Rooftop Whimsy

In a small Mississippi River valley town this stately structure assumes the roll of ancestor to its neighborhood.  Shrubs of white bridal wreath, with their arching fountain-like branches, add charm and hospitality to the gracious property.  I feel the urge to genuflect before its threshold.

The crowning glory of this home is the rooftop Belvedere that affords a splendid view of the  river basin formed by glaciers millions of years ago.  Wouldn't that have to be the ultimate of personal sanctuaries?

If it were mine, I'd have a cozy couch, fluffy pillows, fleecy blanket, a table lamp with 3-way light bulb, a telescope so I could watch the barges hauling grain up and down the river, my laptop, the classics to read, and earphones to listen to piano music.  All those rooftop luxuries would make me faint, I'm pretty sure.

My fertile imagination conjures up all sorts of scenarios about me living in this home.  I'd have a kitchen staff, a garden staff, a cleaning staff, and maybe even a chauffeur.  I'd have my friends over for afternoon tea parties, serve plates of dainty confections and fancy sandwiches, wear pretty clothes with my hair styled on top of my head.  Oh, and the fuzzy one would get her exercise bouncing up and down the steps behind me like she does now.

The little girl in me is always wondering what life was like in another time and in another place.  Maybe I think I'd be happy living in a tower, but honestly I think I'd be lonely and afraid up there all by myself.  I've heard spooky stories about creaking stairways and people from the past still living in these old houses, and they terrify me.

Hey, the more I think about it, I'm gonna file this in my memory album and be hunky-dory with life in my cozy home that wraps itself around me and keeps me safe as the proverbial bug in a rug.