Observations - August 29th

I am slowly learning to distinguish different leaves and tree-shapes in the great mass of greenery that lines most of the roads around here. When I first arrived, all I could see was leafy sameness. Now I can see where one bush ends and a tree begins -- though I still do not know what bush nor tree it might be.

Speaking of trees, something that amuses me mightily is how they deal with large trees that overhang the road. Simply put, they chop off anything that would hit a car or truck as it travels along the road, leaving the rest of the tree alone. The effect is comical; there will be a splendid large tree (oh, how I am getting tired of typing "tree" - I want to be able to give them names!) near a road, and most of it will be forming its lovely treeish shape -- a globe, a tall tower, a spreading -- and then there will be this straight-sided bite out of one side of it. Also amusing are the trimmings that happen to let power lines through.

A number of people around here have large, rolling lawns surrounding their homes adjacent to the county roads and highways. For the most part they are unfenced, and I keep mistaking them for golf courses. One difference is that each seems mandated to have a Decorative Object. There will be the lawn, and maybe a few bushes and trees, and then, often rather far from the house, something serving as the D.O. A lone boulder perhaps, or maybe a concrete basket. One person had a clump of sunflowers pretending to be a bush. Others have rings of bricks surrounding flowers. Or a little scene enacted by concrete geese and a lawn jockey. But there's never more than one D.O. (That would be tacky.)

Driving back from South City one night, the roads were shrouded in fog. Car headlights shone up into it like rising suns when they approached a hill, and an illuminated billboard seemed to hang suspended in the mist like a moon.

Comments

[Lauren]

Well, you should see my yard then. I have a pink flamingo, a bush of sunflowers, and I'm working on some cement bunnies. (Why? No idea.)

Down the road from my parents' house is a house with a set of deer staring majestically at a busy road. Now that's tacky.

[Jane Dark]

Well, then, in an effort to blend in, have you thought about a D.O. for your yard?

[yami]

Hee! The D.O. - perfect. You should turn that into a column for the local paper, it hits home in a really cute way.

[Rana]

Ah, we don't have a lawn big enough for a D.O. We have two trees, a bush, and the mailbox, and that takes up space enough. The closest I come is a birdhouse made out of a log that sits on the porch; rather amusingly, it was originally made in this state by one of my so-many-removes cousins. D. tolerates it.

(He's lucky this place doesn't have a larger yard and that it's a rental; someday, I desperately want a gazing ball. And maybe a bottle tree. No life-size concrete gorillas, though -- yes, they actually sell these!)

[yankee transplant]

Oh, I'm thinkin' a cement gorilla would be a great addition to any yard (except mine)!
I have a friend in New England who has a concrete goose in her front yard and she MAKES OUTFITS FOR IT AND CHANGES THE CLOTHES! It's just.too.much.

[Phantom Scribbler]

I love that you're mistaking big lawns for golf courses! That pretty much sums up relocating from an arid to a humid climate, huh?

[Rana]

Yup!

I'm so used to lush lawns in general being displays of wealth (and the work of the people who take care of them) that it's really strange for me to see that everyone has a green lawn, and I keep being surprised at how quickly the grass and other plants rebound after being cut. All the lawns of my childhood were scraggly, tended to be composed of tough, slighly prickly plants, and went thin and brown in the summers. Very different here -- though I can still see that there are markers of money in the lawns that tend to feature large boulders as their D.O.s -- they seem to be the exclusive purview of large-size ranch homes and the occasional corporation. These large lawns also tend to be more uniform in terms of the grass that make them up, and to be exquisitely mowed.

I do like being able to walk around the yard in bare feet!