Landscape

I found myself to still be thinking about Stilgoe's article over Landscape in America after reading it.  The idea that landscape evokes certain kind of emotions within people is an interesting thought.  I thought a lot about my own house when I read his piece.  This is because I found so many parallels between my house's landscape and what Stilgoe had to say.  

I know that my mom particularly loves the idea of traditional American landscape (what can I say, she grew up on a farm).  My parents actually built our house the year that I was born, so it was planned precisely how they wanted it.  I live in a small rural town, and my house is a few miles out in the country.  They built our house on a hill 300 yards from the main dirt road.  "The detached house surrounded by land kept in equilibrium remains the spatial epitome of the 'good life'" - This describes my house perfectly.  

Before I left my hometown this year, I asked my mom why she chose to build our house away from the road, people, and town.  Ultimately, she had many different answers such as "not wanting to deal with neighbors" and "keeping road dust away from the house", but her real reason was because she wanted to see the countryside.  After reading Stilgoe's article, this makes sense more than anything.  Americans are fascinated with landscape, and build homes reflecting that, such as my family did.  

my kansas home.