"Our house is a very, very, very fine house. . .
" (Graham Nash, with CSNY).
Home is in a forest, with trees literally growing through our deck!
This is a rear view, showing three quarters of the wrap-around deck. The
house was built on a knoll, but the hillside drops away on three sides, and the
deck gives us a feeling of space. Of course, the Santa
Cruz coastal
climate is rarely conducive to balmy evenings on the deck. . . !
We've spent many of the years covered by this photo album here, and it's
getting to the point where we'll never be able to afford to move. When property
values are rising, as they have been almost constantly since we arrived, the property tax system
penalizes moves.
So we embellish what we've got: a little bit here and a
little bit there. The issue is that we're always short one bedroom.
Charlie finally got his own room during the summer of
2006. He had been tired of sharing
his room with his little brother Alex, when none of the
other children share theirs. He had a point, but we only have six bedrooms. So
we needed to wait for Nick to move out before there was one free.
On the right is an aerial shot courtesy of Marty, above, who good-naturedly took
Ian and Nick up in his plane for a
spin one Sunday afternoon in 2005. It was taken from almost the same angle as
the above close-up. The sun was very bright and the shade very dark, but it
gives you an idea of our verdant surroundings. We are in the middle of a redwood
forest in the Santa Cruz mountains.
The upright object in the middle of the roof is Tom,
not a chimney! He was determined to wave to us. The chimney (not
in use and recently dismantled) is the upright object to the right of the roof.
Bottom right, our road cuts across the diagonal. The house is up a steep
hillside from the road, and our driveway and its switchback is under the trees.
The following collection of interiors starts (top row, left) with
the room that is now Alex's but when the photo was taken was
Charles' and Alex's shared bedroom. It
continues with Alban's room (top row, right) in a state
of relative order. His walls change periodically, but always make very
interesting viewing!
The breakfast nook (middle row, left) features decorating the walls
Grand-Père's wonderful pictures of the Breton countryside near
La Grée where he
lives. While Marie-Hélène
was growing up, he photographed hairstyles for l'Oreal and the like as his
profession, and for pleasure photographed Brittany. Mementos like these of the
Berhaut family surround us at home.
On to the
dining room (middle row, right), set up more for children's activities and
Marie-Hélène's stamping than for
eating.
The desk in the living room (bottom row, left) includes two framed deeds
above it. Ian's dad gave him the deeds, which fit with
what was
Ian's new profession when his dad had found them
when they were clearing out his offices. His dad then worked for Wall Paper
Manufacturers Ltd., a division of Reed International plc and the corporate successor to Sanderson's. One of the deeds
embodied an expansion of the first Sanderson's factory.
Grandma had them framed, and they follow us around. This time, it's mementos
of the Stock family.
Finally, on to our own little group, for whom the
trampoline (bottom row, right) has been the most successful and long-lasting toy
for the children that we have ever found.
