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| Tara Crowley. All rights Reserved. |
This photo is not of our house, but it is what our house feels like to us. We are tucked under a large cedar tree in front, and I love sitting under it (or swinging in the hammock under it) because I feel I'm in the deep woods instead of a tiny plot of land, cheek to jowl with neighbors and roadways.
Telling my husband yesterday that the longest time I've spent living in any one place is 5.5 years. I spent an awful lot of my childhood being moved from city to city. Then I repeated in my adulthood, mainly because I rented and rents would be raised, or landlords would sell. When I did own my house with a former partner, that only lasted 3 years before we broke up. Bye bye house.
I look forward to being here with my darling for many, many years to come. We enjoy our house and yard projects, completing them slowly and on a small scale. Yesterday it was another annual ritual of spreading 2 yards of mulch in the back, where the lawn used to be. Some day, perhaps a pergola with grape vines and a plank table underneath.
My younger sister and her husband are selling the house they've lived in for 23 years. Empty nesters now, they don't need something quite so large. It's a beautiful old Spanish style house in one of the greatest neighborhoods in the city. I have no earthly idea what it must be like to live somewhere for 23 years!
I look forward to finding out.
Have a lovely weekend. Enjoy your domestic bliss.
Delightful description of a life lived fully and a home. I grew up in one home, lived in it almost 16 years, then a time of transitions before we bought this farm. We have now lived here since 1977. We can't stay here forever though as it will get to be too much for us, with the distance from town and the work. It will though be hard to leave. I am hoping our son will be ready to take it over when that happens. We bought the Arizona home in 1999 but we don't live there long enough in a year for it to count as a real home but more a place to land now and again.
ReplyDeleteAmazing to have lived in what I think is long term housing stability. I don't know how you keep up with ranch. I think farm work would break my body in two!
DeleteInteresting, Tara, I didn't know you moved around quite so much. I moved around a lot after I moved out of my parent's house. The longest I've ever stayed since high school is in the house Roger and I bought in Santa Cruz. I once tried to make a list of all the houses I lived in since 1970, and I couldn't even remember all of them. New Jersey, California, Oregon, Connecticut, Virginia, Colorado, Rhode Island, Washington-- all of these for more than a year. Home is an interesting thing, and I'm never really sure I'm cut out for it. I think I must be part nomad. The only place I've ever deeply loved, felt at home in, and returned to several times is Santa Cruz.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I know that nomadic feeling. It's exhausting. I prefer to travel to satisfy my wanderlust.
DeleteWhat a charming photo and you've spun a charming post about you and The Mister. There's something so cozy about the life you're living -- I'm glad you're sharing a bit of it here.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Cozy is exactly the word for it. It's what I crave.
DeleteI've lived in three perfect homes; two of them we built. And I also lived for 20 years in Wisconsin in a lovely Cape Cod that I never really felt was "home." We bought it specifically for the school district and for the spacious upstairs bedrooms and alcoves for our children. It was the charming type of house you see so often in television commercials, down to the curving brick sidewalk. I was not at all sorry to say goodbye. Our current home once again feels like "home." And I love every single day we spend in and around it.
ReplyDeleteIt's the best feeling, isn't it? To feel in your bones that you are home.
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