Suburbia in CA, or "Laird, I've a Feeling We're Not In Minnesota Anymore..."

As I walk Braden to school every morning, the Truman Show keeps flitting across my mind. Remember that movie? The one where the guy lives in the idyllic neighborhood where the neighbors all wave and say "Hi!," and people are out walking their dogs, and every driveway has two cars, and every house has 2.4 kids. Well, we only have one kid, but if we average it against the neighbors four, we're pretty close. 

Our city house....

I just keep hoping the cameramen don't expose themselves too soon and tell me this is just a hoax, because it puts a smile on my face when it takes 30 minutes to walk the half mile back from school because of stopping to talk to the neighbors, or let someone pet my dog, or help someone else track down their loose dogs. 


I love living in the country, and I am going to love getting back to our little country house for a few weeks over Christmas, and then again in the summer, but I am amazed at how much I am liking living in a neighborhood. I like that when I step outside on the front lawn, I have to wave and say hi to all the neighbors out in their front yards too. I like that when I go in the back yard, I have to call Daisy and Pepper's names and let them know it's just me so that they quit barking. Pepper is the size of a puppy treat for our dog, and has a cute little bow on the top of her head, but she's got a big bark until she's acknowledged. Then she wags her tail and yips because she wants to come play. Daisy, on the other side, just likes to talk. She barks to say hi when we go out back, and then she snuffles and snorts like a little pig with her tail wagging the whole time. 


I consider myself lucky to have the best of both worlds - a country house and a city house (reminds me of the storybook about a country mouse and city mouse). So here are some scenes from my city house neighborhood and the route I walk to get to Braden's school... 

Every neighborhood needs a white picket fence...

...and some palm trees.

I love these flowers because they look like bird heads. They are starting to fade now, but when there is a whole bunch of them together, I can't help but laugh because it looks like a flock of goofy birds.

My roses don't look like the this perfect one.

A couple years ago, Braden would

have loved having a dinosaur head

as a permanent part of our garage.

Can't wait to see what they do 

with it for Christmas!

We live in a valley, so almost every where you look there are foothills and mountains as a backdrop.

  

Not many log homes here, but I do like the light colored Spanish style homes.