Rooms With a View

Of all the things I appreciate about my new house, the surrounding Nature tops the list. It’s hard to believe that we’re only a short 2 mile drive from town when I look out my windows and see only trees. It brings an incredible feeling of peace and tranquility that I sorely needed.

I’m not sure if the photos will convey that calm but I still wanted to give you some idea. This pic above was taken from the top of our driveway looking across at the Quartz Hill Vineyards. We haven’t visited there or anywhere north of the house but are looking forward to it this Fall.

The driveway is circular with the house at the bottom of the slope.

Above the garage is a huge tree with these pink . . . blossoms? Feathers? I have no idea what these are called but they’re all over Placerville and parts of Sacramento too. Any ideas?

In the middle of the circle is a Rainier cherry tree, irises and some lavender.

I harvested a few bunches of lavender a couple of weeks ago, still unsure what I’m going to do with them.

The garage is flanked by two wisteria trees. We were so excited to see them because the one at the old house had died many years ago. When Mom & Dad hired roofers, Dad cautioned them to be careful of the old wisteria tree that climbed up the side of the house and wound and draped over the front porch. To no avail though. The contractors somehow damaged the tree and it never grew back.

But now we have two that delight us. (And really need a pergola across the garage’s façade.)

I love all of the variations of color in the wisteria’s new growth. Blame the artist in me. I look at nature in an entirely new light since I’ve been painting.

Looking past the garage and outside Mom’s bedroom is one of our apple trees. I have no idea what variety it is. I should, since we’re only 2 miles from Camino, home of Northern California’s famous “Apple Hill”.

Every day or so when a stray apple drops to the ground, I’ll toss it into the fields for our ‘friends’. More on them in a bit.

This is part of front yard. The fence has been added since we moved in and is a welcome barrier between our landlord’s house and ours. He’s very nice, it’s not that, and not the least bit intrusive. The fence just provided the final touch to making our house it’s own little oasis.

We have two maple trees in front that are lush and green right now. Yes, I’m fully aware of what will happen in a month or so – we’ll have maple leaves everywhere. A small price to pay for the beautiful colors we’ll receive.

Ok, now most of the rest of these pics are taken from inside the house. I wanted to give you an idea how it feels.

From the sitting room right inside the front door we look out onto another apple tree, a fig tree and some tall cedars.

Here’s a better shot from the deck. The apple and fig will lose their leaves in winter, but we’ll still have the cedar trees surrounding us.

Below our backyard the neighbor has two goats. We love those goats and can nearly tell time from their bleating (?). Baaahhing? From the noise they make when it’s their dinner time. Right on schedule, every.single.day.

Turn the corner and from the living room we’re surrounded by tall pines and oak trees.

Same thing out the dining room window with the addition of a very tall camellia tree that I might just be able to prune standing on the deck!

This is the view Mom wakes up to every morning. She absolutely loves it. I will put up drapes soon but mainly for the winter, to keep the heat in. She wants to see this view unobstructed.

Let’s go downstairs to my area now.

This is where I’m sitting right this very minute. That tall camellia tree you see in the dining room? Yep, here’s the trunk. I’m torn between pruning these lower branches to allow more light in, or not. I’ll talk to the landlord about it and see what he thinks. I’d love more natural light, even though it’s a north-east light, so not very bright at all. Which is why I could use all I can get.

Anyway, it’s a lovely view to look at while I’m writing or painting. The faux stained glass coastal window hasn’t found a ‘home’ yet. Kinda like the rest of my belongings. sigh.

If you walk outside downstairs, this is what you see. And I walk outside a lot now.

Did I mention that there is no irrigation system here? Yep, it’s a regular ol’ water brigade each morning. Or almost every morning. Takes me about two hours and a lot of up & down the stairs in between but it’s worth it.

When I tell people it’s like living in a ‘treehouse’ they don’t understand what I mean.

We are surrounded, nearly 360 degrees, by huge tall trees. Almost every single window in the house looks out onto nature. Well, except for the downstairs since the house is built on a slope. But the rest of the views make up for those few less-than-attractive ones.

It is a lot of work, don’t get me wrong. And I mean just the outside of the house! But I’m getting stronger and more fit each day.

I haven’t begun to tackle this area yet. It’s between the garage and Mom’s room and has a rocky hill with weeds sprouting up all over in between the iris and lavender.

But I keep watering it, partly for the apple tree and partly for our new ‘friends’ . . .

This is Mama deer, taken from the window downstairs. I don’t have a telephoto lens, just a 18 – 55 mm. So she was close, but not too close.

Close by is one of her babies.

There’s the family! I’d never seen a fawn so young as these. They are tiny!

I’ve taken so many photos of deer, I don’t know what to do with them all! I need to stop. We see these pretties nearly every day, morning and night. In fact, one of them was right outside my bedroom window this morning, chomping on an apple.

Nice way to wake up in the morning.

One final shot . . . I couldn’t resist. I snapped this last night when I saw the fawn on the deck between the garage and Mom’s room. Looking for apples, I bet.

Believe me, I understand how completely blessed we are with this house. Not a day goes by that I don’t look around and wonder how I got so lucky. I’m catching up on work, starting new projects, trying paint techniques I’ve never tried . . . all in all, healing my spirit.

Gotta run now. I need to mow the backyard! Look out, Deer. Coming through!

Colleen

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