House hunting, I spotted the rancher, empty but not posted for sale. I boldly parked the car in the drive. The wide street was quiet. I stepped forth. The redbrick façade with attached, generous garage beckoned. I peeked through a handsome bow window framing a spacious room. I ventured up wooden steps to a deck, peering through glass doors into the den (fieldstone fireplace!) and ample laundry room. I gazed enchanted into hidden woods below. I trotted briskly around the house, noting with approval a garden shed, a private swing, a scarlet maple, blueberry bushes. Reader, I bought that house.
A generalist, eclectic, nondenominational, Alane Balchunas embraces the world at large but is content in her own small patch.