A Low Level of Anxiety

 I would be less than truthful if I did not report that both Bruce and I are operating under a low level of anxiety. Shoot, we are old so lots of stuff has happened to us over the years, but this waiting around is getting to both of us. For months and months Bruce had been looking at houses, wait I told you that already. Anyway, when this one finally popped up and we were instantly sold (no pun intended), we are now ready to get a move on. We agreed to the timing, so whining won't change a thing, but still, until it is closed, we are a tiny bit anxious. 

With beauty like this to view about town, seriously, we need to shake it off. Can you believe this color?

Another thing that has us a bit anxious is my entry into what they call the Silver Arts part of Senior Games. First off, why in the world I chose unusual things to enter is now a mystery to me? I absolutely know that landscapes, or something pretty will win, so what was I thinking? Well maybe it was the part where they were looking for creativity? Or are they? It is not like I don't have hundreds of pretty pictures, right?

Furthermore, options for frames are few and far between here. Especially in 16X20 so Wal Mart it was. Except the color was way wrong forcing a trip to Lowes to find a suitable color to paint them. The paint did not want to adhere, so there was that. Then, when it finally dried, while Bruce was putting the picture in, the paper-thin glass broke. Now what? This happened on Tuesday, two days before they were due to be dropped off at the Cherokee Art Council Building downtown. Once again, a local business came through which does not surprise us in the least as that has been our experience since we arrived. This wonderful woman, who had never actually cut glass before as her husband does that side of the business, took a chance on us and did a fantastic job.

Whew! Bruce attached the back wire,

and is delivering them at 10am as he drives by it on his way home from the gym. It is rainy here today forcing me to say home.  For a Floridian it is little bit chilly, but supposedly the sun will pop out later in the day. Tomorrow afternoon there is a reception at the gallery to announce the winners and I will see how far off I was on my choices! There is always next year when I will be much more prepared in every way. I have also entered the writing competition so we shall soon see where I stand with that.

Furniture shopping!! Oh my! Frame choices are limited and the same holds true for furniture choices. We visited Gibsons in nearby Andrews and there is plenty of this type of furniture in stock.

Fortunately there is another store that sells a different variety in Murphy where we have just purchased a dining room set and living room furniture. The problem? It has been a long time since we last purchased new furniture and we are suffering from sticker shock. Bruce has put a budget together and we are doing what we can to stay within it. Our saleswoman Cathy has provided us with all sorts of ideas to maximize both our space and budget for which we are grateful. Two rooms down, about three to go. Naturally this has added a little to our anxiety but I will say it has been fun putting things together. I believe I mentioned it before but it is almost like when we were newlyweds except this time we happen to have a little more money!

Last Friday night we went downtown to see Bill Jr. perform at Cherokee Cellars. Who exactly is Bill Jr. you ask? His dad owns the house on Campbell Street. A family that sat down next to us went to high school with Bill Jr. so that was fun. We love meeting the locals! He performs all around the area, following his career as a banker and CFO of the local college.

Closing on the house is meant to be May 3 or 6, however, the place where Bill Sr. is moving to does not look to us as if it will be completed by that date. How it will all work out is anyone's guess, but John has advised us to go with the flow. That is what we are attempting to do! 

He and Laura invited us down to the pond for stew and a bonfire on Saturday night. My goodness they have been so good to us!

Sunday was what they call a Service Sunday where teams from the church went to various places in the community and tried to make a difference. In our case we went with the team to the homeless shelter to do some gardening.

I am woefully out of practice that's for sure! Below is Will weeding the beds in what they call pocket parks on the main intersection of town.

We watched the women's basketball final at Fairy Cross and was that ever entertaining. Those women!

Okay, so I think I've covered all the anxiety business, and believe me it is low because who could stay down when there are daily treats for the senses? And yes, it is really this pink! No filters for this gal.

Dogwoods are blooming ALL over town. 

And the pink ones are to die for! The volume of blooms amazes me.

Seeing the tree from afar I was going crazy for the color. Up close.

I believe this is a plum tree overhanging the playground, simply laden with blossoms.

I've yet to see many tulips so perhaps they don't grow here as well as some flowers?

Daffodils are mostly gone, but I think I heard from someone that there are late blooming ones, so maybe they are yet to come?

In many places the ground is covered with tiny purple flowers that I've heard various names for. I've taken oodles of flower photos that maybe I will just bunch together in one post as a feast for your eyes. On the river walk there are lots of plants coming back to life that I also want to highlight soon but I think Bruce will be home  any minute, meaning we are, believe it or not, going furniture shopping! 

Lastly on the walk I took this red door photo because I think our new home has this same screen door that I'm thinking of painting hunter green. What do you think?

Holy cow, no birds Gail? Of course there will be birds!! 

