George Street - One Year Later

This morning around 7 a.m. I was coming around the corner with my dog on leash and remembered that today is my one-year anniversary on George Street.  These little homes were built in  mid to late 1928ish. That's all I know about them except that there are blocks and blocks of very similar structures all around and I am curious enough about that to have them on my list of things to learn more about.

These homes don't look like much perhaps to the casual eye, but each is as different and unique as the occupants themselves. We range from young to old and in every color and every heritage imaginable. We keep to ourselves for the most part, but we know one another, where we live and everyone - everyone - smiles and says hello. We have patience with each other and even though we mostly haven't been inside each others homes, on a warm afternoon we will be sitting on our porches, an occasional banter across the way, sipping soda or coffee and smiling at each other.

But George Street itself, this short one block of it, has its own personality. For one thing, it is a narrow street with parking only on one side, which owning two cars makes rather difficult for both the owners and the others living here, but it seems to work. Often in winter, the snowplow and salting trucks miss this tiny street and so we are piled high with snow when others are clear and bare.

On this short street every house has a personality and displays its individuality with hanging bells and birdhouses, flowing colors of fabric that blow in the wind, and whirligigs and Christmas lights all year round. Some people dance on their porches, some gather with friends, feet up sipping beer. There are signs that welcome, signs that congratulate, signs that dogs ignore while peeing on the grass, there are new babies, and kids who play outdoors the way kids ought to be doing instead of inside watching TV or playing video games.  It's a street that feels safe to me.

 Winter - a forecast unlike any I've ever seen before.

May 2013 - my first garden on George Street

Two months later - July - my beautiful tomatoes

Lancaster grows roses like nobody's business. These were planted by the person who lived here before me and what a gorgeous surprise. Heavy bloomer all summer long.

After living nearly my entire life on the Pacific Coast in or around Seattle, WA,  this smaller town of Lancaster which is mostly wonderfully flat, has lots of sidewalks and places with coffee and such tucked here and there. One of the friendliest cities I've been in. There's an energy that lends itself to excitement but also says it's okay to do nothing but plant your garden and watch it grow.