16 October 2012

List-It Tuesday @ Artsyville: What I Love About Where I Live

This post originated with a prompt from Amiee over at Artsyville last week.

I am posting this list to honor that I have lived in Maryland now for *gulp* 20 years and lived in it's capital city Annapolis for eleven of those years.

So, the question is: Now that I've lived here in Maryland longer than the place where I grew up, am I "from" Maryland?

photo by ~runningwave~ 2012
Sunset

I still sometimes feel like a fish out of water, living on the East Coast. I don't suppose I have ever lived anywhere that I completely "fit in" anyhow.

I am sure of one thing, though. I do love living near the Chesapeake. I relish living near water. (I grew up not far from the Ohio River.) Now I live near a creek that washes into a larger stream, out into the Severn River that flows into one of the earth's largest estuaries, The Chesapeake Bay.

I have grown to love this flat, marshy landscape with all my heart (well, except in the middle of boggy summers when the needle hits 90 and the relative humidity is hovering near 95%). But I have to admit even in the height of mosquito season the Marshes are still beautiful.

But the marshlands come alive in the Autumn.

photo by ~runningwave~ 2012
Autumn in the Marshes
Sailboats, are another reason to love living near Annapolis. The docks are bursting with sails after sail in every color. Creeks are lined with them, parked out in back of the house. Even at dusk the sailboats are always present, hugging the shoreline.

photo by ~runningwave~ 2012
Quiet Waters
It could take quite a while to list all the other reasons why I love living near Annapolis, but it is the History that drew me here. I love the way that strolling down the street I get absorbed by the tiny details in the historic architecture that highlight handiwork from the artisans of long ago. I adore the old-timey seaport atmosphere, and seagulls' cry. I love to glance up at the stately outline of the State House dome, resting there like a crown on the crest of the hill.

photo by ~runningwave~ 2012
Door of the Hammond Harwood House


photo by ~runningwave~ 2012
State House Dome, close-up
photo by ~runningwave~ 2012
Annapolis Skyline from the Dock


photo by ~runningwave~ 2012
McGarvey's Saloon, All Decked Out




17 comments:

  1. Wow, thanks for the lovely tour!. Great photos! I have really loved this List-it!

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  2. I used to live right outside of St. Michael's, have you been there? I was crew on The Patriot and went up and down the Miles River (a tributary of the Chesapeake) every day. I lived in a town of 200 on the water. It was a lovely interlude.

    And I don't think I've ever lived anywhere that I fit, either.

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  3. Love your pictures of Annapolis. It's such a beautiful area and the history adds a wonderful dimension to living here.

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  4. Annapolis looks pretty wonderful, though I am with you on the mosquito thing... we have tidal mangroves where we live here in Queensland and for the 6 months that we call Summer here we spend our days swatting and grumbling... it is worth it to live so close to the water though...
    enjoyed visiting your blog via list it Tuesday and look forward to following and seeing more ...xx

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  5. Thanks, everyone, for visiting Pull of the Tides and for leaving comments. Please stop by again.

    I enjoyed putting the photo-illustrated list together.

    As I continue more with my art classes, i hope to be able to include entries for the List-It Tuesday series done in paper mixed media and other art media.

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  6. Great pictures! Thank you for sharing :)

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  7. Annapolis is one of my favorite little towns! I just love it -- it is so tiny and charming and the history touches you no matter where you put your foot!

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    1. You said it, Aimee! I came to Annapolis on a whim my best friend in the summer of 1992. I had just moved my belongings to a storage unit near College Park, Md where I planned to start grad school that fall. We drove into town on a sleepy summer morning, and I was overwhelmed by the charm of Annapolis. It reminded me of little towns in England, where I'd spent a year during college. I loved the sailboats in dock and the Georgian architecture. I thought then, someday I will live here. It didn't happen for another 9 years, but eventually I did move to this quaint capitol city by the Bay.

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  8. What beautiful photographs - it looks a wonderful place to live, although the mosquitoes would probably kill me - I get invited to bar-b-ques simply to keep the mosquitoes away from the other guests! McGarvey's saloon has a real Irish look to it - I bet there are some fun evenings in that place!
    Once again, thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving such lovely comments. The tweed I used in my collage was from a photograph and I then printed it onto silk - it would have been very special and appropriate to the theme to use fabric connected with my father in some way but I sadly didn't have any!

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  9. Your description and photos of your home make me want to catch a plane for the east coast! I love rivers and marshes, too, with all the wildlife that they hold. We don't have the old stately buildings here in the west, as much, so I really appreciate them and all the years they have witnessed.

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  10. both my sisters live in annapolis. wonderful place!

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  12. Great photos! They truly capture the beauty and simplicity of living on the water. I, too, love living near Annapolis; and autumn has to be one of my favorite seasons to watch the changes that take place in the marshes and creeks around here. The colors of the trees lit by a flaming sunset and reflected in the water, contrasted with a brilliant blue sky...a great blue heron standing guard in the marsh...the sound of flocks of canada geese getting ready for migration...

    Thanks for your post. It reminds me to get outside more often and enjoy both the nature and culture right here in my backyard.

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    1. Great blue herons and ospreys are definitely reasons to love living near the Chesapeake Bay, redeemingtime. Only after I moved here did I become so fascinated by wetlands. It's very easy to see how significant the marshes are for the health of this region.

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