For those who have been following my brother, Richard and his wife, Carol, on their hiking of the Appalachian Trail you can catch up to their adventure by reading the latest entries in their trail journal. Here is their last entry. http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=307048 From here you can back up to the point where your last read in the journal and then read the new entries. If you have not read any of the journal you could go back to the first entry. There are also some photos to access on the left. I do not know if they have been updated. They are now at Damascus, Va. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus,_Virginia I hope they are enjoying some lovely weather and some less physcially demanding sections of the trail ahead of them.
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I have been neglecting posting in my blog lately. I feel badly about that. My excuse is that I am very busy and when I think I would like to compose something for the blog I am too tired.
I am busy with doing things around my house and getting ready to go away to Belgium and Northern France for a couple of weeks with my friend, Lynne. I leave this week for Toronto and after a few days there we fly off on May 11.
I have had to oversee my tenant, June, move out. I have finally made arrangement, which I am comfortable with, for the care of Heidi while I am away. I will give my few remaining chickens to my neighbour and the cats will be OK on their own outside with a neighbour coming by to feed them. I have even made arrangements to be transported to the train to Toronto. Now if I can only decided what items I should take with me.
I did purchase a Journal, I hope to write in daily while away. I doubt I will have access to a computer to record my adventure. I hope to take lots of pictures and write about about my adventure. I have even been reading up about Belgium and Northern France, particularly the war memorials I hope to visit and the art of the Flemish Masters. It is going to be a good experience for me. I think I may even try a beer in in Belgium and of course lots of chocolate.
I have been enjoying a renewed interest in my hous, which has kept me busy. Besides the usual inspiration of the Spring which lifts my spirits and finds me with more energy I am able to enjoy my house since my tenant, June, has moved out. Her continuing to live here had become untenable for reasons I would not discuss here. She and her husband, Dave, who died not long ago, were here for four years, For the most part, it was good and I willingly gave up a large part of my house to them in order to help fullfill Dave's desire to live on a farm in a house once more before he died. I feel good about being able to do this for him (them).
I am enjoying being able to use my whole house. Dave and June occupied four room in my house. June had two of the bedrooms on the second floor and for Dave I gave up my library and office room on the ground floor. Unfortunately, they never fullfilled their agreement to rationalize their two households; only bring what they needed to live here. As a result, I ended up giving up my wonderful attic room, which I was trying to construct into a living space. It became the storage space for much of their stuff. I also had stuff in the basement and my front porch often looked like I was having a yard sale. Over they years, June came to store some of her arts and crafts materials in my last remaining guest bedroom. I did manage to keep her from invading my room with her stuff although I had retreated there with my things to give my bedroom the feel of a college student's digs, with TV, books, computer. etc.
Unfortunately, June did not leave gracefully. I had asked her to leave having come to the conclusion the arrangement was not meeting the needs of either of us. What was to take a day to move out took three days and in the end she just abandoned some of her stuff and left every space she occupied in a mess. It took me three days clean out the remnants of her life including her three pet rabbits, most of her arts and crafts stuff and lots of her gaming toys as well as some piece of furniture and some personal items I figure she will miss some day. I found homes for her pet rabbits and gave away some items and the rest I trucked to the dump.
Now the house is all mine, (which I share with Heidi and my 8 cats). It once again has a spacious feel with my Spartan decor. One of the bedrooms and my library I have reoccupied with my things. I have yet to decided how to use the office room off the library and the other bedroom. I may actually go back to finishing the attic room which I really like. With large gable windows and two skylights it is bright and airy. It would make a wonderful artist's studio.
Heidi has taken to going into the new spaces she was not able to enter before and looking around with a sense of wonder. She has enjoyed lying on the rug in the libary and I saw her trying out the new bed I set up as if she was considering abandoning the bed we share in my room. Fickle females!
(click on photos to enlarge)
My recovered bedroom, no longer a cluttered sitting room and rabbitry. You can still see the wall stained from one of the rabbits. I have yet to wash all the walls although I suspect I may have to repaint.
Heidi checking out the uncluttered verandah just after I repainted the deck.
This is the south end of my library. The TV June left behind was one of four she had. My Salem rocker I got out of storage. My mother bought it for me years ago. I suffered from back pain not unlike President Kennedy. She said she thought I should have one like he apparently had.
This is the north end of my library. June left the reclining chair, which I guess I will use for now.
My record player I was able to move from the kitchen.
Having my house back has inspired me to do some things with it. I have repainted, not only the verandah deck but also the library floor and I am about to paint the kitchen floor. I have also cleaned out some closets and even put down some linoleum in two of them. I have cleaned my kitchen cabinets putting shelving paper in them and washing all the dishes before putting them back. I even washed the windows. I have plans to do a lot more; but, first my trip to Belgium and Northern France.
This morning it was warm enough for me to sit out on the porch swing and have my coffee, stress free, Heidi lying on the swing next to me. It is going to be a lovely day . Could life get any better?
Oh, yes! Last evening, I was sitting out on the porch swing having a coffee and watching a bear which had come out of the bush in front of my house. I guess life can always get a bit better.
