Friday, May 8, 2020

Exit Driveway; Turn Right

Does anyone take Sunday drives anymore?

I was a part of the generation that grew up taking Sunday afternoon drives. First church then home for either a fried chicken or roast beef Sunday dinner. Dishes done and Sunday paper read and maybe a short nap in their chairs for our parents, then there was often time for a drive.

Drives through the country were a big part of RH and my marriage--even when we moved to the country in 1990. And we explored the surrounding country roads when we moved here three years ago.

But we had never turned Right out our driveway since we moved here. Always it has been Left turn, towards the small suburb outside Nashville where we do all our shopping. 

After I had stayed home the first month of this time of pandemic, only taking walks around our 2 1/2 acres and down to the pond, I was desperate to Go somewhere and asked RH to turn Right out of our driveway to see some of our neighbors' houses.



Want to go along with us? Hop in the backseat!

Here are our neighbors.



Pretty soon we come to a house that catches my notice.


If you know me, you know that I love Red!
And I love quirkiness. This house has both and I feel they surely must be kindred spirits. Even their garage is red.



 
We're seeing many horse and cattle farms and lots of fencing on our long road.




 But it is always the touches of Red that I snap pictures of. 

Slow Down, RH!


 I would love to stop and visit these neighbors. Should we knock on the door?



Better not, they might be napping.

We have miles like this between houses so we are surely in the country now.



I always wanted donkeys but could never talk RH into them or llamas or sheep or the Toggenburg goats I badly wanted. Now that goat cheese is the only cheese he can eat, maybe he should have listened to me.




We're seeing miles and miles of fencing.




Aha! Now we know where our train sounds come from at night when we have windows open. Don't you love the sound of a 🚆 at night?



Another cattle farm. Black Angus?



Now our road circles around to the tiny hamlet near us, high in the hills, where Nashvillians built summer homes at the turn of the 20th century. We'll save that little village for another day and continue our drive on a country road that I often take when I'm coming home from shopping (in pre-Corona days) to avoid traffic on the state highway

This house is much older than it's style looks.



I dearly love this style of flat log house and the pale gray color with white.




Here's a rounded log cabin and more power to them if they still want Santa Claus and Frosty on their front porch. Maybe there's a story there, as Dolly Parton's character said in Steel Magnolias; I hope it's not a sad one.



 Okay, I have to show you a stone post that I would absolutely love to have in our yard. Don't you love this?



 
 Here's a nice old farmhouse that's been fixed up but it's the other building in their yard that I want to show you.



 
 How would you like to have your own personal Country Store? If we see someone out in the yard we should ask them if it's open to the public.



 
 Want to see where RH and I vote? It's in this sweet little country !




Now we have to pull back out on on the state highway our road runs off of. I wrote here about our new neighbor across the street from us who lives high on a hill in this gated neighborhood. 

 
It's much more charming than these first ones built, I think. 



This next one is way too imposing for our neck of the woods.



 I mean, do 50 people live there?

We turn Left by it onto our street and soon are home again, to where two people and two dachshunds fit very comfortably in a 1935 cottage that was the farmhouse for what was once only farmland.



 Our drive through the country did me so much good. I hope you enjoyed riding in the back seat!

When was the last time you took a Sunday afternoon drive?


 

14 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for this country drive! I loved it. How comforting to pull into your own driveway to your home sweet home. Love you ~ FlowerLady

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    1. Oh Lorraine, it is so very comforting! I'm so grateful that God led us to this sweet little house. I'm so glad you enjoyed the drive and love to you!

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  2. Thank you for taking me along on your drive! Your area looks beautiful and I love all the houses except for that huge, modern monstrosity. Give me a small cottage or farmhouse any day! I would love to live on a big parcel of land where I could have sheep or goats and donkeys, too. Oh - and a horse. :-) xoxo

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    1. I'm so glad you came along, Melanie! It is a monstrosity! I'm sorry but from the first time I saw it I couldn't believe how out of place it was, not just in size but in style. I would like to know the story behind it though.

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  3. Thanks for taking us along. Living in the Netherlands, for me, it even was a sort of a trip abroad. So funny to see how houses are different in different countries. Here we have stone houses mainly and much smaller, mainly.

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    1. I love seeing houses in the Netherlands when House Hunters International visits there! You have a beautiful country. Thank you for visiting here, Wendy!

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  4. How I enjoyed the trip - thank you! - it brought back so many nice memories. Come to Sweden if you like red houses - red houses with white corners are very common here.

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    1. Thank you so much for visiting here! And I love Swedish red houses. I have a Pinterest board just for them. My love for them began 20 years ago when I bought four books about Carl Larsson. In fact, one is here by my chair as I'm typing this. I wish I could come to Sweden but at least I indulge my love of your country online. I even follow some Instagramers from Sweden for the love of the pictures, although I can't read their words.

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    2. I just discovered your current blog and added it to my blogroll at my other blog where I can at least see your pictures. I wish I could read your beautiful language!

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  5. So glad you took us on a drive. I love doing this and we do it often. I have such a collection of house photos...ones I think I want to sketch but never do. Anyway - love your neighborhood and those houses and the little store. As a kid I thought we took Sunday drives often but my sister said no not really when I asked her one time. We usually only drove to the Nu-Way - a drive in place to get a delicious sandwich. Hamburger meat seasoned with horseradish mustard...so good. Happy Mother's day to you.

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    1. Sandy, I'm embarrassed to compare my drive to yours because you live in such a gorgeous part of the US. And you find houses with such amazing architecture. That hamburger seasoned with horseradish mustard sounds delicious to me. I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday!

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  6. What a lovely mix of rural, (accents of white, wooden fences with all those adorable animals grazing in the pastures), and suburban, where houses are not as far apart as the former. You know I would have had to further explore that RED house, right? Like you, I melt over Swedish and Norwegian red framed farmhouses - or even ones found in cities, and they all seem to have such pretty, cottage gardens. Libby tells me that, while she was working in Norway, every front garden was filled with all types of roses and the scent was hypnotizing!

    Dewena I so loved this Sunday drive around your neck of the woods! My aunt and two cousins used to come pick us up and we'd head straight to my aunt Jane's, their oldest sister's house, who lived in another part of the city. On the way, we would get a dozen Country Style donuts, which we would share with our other two cousins. I remember taking long walks around my aunt Jane's neighbourhood, which was so beautifully landscaped.

    Home Hill is such a cute cottage; I know how blessed you feel living there. It's perfect for you and your hubby and your two fur babies. Enjoy the joys of spring, dear friend!

    Have a wonderful week!
    Poppy

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    1. With you there with me we would march up the sidewalk, Poppy. And you could have charmed our way in! What a wonderful opportunity it was for Liberty to have spent that time in Norway. There's just something about the Scandinavian countries that fascinates me. As does your own special Cretan home. Thank you for coming along on our Sunday drive, Poppy!

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  7. Ohhh, I just happened to notice this blog! Late to the party and all of that. -smile-

    Oh yes, we used to take Sunday drives. Peaceful and slow paced driving. But! The 'back roads' are still there. More homes built on them. And the sad part is, you can no longer have a slow paced drive. Without some in-a-terrible-hurry-person coming up on your tail and making the drive miserable. -sigh-

    Happily, that has not happened in "your neck of the woods." Rejoice!!!!!

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