Dear friend,
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this one in progress...it's my brand-new favorite. This home is in Virginia, but looking at it makes me think so much of my home, of Spanish moss and petit fours, and all the precious and tragic things that go along with childhood. I grew up in a town called Fairhope, Alabama. It's a small town...simple and sweet...nestled in the crooks of Mobile Bay, walloped by hurricanes, and forever buried in my heart. It's prettiest, I think, right after dusk descends on the bay, when the gaslights glow and cast shadows on the sidewalks.
I miss the living by the water.
When I was little, the beaches of south Alabama were bigger and wilder. We used to wade out into the narrow pass where the Gulf filtered into the lagoon, at night, with flashlights, and spear flounder on long, sharpened sticks. The lagoon is brackish and filled with catfish and alligators, which frightened the life out of me in the best way. Once, my uncle Michael cut the front claw off an alligator and placed it in the mailbox to scare the postman. A framed picture of that alligator foot sticking out of that yellow mailbox sat proudly in my grandmother's home for a long time, and haunts me still to this day.
I get so sad when I think about how far away Manley and I live from where we grew up. I think it's strange and sad that, in this modern world, folks live so far from their families. There's a disconnect there that jars me. And yet here we are, happily settled in Nashville, Tennessee, where we will most likely stay forever and ever. But you know what? It feels good to be from somewhere.
Have lovely weeks, my dear friends! Halfway through October already? Inconceivable.
Love,
Rebekka

22 comments:
I love all your arts, they're so simple yet cozy looking!
It's awesome to have a childhood that is surrounded by nature like yours... It's sad that I haven't experienced alot in nature but sadder to know kids these days are experiencing less..
So pretty!
As much as I love the town I live in here in Florida, I'm 15 hours from my parents (in new Jersey) and 3 hours from my fiancés family on the other side of florida and I would love to move closer to either of them!
It's just beautiful! Love all your work! xxx
The way you write about the South! Makes me nostalgic for a life I never had.
I just got back from staying with my sister for a Georgia wedding, and last night I cried into my boyfriend's shoulder about how much I miss my family. It's a nice reminder, a happy kind of sadness to have a place that pulls me still, after however long I've been gone.
You're right about that awning.
Christina, I could NOT agree more. The south has such a charming rustic feel about it... *sigh*
Amanda Rose
http://sewmuchtosay.blogspot.com
It's neither mine or my husband's goal to stay in the south... we desire the charm of small-town Vermont or Maine, the cooler summers, the winters that freeze to the bone but cause you to slow down and settle into a hibernation of sorts, the hiking and kayaking, a deciduous setting that is familiar enough to satiate homesickness but still different enough to be a new path. After college it is our full intention to pack our most favored belongings and settle down in a place up north that just feels like home... warm and comforting, down-east niceties abounding.
But how could I ever leave our sleepy state of Arkansas? On our little piece, a horizon of dips and peaks dotted with red barns and dilapidated buildings surrounded by cows... The steam of summer evenings, barely a relief from the regularly triple digit temperatures of a July day. The deafening sound of cicadas, a soundtrack I know so well and wide open skies dotted with stars and fireflies. The tomatoes that grow like weeds. Iced sweet tea, hush puppies, fried green tomatoes, black-eyed peas and fried chicken made by real southern ladies with memorized recipes passed down for generations... the food that I avoid yet find so comforting as a piece of home. The place where both our families will always stay. Sometimes it's so confusing to decide which feels more right... to stay with the familiar and live life gratefully close to my mother or to set ourselves on a new path in a place that makes our hearts sing a different tune.
Beautiful picture and beautiful post. I just left Nashville a year ago to get myself closer to the ocean. I sometimes feel like once you've been so close to the water it's near impossible to live without it. At least that was the case for me. And although it is sad how removed we get from our families it's nice to know that with all our modern conveniences we can get back to one another quite easily. At least we aren't working with covered wagons!
I have been reading your blog for a few weeks now and never realized you were from Fairhope! It is a small world we live in, I grew up in Fairhope and can relate to every detail! I am now in college in the midwest and miss Fairhope dearly, I never knew how lucky I was to live in such a beautiful place until I left. It is nice to come across someone who appreciates it as much as I do. You have a knack for describing Fairhope, and I loved this post!
Thanks for sharing,
Courtney Kennedy
www.alwaysrooney.com
Beautiful portrait...
And I really relate to what you are saying here, for weeks now, I've been thinking about moving back to my home country. And I can't help but wonder what it would be like...
I guess at some point I just realized what the most important for me is...not necessarily true for everyone, we all need to decide what works for us best... Such a tough call!
that was my qualm with nashville, too - i just wanted to be closer to water.
i love that this is house is from virginia, because that's where i'm from. and i love virginia with every single bit of my being (i really think those of us from the south have a much bigger love affair with our hometowns, just my opinion). and i don't think i will move back there - my boyfriend and i went to school in nashville and want to move there (and he too is virginian) due to jobs/the city. and i love nashville so much and i can't wait - and then i realized - my kids will never have nashville the way i will, because they will move away. like i did. and find their own way in life. and it made me a little sad. but every one needs to live their own adventures, and find new hometowns, and it doesn't mean they'll be any less wonderful. i'm rambling, but i think you get it.
This house looks very Parisian with the red door, I like : )
I dream about leaving my hometown one day but your post just made me nostalgic about this dear old town of mine :)
xoxo missdottidee.blogspot.com
I love it! Looks so welcoming.
http://shannonhearts.blogspot.com/
Love, love, love this post. Your writing is as beautiful as your photography and illustrations, what a talented lady you are! Sarah x
What beautiful memories you have of your home town! I love your new house portrait too
Beautiful painting, beautiful words. It might be an interesting challenge to try to capture your love for your hometown in paintings. You already have a flair for capturing nostalgia in your home paintings!
I love your mention of the sadness of living so far from home. In this new world of hyper-connectivity across social media etc. it seems we have somehow, ironically, become rootless. We want always to leave and are never satisfied with the now. Cheers to loving to celebrate and remember home, no matter how far you decide to roam.
This was so lovely, and reminds me a bit of the few Anne Rivers Siddons novels I've read ... she is such a southerly writer, and writes about it so well, and also makes me want to visit! One day ...
I just discovered your blog via Snippet and Ink and looooove this. Also, my husband has family in Fairhope and I've definitely come to love our travels there (I'm a NC native originally). I'm excited to start following your work!
I hope before you finish drawing houses, you will have time to do our 16th Avenue house with Corduroy Dog on the front porch. :-)
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