Back in 2008, I got myself a little place out in Carmel Valley: my home away from home, my bolt-hole, my refuge. It was officially called the Roost, so that's what I called it too. It's where the title of this blog comes from, because my intention was to write regularly from out there.
Well, that didn't happen, but I did keep that place until the end of 2012, a good four years. There were periods when I spent hardly any time there at all. There were periods when I used it more or less daily as my office. There were periods when I worked there during the day and then spent the night. And there was pretty much all of 2012, when I lived there with the dog and cat while we were rebuilding our house "in town."
David sometimes was invited to spend the night, but mostly the Roost was mine all mine.
Strictly speaking, it was a studio apartment built over a garage. Val lived in the "big house," sporadically together with her twenty-something son. We didn't interact much more than to say hi, though one time David and I did rescue her from a rattler that had crawled into her house via the ductwork.
It was super simple: one big room, a bathroom with shower, a kitchen with a sink and small fridge (I remedied the lack of a range with a two-burner hotplate, toaster oven, and microwave), and the loft, accessed via a crude redwood ladder—not even enough room to sit up in, much less stand. It was strictly for sleeping. The kitty quickly learned to climb the ladder, so she'd join me up there, where it was usually nice and warm. Or we'd sit snuggly on the futon couch, wrapped in a mohair blanket. It was a very cozy place. I loved it on rainy days.
When we designed the new house, I wanted to duplicate it (or, better, improve on it). Unfortunately—or in the end, fortunately—a loft like that one was strictly out of code, so my new "loft" became a lovely room, which now serves as our guest room. But I got my upstairs perch, my own permanent roost.
Here are some photos of the Roost. The very first one I took out there, it seems, was on November 6, 2008, when I watched
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I "presented" my new abode via Flickr a few days later, so I must have moved in right around then.
My first
"Roost Musing" was posted on April 12, 2009.
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| Priscilla closing scene |
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| My street, Calle de los Ositos, and my gate into the property |
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| The Roost is on the right; the fluffy white dog is Bronco |
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| My workplace (and TV) |
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| Walk out the front door and this was the view |
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Bathroom on the left, kitchen on the right,
bedroom straight up that ladder |
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| View out the back windows |
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| Kitchen-blind art |
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| Arachnid pal |
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The neighbor's backyard; sometimes the turkeys would fly
onto my roof and stomp about |
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| Front threshold |
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| Front door (note sign) |
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| The Roost was also my photography workshop (note printer) |
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| Jolie-Kitty longing to go out (eventually I let her) |
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View from the side: one I discovered only a couple of years in
when I wasn't so much "exploring" as searching for the kitty who
had escaped—but I was glad to have this view, albeit belatedly |
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| Helping me clean up (not) |
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| Milo meets Bronco |
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| The oak tree overlooking my front deck |
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| Waiting for some fun, as usual |
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| Fully inhabited |
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