Favorite House

Yesterday I went for a long walk after the rain finally passed. Surprisingly, it left the air cool and crisp--rather than heavy and sultry--which made for excellent walking weather.

In June? In Texas? Cannot pass that up!

On my walk I snapped this photo. This is one of my favorite houses, only about a 15-minute walk from where I live.

I admire it for two reasons. First, that it is private. The inhabitants have actually decided not to live their lives in everyone else's face. And second, the tumbled glass rock wall. Here's a closeup.

Even closer...

I think this is really killer. The wall is full of fist-sized glass rocks, and the end effect is also as if they had a wall of water. The texture and color are fantastic.

I should share with you some of the atrocities from the same neighborhood, just to give a reference point. The faux Tuscan villas, faux Loire chateaux, faux White Houses. Yeeech. Maybe I will. Just to point out that spending gobs of cash doesn't guarantee good taste, a lesson that cannot be pointed out too often.

In terms of the house above, I also love that they have retained the trees and built a smaller house--probably a greener house, in that case, given Texas heat in summer. Too many people are cutting down the old and beautiful Texas trees in order to build houses with bigger footprints. Yardprints? Whatever. Houses like this suggest to me delightful hidden lives, intimate and personal, carefully crafted. I know I am making all this up, but the mystery of the hidden lives behind such an attractive wall... hmm. Intriguing. And not defined by "making a statement" as the Tuscan/Loire/White House mansions do.

I wonder: in the faux Tuscan villas, do the owners dress up as Medici princes and order up ornate Renaissance banquets and pore over huge maps of Eastern lands while planning to conquer them with merchant vessels? When one visits friends there is one required to bring crystal rock reliqueries and chests of exotic fruits and paintings by Michelangelo? Or do they do like I do and bring over an unpretentious bottle of sauvignon blanc? Seems a lot of house for one unpretentious bottle. Or just to sit back and watch Dexter.

Pearl