Walking Fort Bragg happens to be on hiatus at the moment, and while I am apparently not cool enough to be listed in Blabberon’s blogroll, I can still take up some of the slack. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Walking Fort Bragg, it’s a very neat site written by a guy who walks around Fort Bragg pretty much every day, taking interesting pictures and writing about the things that he sees.

In the course of wandering around Fort Bragg, there are all sorts of fascinating things to see, for those who choose to look for them, and last week, I wandered around one of my favourite sections of town. It’s in the Northeast corner, bounded by East Bush Street and North Harrison Street, and I call it “the garden district” because it has a bunch of lovely old homes with beautiful gardens. I love the garden district because it’s very quiet, and peaceful, and because I can tell that the homes there are lived in, and loved. Someday, I would love to live in one of them.

There are all sorts of awesome hidden surprises, like this spectacular gate on Winifred Street. And this is just a side gate. Here’s the main gate:

This is the kind of gate I want to have, a gate that looks like it’s going into another, hidden world. There’s this beautiful lush garden beyond it, with piles of mature plants every which way, and then a low, simple Craftsman bungalow which embodies my plain, clean aesthetic. Not for me the epic mansion, please.

Here’s a fence with a riot of roses on a cul-de-sac.

A magical glimpse across a lawn.

Not all sidewalks are made of cold, hard concrete. While this isn’t very disability-friendly, it looks so charming and awesome that I can’t help but love it.

Here’s some snazzy low-water landscaping. Alas, this house is right next to a for-sale house that is just monstrous and ugly and everything wrong with the world. I’ll bet it used to be a quiet bungalow, and they tore it down to build a HUGE house that took up almost the entire lot, since that’s what people seem to want these days, and it stands out on the street like a sore thumb.

Here’s a man painting his trim. I wanted to ask him if it was his house, but I was too shy, so instead I surreptitiously photographed him from across the street. It’s a beautiful house.

Another awesome Craftsman bungalow with a beautiful and oh-so-inviting gate.

A glimpse through the foliage to another wonderful house.

More rambling vines on an old fence.

One of the things that makes the garden district so excellent is the big lots, and relatively modest homes. Sure, there are a few houses that are pretty big; one of my favourite houses here is way too big for my needs. But even the big houses look graceful in the landscape, because they don’t overwhelm their lots. As someone who firmly advocates density, of course, I should be pointing out that huge lots with single family dwellings aren’t very sustainable, but they are so very beautiful, with their gorgeous landscaping and lovingly maintained decorative elements, that I don’t have the heart to condemn them.

The garden district is like a living illustration of my internal conflict over personal desires and utilitarian function. I would love, love, love, love to live in one of these houses, to putter around the yard painting the trim and pruning the flowers, even though they go against my stated beliefs about sustainability. This little corner of town is like a magical wonderland which seems so abstracted from the rest of this blighted, tired, sad-looking town; I hope it stays this way forever.