Lakeview Terrace

Hacking - lo, these many eons - has taken me throughout Vermont, and especially through every neighborhood and street of Burlington. Now that I have this fancy-dancy digital camera, I'm beginning to shoot the homes, people and topography that I love. (Unfortunately, this technology didn't exist when I first started on the job because I could have captured some terrific action photos of the dinosaurs.)

Lakeview Terrace is a little stretch of road running behind Burlington College from Haswell to Berry Street. Though it runs parallel to the ultra-busy North Avenue, you only end up on Lakeview Terrace if you're going to Lakeview Terrace. No through traffic = quiet and relaxed.

Lakeview is among a group of neighborhood streets, like Crowley and Convent Square, which remind us Burlingtonians that we are living in a waterfront community. There's something about the windswept gardens, the fading, pastel-colored little homes, the lazy porches, the rock gardens replete with lakeshore detritus, that evoke the feeling and rhythm of the big lake undulating just over your shoulder. Lakeview most of all, as all the homes on the west side of the street have long rambling backyards which amble gently down to water's edge. Man, I bet these relatively modest homes could be bought for a song only 10, 20 years ago. It's a lucky bunch of folks who call this street their home . . .

This first shot is right on the corner of Berry Street. I call it the Gateway to Lakeview Terrace.

Here's one of those glorious porches. Oh lord, what a way to waste away a warm, spring afternoon! Pick your favorite local micro-brew, your very best sweetie and some great music just barely tinkling in the background. Talk about "rock on."

This is a typical backyard view. Can you imagine waking up, cruising into the kitchen to brew the morning java, and looking up into a picture window of this every morning?

Here's a last one - me attempting to go all Steiglitz on you. So, it's a front window, pussycat on the top of the sofa and continuing on through the rear window onto the lake. Not quite artistically realized, but, hey, I'm new at this photo-thing, so give me time!