View of the Lake - Particular Personal Significance

View of the Lake - Particular Personal Significance

When I was a kid growing up, I would often spend the summers in Seattle with my Grandparents. This is the view off the back patio.

So many memories are tied up in this view. Summers swimming in the lake, winters skating on it. I would spend hours on any given summer day, just sitting in a rocking chair and just looking at the view. I think that even as a kid I knew it was something special and something to be treasured. They had almost a full acre of lakefront property for which they paid $8,000 in 1932. My Grandfather was quite handy, and although the actual house was only about 800 square feet when they bought it, and was almost 4000 at the end - the difference having been hand built by my him - one room at a time for decades. Grandma passed about 8 years ago, and my Grandfather about 3 or 4 years ago. Even though the property has been sold after his passing, an the house torn down and a McMansion built, I can still remember every inch of the house and the yard. I can remember the aroma of the basement as I would crack open the National Geographic magazines from the 1940s.

Looking at the photo is a kind of strange experience. Even though this is my view, it's not mine any more - someone else will be looking at this view for years, decades and even centuries to come. And before I ever looked at it, this view belonged to my dad, and some unnamed person before him, and - most likely - was seen by the indigenous people for centuries before that.

It gives me such a feeling of continuity - a feeling of being a part of - that I had the privilege of touching something eternal.

Just wanted to share this.

First image is "out of camera".

Second image is how I remember it. That fugly gazebo was not there when I was a kid, so I took it out. I had a hard time leaving the pampas grass, then I remember - that wasn't there either, so it is cattails all the way across. A little dodging and burning, get rid of the sprinkler, etc, and done. I was thinking of giving the grass a more even green, but, it was never a perfect lawn. So I left it as it lives in my memory.

Rad

Lovely scene, nice memories.

Your memories and the second pic. look much better.

Great memories that this picture will bring up every time you look at it.