Purple Flowers

This place just gets better and better!  The view from the shower window - which wasn't too shabby in the first place - has improved tenfold!  These beautiful boughs of flowers - lots of tiny, dangling purple bells - have popped out all over Athens, particularly thick behind my apartment, interspersed with the bamboo.  They hang in full clusters from twining vines.  I couldn't help taking lots of pictures....

This is the view from the shower window....  The screen proved too obstructive, though, so I moved to the back bedroom and pulled the blinds for the rest...

 

I think it's called wisteria.  Should be called "Blue-Lavender Beautiful."  Boy, it's pretty!  And it sure goes well with bamboo ~ blowing in the breeze....

Bloomfield & Peabody

I like where I'm living.

Now that Spring is here, I realize I really like where I'm living. There are problems with it, sure, but there are also moments when I walk through rooms of my apartment and feel absolutely giddy. Yes, the gas bill was crazy this winter, and I am genuinely frightened by the thought of no-central-air in July (I am not looking forward to days when the kitchen is freezing but the temperature in the bedroom is sauna-style and barely breathable), but right now it's pretty darn nice. I like having the sliding glass door open and listening to the windchimes in the breeze, or the laughter from a neighbor's deck, or music through the screendoor of someone else's apartment. Last night, it was oldies. Hit the road, Jack. Ain't no mountain high enough. Etc.

While I hate the shower head, and the hot water tank is about the size of a keg of beer, I do love sliding open that high frosted window and feeling the air on my wet face while I lather my hair. It unlatches and slides open just like the window in the backyard playhouse that Poppa and Uncle John built for me and Leigh when we were children. The screen is dirty and crusty at the sill but I peer through it over the canopy of bamboo leaves behind my apartment, to the volleyball court behind the fraternity house on Milledge, and listen to the chirping of birds and the hum of the distant traffic on Baxter.

I like waking up in the morning to the copper-golden glow of the sun through the brown, rolling blinds on the window in my bedroom. Houser is usually curled up, copper-golden himself, on the pillow next to me. We stretch together before making the bed, and read passages from two books that we feel begin our days well, before ambling into the kitchen and making green tea to drink while browsing the internet. I eat breakfast on the sofa, but I should start taking my cereal at the table in the kitchen. I just love the hanging lamp above the dinette set and if I sat in the chair by the kitchen door, I could eat breakfast while enjoying the view off the deck. I need to find a good piece of art to hang there above the table. Any suggestions? What about something lovely and colorful like this?

While I can get frustrated with myself and the still completely in tact to-do list after full days of doing absolutely nothing, for the most part, I am enjoying living alone again; I wasn't sure I would. Surprisingly, though, I haven't driven myself too crazy yet. I'm enjoying hanging out with myself (which is a damn good thing considering I still have few to no friends here in this new city!). And I still haven't gotten too terribly bored or lonely; I really enjoy those full days of nothing with myself. If you know me, you may agree that this is a little amazing! Definitely a pleasant surprise, though... It feels nice when you reflect and find you kind of like yourself..., y'know?

Happy Spring!