Living in the city, Part I

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

What's better than autumn in New England, with plump, friendly squirrels burrowing and hopping on thick golden carpets of fallen maple and gingko leaves?

collage

Fall at its finest in the Boston Public Garden.

When you don't have to rake a single one of them.

As I'm walking along the pile of leaves just outside our door, I am warmed by the knowledge that each week, courtesy of our newly bloated property tax dollars, there will be that trusty street sweeper coming by to clean away all the detritus, and that our weekends of endlessly filling and stomping dry leaves into Home Depot refuse bags are over, oh so over, to be replaced by the less chore-y task of strolling to and through the Public Gardens or the Commons and enjoying the autumn leaves the way they should be enjoyed: by sight, by smell. Not by rake.

So it's been 4 months since we ditched our suburban house for digs in the city and we are loving every. single. second of it. I don't miss our old house. At all. Right now as I sit here, SOCKLESS, in a T-SHIRT, with the heat cranked up to keep the place at a constant 72 degrees (and we don't even have a choice about that! No thermostat!), I think about the couple now at our old house and imagine what they're saying to each other as they're discovering that they've just bought an oversized ice-box, and oil prices are at an all time high. They're probably not high-fiving. Because they're fingers are all swollen and it would hurt.

In the new place, there are no weeds to pull. I mean is this Shangri-La or what?! This has been the extent of my gardening so far:

Extent of my gardening these days

Planting bulbs - amaryllis and paperwhites - in pots to be brought indoors. This year I bought somewhere around 60 paperwhite bulbs, and have planted maybe half of them so far, in soil, or rocks, or sea glass. I'm hoping they'll begin blooming near Christmas time because there is nothing quite so nice as fragrant white paperwhite blossoms to add more holiday cheer.

Forcing paperwhites

So, in general I haven't really talked much about our new place, except for the mantle. I love that thing. I get a couple of emails now and then from people asking how I'm liking it, and I'm fine with talking about it one on one, but with the general public...We're so happy and feel so incredibly lucky that we get to live the way we do, but do you really want to hear about it? Because maybe I'll come across as an arrogant douchebag, and apparently that would be just about the worst thing in the world for strangers to think me a douchebag. And then there's that creepy feeling of being voyeured...I should really quit thinking so much. If you haven't noticed, my writing here as been few and far between as lately I do this back and forth in my head and then censor myself into silence. Dude, WHAT is the big deal?? This is a blog is it not?

Stay tuned for more douchebaggery!

Comments [16]
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007 5:32:09 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
bring on the doucebaggery. that's right, i said bring it. nothing wrong with loving your home and gushing about it.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 5:44:51 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
lovely, vibrant photos!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 6:18:20 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
eh, we like the douchebaggery. You know, if we didn't, we'd just not read you.

How do you keep your kitties from eating the paperwhite leaves? Do you spray everything with bitter apple spray or do your kitties not have the love of green shoots that mine do? I'm terrified of growing them for fear of killing my cats with their toxic leaves. Or maybe I'm mistaken and paperwhites aren't toxic?
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 6:52:26 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
You made the right choice--nothing beats city life. Period. And thank you for using my favorite word in the English language: douchebag.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 7:18:02 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I love living in the city in a condo, too, so I totally understand!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 7:51:27 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
::squee:: I love the fat squirrel! And I'm totally for gushing about your living space, if you love it.

Like Sundara, I am very curious about how you manage to keep your kitties from eating the paperwhites. Plants are basically a non-option in this household because of kitties.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 9:28:59 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Ooh! I love all of your photos! So beautiful, each in their own way. Blog on about your city living! I'll never live in the city (big dogs and all that), so I'd love to hear all your stories of fantastic city life. :)
Thursday, November 29, 2007 4:04:02 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Oh lawwwwwwwdy, you're such an arrogant douchebag living in a poshy-poshy city flat! ;-p

*LOVE it!*

and:

*Jealous looks*

BTW, did you take the squirrel home? :-p
Thursday, November 29, 2007 6:06:21 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
bring on the doucebaggery! i enjoy living vicariously through you having given up my city life for suburban life when i got married.

by the way, i don't do leaves or gardening (unless i want to). ;)

Thursday, November 29, 2007 7:46:35 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
That is positively the most enormous squirrel I've ever seen. (And I grew up in a neighborhood called Squirrel Hill, so I've seen some big squirrels in my day.)
Thursday, November 29, 2007 8:27:53 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
There's nothing wrong with your blogging -- or lack thereof -- whatsoever. You take lovely photos and knit cool things, and it's always neat to have a peek into other folks' lives, but do this because you enjoy it! Thanks for blogging on your own terms (even "douchbaggery!")
Thursday, November 29, 2007 12:09:13 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
don't be silly! you're not a douchebag so you don't write like one. if you did, that smugness would have made me stop reading your blog ages ago. i love peeking into your life and seeing all the beauty :)
Thursday, November 29, 2007 12:15:27 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Please, dish on the new space! Despite living 15 minutes south of San Francisco, I live in what feels like a hopelessly suburban neighborhood and I must live vicariously through your urbanitude.
Thursday, November 29, 2007 1:30:08 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Nahhhhhhh - you're not an arrogant douchebag, you're a LUCKY douchebag. There's a serious difference.

I don't live in the suburbs - I live in a small town where I've got a huge (rattletrap) of a house and while I love the space, I love my yard, my garden, my beautiful maple and pecan trees (I don't rake a damn leaf, though. Not. A. Single. One.) - but I still do constantly wonder what it would be like to live truly and fully in the city.

So, through you I can see and dream and vicariously live. So please, LIVE IT UP for those of us who don't/can't live where you two have chosen to currently settle down! ;)
Friday, November 30, 2007 4:47:08 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I love your photography. Such pretty colors too!
Saturday, December 01, 2007 9:01:12 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Love love LOVE the autumn pictures. Autumn's always been my favourite season even though I didn't grow up where there was much autumn colour. I've really been feeling and enjoying it more this year than ever.
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