I found this toy frog in the tiny back yard of my Albuquerque casita. If you’ve read my blog since its Wearing Black in New Mexico days, you might recall that casita–my adorable home in the North Valley; the site of many a Crafty Friday, spinning adventure, and knitting challenges. I bought it about a month after my co-op in New York sold and couldn’t wait to be in my own place again. I loved living in an adobe home, adored the two kiva fireplaces, and never quite had enough furniture to look right in the place.
Sure, knowing I would be in Albuquerque for only a few years, I wanted to live in an adobe home, and my casita filled that requirement…but it also filled the dog-related requirement: I needed a back yard. When I saw my unit’s yard had a tree and room for Maddie to run around, I was sold.
Shortly after Maddie and I moved in, I started prepping for the big backyard-reno that Neal promised me. Instead of wood chips over plastic, I would have a patch of grass and a stone path and sitting area. As I decided where I best liked my chairs one day, I caught a glimpse of something green.
A treasure from some previous resident, the House Frog took up a place of honor in the casita, and he now lives on the window sill in my studio, New Mexican dirt still encrusted on his legs. When I hold him, I think of all the friends who shared time in my dear little home: Dana and Mike, David, Billy, Jamie, Cari, Mona, Noelle, Lizzie…oh, I’m leaving out far too many of them, but the laughs and conversations and special moments we shared, like that dirt, are encrusted all about the House Frog, my little household deity.
Do you have anything you’ve taken from home to home that reminds you of where you’ve lived? Feel free to leave a note in the comments, or share a link to your own Sentimental Saturday post (pictures are great!).
I do not move often! But i bring things back from trips…like a shell from Sanibel that I put in my garden……I have two gnomes……and I bought a garden angel dog to remind me of my dear departed dog Huck
my dad worked for an oil company… we lived in six places growing up. and now that I’m the grown up, I’ve lived in the same house for over 25 years. but I think back to my mom, and how hard it must have been to set down roots in a new place. I remember a funky orange “monster” that was a prize in a box of cereal back in the early 1970’s that sat on top of her stove….for 20 more years and 5 more houses. If (when?!) I move houses, I think it will be favorite photos of me and my girls that will remind me of this one. especially the photos that have been taken here (there are lots 🙂