A Month Already!!

My goodness this past month has flown by. Can it be possible that we closed on the house a month ago? Duh....a resounding yes is the answer to that silly question! 

It has been a busy month with plenty going on besides the house. For example, the barn swallows have returned which has me excited.

Along the riverwalk, they think they are bluebirds and have been seen inside their boxes, which is not cool, but it is nature in action for sure. 

Speaking of bluebirds, once there was no longer any sound coming from ours at the cottage, Bruce brought it home and showed me the nest which took the shape of the box. 

Gosh I wish I had seen the little ones fly away! One note about the ground here...it is hard! Bruce borrowed John's post hole diggers to set it up here in the backyard.

You might note the ring behind him. Did I tell you about how they don't pick up yard waste here? Thus, many people burn it in their backyards including your favorite blogger's husband after applying for his burn permit. But first he robbed the front beds for the stones to make said fire ring.

The tree behind Mr. Peck is a magnificent magnolia tree, albeit crazy messy with falling leaves and seed pods. Mr. V. did what he could, but it took the two of us to corral all the accumulation for who knows how long. In stages he set fire to the debris and now we begin again because they continue to rain on the backyard! 

I will tell you what, we are sleeping very well at night. Having done almost no work for years on end, it is all coming back to us. Why are we sleeping well??? Because we are 70 and 71 years old! If any amongst you thought we were crazy to buy a three level house, well, I can't say as I blame you, however, we are rising to the occasion, admittedly at a slower pace than our younger selves. The truth is that Bruce is doing most of the work, but I have had a few successes of my own, such as when Matthew and Tom sent me Mother's Day roses and I mean that literally. David Austen roses are bred in the UK and grown here in Tyler, TX. 

Look who got them in the ground by herself! 

Since I took this a few weeks ago they are now mulched and showing new growth.  On that same wall are the Peonies which showed great promise and have since fizzled out. A friend told me that ants are prevalent inside them so be careful when bringing them into the house. Duly noted, I swished them in the sink,

before putting them into my makeshift vase. Actually a tea container but it worked just fine. And the heavenly smell!

To say that I was disappointed at the outcome of the peonies is putting it mildly. They began turning brown, as well as not opening. It's a darn long time before I will see any again, but maybe next year I will have better luck. 

Yet another Bruce project was recovering the chair seats because, while wildly popular with most folks, grey just does not cut it for me.

The two chairs above are in the "parlor" or maybe we should just call it the front room, and I am sitting on one of the others, as is Bruce, both of us at our desks. We found a roll of fabric upstairs that he used for the office chairs. Are you detecting a theme here? 

For the back yard I ordered retro chairs from Amazon and our friends Ken and Linda christened them with us.

I am standing on the steps outside the back porch should you be curious.

After Mr.V's visit, the yard no longer looks like this. Oh wait, it has grown back already!

The weather has been, for the most part, pleasant, however, after Bruce finished the yard a week ago Sunday afternoon, the wind began to blow like a son-of-a-gun, and turns out there was another tornado warning, which never materialized, thank goodness. Just when he had all of those pesky magnolia leaves picked up, down they came again!! The town sounds a VERY loud siren and since it is but two blocks away we heard it loud and clear.

The ghost. I promised more and being one to keep my promises, I will tell you what I've been told. Do I believe any of it? I don't think so, however, if something in the house is mysteriously moved, I might change my mind. Shannon, who lives behind us, was the first to tell Bruce about a ghost in this house. It was she who claimed the object moving business. Also that it was friendly so that was good. Curious minds want to know, at least Bruce's curious mind anyway, so he asked Mr. V. right out, "is there a ghost in this house?" The answer was vague.What else could he say after not disclosing any such nonsense when we were buying the house??? From what he told us, it is supposedly the ghost of Mrs. Chandler who owned the house for decades before they bought it from her estate. As I recall, he told us that she lived here with some elderly siblings, but don't quote me on that! The bottom line is that he's never seen her and if we do, you will be the first to know about it!

Remember I got my library card? Here's something cool that they have there.

The town had the "Spring Fling" on the main streets, two blocks from us. That was fun, hearing the bands from the yard.

Some fun activities for the kids,

and the bird lovers alike.

And then there is Jen's place where who should we run into but John and Laura! 

We are absolutely wild about our new place but I will admit to missing living beside those two. 

The Senior games happened and believe it or not, Bruce and I won a bronze medal by the skin of our teeth. The games were played at the Hayesville courts, the town next to Murphy and gosh the setting is just so beautiful.

Bruce's wrist was killing him that day, so we were darn lucky to have won any games at all. Linda is massaging his wrist and by golly it was like magic, the pain subsided! (green shirt)

The surrounding mountains are a bit of a distraction for me, I love them so.

On the court above is my ladies doubles partner, Lori and Bruce's men's doubles partner, Cobby. This dynamic duo,  Jack and Nancy,

moved to Marble, another nearby community, almost twenty years ago from, you guessed it, Florida. We visited their lovely seven acres for dinner one night and what a treat it was. 

Jack grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and still grows vegetables and some fruit, such as the blueberries below. Well Nancy is a master gardener so there's that.

One speciality of his is any kind of hot peppers, the hotter the better! Think ghost peppers and beyond! I will have to say that the jalapeño poppers were out of this world and that's coming from someone who shies away from peppers!

Men's doubles day had to be rescheduled due to rain and they barely got it in on the alternate day, but here is Mr. Peck and his good friend Cobby in action.

Well actually it looks more like Cobby is enjoying watching Bruce at that moment in time. They eked out a silver medal.

The man in the hat next to Bruce is Terrence who, along with his wife, are the driving force behind the games. The amount of work it takes to coordinate everything is really something. Next year perhaps we will enter more events, however, seriously, who am I kidding, I am pretty worthless when it comes to sports!

The closing ceremony turned out to be something else with the performance category as part of the evening's events. Cobby did a comedy routine which won him the people's choice award and a chance to go to the state games in September.

I am not doing Suzan justice with this photo because I was seated in the wrong place to get a better one, but I do want to remember how good she was in the storytelling category. I'd not heard a live storyteller before and it was delightful.

She does match that banner pretty well doesn't she? The torch extinguishing came next after Michelle carried it in front of the assembled crowd. Talk about an athlete. I think there were 30 something events you could participate in and she did almost all of them, setting records along the way.

It turned out to be a very fun evening celebrating keeping seniors active and fit.

The only bummer was the pouring rain as we left. On the drive there, only about four miles from the house, we remarked on how quickly we arrived. Those four miles felt like forty on the drive home in the mostly pitch dark with driving rain. Yikes!

Another thing that has kept me busy, and off the courts as well, is the three times I went to photograph the  preschool class, located at the church, for their website. What a blessing it turned out to be!

Being around very small children for the first time in ages and ages, it was marvelous, watching their curiosity and play. It is Montessori so very quiet curiosity it is. Our pastor's wife is helping the children make bread for communion.

Last Friday was their graduation and class picture. Now that was a hoot! Eventually I got a decent shot with everyone mostly looking forward; this one of them being silly is pretty fun.

Randy and David christened the table with us when they came for dinner on Memorial Day.

Since then they have returned to Sanford for a funeral, so it will be some time before we see them again.

I've said it before and I will say it again, 77 Campbell Street, such a lovely sounding address, the first single word address we have had in decades. Lake Willisara Circle, Gem Mary Court, those are the kind of addresses that require one to repeat them over and over, oftentimes spelling them several times as well. Time will tell if we have a ghost, but to date, we are happy indeed, one month in our sweet home and I am now calling it a home rather than a house because, well we are making it so.

your friend,

Gail