A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

After the intense happenings around the nation last week, it seemed necessary to decompress over the weekend and spend some much-needed quality time with Adam. Saturday was a pleasant, sunny day and we took the nearly cloudless sky as an open invitation to explore our new neighborhood and appreciate the blessings we have, including each other.

The warmer temperatures around the Philadelphia area have brought trees and flowers out of their dormancy, making for a scenic view along our way.

We set out on our walk around (in part) to focus on how neighbors landscaped their properties, but we were distracted quickly by the homes themselves. Houses in our neighborhood are lovingly cared for and meticulously manicured. While our house is no where near as "picture perfect" as others on our street and adjacent streets, it was fun to be inspired by the classical architecture of these homes.

In the Philadelphia suburbs, it is extremely common to see stone houses. Many of the houses in our neighborhood date back to the 1920's and '30's. I snapped a few photos to offer a sense of the beautiful homes just a few doors down from ours.

If I had to pick my favorite home (aside from my own) in our neighborhood, it would be this beauty. Everything about this house is perfect:

One of many reasons we fell in love with our home is the neighborhood it is in. I grew up in a new (at the time) home built on a cul-de-sac and that experience certainly informed what I wanted in my own home. Chief among those "must-haves": a place where children were around and could play. We've already noticed children and school buses around all the time and, if these sites weren't enough of an indication of a family-friendly neighborhood, Adam and I were happy to spot this on our Saturday afternoon walk:

(all via Meet Me in Philadelphia)

What a cool place to hang out, huh? 

After the traumatic events of last week it felt therapeutic to walk around together and bask in the abundant sunshine and peaceful, tree-lined streets where we live. Saturday was like an early date in the story of a very long love affair with our new neighborhood. Adam and I look forward to living here and loving here for a long, long time.