Contentment

9 October 2014

We have been taking our time with "filling" the spaces of our new home.  I have known that I would not want to rush to fill my house and make every room "perfect".  Instead I wanted to wait until we found the right piece for the right place.

I have always loved our stair design.  In particular the way the stairs turn on themselves for the last couple of steps.  A space was created at the bottom of the stairs.  It is really a nook.  The architecture of the stairs frames this space, and it has been begging for something to fill it.  But it had to be the right "thing".

A couple of months ago Steve and I were shopping for a piece of furniture to fit our side entry foyer, as you enter the house from the garage.  We did find a narrow table at a store in Alexandria which fits perfectly, and gives us drawers for sundry things like keys.  The same store had several pieces of artwork and vases, many of them large.  Some of the vases caught our eye, and we could imagine them fitting well in the space at the bottom of the stairs.  But the piece that really caught my eye was a statue carved from driftwood.  It was different; unique.  It was also several hundred dollars, and we have never spent that much money on something that is purely decorative.  So we didn't get it.

Well, I couldn't stop thinking about this statue.  The more I thought about it the more I just knew it was the perfect piece for the bottom of the stairs.  A couple of weeks ago Steve and I were running, and I told him "enough is enough".  I can't stop thinking about this statue, which tells me I just need to buy it.  I decided that I would go back to the store that day, and if the statue was still there I was buying it.

Perfect, or what?

Needless to say, I bought the statue.

We were told this is a type of statue that is considered a Good Luck Charm.  Villages in islands of Southeast Asia have statues like these at the entry to their village, meant to bring contentment and happiness.   My heart tells me this statue was meant to be in our home.  I am content.

Slowly but surely, artwork is filling the house.

Footnote:  The small strap of bells hanging near the statue was Steve's Dad's.  Harry collected bells, and we have inherited a few.  We had these bells hanging in our "old" Carol Street home for years.  Now our old good luck charm shares space with our new one.

Fall - A Time for Renewal

4 October 2014

The leaves are starting to fall from the Poplar trees.  Fall is my favorite time of year, for many reasons; not least of which is the weather.  Fall in Virginia is mild, with Indian summers not unusual.  It is a beautiful time to enjoy all the colors nature gives us.  And it is the best time to plant trees.

As is Steve's and my fashion, we do not tend to hurry into things.  We have spent several months mulling over first WHERE we want to plant some trees, and then WHAT types of trees would be best.  We have talked with a few "landscape designers"from local nurseries. We have had a general sense of the areas we want to develop, but have struggled to get comfortable with the right TYPES of trees to plant.  The opinions from the various landscape "experts" varied enough to confuse us more than help.  And our fear that anything we plant will be literally eaten alive by the multiple families of deer that graze and sleep all over our yard and woods has also caused us to hesitate.

Last weekend we went to Merrifield Nurseries, hoping against hope that we would be inspired.  We were ready to buy some trees.  It helps to have a friendly, straightforward salesperson, and we lucked out.  We also discovered this Nursery has much more stock than other places we had been to, with beautiful selections to chose from, even at the end of the growing season.

We ended up buying four trees:

• a Japanese "FireGlow" Maple for the front of the house, to be planted between the entries doors and in front of the Dining Room;
• a Sweet Bay Magnolia for the front yard, to be planted off the corner of the Garage where the driveway bends;
• two "Cloud Nine" Dogwoods, to be planted at the rear side area behind the concrete driveway pad and in-between large Poplar Trees.

The trees were planted this morning!


View from the Mailbox - with the delivery truck in the driveway

They started with the Magnolia.  Steve and I had already marked the locations for them so their planting went very quickly.  For a long time we thought we would plant some kind of evergreen in this location.  But the Norway and Blue Spruce we were thinking of potentially grow to 40-50 feet tall, and almost as wide.  As they mature they lose the density of the branches and just don't look as nice.  The Magnolia we selected has a mature height of about 25-feet, with a canopy of about 15 -20 feet.  Even when it matures, which will be at least 15 years, it will not overshadow the house.  The flowers will be white!  The Magnolia is a real "southern" tree, and seems very appropriate.

 

Planting the Sweet Bay Magnolia

Next the Japanese Maple tree.  Almost from the beginning we have envisioned a small tree in the area bounded by the house facade and our front sidewalk, between the main and side entry doors.  And we have not waivered from the Japanese Maple family.  Our tree is already about 6-feet tall, with a mature height of about 15-feet.  These trees tend to grow slowly, and it's scale already looks good.

It may just be two trees, but they look great, and feel right.

(Hard to see the magnolia)

As we have spent months pondering what trees to plant where, it has made us used to the open, clean feeling of not having a lot of landscaping, and we like that.  I don't think we will overdo the landscaping.  Or it is something that will evolve slowly over time.

Last but not least, the two dogwoods were planted in the back yard, to the east side.  We used to have a couple of dogwoods in this general area, but they did not survive construction well and we removed them.  The new dogwoods have more room to grow now, and they are further away from the drive.  We can see them from the Eating Area, which was one of our desires.

Dogwoods, with Buddha in the background