~A Virtual Tour
of our Oregon Residence~
(Click on the photos to enlarge)
(Click on the photos to enlarge)
Hail and
well-met, Gentle Readers! I’m popping back into the Blogosphere to give you a
peek at the new home God led my family to in Southern Oregon last Summer. The
pictures were taken in Fall, but due to Moving Madness™, Real Life and my
infernal tendency to procrastination, I’m just now getting around to posting
this. >Le Sigh<
Anyway, I call
our new home Longacre because it’s set on 1.88 acres, but since it’s only ninety feet wide,
it extends quite a ways up the hill—possibly half a mile. The name has a
slightly Native American flavor to it, although a friend told me it sounds like
something out of Jane Austen, too. Cool!
Our tour begins
at the road we take to get home—a relatively quiet country road in a hilly,
wooded area of Southern Oregon, with gorgeous views of nearby mountains, just
a stone’s throw away from two of the three local rivers. As you can see from
the picture, there are several trees (TREES!!!) on and around the property,
many of them oaks (which don’t grow in Idaho and were sorely missed). The
little building in the lower-left corner is the well-house, which not only supplies us with
all our water, but with its bright-yellow sunburst decoration, makes a good
landmark for friends to find us!
OUCH!!! (How is this tree even still alive?!) |
The Pear Tree |
It's hard to tell in the photo, but the High Road (at right) is actually a little steeper than it looks |
The driveway
splits at this point into what I call the High Road and the Low Road (but
unfortunately, neither of them lead to Scotland :-P). The High Road is lined by
struggling members of the juniper or cypress family, with creeping juniper and
young madrone saplings at their feet. If the trees were healthier, they’d lend
a rather grand “manor-house” feel to our humble home, wot?
And now we get
a better view of Longacre House itself. Note the big, spacious front porch
(twice the size of the one at Prairie Cottage) and the lovely, soothing
sage-green color the former owners painted it. There are the remains of some
flower beds and an herb garden, and a wisteria vine at the left-hand corner
(which went bye-bye in late-Fall because we’re all so allergic). The former
owners had carpet laid out on the area in front of the house, to smother the
weeds, and eventually we’ll probably spread some gravel and make this a parking
area.
To our great
delight, they left this lovely arbor-seat, and a grape-vine has already taken
up residence on it. We’re really jazzed about this grape-vine because it’s a
concord—and not just any concord; a highly-prized Dark Purple, to boot!—which
means Lord willing we can find us another steamer, we can make homemade grape
juice again!
This area has
some real potential as a flower garden/thinking spot one day.
Shall we see
what’s round the back of the house before we go inside?
"Two Point" (front) and "Three Point" (back) |
A better shot
of the back lawn, taken from about where the High Road connects with the Low
Road. Yes, Gentle Readers, we have a circular driveway. *Ooh, vahz!* ;-)
The bushes to the left are rhododendrons and a camellia, with little dog-violets (yay!) at their feet, and some wild cyclamen from Aunt Betty nestled amongst them. I have to watch them carefully, otherwise these clowns will dig them up:
The bushes to the left are rhododendrons and a camellia, with little dog-violets (yay!) at their feet, and some wild cyclamen from Aunt Betty nestled amongst them. I have to watch them carefully, otherwise these clowns will dig them up:
Turkey-turkey-turkey! (--turkey....) |
*Ooh, vahz = An expression denoting something is high-class, or very proper. Usually uttered with dramatic sarcasm.
Source: A pronunciation
of V-A-S-E, converted by Tasha L. (née H.)
into an expression, which was adopted by our family in February 2012.
~Tom’s Dicionary of Whacked-out Terms and Old
Family Sayings
The back acre.
We were told there was a garden area back there, but now the wild blackberries
have taken over. Peter thinks it won’t be too hard to reclaim, though…eventually.
Note the
beautiful orangey-red vine maple at right. I don’t think we’ve ever had a maple
tree before….
We have hiked
up into the back woods a few times—earlier in the Fall before it started raining
regularly—but I never got any pix. But Spring is coming, and they’ll be
gorgeous when the oaks get their new leaves, and the madrones are in bloom. :-D
The Low Road.
This shot gives you a feel for how the house is situated on the property. This one is prettier, however:
We’ll probably leave the creeping Saint John’s wart on the side of the hill to prevent erosion, but eventually we want to clear out what’s at the top of the hill and make some flower beds. You can’t really see them, but there are a couple sweet briars amongst the creeper! Rosehip tea, anyone?
Between the trees on the left, one can see the neighbors’ pond:
We’ll probably leave the creeping Saint John’s wart on the side of the hill to prevent erosion, but eventually we want to clear out what’s at the top of the hill and make some flower beds. You can’t really see them, but there are a couple sweet briars amongst the creeper! Rosehip tea, anyone?
Between the trees on the left, one can see the neighbors’ pond:
Late-October/early-November, 2014. It's now twice that full with the Winter rains |
This is
directly across the drive from the last shot. Mom and I have evil exciting
plans for this site. Like terracing, some flowers, and steps leading from the
Upper Level down to the Low Road and the Meadow….
Well, now we’ve
come back around to the Y in the driveway, so that completes Part One of the
tour. In Part Two, we’ll head back up the hill and see the inside of the house!
Until then,
Gentle Readers,
God bless,
~“Tom”~
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ReplyDeleteI really loved the tour - Longacre looks like a lovely place to call home! I think that name sounds very much like something from Austen's books:) Glad to get an update and hear how you're liking Oregon. :)
ReplyDeleteOh it looks awesome and you have a lot of Land on Longacres. Looks like a very nice home ! Look at all the wild life running around ! We are so happy for all three of you! "Tell everyone Hi!" Keep us up to date on all of the new adventures you guys do ! "Love hearing about them !" Karl and Loretta Hartman
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely home and grounds, dear! The tour was delightfully through and fun to follow. :) Sending best wishes and hugs your way. <3
ReplyDeleteThank you all for dropping by!
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping (Lord willing) to get Part Two posted by the end of the month...or possibly sometime in March. We rearranged the furniture, got a few new pieces and even sold some of the old, so the pix I took of the living room/dining room are now obsolete, LOL. So, new pix are in order....
Stay tuned! :-)