Many of the goldfinch have been, or are in the process of being transformed and I for one, am amazed!

Our bluebirds are not so happy when others think they are going to perch on their home!

The house finch returned! 

Here's something to marvel at.

I took the above on March 18, well look at it now!

So this is Spring, huh? 

Isn't it just glorious?

your friend,

Gail

Primarily Pink

Easter week has come and gone and what a week it was for us, busy, busy, busy. Unlike most years, we attended most all of the services. Oh wait, maybe all of them.  In a first for us, we participated in what was called a "cross walk" where those participating carried the cross for some distance from the Catholic church where we gathered, to the Methodist church. Along the way there were breaks for scripture readings. To be honest with you, when we began we felt a little self conscious but quickly that silliness faded as we joined with others of similar faith. Mr. Peck, as we are approaching the church.

Behind the Catholic church I spotted a Camelia, one of only a few on the plant. Big deal, right? Perhaps they are prevalent here but this was my first sighting of a flower I am accustomed to be admiring in the winter. Of course it was pink, everything is coming up pink these days!

I mean check out the incredible number of blossoms on this tree!

And this one.

One day we drove to see some furniture friends are selling. Super cool house, super cool folks and some of the furniture will work, or so we think, not to mention it is reasonable. Wow, we are discovering that furniture is darn expensive!

Oh look....it's pink!

Perhaps you are thinking to yourself, "what is the big deal?" to which I would reply that after months of bare sticks, it is downright startling. Plus there are variations on that theme with different shades of pink. Now this makes no sense to me, but folks are telling me it is a red bud tree. I see pink!

The view from the porch is glorious. I cannot get enough of this look.

Note the green small tree in front with blossoms just beginning to open. Wonder what it will look like in a week? Because we have been busy, I had not imported all of the photos I'd taken, so it surprised me how much this scene has changed since taking this photograph.

Those white trees, whatever they are, are now mostly green. That's the thing, I've got to get these photos when I can because everything changes in the blink of an eye. These are the leaves from the tree in front that were once red and now are burgundy.

We are so grateful to be surrounded by beauty at every turn here at the cottage. Again, this tree is nearly green now, but what gorgeous color the blossoms were.

The Goldfinch are turning gold or more neon yellow in my book. That has been amazing to witness as it happened.

One day we stopped by city hall for Bruce to talk to the city manager and thank the city for granting the money for the fence and gates on the pickleball court. That's easy to do in a small, small town. 

Leaving we saw that it was the ribbon cutting for the shop that has my prints for sale so we stopped to chat. While there we ran into a young woman we met on the courts whose job it is to promote Cherokee county; her official title escapes me. She asked if I might share some photos of the county with her for her to use however she saw fit. You know me, way too prolific in both words and photographs some might say. Scanning through nearly a years worth of photos I am actually pretty proud of myself for only choosing this many.

So that took me far too long when I could have been blogging. Additionally choosing photos to enter in the Senior Games contest, which has come up far sooner than I was paying attention to, took another big chunk of time. Honestly I should have just skipped it this year as my mind is swirling with house details. Adding to that, I entered myself into the literary category, more specifically writing about a life experience, which also took a big chunk of time. Seriously folks what was I thinking? I did sit down and write about writing a blog for 17 years which will appeal to probably no one. Again, what was I thinking? John has a printer below us and after typing seven double-spaced pages, the printing went haywire so I was doing something wrong. Again another time waster. Back to the prints, I sent the files to Roger,  or really I should say RTArt because it is all employees these days, but old habits die hard. Anyway, they should arrive today, or so FedEx claims and then I need to find some frames and deliver them on Thursday morning. Apparently the judging is done that afternoon and a reception follows on Friday. I would say wish me luck, but honestly the photographs I chose will probably be the wrong ones. One of the criteria was to be creative, so with that in mind I chose, for example, the old tool photo I took at the flea market. I wonder if I shared that? Anyway I will breathe a sigh of relief when it is over. 

 Shopping, oh my goodness, we have been shopping. For furniture of course, but goodness me, we are going to need a lot to begin a new household. I told Bruce it feels like we are newlyweds again although we won't be having any showers to help fill our new nest. That's not really true though because both Bill and David declined birthday gifts, which btw, they turned 45 (!!!) on Monday, choosing instead to add it to the fund to outfit their Dad's new shop.  One of things I wrote in my submitted piece was about how great it is to be a blogger with memories at your fingertips. Well I didn't actually say it like that but it was of that ilk. Anyway, Bruce once had a shop he'd been outfitting since the time he agreed to "me wanting a baby if he could buy a table saw days".  Yes indeed, that happened and the result is Matthew. Anyway, when we went to Canada, I wrote about our garage sale here. That was painful for us but the reward was great but now it is once again, "all about the future". That will become clear if you go back and read the old post.

