When I was choosing colleges way back when, I absolutely fell in love with the Lewis and Clark campus in Portland, Oregon. There were other reasons why I chose that college but I must admit I loved the beauty surrounding the dorms and walking through the forest to get to classes. I would get all choked up flying BACK to school and looking from the airplane window down on the lush greenery below.
When Tetsu and I were thinking of buying a house we had to look in the outlying farming areas just because it was too expensive to buy anything in the city. That was fine with me since I would rather look out on a tree than on another building. The house we found is beside a forest and I loved it! I worried for the first few years that some developer might cut down the forest to build more homes but it doesn't look like it is going to happen in my lifetime. Without the forest I don't think our house has that much appeal and to some people, what with the bugs and the snakes and the shade and the nothingness behind us, they probably wouldn't want to live here even if someone paid them. Tetsu's mother and sister do not like our house at all. Too dark. Too far away from everything. No stores or buses or any other conveniences. Tetsu even finds the month when I am in the States and he is alone here, very... lonely. I don't understand that at all. We have a whole neighborhood on one side of us! Why would a forest make you feel lonely?
The first time I went walking through the forest I choked up just like when I would fly back to Portland!
"A fairy land! Look at all the ferns and the green! Smell the trees and the dirt! Listen to all the birds and the frogs!"
I love my forest. In this season the trees seem like they are wearing Charleston dresses with their tiers of leaves.
There are tiny wildflowers poking up from under tree stumps and large almost tropical plants that shoot up tall and proud.
I am entranced with my forest probably like no one else in my neighborhood (except for maybe Choco) and so I really do consider it mine!
13 comments:
i LOVE the picture of the dandelions! my most favorite herb!
You live in such a beautiful location. The trees, the farms along the roads, the wildlife and enormous variety of plants - I can't imagine why it would feel lonely. So much better than being crammed on all sides by houses. Here's hoping the forest is never sacrificed for more development!
Your woods are beautiful!
I, for one, would like your forest a lot. I grew up in a part of Nebraska with lots of hills, gullies, creeks and trees....very rural, and would hate to live in a city surrounded by buildings & people & traffic. Sometimes our town of less than 400 people seems too crowded, though we live on the very edge of town.
Choco looks so handsome sitting there in that last picture.
I like your forest too! It reminds me a little of a forest I once lived in. Our jack-in-the-pulpit was a smaller version. It was moist and green --except in August when it got a little dry and sad looking. How nice that you can live next to a forest!
Beautiful pictures! I've got a forest too... not as close as yours, but I like it too.
I was brought up in So. CA, in LA and Redlands....lots of suburbia plantings, but once I married I moved north to Eureka in the Redwood Country. We have a double lot with several giant redwood trees, pine trees, ferns and across the street is the forest. I live 8 minutes from my store in the heart of the city (well, Eureka is a very small city, 26,000) and have to pass through a slice of forest to get there. I love the green year round too! You live in such a place also.
Great pictures. You can never get bored with a forest, it changes all the time. One of the best things for me with our new house is the fact that you can't see a single house from any of our windows; well, a roof or two in the distance, but that's all. We have a piece of woodland next to us too, and now that my ankle's better I'm looking forward to exploring it.
I LOVE your forest. But, SNAKES? Eek!
Simply beautiful woods, Tanya! I would love it there as well!
Happy Mothers Day (USA)
I think I would like to live in that kind of area as well, especially with the neighborhood on the other side. My sister and brother-in-law are always exploring all the different metro parks around here and taking pictures of all the natural things they see.
I am a forest girl too at heart. You live in such a lovely area-thanks for sharing how you came to live by the forest.
Tanya,
Beautiful forest- it would be a soothing place to walk and commune with nature..
The flora is beautiful and the forest serene- I can see why it appeals to you so much.
How large a place is Nikko?
What is your closest large city?
Hope you are having a nice Mother's Day,
Regards,
Anna
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