701 Golfview Drive -- I miss you

Sounds strange, I know. Here I am in a beautiful house that's twice as big as the old one, lovely new kitchen, lovely fenced back yard, lovely neighborhood, and yet there are still things I miss about our home on Golfview Drive.

• I miss how easy it was to feel in touch with the neighborhood while actually in the house. The kitchen window looked right out onto the side street, so I could see everyone walking by (and open up the window and say hello). The front windows offered a view of Golfview Drive and whomever was cruising by at the time.


• The corner lot made it a central location. Whenever we were working on the flower bed, the herb bed or the vegetable garden, we could say hello to folks going by.


• I miss our great mailman, who was so kind to John and always had news about folks in the neighborhood.


• I miss our old bedroom. I love the color -- a deep russet red -- and how cozy the color made me feel. I especially miss the view from our bedroom window. We'd constructed a mini-ecosystem in that section of the yard, so we could see the vegetable garden, the trumpet vine, the honeysuckle, the rock garden, and 2 bird feeders from our window. I'd planted a flowering crabapple just outside the window, and its leaves, flowers, and fruit were lovely to behold. It also drew cardinals and mockingbirds. I also planted a mock orange just outside the window, whose sweet scent was a gift on summer evenings. And we could watch the progress of the daylilies that I'd planted underneath the window.


• I miss the things we planted during our time there. The herbs who were 7 years old the month we moved, the japanese honeysuckle and the trumpet vine, the cranesbill in the front bed that grew 1000% during its 6 years, the coral bells (which I got from a professor at Asbury) encircling the birdbath. The mohawk viburnum, whose red berries were the same ones I carried in my wedding bouquet.


• I miss the guest bathroom, which I redecorated southwestern-Texan-adobe. I loved that room.

There are plenty of things that are wonderful about the new house, but that's for another post. Today, I just want to grieve all the things I left at 701 Golfview Drive.