My Dream House

I was out of town and without my cell phone when my husband got the call. I came back to find we were moving to a new house! A one story rancher with an entire acre of land. The ceilings are a little low and it faces north (not good in our climate) but I plan to flip the dining room with the living room (easy-peasy fix) and we'll spend winters drenched in lovely warmth from the south-facing windows. The old owners apparently left a few things behind: a hulking brown refrigerator in the kitchen along with their laminate counters circa 1950. Oh, how I'll miss my granite! But at least I know my current cherished fridge will fit. Also a spindly-legged mahogany dining table got left behind. And the biggest pumpkin that I've ever seen sitting outside in the backyard. I'm not sure if the turkey I saw in the yard is a visiting neighbor or if she came with the house. I guess I'll need a bigger chicken coop! And a fenced run since there are coyotes in the area.  There's plenty of room to pasture a milk producer (sheep? goat? Jersey cow!)although there's no barn or shed. And I guess my potager just became a farm. Also it's county land and I'll be free of CC&Rs that don't allow me to have a compost heap or clothesline. Maybe I shouldn't have lumped the compost in with clean clothes in that sentence. But assuming they won't be anywhere near each other...can you just about smell those air-dried sheets this summer? And The Bombshells won't have to be a clandestine operation any more.  And wonder of wonders, it has a mudroom. Hallelujah! A laundry area on one side and I think just enough room for locker-style storage and a bench on the other. The oddest thing is that they took the old mailbox that was on the old stump and we have to wait for the post office to deliver a new one. What's up with that? The outside is red brick and white siding--that might change eventually, but right now practical thoughts like double-paned low-E windows and lots of insulation are going through my mind instead. It might be raining outside, but everytime I think of it the sun comes out! It's only three miles from our current home, so I will still see our current fabulous neighbors. And it's only a couple of doors down from a friend with kids the same age that I did a Cub Scout den with and I have other friends along the country road. Lots and lots of work but it's the perfect home for us.

I woke up smiling this morning, then I realized it really was "just" a dream. How I wish I could have kept sleeping a while longer in that paradise of a world.  There were so many details that it seemed real.  And all the while I kept saying, "It's the perfect house!"

I know we passed that rancher (for sale) on the way to Costco yesterday and I do have a large pumpkin in my backyard to the delight of the chickens, so I know where certain elements came from.  But it's the best dream I've ever had and I think it told me something about where my heart is now. And I plan to start cruising that area west of us just in case there really is a brick home with no mailbox and a turkey roaming the front yard. And it might just be for sale. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.

Meanwhile, I'm up and thrilled with my vision even if it was just my dream, and the chickens are clucking outside for some breakfast and the doggitys are waiting to get sprung from their crates and give me good morning cuddles. The winds died down as the front passed and rain fell overnight and the sun is starting to peek out. And I'm living in a home I love right now.  And I'm not disappointed that it was a dream, just happy I had it.  Life is good!

Dreamily yours,

My Guideposts - Week58

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. 

~Marcus Tullius Cicero

After another ridiculously, inexcusably long blog vacation, I'm back. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken my last guidepost quote--"gardens are not made by...sitting in the shade"--quite so seriously and spent so much of the last few weeks in our garden?  Springtime is that season when certain garden chores just have to be done or there are dire consequences down the road.  So worth it--the yard looks lovely with trimmed edges and pruned fruit trees and my mind is wonderfully uncluttered with "I have to's".

Plus, spring is as irresistible to this gardener as loose soil is to the Kharma dog.  We just gotta. Right now.  My fingernails have regained their normal black crescent tips, my skin is rough and my hair is dusty but the garden looks terrific decked in hyacinths, tulips and primroses.

My Kindle went to California for the weekend with The Big Guy (he loaded reading for classes on it).  I miss it mucho--thank heavens for a well-stocked pre-Kindle library.

Springtime = Garden = Love,