Where I Live
The street I live on is E. Burlington Avenue. East Burlington is really a prime location. The house I live in is probably the smallest and humblest house on the block. And the block is long. To give you an idea, where I love is 703, and the house to the right of me is 605. I live in a house on an acre and a half that is about a seven-minute walk from the town square.
Burlington Avenue is also Route 34, a 4-lane highway with no street parking. The house I live in is set way back from the street. Because of all the trees out front -- 10 ancient Austrian pines along the front sidewalk, 18 flowering fruit trees, two magnolias, 1 real pear tree, lilacs, roses, and millions of other plants, in the summer with all the foliage, the house can barely be seen from the street.
In the summer with the windows open, you could hear the semis go by.
About six months ago, a by-pass was finished. This means that traffic on Burlington has been cut by about 75% and no more semis! Now it is a wide quiet street.
However, the State of Iowa is making E. Burlington Avenue a two-lane street with a turn lane in the middle and a bicycle path. They are presently repaving the street. Not just touching it up but doing it perfectly with jack hammers and other big equipment noise. They have been working on it day and night.
The good thing is that whoever moves here after I leave will never know this was once a trafficky noisy street. Now that it is quiet, I will be leaving!
You can see some photos of where I live here, winter scenes, but still you'll get an idea:
http://www.heavenletters.org/glorias-personal-experience-writing-heaven-...
Will you tell us about where you live?
Comment
Yes, Gloria, I will tell you and everybody else about where I live.
Now you all (the rest of the readers) must realize that Gloria and I live in the same Fairfield.
My house is on the slightly west side of the Town Square.
It is on W.Broadway Avenue which is one block north of Burlington Avenue of Gloria fame.
In fact, Gloria used to live not 2 blocks from me on W.Broadway in a nice big house that was a big apartment for her on the first floor.
But I digress.
My house, our house I should say... is two stories and over 100 years old. It is lovely. However, it sits across the street from a busy lumberyard which happily is not open on Sunday and in winter, is not open on Saturday either.
We have a wraparound porch in front and a porch on the east side where we attempt to hide our yard tools. The yard is about one million(to use Gloria's hyperbole)times smaller than Gloria's and not one smidgen private. We could put up fences, but that would take a lot of work that we are not into. The west side of our yard is nicely blocked by evergreens so that's nice. The east side sits on a gravel alley where I park my car. It's convenient to park there only steps from the east porch and that's great.
We have several perennial flowers growing out back: 20 peony bushes, a sage plant that refuses to cower to the Iowa winter, one tomato plant and one basil in the same large pot, echinacea and some other plant on the south side of the house which faces the back yard, mint threatening to take over the echinacea and the "other plant", lillies, irises, a purple salvia plant, a couple other plants like mums, one hydrangea, and one newly planted burning bush which turns a great shade of vibrant red in fall. We have one climbing rose bush near the east porch and a trellis full of honeysuckle.
Birds love our yard and love to leave calling cards on my car. When I am feeling brave enough to withstand the stares of passersby, I sit in the yard to catch some rays. Otherwise, I wait until after 5 P.M. to garden when all the businesses around here close.
I agree that the bypass has made Burlington quieter and as soon as the paving is finished, it should be settled. Hopefully that will be before Gloria leaves so she can have at least one month of quiet.
I love that we can walk to the Square in 2 minutes. And I can walk to Gloria and Lauren's in 10.