I am so blessed that my Dad and his wife, Pat, are still in my life and so healthy.

They have been going to a spot in York, Maine for years and years. This year they invited us to go along and gave us the trip as an early Christmas present.  I am in favor of gifts that are experiences. Such gifts provide wonderful memories and this one did not disappoint. 

The York Harbor Inn perches just across from the Atlantic with breathtaking views from the rooms and the restaurant.

One of the restaurants is named 1637, because that is the year that the room was first built. The room is cozy with large beams in the ceiling.  The food was so tasty. I enjoyed scallops with lobster on the side. Lobster on the side for Pete's sake! The guys had blueberry pie and cheesecake. I had lobster on the side!

Dad and Pat got us a room with a Jacuzzi tub. I stayed there so long on Friday that I heated the water back up twice. I was reading a paperback book while in the tub.  The book was twice as big as when I started with splish splashes from the Jacuzzi hitting it.  I didn't care.

Our Flock: The Morning Blessing

The hens tend to lay most of their eggs during the day.  We usually find one or two first thing, when we let them out from their coop and into their daytime run.

I washed this morning's two eggs using water from our rain barrel.  

The weather report tells me that it may go up to the 70's this morning. I headed out before 8 a.m. in the crisp Autumn air, padding along in my slippers and plaid bathrobe. My favorite Roster Cogburn walking next to the Chicken Crossing sign

It seems like a miracle to me when I can make a morning egg sandwich, using my own eggs and Bruce's homemade bread.

Our eggs are mostly shades of brown and white.  One of our hens is an rare German breed. We have no idea how we ended up with her.  She is named Fraulein Hen. Her eggs are very pale green. She laid two of them today.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. 2 Timothy 6.

 

I love fireflies. I am so thankful that we see many during the summer on our property. Bioluminescence, what an absolutely amazing part of God's creation. I get a 1,000 hugs from 10 million lightning bugs. 

My area of Connecticut has a number of murals. Less than quarter of a mile from my house, there is a mural painted on the side at a railroad bridge commemorating a community activist.

However, this beautiful mural painted on the side of a tall building along the highway just touches my heart. It is titled, "Reawakening Wonder." How beautiful!  What a special way to add beauty to the Hartford Skyline.

Please enjoy this live version of Fireflies by Owl City.  I adore this song. The lyrics are so unusual and evocative. 

https://youtu.be/psuRGfAaju4

I can see clearly now my cataracts are gone. I can see all obstacles in my way!. 

One of the cataracts was very dense. I was delighted to be able to see electronic signs with gas prices displayed after the surgery.  The less delightful thing was seeing areas that needed cleaning in the cottage. Good grief, the splatters and little dirties I missed!  For the first time in my life I am seeing close to 20/20 vision without glasses. I am so thankful for Dr. Durani, my eye surgeon, and the amazing team at UCONN Medical Center.

Our butterfly meadow is growing more quickly than we had ever thought possible. I was speaking to a East Hartford city worker, James, two weeks ago.  What a nice man:  Picture Flavor Flav, the rapper. Only where Flav wears a big clock as a necklace, James wears an equally large Mercedes symbol.

James told me that he had been working in my neighborhood for over 28 years. He and a co-worker told me that the area of the butterfly meadow for many years was often deep mud which made it difficult for them to park their vehicles as they worked on sewar/water issues. He told me that the house and the garden had never looked so nice.

I filled the meadow with comfortable things. My Dad needed to thin some iris plants. He also has a huge, ancient wisteria tree and gave me cuttings. They are now in my garden. I know that I will treasure them even more when he is gone. 

My wonderful neighbor, Maureen Swift, a spry and slender older woman, provided pinks and lambs ears from her neat, meticulous yard. She is about a 120 pounds of warmth, no nonsense, and humor. The birds brought in a number of local plants. One is called fleabane which sounds unfortunate.  In reality, they are tiny little daisies on a long stem that grows up to about my collar bone area.

I added red and yellow yarrow, stunning scarlet bee balm, milk weed, an elderberry bush, daisies, two peony plants.cat mint, echinacea, lemon balm, stevia, sweet woodruff, and basil. I scatter big cheap boxes of wildflower seed. It I eat some cherries, I scatter the pits there. If I see something interesting that was provided by the deer, the bunnies, or the birds, I don't immediately pull it up as a weed. Many consider fleabane a weed. I find it lovely. 

Yesterday I saw a vine growing which I learned was actually a local type of tiny gourd.  One needs different elevations in a garden. I put an old chair next to the vine and started winding the pale green tendrils around the chair. I cannot wait to see the little gourds.

