spent some time last week, checking out a few different properties once again. The longer I look, the more my needs seem to change.
Today is #MarketFriday initiated by 
The entire outside had extensive brickwork, massive slabs of rock, walkways, walls, and stairways made with native stone. I could tell this place was put together with much thought and great care. Specimen trees and bushes, everything was perfect; it was like walking through a botanical garden.
You cannot see it, but, there are two homes within the preserve and no more will ever be there. No worries though, your neighbors are straight down the hill about a mile, give or take a few hundred feet. Living in the middle of a forest, but, the main road was five minutes down the road. Perfect?
As you can see, there is stonework over the entire property. While some may say, you can have too much of a good thing, truly, it was not overdone, but, done well. With a plan. although, this house was built in stages. Added on and added on, as was the stonework, pillaged for stone by stone. I took a picture of a close up of the stone. It was used on several hearths in the house and the lower level walls. Stunning. I assure you.
STOP!! BRAIN TEASER AHEAD!!
Question: A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him underwater for over 5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be?
Answer! Can you guess??? The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, developed it, and hung it up to dry.
Brick patios, surrounded by gorgeous plantings with colorful canopies, are edged by brick walkways. It reminded me of walking along the paths of the University, lampost included.
Did I say there were fruit trees? There were. Cherries, apples, pears, and at least two dozen peaches. Too many nut trees to count. Black walnut, butternut among a few, then there was a surprise that I wasn't expecting.
<Apples! There were plenty of them and different varieties. I can just picture these apple pies at Thanksgiving that these can make. Cherry pie. Covered in Black walnuts. Did I say thee were black walnuts on the property?
Inside there are multiple levels of living space and all of the halls are generous enough to be sitting areas and they are throughout, definitely providing enough space for everyone to have a little bit of private space in a public area. There were four large hallways throughout. Most were double the space this one was, each had an outside door.
The kitchen was an open concept with plenty of room for all of us to be working independently on separate dishes. I don't mind getting a little cozy making dinner. I must say, I liked the outside of the house better than the inside. The inside was nice, but, the square footage was misrepresented. It has a three-car garage and another two-car garage, which totaled over 2,000 square feet which they were counting in the square footage. They were both heated garages, however, to me, that is not living space.
Another hall going into the kitchen from the living room. Houses that are built, section by section like this one was, all the additions were separated with a set of stairs. Most had two stairs where the additions met, another easy way to tell where the adding started. All the floors were repurposed from older structures, in keeping with the style of the house.
This is the other two-car garage, except you enter it from the other side. It has ice dams up there which tells me they probably get ice, or snow maybe. :)) It has a really nice workshop set up there with plenty of built-ins and a nice two-bedroom apartment upstairs. It was actually pretty nice, but, wouldn't want a workshop down from where I live, so I am sure it will have another plan if I did decide this was my place. So, another house, so very different from the others. I am in no rush, but, the more you look at, the worse it is. They all are perfect in their own ways.
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Surprise!!! A vineyard!!! Well, only the grapes, however, not one mile from the house is a vineyard and the guy does the grapes for this house, just to be neighborly. Seriously? Yes! I bought some of his wine and yes, I am drinking it right now. Pretty nice.
I happen to think that this is a brilliant white, crisp and minerally and in the mouth feels very much like skim milk — almost airy and ethereal in texture. I l=really liked it!
And just like that, this post is done. I hope you had a good time and learned a little something new. As always, I want to thank you for taking the time to visit #MarketFriday!! Thank you for supporting the challenge! Have a most fabulous day! And as always, let there be a flower, to color your world. #alwaysaflower. Kist remember! #MarketFriday loves you! Cheers!!
Even though many places have been cleared to carry on as normal, please wear a mask when you go out and use proper social distancing.
Thank you for visiting my post 💖 Because of you, I come back to post again and again, I am encouraged by you, for the time you take to visit, comment or even upvote. For all of these reasons, I am eternally grateful. Don't ever forget what a wonderful world we live in, people. Some days, it is not as easy to see, how wonderful it really is. Kindness counts. Wherever you go, whatever you do.
they set my aunts house on fire
i cried the way women on tv do
folding at the middle
like a five pound note.
i called the boy who use to love me
tried to ‘okay’ my voice
i said hello
he said warsan, what’s wrong, what’s happened?
i’ve been praying,
and these are what my prayers look like;
dear god
i come from two countries
one is thirsty
the other is on fire
both need water.
later that night
i held an atlas in my lap
ran my fingers across the whole world
and whispered,
"where does it hurt?"
it answered,
"everywhere"
"everywhere"
"everywhere"
warsan shire