healthful to the body

The country life is so very different in every aspect to city life that comparisons are like apples to oranges. 

I've done both, and I prefer the country, especially here, on Moss Hill. Other country homes were old (100 yrs +), and a challenge to keep up. No insulation, no central heat,  heating with wood stoves (yes, in 2 different houses, and the last one was close to 3000sq ft!), ancient wiring, iffy plumbing... It was always worth it, mind you, for the peace and quiet and privacy, but I wouldn't ever go back to that if I had a choice. My pioneer woman days are over if I've got anything to say about it.

Moss Hill is a newer house, somewhere between 30-40 years old, and the previous owners updated  everything from cosmetics to systems. Everything works here. The windows are double-glazed, the doors close and lock properly, and the garage door opens with the push of a button. The appliances are new, and there are lots of safely working electrical outlets in every room. (If you've ever lived in an old house that isn't updated, you know all about living with everything on extension cords, plugged into the 1 outlet in each room. Inconvenient AND dangerous!) Some of the amenities are more important than others, of course, but it all adds up to our perfect place. 

I do still love the look of old houses, with their massive beams, high ceilings, and plaster walls. I'm happy enough just looking, though; I think I've finally come home.

                                          If country life be healthful to the body, 

it is no less so to the mind.      

- Giovanni Ruffini 

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hopefully in case

Last night a bunny hopped across the porch, pausing for a moment in the patch of light outside the window. The dogs are convinced he lives under the porch. I suspect they're right.  

all photos here

These bunnies and the little red-capped girl, by Brooklyn-based artist Naoko Stoop, make me smile and smile. They remind me a bit of the illustrations from The Little Prince, almost deceptively simple and innocent.

And all Rabbit's friends-and-relations spread themselves about on the grass, and waited hopefully in case anybody spoke to them, or dropped anything, or asked them the time.

~ A.A. Milne

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the way will open

Today begins our last week at this, our 105 year old bungalow in historic Old Louisville: 

We move to the country next Friday!

all photos mine

Move, and the way will open.

~ Zen Proverb

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rest in the grace of the world

The long wait is over. We have an accepted offer on the Ormsby house, and have begun to finalize the deal on River House... our house...

crosby stills nash - our house mp3

I anticipated a wild whooping ecstacy when this moment arrived; instead, I feel calm, and still, and quiet, like this house that will soon be our home:

Dusk at River House

Our bit of the Blue River

Sunset over the Blue River, River House

Full moon over River House

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— Wendell Berry





http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/

simply and sweetly

We went looking at houses today, mostly to stir things up a bit, and get the energy flowing again.  Of course we ended our journey at River House; like moths to a flame, we can't resist its simple charms. 

The house sits quietly, on a quiet hill, overlooking the quiet river. It doesn't feel lonely, as some empty houses (and even some not-empty ones) do. River House feels patient, like a tree is patient, or a mountain. There's nothing excessive or superfluous about it. It's a simple house, and all the more alluring for it.

photos: 1-5) countryliving.com, 6) flickr.com-photos-beehives, 

7) sweetandlovelythings.tumblr.com, 8) papercupdesign.blogspot.com 

9) theauburnandivory.blogspot.com

“Festive decorations are a gift from your heart to the hearts of those who enter your home. They simply and sweetly say, ‘love lives here,’ and, ‘we were expecting you, welcome!’”  ~Dolley Carlson

http://confessionsofasineater.blogspot.com/