Did a driveby of our old house in Island Bay during a driving lesson with my daughter the other day. As I half expected, I had a dream about the place that night. Not sure why that property has such a grip on my imagination? It’s not a perfect house by any means. It was very cold, and you did feel quite exposed in the lounge, with all the houses across the valley looking down on you, as my sister in law so helpfully pointed out. It had no view, and you lost the sun about 4:30 in winter. And yet, we were very happy there. It had a lovely warm microclimate, sheltered from all winds. The garden was huge, with many large established trees. And it was just around the corner from the beach. It was also where all our children (and dogs!) had their early childhoods. They seemed happy…
Reading through all that, maybe its not so surprising that I have strong ties to the old place. It’s not that Karori, where we moved next, was a soulless upmarket ghetto (or not just that, anyway). And I love inner city living, next to the Botanical Gardens, in the character filled (and centrally heated) old house where we live now. It’s just the emotional engagement that’s missing, somehow.
It still has the window shutters! Am still being observant 😉
So it does! Didn’t we take those down? Oh no, that was the window boxes. So twee!