Daydream House

Every morning I wake up to several Suzanne Beecher columns in my email box. Reading them with a cup of coffee is usually how I wake up. I love all the different chapters from books I may or may not purchase. www.dearreader.com I highly recommend you join her free book club. Her blog is great too. www.dearreader.typepad.com After all these years, I feel like Suzanne and I are old friends. I learn something about her every day.

This morning she writes about the house at the beach she daydreams about. She writes "I know this house well. I've never actually been there, but my "house by the ocean" daydream is very familiar to me. It's the fantasy that I always start thinking about when I feel like I need to regroup. It's a great daydream."

When I read this, it startled me. Because my house daydream is my favorite regroup daydream. Now that I think about it, it's my only daydream. The difference is that my house is in a meadow in the mountains. High up ... with a view of the Blue Ridge ... for miles and miles. A log home with a wrap around porch and lots of comfy chairs and rockers on the porch. And a swing. It doesn't look like a resort home, it's an elegant farm house. There's a small barn and a pasture with horses. And quiet. No noise. Just a breeze through the trees and the sounds of birds and deer, and a running stream nearby.

In my daydream, I can drive to the ocean in three hours, if I want. For shopping and a walk in the sand by the ocean. But I prefer to celebrate birthdays, holidays, and live in the mountains. It feels safe there. The seasons change. And the children show up. All of them. For every holiday.

There's a smaller cabin on the land, down by a running creek that leads to a lake. A well-stocked cabin and beautifully decorated. Guests use it. I often have guests, visiting writers that need some solitude. But they enjoy sharing meals at the main house, where I cook mouth pleasing meals and we talk and laugh and read books by a roaring fire from a great stone fireplace made from rock found in the mountain. A bottle of North Carolina wine is opened in the evening, and music floats softly through the house. Two wonderful dogs sit by our feet and stretch, tired from a day of running over a hundred acres of mountain property.

I share Suzanne's dream when it comes to the eclectic feel and the feather bed with the handmade quilts. My house isn't too big, nor is it cramped for space. No way, but the bathrooms are fully loaded with great tubs and soft, plush towels. All kinds of soaps, candles, lotions, and bath salts. Oh yes, and the kitchen is jammed with a full freezer, a stocked bar, and shelves of my favorite dishes and tea cups I've collected over the years. It's a gourmet kitchen with great cook books from my favorite Food Channel cooks, like Paula Deen and Ina Garten.

The morning sun warms the house and the breathtaking views are never the same two days in a row. Ahh yes, it's a daydream alright. But who knows ... maybe someday ... right now, I have to go, I think I hear Pat and Sandra Conroy knocking on my daydream door.

Blessings to you and yours.