These are pictures of the site of our new house before it was begun. It is a ridge of rock; only these huge but shallow rooted fir trees could think of establishing themselves in such thin soil. Well, the trees and the grasses and the ever invasive scotch broom. In a little depression on this knoll there were also three fawn lilies. A shy and graceful wildflower, they never increased, but each March I would find them bowing their pretty faces to the earth, ready to return after a very brief visit to the sun.
This is not the most beautiful part of our property. It is close to the old house and the driveway. Still, it was pretty and the only place that fawn lilies grew. Now it is completely different. The devastation that home construction has visited on this site is the hardest part of the process. The clearing was especially tough, and more recently the ditching, but more of that later. As the house has taken shape I have realized that it will eventually add to the life here and allow everyone who visits it to participate in the beauty of the land. That is consolation.