Jim

 When our friend Jim decided that it was not good for him to live one more winter in the country. he matter of factly put his house on the market and called to see if we had a place open. We did. 

We had two of them open, but the one that I wanted him to have had a covered back porch overlooking the river. There is a high wall of shrubs separating his property from the house next door. We built the steps going down to the river, so that he and Paula (the tenant on the other side)  could walk down and sit by the water, with the view across to a heavily wooded island which blocks the view of town across the river. From his back porch, a person could forget that he wasn't in the country.

I was afraid that he might have trouble adapting to life in town and I really wanted to make it just as nice as we could for him. 

It worked out well, very well. Paula lives in the other half of the house, and they are good friends. A third tenant down the street comes down to sit with them by the river sometimes, and they all visit back and forth as the sun goes down.

Probably the best part of it is that Jim has become quite a photographer. There are eagles that come daily to sit in the dead sycamore tree across the creek to watch for fish. 

He's gotten some terrific shots of an osprey eating a nice fish he'd just caught. He's invested in some pretty expensive camera equipment to get even better close-ups, and he generally posts his eagle pictures first thing in the morning. 

Earlier in the week, he posted, "No eagle this morning" and treated us to a nice shot of a green heron walking along the river bank. 

I commented, "Maybe they're sick. 

Be careful. You don't want to get yourself into an ill eagle situation."

(Oh, I crack myself up.)

He posted something a while back and someone asked him how he liked living in town after so many years of living in the country. He posted back, inviting them to come and sit out back. He said, "I can't explain it. You're not going to understand unless you come and sit on my back porch." He went on to say that he sees more nature from that vantage spot than he ever did in his old house. 

I can't tell you how happy it makes us to see our old friend content. It's not always easy being a landlord, but when it works out, it really is a beautiful thing.