Tuesday, February 15, 2011

if you were a city


If you were a city, where would you be?  Would you be nestled deep amongst the snow-tipped mountains, safe and secluded.  Green and luscious with lakes and trees and rows of old buildings, standing firm year after year.  Leafy and sun-kissed with sand in all the crevices of the streets.  Old and majestic with strong, weather laden stones.  Artsy and intriguing with many twists and turns and sculpted to perfection.  Open and vast with long gently rolling hills and a view of hundreds of miles.  Built up high on the cliff of a sea with the bluest clear water there ever was.  Familiar and comfy with everyday quiet places and friendly shops.  Daring and dangerous but beautiful to behold.  Cozy and squished up tight with tiny little streets lined with cobblestones hundreds of years old.  And on it goes...

I think I'd like to be the up high, with a rugged path to the crystal sea.  Tall and old but not too tightly packed.  Weathered into rounded corners and gently aged facades.  Sculpted and shaped to a beautiful end.  Friendly and welcoming, lined with restaurants that have patio seating and fresh flowers on the table.  Laid out simply, but with too many intricate details to notice in one afternoon.  I'd like to have blues and creamy yellows, buttery soft.  Streets covered in cobblestones six inches thick and unevenly worn.  Well kept and loved by many a foot.

I don't know exactly where I could be located yet.  I think I've been close, in Italy and...so many others.  I'll just have to enjoy spending the rest of my life traveling around to see what I can see :)

8 comments:

  1. I think I would be a tiny village made out of stone and wood and thatched roofs, with gardens nestled against walls, filled with sea lavender. Paths worn through the heather would meander to the hilltops and to the ocean and over all would be the sound of the sea. There might be poppies or roses and for sure there would be goats with bells chewing on bushes and everyone would ride bicycles and go shopping on foot.

    Do you still have your Prague cobblestone?

    ReplyDelete
  2. oooh, yeah...bicycles, good call :) the chewing goats, too, i like but can you please try to keep them out of my basil garden? i was organizing some photos today and took a little trip down memory lane to a 3 month backpacking adventure about ten years ago and i smiled (has it really been so long ago?) i have so many lovely thoughts about that time.

    sadly, no, i do not have the cobblestone. i gave it away as a gift to someone who i thought would appreciate it but i very strongly regret that decision, honestly. i think it means so much more to me than it did to them. boo hoo. maybe we can go back and get another...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can I be an island instead? An island with many trees and secret places, wild animals (but no scary ones) no cars, and only the bare essentials of technology. There would be little houses dotted here and there full of kindred spirits and wonderful wise old people who would listen to your troubles,not that you would have any there. Everyone would be self sufficient and swap excess produce over their back fences. Aah, I must move to this magical place at once!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I would be near the ocean. Close enough to walk to the water and smell the salt in the air, but further into the inland where gardens would be rampant with honeysuckle and lilac. Lemon groves and large meadows of open land where you could watch the sun coming up in the summer. A place where all the homes are little cottage houses painted different colors and porches to sip ice tea on and walk around barefoot. Local bakeries and farmer's markets and street performers...and of course a library.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would love to be a little of all of that! They all sound so wonderful!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. yes, they do!!! one thing's for sure...we all want to be near or (in Kerri's case) in the water :) i would love to swap fresh fruit and walk around barefoot all day, too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Can I visit everybody?

    Jenna, I catch a photo in my box every so often of our trip. So many great memories too, and so much more of an overview of how I would do that trip now. :) I was actually thinking about cooking the scones for 200 people the other night when I was mixing up a batch. (when we still had our kitchen.) I can't believe it was 10 years ago already. I would love to go back to some of the spots but not to recreate the past, just to see things as I am now ~ Tim loved Gimmelwald so much we stayed for a week!

    Aaand, look at this sewing tutorial! http://baremaked.blogspot.com/2007/11/reversible-fabric-baby-shoes-tutorial.html

    ReplyDelete
  8. oh my, thanks so much. i love! those booties! a new project :)

    yes, it really would be interesting to see how differently we might perceive now everything we saw then. to make new memories out of it all. i'm getting the itch and so i think...californ-i-a might be meeting us soon!!! There's so many places to go, so we have to just keep truckin' away trying to visit them all.

    In my mind...Gimmelwald is a vivid dream land. I've never seen anything like it. It's no wonder Tim loved it. Are the showers still timed by the minutes? I remember the shower just going cold and shutting off after what was not very long :)

    ReplyDelete

any thoughts?? thanks for stopping by :)