Speaking of shopping our new friend Latasha had a pop-up shop set up in the back room of the wine shop and of course we could not let her down.

That is kind of how we feel, you have to support the small businesses when you can. I bought a dress for Easter, but as it turned out, it was far too cold to wear it because we attended sunrise service. Wonderful hearing the birds singing along with the humans. The view was nice as well.

The flower cross was lovely with many folks choosing to add daffodils from their gardens. 

There is an insert in last week's Cherokee Scout, more like a little magazine, about the history of all of the little communities around Murphy which has been so informative. As a newcomer, I am learning just how rural this area of the country was for a long time. As an example one of the communities did not have electric power until the late 1960's. For a woman raised in a small city, now a big city, I am gaining a new respect for how the towns have come to be. Some locals, of course, are not keen on some of the progress, but the same could be said for lots of places, including our hometown! Neither Bruce nor I am overly pleased at the place Orlando has become.

I'm hoping to use these stained glass windows for color inspiration in the living room on Campbell Street.

We looked at this couch and stool along with a chair to match over in Blue Ridge, but ultimately we went a little bigger buying a green sofa yesterday.

The bluebirds are busy too! This has been so fun to watch. Hopefully the little ones will arrive before we leave our beautiful cottage.

One day I decided to walk to the house from the river walk, clocking the walk back to the courts which turned out to be 10 minutes. As I was approaching the house on Campbell Street, look what I found.

Another day, driving by we were thrilled to see the front yard tree, completely bare only 10 days prior, with leaves to delight the senses. Now we are super excited to be having a Japanese Maple tree out front.

Isn't it glorious? The view from inside I took that first day.

This blog post has rambled a bit and gone way off of my title theme, but that is okay. Another thing that has happened this past week is I've had a cold, not been sleeping as well as I would like, and have a cold sore to boot. Nevertheless, I am carrying on, as we do, and hoping it will pass before too much longer. Tying up that loose end, let's look at these few primarily pink photos to close things out. Isn't it gorgeous?

Honestly I have taken so many photos ...

Butterflies galore.

Can you stand one more? (credit goes to John and Laura for providing me with more photographic opportunities than is good for my overloaded photo library)

What is most surprising to me is how gorgeous it has been, and how the trees are so colorful, somewhat like a reverse Autumn. Eventually, that is in the next few weeks, we will have to return to Orlando for some of our things, like clothes for example ,which is going to please me to no end. But for now I am still reveling in things being primarily pink.

your friend,

Gail

A Week Ago Tuesday

Lord willing and the creek don't rise, last Tuesday was a life-changing day for your favorite couple. Well, maybe not your favorite, but if you are reading this, you at least put us in your top ten don't you? While our son David urged me to keep quiet, you absolutely know that is not in my nature, so I am going to tell you a little story that began with this photograph.

During the early months of our stay in Murphy, Thursday was pretty much always our field trip day, however, that practice has changed, in part because we have toured around a bunch and in part because we are more involved with the everyday life of the community. As I sat down to write this I was sure I had the sequence of events in my mind and some of them I do, however, the exact reason I was out driving the car by myself is now clouded in my memory. Obviously that is unimportant, but you know how it is, you want to remember stuff!! Nevertheless, I do know that I was out driving to see all the flowers I could see. The above caught my eye on Campbell Street, a charming street of older homes in downtown Murphy that we drive by nearly every day. I just loved the way the flowers cascaded down the wall and the fact that they were purple was a bonus, another sight I could share with our purple-loving friend Mary at home.

Fast forward to Sunday and while standing in front of the church, I spotted a "For Sale" sign in the front yard, telling Bruce, oh my goodness, that neat house is for sale. Now when we came up here in May to view Charlotte's Cottage I will be honest with you, I never imagined that we would want to move here, but by golly, that is exactly what happened! Except we were spoiled because the cottage is so close to town and we have based our experiences on that fact. The church, the pickleball courts, the gym and grocery store are all so close, not to mention the wine shop! Bruce had talked to a realtor months ago, but after viewing countless houses online, all of them either too far away (in our view), ugly, too small and the list goes on. We were content to stay in the cottage until they had to kick us out, which John assured us that they had no intention of doing.

Until I saw the house on Campbell Street.

While I saw the sign in person, it was not listed online, so I put it out of my mind for two days until I sat down to write my last blog post and decided to check if it were listed. Hell yes it was, one hour earlier! Once I was able to see what the inside looked like, after Bruce saw the photos, he agreed to call the realtor and within the hour we were touring what we hope to be our last home. That sounds weird, but let's face the facts, we are most definitely not getting any younger. We will still have the condo should we need a winter break, but more likely be lonesome for our family!

