Beautiful Tree Herder

We have been listening to The Lord of the Rings on CDs in the car since we went to North Carolina. The entire three books runs for 52 hours so we're still not through. But the words and movies dance in my head whatever I see. From the tree roots at the side of my driveway in the last post to this ENT at the DeCordova Sculpture Museum we visited early this week.

It is actually called VineVenus, but to me she is a beautiful tree herder.

Morning Walk

I did get out for that hill walk this morning. At 6:30 AM this is the view down the driveway toward the cow fields where the fog was aglow with the sun's early rays. The driveway reminds me of old roads we drove on in England that had been worn down by 1000 years of cart and foot traffic.
Under that tree just to the right of the drive, hobbits could hide from a black rider. The roots stick out just like in that scene from The Fellowship of the Ring.


Along the side of the cow field, Queen Anne's Lace is abundant. I'll get a picture of the cows when they come a bit closer. They were far away this morning, but Renee claims their moos woke her up yesterday.

It's easy to pick a colorful flower arrangement in the yard these days.

The "New Normal" Begins

Terrific day. I finished going through the last of the boxes in the main part of the house. Now there's just the stuff in the basement and garage that was in our ample closet space in the old house. It will have to be weeded down and organized. But the actual house is really getting into shape.

We also got mail today for the first time in about a month: some checks from insurance rebates on the old house, catalogs and local ads, and 3 New Yorker magazines. I'm going to start catching up as soon as I finish this post. As Doug said we're getting back to the "New Normal."

Tonight we hung the portrait of me and my sister when we were little in the library room. It looks so beautiful with the dark wood and brass of the cabinets, day bed and club chairs. I'll put up pictures soon, but it's hard to get the whole feel of the room in a photo. Very cozy and personal.

For the past two evenings we've been taking walks around the neighborhood after dinner. Tonight we watched the cows in the nearby pasture and saw 2 turkeys as we walked up a huge hill. It looks like a good place for me to get into shape. I'm going to try to get out and walk up it a couple times tomorrow morning.

Back from the Beach

We're back from Hatteras, NC. Again it was so great to spend time for the second year with these generous, kind friends. There were 21 people in a 7 bedroom house. Lots of cooking and sharing meals; watching children in the pool and on the beach; kite flying, boogie boarding, and sand castle building. Nights catching crabs, roasting marshmallows, and one rainy night watching lightening crackle across the whole horizon.

This year's house: Beach Babies

Favorite activities at the beach:

* long walks at the edge of the waves searching for cool shells or sea glass


* finding the perfect spot in the water where the waves gently lift and cool you, but don't send white water over your head


*finally getting to carve the stack of sand you've worked so hard to build


* being on the beach at night with ghost crabs and glow sticks

Making Progress

The last 6 days: open a box, unwrap items from masses of paper (even a pine cone and hair clip were wrapped for safety, but no china was broken), find places for the items, move box and paper to basement recycling piles enjoying the cool basement air... repeat, repeat, repeat.

And, of course, the dryer stopped working amidst the chaos. But Doug diagnosed the problem, went out for the part, and it's fixed. (Yes we're in a new house and here's Doug hard at work, yet again.)

The temporary clothesline. We'll set up one that's not only 3' off the ground soon.


Finally we have made enough progress that all the big boxes are unpacked. Here are some rooms in progress.

Jack and Renee playing in her room.

Dining room
Library
Family room

This afternoon we head off to the Outer Banks with Doug's fraternity bothers and their families. So much fun! A true week of relaxation once we do the long drive.

Finally A Home

Yesterday, the most mundane of tasks made me feel like I really had a new home. I went to the supermarket. I had spent the last three days unpacking boxes and living amidst chaos. It took an almost routine supermarket visit to make me feel more at home. I had to find the new market, which wasn't easy. I negotiated unfamiliar aisles (while I talked to my mom on the phone, my usual daily update). On the way home I found that the trip is really an easy one on only one road. The revelation about home, came as I crossed route 30 onto our section of road. I was driving down a street out of a fairy tale, winding through the wood on a path with tall pines at either side. It's difficult to see our home and a challenge to turn into the driveway. But once there it is oasis. I just felt so relaxed and happy to be there.

I proceeded to make dinner. There is almost enough space on the counter amidst the clutter I haven't found a place for. The dining room is clean and set up for dinner, but we chose to eat on the deck. It was so beautiful. Green everywhere, and you can see the bee balm in the garden (complex red flowers where each petal is like a tiny drinking vessel for humming birds). And they were flying around visiting the flowers while we ate.

This time of year the house is sits in a lush garden.

I saw a mouse crawl into this little house on the fence yesterday morning.

View from the deck. Bee balm is the red flower toward the right.

Dinner on the deck.

Food Musings

Oh no, the top of the blog still has a very dated picture of our old house. I'll change that in a day or two.

Just to tide you over until I am sorted out enough to do a more detailed post about our move, I'm thinking about food this morning. About how much I've missed regular cooking and knowing what's on our plates. The night after we closed on the house we went out for dinner at a local place to celebrate. (We also had no kitchen pots, plates, silverware, etc even though we now had a kitchen). It must have been one of the most salty meals I've ever had. This morning, 1 1/2 days later my fingers are very swollen and yesterday we only ate simple sandwiches, carrots, fruit and yogurt from a Whole Foods quick shop. By evening I had found enough kitchen utensils to make spaghetti in a too small pot.

The blog Beauty that Moves did a great post a week or so ago discussing the value and expense of feeding your family in a healthy way. She noted how even cooking whole foods from scratch most of the time can be expensive if you are choosing local, organic produce and dairy. Find the discussion and the interesting comments here.

I've done two quick Whole Foods shops for a few breakfast and lunch items over the last few days at a cost of over $30 each. I got bread, turkey, cheese, carrots, hummus, milk, yogurt, cherries, and a tomato. A local (VT ?) tomato was $3.99/lb. Beautiful looking heirloom tomatoes from California, $4.99/lb. Conventional plum tomatoes were $1.99/lb. I got 1 local it came to about $2 for a palm size tomato.

I am happy to report that the previous owners of the house left us some nearly ripe green beans and ripe raspberries (We missed ours in NJ.) The gardens also have large areas of thyme, rosemary, chives and other things I probably don't recognize. There are also grapes growing all over a stone wall.


I am looking forward to getting back into our food routine and adding more interesting grains and soups to our meals as the weather gets colder here in MA. I've seen signs around for Farmer's Markets on Saturday mornings. I can't wait. I'll also be looking around for a CSA for next year and local dairy delivery like I had in NJ.