Home is all about the neighbors.

This small incline at the top of the picture brings me joy every time I see it. Notice the houses. You can't really see them. Mine is the fourth on the left, at the stone column marker. If I hadn't told you you couldn't even guess that houses hide behind those trees.

Most are vacation cottages, occupied for a few weeks every summer or holiday. Out of the eight that would be in this pictures if trees didn't hide them, only three are occupied year round.
Ours is one of them.

This is the view you'd get if you walked up from the street to my residence, a long gravel road and a concrete pad in front of the house. We have houses on the side of house that are barely visible; and one straight ahead at the other side of the street, usually unoccupied all year long, surrounded by trees and water. My cat has this view early in the morning, when I open a window and let her out. She jumps out and down to the pavers and on to the gravel until she finds a smell she likes.

She doesn't like meandering toward the lake on her own; she waits for me to go down toward the lake garden before she attempts to get close. Then, she sits and waits quietly until I retreat back to the house. She scurries fast and furious to get into the front door before I close it.

When I walk out my driveway for the short walk toward the beach, my cat stays behind. She has no idea what fun I have on the white sand.
She and I enjoy the solitude this place provides, rain or shine, though deer, herons and beavers may think we are overcrowded.

How they do it in big cities

This month, we have spent time visiting Eugene, Portland and Seattle.

All these cities have one thing in common: freeways and traffic. I am amazed at how the entire west coast is still dependent on the automobile to navigate. Didn't we learn anything in the two-hundred years before the west was won?

I like Portland's public transportation; the various mid city neighbors can move around by hopping on a metro rail, or walk or bike.

Seattle feels burdensome. First, visitors cannot afford to stay downtown. So, to see the sights or to get on a tour bus, we need to drive on freeways,find parking, pay dearly for that, and then hope to get in and out of places by walking or getting on a bus.

In these days of high gas prices and global warming concerns, we need to help the average Joe get to work and back easily and inexpensively. The average Joe needs accessible, clean, and well maintained transportation that encourages him to leave his car at home and reduce all congestion.

As I make my way back to the south coast of Oregon, I will not miss the cities. (Well, just a little.) I will return to my hamlet where I can walk to the post office, the church, the grocery store. And, yes, the beaches. I hope my town stays that way. But when it starts to grow, I hope we plan its growth carefully, creating its arteries carefully and beneficially.

Oregon Coast

With the Pacific Ocean on my right, I drove down to Gold Beach to be on a jury, this week, traveling on a winding road that slows down to twenty miles per hour even on a good day. Whatever was on my mind disappeared as surf, sand, stacks, and mountains came in and out of sight, as the land curved, dropped and jutted out. This stretch of the coast from Port Orford to Brookings is God's country. It is the reason we moved here from California.

More than once, I pulled over, allowing others to pass me, while I breathed deeply and marvelled at the way each mile surprises the senses. The surf was high and few boats were on the water.

The fisherman who was on the jury with us talked about how difficult it is to make a good living as a commercial fisherman these days. A young woman had to line up four different people to take care of her sick child. An entire company shut down because the key people had been called to serve on the jury.

One learns how the rest of the world lives, how our lives are both similar and different. What we all shouted about? How beautiful Oregon is and how lucky we are in this corner of Paradise.