Look Out!
Until my husband and I moved to this remarkable place, our kitchen had a view of the parking lot at our townhouse condo. Parking lots are not boring really, because you can watch people coming and going and read funny license plates. My husband found a good one once. It said, “LOOK OUT!” – with dots in the O’s for eyes. But back to the kitchen window, I vowed if we ever built a home, it would have a window with a real view. And maybe I would put a sign on the wall above the sink, saying, “LOOK OUT!”
Horses on the Pasture
So, as they say, “It came to pass,” that one day we did build a home in the Virginia countryside and have lived in it for 24 years! Although I never put up the sign, the kitchen window does look out upon a pasture and a remarkable view of the mountains afar.
The pasture used to be populated by our two horses, Martini and Lucy Looselips. At one time they took us on the trails, but eventually they (and we) retired and became beautiful lawn ornaments (them, not us). And I could gaze out the kitchen window and see Lucy and Martini grazing peacefully and could bring them apples and carrots in exchange for soft snorting kisses. Then we lost Martini at 28, and Lucy Looselips died when she was 32. Imagine? That is supposed to be very old for a horse. We called her Lucy Looselips because her lower lip hung down in a funny kind of way.
A Backstage Setting
The pasture is still lovely with trees and grasses that change color and density with the seasons, topped by a somewhat distant view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Sometimes the mountains are really the color blue. I wonder if that’s how they got their name. Someone marveled at a dusky view and said, “Look at those blue ridged mountains!” And it caught on. But sometimes they are grey-green, and others charcoal and maybe topped with snow or fog or rain clouds. Lightning storms in those far off hills are fascinating and we often sit on the deck for a light show. And the sunrises are phenomenal and the moonrises too. It’s a never ending panorama as if it were a backstage setting in preparation for a new performance every day, every hour, every season.
Country Living Through the Looking Glass
The kitchen window brings back memories of a baby fox playing in broad daylight as if pouncing on a ball, or the herd of cattle who once wandered over for greener pastures, a horse who once galloped into our swimming pool, the bear having a picnic under the peach tree, and our grandgirls’ hooting and hollering at play.
And looking through the panes of glass from the inside out, I see, once again, pictures of a chosen country life, and mirror-like reflections of who I once was, who I am, and what I most enjoy in life. And, the wonder of it all is I can still work at the sink and “look out” my window on the world.
Virginia Views 