This is my entry for this month's Rocket City Blogger's Blog Carnival. The topic is "Huntsville Favorites"
Green. That's all I could see as I surveyed Huntsville for the first time. I had flown out for an interview, to this town I'd never heard of until I saw the job posting. Citydata.com had assured me it was a decent sized city with lots of tech-y people, and weather that didn't involve feet of snow. I had seen pictures of rockets, read the sales pitches on why Huntsville was a great place to live. But it was the green that awed me. Even the patchy, scraggly March grass was more green than I had grown up with in the wilds of Southern California, all rocks and scrubby bushes. It was more green than even my time in Northern California, spent in a small college town where the greenery was carefully regulated and controlled. And it was certainly more green than the concrete and asphalt of downtown Los Angeles where I had been living for a year and a half, pursuing a graduate degree.
My husband, who moved 2300 miles on the strength of a job offer and a handful of photos, was equally taken. And as the spring turned to summer we drank up the lushness, the freedom, the wild abandon of the plant life. Towering trees running alongside the freeway. Thick grass carpeting lawns. Leafy bushes reaching for the sky. We hiked in the National Forest, just 10 minutes from our rented house and watched the lawn grow overnight.
It's been almost 5 years since we moved. 5 springs of renewal and growth. 5 summers watching the hills fill with uncountable shades of plush green treetops. And it never gets old. I still wonder at the trees, the grass, the lushness, the life that surrounds me.
I didn't have a car for most of the first year after moving here so I got myself to exploring a bit on foot. At first, it was a real struggle -- the heat and humidity of the summer, the lack of public transportation, driver's unawareness/intolerance of pedestrians...
ReplyDeleteSomehow I got through. In the meantime, I began to appreciate the sights and smells I'd never noticed much back in L.A. (mostly because they didn't exist in abundance there): the greenery, the varieties of plant life, the sound of the cicada, the patches of water all around. There's a lot to be said for life in the southeast.
Harold--We really got to experience cicada's this year, they were so loud at our house...I absolutely loved it though, such a soothing sound. : )
ReplyDeleteMy favorite time of the year is when all of the dogwoods bloom. I LOVE IT. It makes me grateful that I live in a older neighborhood surrounded by these beauties.
ReplyDeleteOther than a foolish question of "When will this humidity burn off?" I asked after moving down from Ohio (friends will never let me live it down. I like it here for just the same reasons you mention.
ReplyDeleteCourtney--I agree, love living in a neighborhood (and a city!) with so many trees. It was one of our top 3 requirements for a house. : )
ReplyDeleteDave--Oh the humidity! It's just not right when 90 degrees feels worse than 110.