My step-daughter is visiting. She has come east from Marina del Rey, California for a week with us and to attend a family wedding in North Carolina. She was really looking forward to spending some uninterrupted time here, in Warren, Pa.

I never knew Valerie until about twenty years ago and she has been a delight added to my life. Although she has visited on holidays – the Fourth of July, Christmas, Thanksgiving – we have never had the opportunity to spend much time alone. There has always been a houseful of O’Briens, with many conversations and lots of activities. This week is special.

Val is a smart girl who just retired early from a demanding job. Now, for the first time, she doesn’t have to schedule her vacations or traveling photography classes around work deadlines. No more being in the office before 6:30 a.m. to beat L.A. traffic. No more tedious annual reviews or daily staff meetings. She is now her own boss and, happily for her, her own travel director. Happily, for me, I landed on her first itinerary.

Dear Richard likes her very much and is tolerant of our long conversations and our running around “girl time.” Val and I have drunk a lot of coffee while digging up memories of family, fun, and incredible coincidences.

She is enchanted with all the lush green that surrounds us. As I stopped to look with her, appreciating anew the rich landscape surrounding, every vista radiated shades of emerald, lime. moss, sage, or grass green – all backstopped by hills in most directions. Our huge yard trees shimmer their leaves against our crisp blue sky. And Val comments on those skies offering big white puffy clouds that I don’t ever remember seeing in the skies over Los Angeles.

In Val’s Southern California, the prominent color is brown. Everywhere. Fortunately, she lives near her surfing beach, so there is some of that Pacific blue. She was surprised that the Niagara River was blue. “I thought all rivers were brown,” she said.

I remember living in San Diego decades ago and thinking how much I missed the bushes, the trees, the greenery of back east. And the rain. I missed the rain. Thinking about it today, of course, it’s the rain that makes everything lush.

When I picked Valerie up at the Buffalo airport, we went directly to Niagara-on-the-Lake. Photographing flowers is her latest passion and I can’t think of a town anywhere with such sumptuous plantings. She was smitten with the sheer abundance of colorful flowers in that little lakefront haven.

I realized on a few of our longer drives that we do live in pretty country. Although I’m guilty of taking it for granted, I loved seeing our rolling hills anchored by the traditional barns surrounded with cows and sheep. I was newly proud of our beautiful rivers and rippling streams. Val enjoyed seeing our Amish neighbors plying our roads in their buggies – often with little straw-hatted boys and bonneted girls.

We managed a jazz concert at Chautauqua and a ride on the Chautauqua Belle, taking in the diamonds sparkling on blue Chautauqua Lake and the luxurious plantings at the Institution.

Valerie walks four miles every morning, returning each day for her second coffee. She tells me vivid details of the houses and gardens on the many side streets she explores… different each day. And she has discovered the charm of all our Victorian homes in the historic district.

This morning on the deck, we had bowls of fresh summer fruit along with lox and bagels and all their trimmings. Our week of gorgeous sunny days has been a gift, enabling Valerie to enjoy nature’s scene around us at each meal. She was thrilled watching the butterflies flirting with the zinnias while a hummingbird canoodled with pink verbena on the deck. The three deer

that wandered casually past my garden surprised us. I was thrilled they didn’t stop off for an impatiens nibble or a hosta chomp as they meandered through. Still, their elegant splendor passing so close by made our hearts sing.

Seeing where we live through a different set of eyes – younger eyes, discerning eyes, appreciative eyes – has refreshed my viewpoint and enhanced my daily errands and drives over our country roads.

Thank you, Valerie. While telling you about our local history and showing off our bucolic landscape, I have been bragging about the ease and comfort of living here. It has all been a reminder that this part of the world – Northwest Pennsylvania and Western New York – has become my adopted home. My beautiful, lasting home.

Valerie, come back. Anytime.

Marcy O’Brien can be reached at Moby.32@hotmail.com.