Friday, May 25, 2012

beautiful places || down the lane


Our house is perched atop a little grassy hill that’s yellow and mown in the summer and clovered and green in the spring. From an upstairs window you can see a majestic Mount Hood rising from behind the trees and the highway and the train tracks, bordered by horizon clouds. Around us are the scattered homes and churches, close yet distanced, that make our little country town of Warren.  


Down the lane is the little white church where my great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother walked down the aisle, each in their own space of history. The short road that goes past it is quiet, lined with a few small homes and rustic barns. Cows dot open fields between houses, and red-winged black birds always sit chattering upon the telephone poles that line the road. 

In the summer, the kids are out shrieking in the sprinklers or swinging on tire swings beneath the age-old oak trees which have been here for a hundred years. These old trees know Warren thoroughly; they've been climbed by children in suspenders and children in Nike baseball caps, they have swung wooden seats, war-patched tires, and brand-new ropes. 

It's a beautiful place, Warren is. The neighborhood can’t quite be called a neighborhood, and the town can’t quite be called a town, but we love it how it is--the quiet roads and the wildflowers blooming along them, the tractors lumbering slowly along and stopping traffic, the tumble-down sheds and the garden mailboxes. 

It's all a part of who we are as a community. 

..Warren is not ideal, it is not utterly perfect; it is not "left behind," but it's also never going to catch up. Warren is simply the place no one has ever heard of, the place that you couldn't find on a map if you scoured it inch-by-inch--and it's the place I am proud to call “home.”

What is your "beautiful place?"

-lucia

23 comments:

  1. wow. love these so much. the two above the last made me shiver.

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  2. Those photographs are so serene and breathtaking. It reminds me of when our family lived in a little town in Oregon called Cottage Grove. Driving through town, you would pass under a "grove" ;) of trees... aaah, good times. Smiles and blessings, ♥

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  3. wow...this is so beautiful. you make me homesick. :)

    -Carli

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  4. So I basicly want to move to Oregon now. ;)

    Seriously, it's soo lush and green compared to arizona! but I wouldn't trade arizona for anywhere else (except maybe hawaii ;) )

    i would say my beautiful place is right here, surrounded by mountains, tall yellow grass that turns green(!!!) in the monsoon season, and a bajillion mesquite trees. :)

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  5. This is breathtaking... I want to live there...


    xoxo,
    Rachel Nicole @ Summer Breeze

    http://rachyracheshobbycorner.blogspot.com/

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  6. gaahhh. loveloveloovee. love that first shot.

    x.

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  7. These pictures are gorgeous. :)

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  8. Your pictures and description make me wish I lived there! Beautiful. :D

    ~Kaylee
    www.whateverrblog.blogspot.com

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  9. I love this post and these pictures!! I love the ones of the flowers!! :)

    Hannah
    thewritingsofhannah.blogspot.com

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  10. my beautiful place is a small town,which I don't think you'll find on the map either.we live a little bit out from the village;in the country..which makes it even more peaceful :)
    love the mailbox photo!

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  11. Oh my gosh, Lucia, this was incredibly beautiful. It sounds like something you would hear about in an old fiction novel. This sounds just like where I want to live. I absolutely love the seventh and eighth shots. Especially the one of the big tree. These pictures could seriously be in a country magazine. Lucia, keep on writing and photographing, because what your pictures tell is simply amazing =D

    ~Molly~
    mollyslittlecorner.blogspot.com

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  12. i LOVE the second picture!!!! wow, it is sooo good!! they all are, but the second one is my favorite!

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  13. I think my favorite picture is the one of the mailbox. In our family mail is important to us because my brother and his family live on the other side of the country from us. We look forward to little "happy packages" coming in and making them up to go out.

    My beautiful place is where my brother lives right now (and where I lived for three months). It's tucked into the mountains. The fresh, mountain air, the crisp mornings, the majesty of the wonderful creation, and the wonderful family and friends make it one special place.

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  14. ohhhmahworrd this is gorgeousness. you are amazing lucia. and warren sounds indeed fantastic, though, no, I have not heard of it..;)

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  15. As previously said, I want to switch homes with you. Gah, these are all perfect!♥

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  16. serene, calming, replenishing... oh, lucia...

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  17. my gosh, it sounds so lovely! and I adore the name. my beautiful place is new zealand. it's so amazingbeautifulcrazylovelyamazing!

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  18. Hey, Lucia,those pics are great!! You are a great photographer!!

    Thanks for the post.

    Kayleen

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  19. Hey Lucia!

    Great Pictures!

    Just wanted to say "thank" for entering my giveaway! <3!

    ~Eden

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  20. I love all of your beautiful pictures! :)

    ~Brit
    www.brittany-sims.com

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  21. these pictures are so lovely! my beautiful place is a tiny community in South Texas called Schroeder. German settlers came in the early 1800s and started it, population 35. :) It's a darling place, with gnarled oak trees, old windmills, barbed wire fences, bluebonnets, and old leaning barns.

    you are such a gifted photographer! <3

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  22. so beautiful, love all the flowers!
    my beautiful place would probably be my grandparents home, they live on ten acres and I grew up playing with all of my cousins there. it's truly amazing what memories beautiful places can remind us of<3

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Aw! Thanks so much for leaving a comment! They make me smile. :)

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