I Dream Of A House

The other day I was 

reading blogs and opened

Dwena's blog Across The Way

She touched upon a subject

that I have never given much

thought to discussing...

The Recurring Dream.

Do you have them?

I love houses.

I love this house from

Out Of Africa

in all of its foreign beauty, don't you?

But it is not this house I dream about.

No, indeedy.

I have ALWAYS loved houses.

I have loved houses

since I was a little girl.

I would fantasize about living in

houses that I visited-even as a 

little kid.

We lived in a ranch style house,

on a farm in Pennsylvania.

It was nothing fancy,

but it was functional.

My father was stricken with

Parkinson's when I was just

a girl.

That meant that my mother had

to take over the main responsibility

for running a farm with 50 head

of milk cows.

She had to work in the barn

and in the house.

Needless to say-

"pretty" was not high on the

list of "things to do".

She did love to paint though

and put up new curtains

but that was about it.

I remember her one big splurge

was  a flamingo mirror....

an unusual choice for a farm woman.

Maybe she, too, dreamed of 

sunny warm lands in the South.

I wish I had that mirror today..but it is long gone.

That brings me to
MY RECURRING DREAM.

I dream of a house very similar to this one.

It is not a big, fancy house.

It sits on a hill and  looking down the hill

you can see the water.

In my dream I am always driving down to the house.

In the picture above the driveway would be

behind the house.

The house is always vacant.

I peek through a window because the house sits empty.

There is old wallpaper that still covers the walls.

There are hardwood floors that need a good washing.

I walk around the side of the house and

look in thru the kitchen windows.

Covering the countertops I see green marbleized linoleum that

was popular in the late 40's and into the 50's.

The cupboards are in exceptionally good shape

with seeded glass in many of them.

The old range is there and there 

is a old drainboard style sink

with an old brass fitting.

I start immediately placing

MY things in the house-

the old oak icebox that my father

set up housekeeping with,

my grandmother's sewing machine,

my copper boiler

 I start

to "paint the walls" in my mind.

I always test the doors and they are

always locked.

When I have peered into every window

and have seen all my eyes can hold,

 I head down towards

the water.

When I get to the bottom of the hill,

I gaze to my right and  I see

something that looks very similar to this.

For some reason I never look the other way.

In my dream I turn around and walk back

up the hill.

As I get towards the top I look back 

and see some children down by the water

where I just stood.

I raise my voice to call to them and...

I wake up.

Every single time.

I wake up.

I wake up and I long for that house.

I long for the sense of peace and history

that house holds for me.

It is a combination of 3 of my Aunt's houses-

three places that I loved.

Do  you know when I have that dream?

Always when we are thinking of moving.

Guess what?

We are thinking of moving AGAIN!

This will be move #14 or is it #15?

We were flipping houses long before

flipping was a catch word.

We started with a very small house

and we flipped our way all the way 

up to a huge house.

The truth is -we have too much house

for two people.

I feel guilty having this much house.

We will sell and try to find something

smaller on the water close to 

where we now live.

And, so, I start the dream again.

The dream of a house-

the perfect house for me-

the house that will
cosset my soul.
So, there's my dream...
Maybe-just maybe-the house
we find will be a little bit
like the one I dream about..
maybe...or maybe that is 
just a dream-we'll see.

Oh-wait...
there is one more thing.
I dream of receiving a special
Valentine......
I found this one on the internet.

Ummm....I guess THAT might be
A NIGHTMARE (bless his heart)
instead of a dream.

How about you?
Any recurring dreams
you dare discuss?