Bruce and I learned that at our butterfly meadow was once an informal neighborhood dump.  We even found a metal bunkbed set sunk into the area.  I took the sides off and used them for a little entrance are. A pink shade of honeysuckle is now growing over the metal.  We used the slats to prop up plants. While digging, Bruce found numerous little liquor bottles used on airline flights. We just found a blue and white (or used to be white) area rug last week. Broken tools, large tree logs partly burned, cans.  Ever consider a trash can?. We even found a kitchen sink!

Bruce has removed so many Japanese Knot weed plants. Over two years, there must have been 400 big ones. Japanese knot weed was imported into the US by the gardening industry.  The good thing is that the stalks resemble bamboo, they grow very quickly, and have lovely, delicate white flowers.  The bad thing is that they are pernicious, invasive and have rhizomes that spring up everywhere. I am allergic to them. Bruce pulled  one rhizome up and thought it weighed 30 pounds at least.  For every rhizome, there may be 50 shoots. We are both constantly pull up shoots.  

Japanese knot weed reminds me of Hebrews 12: 1 and 2, which talks about, "the sin that so easily entangles."  My salvation is sure in Jesus, but my Christian growth is my responsibility.  I need to pluck out my sins like being judgmental, being lazy, not speaking the truth in love, etc. with the same diligence I pull up those frustrating shoots of Japanese knotweed.

We Have Been in Rose Cottage for Two Years Today

When we bought Rose Cottage (Before)

Before

I am stunned to realize that we have been living at 15 Rose Street for two years today  God has been incredibly gracious to us.  Bruce still teaches remote at Tidewater Community College.  He also works full time supporting the Navy as an instructional designer, remote.  Each weekday morning he say, "Bye. I am going to work.  I hope the traffic isn't too bad," white walking up the stairs.

                                                        After

I have been able to stay home and work on Rose Cottage.  I have excellent medical care outside the Navy system for the first time in 35 years. 

Do you wonder what I do all day?  I don't worry if I can't sleep, because I don't need to work in the morning.  I plan meals, cook dinner, clean, garden, wash, bake, and iron.  I read a lot.  I'm fascinated with genealogy. 

My father and his wife live 3 miles away. We visit with them and help them with computer issues or repairs that are too much for them.

Bruce and I go on adventures most weekends.  We take little drives to see a corner of Connecticut we have not been to before.   Recent outings include a trip to a bridge open only to pedestrian traffic, to the beach where I used to play when I was little, and to an old Connecticut mill town which has become a ghost town.

We visited in my little town over a holiday weekend and didn't find a house. Later on, back in Virginia, Bruce found house on line.  A Cape Cod style home and a fixer upper, it has solar panels on the roof and a wood-burning fireplace. 

My guess is that someone starting remodeling the house and ran out of money.  The downstairs is mostly finished.  I don't like some of the paint color and the carpet squares in the living room, but these are cosmetic issues.

The upstairs needs more work.  For some reason, the gentleman who had the house knocked out one of the walls between 2 of the 3 buildings upstairs.  We plan to put this wall back in place.  The floors are hardwood, but damaged.  We will be sanding and painting the floors which has worked really well in our existing house.

We have put in an offer and have our fingers crossed.

At first, just a dream

                                                http://www.cafedesign.us/rose-cottage/

Thomas Wolfe titled his book, "You can't go home again." I disagree.  My home town is a smallish one where I lived for about 7 years.  It was a home that I went to again and again until I was in my 20's, married, and moved to Hawaii.  Even after that I returned as often as I was able.

23 Wind Road is located in a solid little neighborhood, the home of Helen, my beloved and godly grandmother in that town.  

Her other grandchildren called her Gram, but I called them Helen and Bobby.  It seems that since I was the first grandchild everyone just forgot that I was supposed to call her something other than her first name. 

Maybe this sounds like I was from a hip, modern family where adults were called by their first names.  I was not.  My family was traditional.  My parents would not have been pleased to be called Maureen and Bob, I can assure you.

I did call my mother "Miss Maureen" for a time when she was my pre-school teacher (along with other children) at the Friends School in Boston. Right now, in her early 80s in assisted living, I call her "Beans." For some reason, when I am texting about her to my sister, the auto-correct changes "Mom" to "Beans."

Despite the notion of not being able to return home again, I plan to anyway.  Bruce and I, after having lived at Pearl Harbor, San Diego, and in Virginia, have decided that we want to go back home to my little town.

We want a smaller home in a less densely populated neighborhood.  We are hoping God will direct us to a place with room for growing our own food and maybe some chickens.  Our ambition is to be able to minister to others in a hurting world from this place.  We aren't sure how.

As Simon and Garfunkel sang:

I wish I was homeward bound
Home where my thought's escapin'
Home where my music's playin'
Home where my love lies waitin'
Silently for me

A small rose cottage comes to mind...