In contrast, this recently built home seems to rise above its surroundings like a modern castle, complete with moat, impregnable and unapproachable. For me, there’s no connection here between home and neighborhood, no acknowledgment that the home is even part of a surrounding community.
I’m fascinated by the way homes integrate into their surrounding neighborhoods – or don’t. For me, the low stone retaining wall, the variety of plants, the low wooden fence with generous spacing and then the front porch – all gradually receding and rising towards the house – present an inviting, approachable, natural, organic transition from public space to private. All of this gives me a feeling that the house and its occupants are happy to be part of the surrounding neighborhood.
I noticed these interesting stairs today. I love the way the whole stairway curves, including the wall, steps and railing. I also love the varied colors and sizes and textures of the stones used, as well as their delicate coloring. All of it looks especially nice in the morning sun.
My Golden Retriever Hank and I take each other for a walk pretty much every day of the year. We start out from our front door, pick a direction or a destination, and then go out and back in around 30 minutes.
Given these constraints, I’ve often been struck by the seemingly infinite number of interesting details there are to be observed along our walks. Every house is different, and depending on the season and time of day and the weather, the same house may look entirely different from one walk to another.
These walks and these observations are a sort of meditation for me. (Hank has somewhat different interests.) I don’t stick listening devices in my ears during these outings: it’s more than enough for me to walk, to keep an eye on Hank, to say hi to an occasional neighbor, and to take note of my surroundings.
I’ve wondered for a while if it might be fun, for myself and perhaps for others, to keep a sort of log of our walks and my observations, posting a picture with comments every day or so. And so, after much procrastination, I’ve decided this might be a fun thing to do with my micro.blog.
And so it begins.
Check out my latest Practopian piece, on The Progressive Problem.
Just released Notenik, my first genuine, no-fooling Mac app into the App Store. You can find it here:
Just reactivated my micro.blog account at hbowie.micro.blog, and set up cross-posting to Twitter (@herbbowie) and my Facebook Practopians page. Happy to be part of the Micro.blog community and to join those supporting the open web!