Enchanted Cottage

Although a self-acknowledged gear head, for me it's not all about the machines. What really fascinates me is the people who own them, and who use them. Sometimes the vehicle is just an element that adds more information about those people.

The photographer's eye was caught by the harmonious, rusty reds in this cottage and it's Ford F150, trying to generate some warmth on a cool blue day, but not quite getting to "cheery".

What I see in this tableau tells me that this is the home of a person who may live humbly - and knows how to put in a water heater - but who also seems to have a sensibility that might be overlooked at a glance.

There is attention to detail, yes, in the red-and white-painted woodwork under the eves, the wavy-edge siding and the unusual A-frame gable over the front door. This taste for subtly eccentric decoration is also seen in the white stripes and elaborate wheel covers on the otherwise pedestrian Ford pickup truck.

And if you look closely there are signs that a spiritual person lives within this little house. Not the common yard symbols of Christianity, there is no saint or Virgin Mary among the row of small sculptures in the front bed. There are, however; a basket of artificial flowers, a horse's head (like off a carousel) a bust of a woman who appears to be the St. Pauli Girl or possibly the mate of the bust of the man in the three-cornered hat, what I make out to be either a football player or a spaceman in a helmet, a gnome-like figure with huge head of curly orange hair, what I believe is a mouse eating a piece of cheese, and three struggling potted plants, apparently recently liberated from a long winter spent indoors.

What the connections are between these various items and icons is certainly not obvious to me, but there are two signs that are very clear in their meaning: the horse shoe hanging above the garage door, and the "Welcome" sign right by the front door.

Herein lives an optimist.

All words and images copyright 2009 Jeffery Blackwell