Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Livin' in the Panhandle

You never are able to realize just what it was you missed about a place until you've left and then returned. I saw rain today! Can you believe that. Well it might seem a little on the 'duh' side, but living in the desert has really given me an appreciation for the rain. And I even heard some thunder!!! There are natural growing trees here and wildly running grass everywhere. With all that is so familiar and yet so foreign you, or I guess I, can't help but to feel at home.

Uniquely all the homes in Florida seem to be the same but different. All the contradictory characteristics of an area are enticing. Homes in Florida seem to all have rod iron columns on their front porch or at least rod iron railing leading up to their door. Hanging over each window is a shutter like awning with a scalloped trim usually made of a tin or a vinyl. The landscaping consists of at least one Palm tree and other tropical plants or its just one huge over grown mess. Homes are all one story because they have to be at least 50 years old or they are new construction with 2 stories. One of the most diverse and uniquely similar aspects is the colour. Typically we tend to paint our homes a neutral colour so as to present a clean looking home that doesn't stand out, but this isn't always so in Florida. Colours such as salmon, peach, terracotta, pale blue, pink, and even the occasional lime green often blanket the exteriors of homes.

Even with these vividly worded images, when you step back beauty of the home goes unnoticed. It's just an old decaying home on 4th St. that's painted an obnoxiously bright peach colour. The roof tiles in old Spanish style are falling off and the garden that was once manicured to perfection has grown wild.

The things that make us leave home, make us return.

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