Houses

I love to go on rides. Picture me like a puppy with my head out the window, tongue and ears flapping in the wind, drooling at the scenery as it goes by. Though our kids generally beg out when Dan and I go on a Sunday afternoon car tour, when I was little I loved to go with my Mom and Dad on their drives. I loved to look at the trees and hills; I loved to imagine the history of the countryside going by. In Virginia and the Carolinas, it was colonial settlers I'd see riding through the trees on horseback, women in beautiful long gowns, men with muskets. After I read the Tolkien trilogy, I'd picture elves and dwarves hidden in the deep dark forests and along the many riverbanks. Or I'd look for the little red pointed hats of gnomes in the underbrush.

Now that I'm a grown-up driving around Colorado, I imagine grizzled miners on burros winding up the switchbacks, looking for gold.  Or tough pioneer women picking wild flowers in grassy meadows. 
And sometimes I remember to hunt for gnome hats in the aspen groves.  But, more often than not, when I'm not oohing and ahing over the scenery, I'm oohing and ahing over the houses.  There are some amazing places tucked in the arms of the mountains.  And I have terrible house envy sometimes. Check this one out, for instance:

(Click for the big pic!)

Ain't it a beauty?

On its own, it'd be an awesome house plunked down anywhere in the world.  But, check out the view these folks have from their back porch:

(Click for the big pic!)

This beautiful property we found while wandering  down Hidden Valley Road, near Paonia, Colorado -- in the shadow of the West Elk mountain range.   There's property for sale all through this valley, though the house pictured is not on the market...  =sigh=  If it weren't so far from church, I could so live in a place like this...

But, then...  Um... Except for the Minnesota River out the back door and the lack of neighbors and barns and outbuildings....  I guess we do live in a place kinda like this already, don't we?

Home sweet home. 

At least for now.

God is good and we are grateful for a roof over our heads at all.

Praying for the people in Arizona who have lost their homes to fire this week...  Our skies are hazy with the smoke of those forest fires and it's heartbreaking to know the sorrow and loss that dims our sunshine here.  Also remembering those who still suffer from the tragic tornados in Missouri, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Massachusettes.  None of us can never be too secure -- except to hope for our heavenly home someday.