Room with an Oak View
Posted by thearrow on May 11, 2008
What I see in the morning is not nearly as beautiful as what I see through my immense living-room window: a magnificent oak tree. This tree is, in fact, part of my apartment. It’s a reassuring presence that makes me feel protected and somehow connected to the universe. It’s the reason why I don’t feel I need to get out sometimes for days: I can revel in the deep green (or the deep Fall gold and rust) all the time. I admire its lush foliage and my mind is already in a better place. (Plus, it obscures the apartment building across the street from mine.) It’s been rainy the past three or four days and I love it. The deep green is even darker and the sound of rain drops against my windows is so comforting. It’s the perfect time to curl up in my dish chair and read. I absolutely love my apartment and I pray every day that I will continue to live in it for a long time. Probably even more than DC, parting with my place would be very hard.
And here is what I see in the morning. Yes, I keep my bike in the bedroom 
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Ionuka said
very nice! I like your tree too and the red chair.
Thanks for responding to the tag!
thearrow said
I’m glad you like it! It was fun to do. The dish chair is the most comfortable I’ve ever seen/tried
. I got it at Pier 1.
v said
it’s beautiful indeed!
(the only way i could wake up and see green was to enclose the balcony and fill it with plants)
did said
woohoo, i love your room! it looks like “acasa”
Raluca said
Nice photos. I keep my bike in the bedroom too
I know we don’t really know each other, but I’m coming to DC for three days at the beginning of June and would love to take you out for a coffee or a photo-walking session, in between my trips to the embassy and the National Archives. If you’re not too busy, of course.
Irina Gheorghe said
Last year I lived in an apartment block positioned in a huge garden. Quite an uncommon block for Bucharest. A huge nut tree governed the garden. Its leaves kept the apartment cool during the summer. Then autumn came and three days of rain and wind took the tree apart. I didn’t get to see it coming back to life in spring, as I left Ro. in January. I don’t know if I’ll ever see it, but that was one majestic tree. I have several others such trees and I’m absolutely in love with them.
thearrow said
I’m so glad you guys like it
. Funny Did says it looks like “acasa.” For my one-and-a-half American reader(s), that means “home”. I say “one-and-a-half” because one knows a bit of Romanian 
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V., I hear you, trust me; I know what living without green around you means. Hope the balcony is making a difference and your birds upstairs are a little happier. I know mine are
Raluca, I’m glad you’re coming here! Only June 2nd doesn’t work for me, otherwise I’m free. Turns out I’m not going to Chicago any longer, so I could probably take Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon off, depending on what your plans are. If you’re here the weekend before, I’m free, of course. I’m always up for coffee, pics, and museums
I’ll send you an email with my phone #.
Irina, that must have been quite a wind if it destroyed such a big tree; so sad… I haven’t quite articulated the fact that this tree is so much part of my life and my place until I wrote this post. How cool that you have a “collection” of favorite trees
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v said
oh, those birds of mine are delighted! new pictures coming soon.
thearrow said
Even imaginary birds need trees
Irina Gheorghe said
Yeah, one of them is on my way to my grandparents’ house in the countryside. Whenever we drive there, we pass by this huge wheat or sunflower field and all the vegetation is short. And then, all of a sudden, as the car drives, this apple tree (I think) gradually comes into sight. It’s a sort of topos for me: withouht it I would not be able to know where I am, since fields have the nasty tendancy of looking the same.
Then there are these huge oak trees that I saw in England, one in Exeter and one in Torquay. Again trees that seemed to bring the earth asnd sky together.
alt.L said
very nice! i *love* big windows. you know what i miss the most in the apartments i lived (here) until now? a balcony. i miss having a balcony. it sounds so silly (and probably i’ll come across as slow too
)but it took me two years to realize that most apartment buildings here don’t have balconies. i though about the “balcony culture” back home — that would make a nice little social study, huh?
oh, and the bike in the bedroom makes perfect sense!
can’t wait see the oak then
btw, nice talking to you last night!
thearrow said
Indeed, balconies! Another reason why I felt I was in a cage when I lived in a place without one: even though apartments here are generally very nice, they don’t have balconies. I guess it’s the English style and you’re smack in the middle of New England there:). But, I do have one now! I don’t use it the way I’d like to (sipping coffee and reading) because it’s fairly noisy, but when I moved in this apartment I felt like my mind was able to stretch its legs
And when I open the door I get an unobstructed view of my oak tree. Funny how all these details that you wouldn’t think matter, really do matter.
Nice talking to you, too
. I’ll see you in two weeks.
alt.L said
I thought you might enjoy this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080514/lf_nm/bikes_taiwan_dc
looking forward to biking with you next week!