Okay. Raise your hand if you laughed at the above photo. Heh. That is the beginning of my meadow masterpiece.

I didn't tell you, but last week we found this fountain at a yard sale ($18). I was ready to let it go because we're trying to save money for the barn redo and well, we didn't neeeed a fountain. But Tom could see that I loved it and he bought it for me.

Now, the only place I could see for it was smack-dab in the center of our meadow so I loaded it on one of Tom's many carts (he has a thing for 'refrigerator dollies' of all shapes and types). Then I pulled it out to the meadow and in the sunshine whoa! Suddenly in my mind I could see the area of The Spanish Steps as I recall them from a favorite episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. Always, I've had this thing for Italy. It cannot be explained. It just is what it is.

(I tell Tom he must never, ever take me to Italy. I would throw fits at the station and refuse to return home. Some things you just know and accept.)

So I stood back from the fountain there in the sun and suddenly I could picture a whole Italian piazza/patio with white statues and marble and fountains--all right there in our meadow. I instantly headed back toward the house and thought, "To heck with the fire pit which isn't getting finished and is all weedy," and I went and dismantled the ring of rocks around it and lifted them up on the cart... and then spread them around the fountain.

Hmm. Not quite the result I'd pictured... Not quite the gleaming white stonework of the Spanish Steps(ha!) Yet finally I'd discovered what I want to do in the meadow. I want my own bit of Italy back there. I want a quiet place where I can sit, pretend and dream. A place for people to walk to, past the trees, and be surprised by what they discover.

I'll sink the rocks in the ground a bit to make them level and spread sand between the stones. I'll add a small statue, perhaps one which birds can eat from. And I'll pour water into the fountain after I read online how to keep it fresh (I won't be able to run the pump since it's, like, a million feet away from the house).

It will be cool--and I'll remind myself to keep it simple. Perhaps it will become much larger--or perhaps not. But I'll keep it a step-by-step thing and stay far, far away from complication.

Already I am enchanted by its small beginnings.

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Just a few feet away, our woods:

Never, ever did I imagine we'd have woods one day.



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