The valley's filling up

This is a row of houses down in the valley below our house. We can't see them from our property because of the woods. In fact, there are a lot of houses, old and new, down the hill from us. But we feel pretty disconnected from all that up here by the vines.

Some new and newer houses in our town. Click to suburbanate.

It's nice not feeling like we're surrounded by other houses. At the same time, it's nice knowing that there are other people around and that we're not isolated out in the countryside. On one level, I like the idea of having a house out in the middle of nowhere with no neighbors. But there is something reassuring about having some neighbors. We keep an eye on each other's property. We're close to town for services, like doctor, pharmacy, groceries, and things like that. And we have high-speed internet, something a lot of the countryside isn't wired up for yet.

Still, we notice more and more people walking (or driving) up the hill to walk their dogs in the vineyard, more kids on bikes and motorbikes and quads barreling through the woods in summer, and more lost people driving up our road and turning around when they realize it turns into a dirt path. And we just heard from one of our neighbors that a McDonald's might be built across the river near one of the supermarkets. Gasp!

I guess you can't stop progress, if you can call it that.