April 06, 2020

Through the window

my home office

My home office is a little room at the very front of the house. I've always had my desk pushed up against the window, so that when I'm working, I can look down the driveway and at the river birches on my front lawn. When my kids were young, I'd know when they came home from school.

After several weeks of quarantine, I've turned the desk so that I can sit right up against the window, which I've been opening on even the coldest days. When my son-in-law drops off groceries, I can say hello through the window. When neighbors walk past, I wave and ask how they are. Red-haired Niece came by one day with her two-year-old and her infant. She dropped a box of chocolate on my front porch, along with an Easter card colored by my grand niece, and we chatted through the window.

I'm privileged enough to have technology. I've been talking on the phone and videochatting with friends and family during this time. But still, nothing is quite like seeing a real live person on the other side of my window.

11 comments:

jo(e) said...

Oh, and don't be fooled by the clean desk. I dumped everything off it in order to move the furniture, and then took the photo before stacking all the papers back on there.

Anonymous said...

The view out your window looks lovely and most especially when a loved one stops by to say hello. I'm waving hello from California!

Dr Mad Fish said...

Nice one.

Jeanie said...

What a beautiful room, with such lovely light and all your books. You are so right -- we are VERY lucky to have technology. It keeps us connected.

DJan said...

I would love to peruse your book collection, which looks pretty wonderful. I wondered why the desk was so clean, now I know. I don't know what I would do without my internet and laptop. :-)

Anonymous said...

Making my spare bedroom an "office" for myself when we bought this house, Jo, I also placed my old antiques desk to face the "world." Although I will admit the world I see is my yard and everything Mother Nature has to offer, which is fine by me!...:)jp

jo(e) said...

DJan: That bookshelf is mostly contemporary nature literature, which is what I teach. But I've got other bookshelves scattered throughout the house.

Far Side of Fifty said...

Wow w I could sit in that chair and get lost in your books for a good long time! I communicate through the window too...put the package on the chair please and thank you! :)

Roderick Robinson said...

But what happened between November 11, 2019 and April 3 2020? That's getting on for 150 days of cyber-silence. It could be you've been reading a book or two; the well-filled shelves hint at that. But why is it your shelves look so tidy; how come you acquire books that tend to be all the same height (or is it depth?) and - statistically - the same thickness? Do you only read Anita Brookner and Marilyn Robinson novels, the rest of the space being devoted to slender volumes of verse?

Perhaps I should turn that question round: why are so many of my books short and fat (even the paperbacks), making them difficult to handle, especially in the bath? Come to think of it, there's a shortish row of Gore Vidal essays that have conventional bookish dimensions; briefly normalcy is maintained, then along comes the David Lean autobiography which, in comparison, is morbidly obese.

I shall now pass on to your more recent posts, hoping to keep my unhealthy obsessions more under control.

jo(e) said...

Roderick Robinson: Ah, but I have many other bookshelves in my house. So paperbacks are off on a different shelf. I've got a collection of children's books that are so many different shapes and sizes that I've given up and piled the small chunky ones in a fabric box. And what you don't see are the stacks of books that are piled on the floor in all different spots (by the bed, by the couch, in the corner of the living room) that simply migrate about the house.

Caitlyn said...

What a lovely office! I love the shelves and the comfy reading seat. I'm WFH with a laptop on my lap on the couch as I don't have a proper desk or space to even put one if I did.