Walking in the front door from the charming porch,  it was love at first sight. The floors are amazing, the rooms the size to be expected in a 100 year old home, and there is the beginnings of a shop in the basement, so what is not to like? In Orlando we have always admired houses in this style, but the price tag always kept us at bay. Murphy is way more affordable, that's for sure. 

According to Bill, the 86 year old owner, the purple Thrift used to continue the length of the wall. I bet that was super pretty. He told me that although his wife wanted him to replant he decided not to bother and really who can blame him at his age? Having said that, he seems to be doing remarkably well and is selling because his wife of 63 years died in December and his kids don't want him using the stairs while living alone and really, in their opinion it is just too much of a house for him. The realtor told us it was called Thrift, but when Laura saw it she insisted it was Phlox. Hmmm....apparently there is some real controversy on the subject answered here. 

The house just spoke to us, and so we took the plunge, putting in a contract two hours later. Some drama ensued the next morning, but all is well that ends well. The sale was never in question though. Our realtor Donna set up the home inspection for Saturday and we met Robert at the house. He did an incredibly thorough inspection for $500 dollars, in case you are wondering, telling us that he has been doing inspections for 10 years and he could not believe the shape the house is in. Neither could we!! Bill Sr. was a Navy guy and immediately I thought to myself, no wonder the house is ship-shape.

Looks like we will be walking lots of places in the future including church which is barely visible as a large brick structure, pictured on the right through the trees. I took this from the driveway.

And now we wait. 

Bill Sr. is moving into an apartment that is still under construction, so it won't be until at least early May until we can move in. In the meantime, let us together enjoy nature, the likes of which are just fantastic at this time of year. The weather is still chilly, in fact there is a light rain falling as I type. Bruce, along with another man from church,  is repairing a door frame for a woman in need. 

I have so many pretty picture to share, so let's get to it, beginning with this one of some boxwood and daffodils. Aren't they so lovely? Playing a little with light and shadows on this one.

Holy cow these deer in the orchard out front. That is some smoke from the controlled burn in the background.

They've begun lightening up for the summer. That is one thing we will very much miss in our new home. No deer! Boo hoo, but we do know where to find them should we need a fix! Did I tell you that we saw a coyote crossing the street on our way to the cottage one late afternoon? It's been so fun seeing all of the wildlife right outside our door. As to my birdies, I will never have the same opportunity for bird watching as I have enjoyed here just outside the window. 

The bluebirds have most definitely begun their nest building and shoo off all the other birds who want to steal their home.

The flowering fruit trees....

have been so much fun to photograph, not to mention appreciate their beauty. 

This tree has slowly filled with blossoms and what a sight to behold. 

Just this morning I watched the male Cardinal feeding the female so I'm imaging there will be more baby birds than just the bluebirds. That is one thing about still being here awhile, hopefully we will witness the babies. Here's Mrs. Cardinal in a tree that I photographed last week. Wait until you see what it looks like now when next I write. Gorgeous is what it looks like!

We did just open our third 50 pound bag of seed yesterday afternoon. Taking a peek outside just now and it's a frenzy out there folks. The Goldfinch are rapidly changing which will also be featured in my next post. 

Look at this! Talk about changing fast, one day they were all white and the next this.

Since I took the above they are all clothed in a lovely shade of spring green. 

With Easter being celebrated this Sunday, I am so reminded of the resurrection and how grateful I am to live in such a beautiful world. I took this at Mark and Mary Beth's house and it was the first butterfly I have seen since last Autumn.

More beauty to follow, 

daffodils are mostly fading, but not before I took this one.

There are Robins galore at the park.

and loads of blooming trees as well.

Mostly I have been walking in the afternoon when the park is crowded, but on the morning I took the above, it was very cold and empty which suited me just fine. 

One of the really neat things about the Valley River Picklers is how they are so generous. Oh, by the way, Mr. Peck was not only a success with the county commissioners, but at the suggestion of the park manager, went to the city for the remaining funds and both parties said YES! Amazing, right? You would think we were residents? Oh wait, very soon we will be turning in a beautiful life in a frantic city to life in a very quiet small town. Anyway, with donations from the group, a pavillion with bathroom and storage room was built and the man who spearheaded the construction aspect needs knee surgery. While he has insurance, being out of work for many weeks without income is no fun. The group rallied and had a tournament with a donation as an entry fee. Over $5,000 was raised which should be a big help.

The group has welcomed us with open arms making our transition to a new residence all the sweeter. 

Look!! 

That is a male Goldfinch and a Pine Sisken on the right. The transformation of the Goldfinch is absolutely remarkable. Will we be able to transform ourselves to small town mountain people? What do you think?

your friend,

Gail