I love this scene- it is from a house we rented when we had to come down to Alabama and needed a place to stay until we could find a house we wanted to buy. The house still sits on 10 acres of land, partially wooded, and at one time, (though no more) was quite a showcase with flower beds, a well groomed lawn, blue martin houses, apple trees, and a catfish pond in front.
Since the owners have left, the house has just been sitting empty and needless to say, many things were not kept up and so the house really isn't up to par any more. The grounds have not been kept up like in its former glory days, which was about 30 years ago.
None the less, when we decided to rent the place for a short time, I found many things about that I liked, and that included getting to see a magnificent sunset view every night over the catfish pond. Does the pond still have fish? It was still full of them when we stayed there, but I never did feel inclined to fish them out, nor would I have wanted to skin one- let alone cook it! I would just go out some days and feed the fish with stale bread or cereal just to enjoy watching them eat.
Occasionally a long legged heron would stop in the pond and try his luck at catching a meal too. Many a day cows would often side up to the wire fence on the border line of the property and I would toss them a mushy apple from the old apple trees that really weren't producing too many apples any more.I even got brave enough to give them a scratch on the nose a time or two and think I made some lifelong friends that way!
On this property there was a group of three or four dogs that came over almost daily from a nearby farm and they would come up to our dog and just like a group of friends they would all go off on a jaunt in the woods for part of the afternoon. A motley crew consisting of a a medium plump old dog with just three legs, a tiny and shy terrier looking dog, a brown beagle looking mutt who would zip around the acreage like a Speedy Gonzales, and our own husky mix who seemed to enjoy his friends daily visits.
I am glad though that we finally have been able to find a house and are now moved in, there were some drawbacks about living in a place where no internet service existed... but from time to time I like to look at the pictures I have taken of the rental house while we stayed there. I like living in the middle of town where we now are, but there is also something to be said for the peacefulness of out of town rural living and being able to see a beautiful morning sunrise or evening sunset.
