Thursday, July 24, 2008

The best of country living

While impertinent Daddy Longlegs and ugly centipedes and squadrons of mosquitos and gnats are some of the disadvantages of country living, residing near the woods does have its perks.

The constant singing, chirping, calling, cawing, and twitting of the birds is one decided asset here, especially in our very quiet neighborhood, which I hope doesn't get ruined as new people start moving into their apartments in the next few weeks. Being surrounded by hundreds of trees is also a bonus, as is even the close-by and whimsical mooing and braying of a herd of cattle whose location we have not yet determined.

To take advantage of this type of country living, as close to country as I'll ever get, my husband took an extension cord into the courtyard of our apartment complex, and has set himself up in one of our exterior chairs to work on his laptop. The chair, an Adirondack in good shape that some previous tenant abandoned years ago and which I rescued and cleaned, is ideal because he can set up his computer mouse on one arm and his coffee and phone on the other. Very, very cute.

That sure beats working all day in the dark basement of our large house, or even in the his new "office," a room with a picture window, here in the apartment. I also really like getting comfortable on the sofa and typing away at the laptop while enjoying the view out of the large picture window in the living room.

Today I had all these plans: finally getting back to doing yoga in the morning and then running errands and then being efficient and getting more things organized and sorted and stored. But instead I decided to take a nap and then it was lunch time and now I'm writing here and I might go and get some Ohio-grown peaches at the nearby orchard, just to say I did something actually productive, but that may be the extent of my efforts for the day.

Or I might just pick one of my summer reads and head out there with my husband. I've had my eye on our old swing seat (which we also set out in the courtyard) now for days, hoping I'll get the chance to read there. This might just be the day. Oh, how I do so love summer.

3 comments:

Dr. S said...

Oo! I know where those cows are! Do you want me to tell you, or do you want to find them yourself?

Boricua en la Luna said...

Please DO tell!

Dr. S said...

If you go down to 229 and go along to the little road on the right that climbs up to the college observatory, you will find them up there! They're the ones I could hear from the little apartment last summer. The big dog and I found them one hot morning, and he completely freaked out--they were clearly the biggest huskies he'd ever seen. They were also clearly not interested in him.

You can also get to them by way of a footpath through the woods, if you go to the path behind the Bishop's Palace. But that route is a little more complicated. I will show it to you soon!