Hmmmm...

It's late and I'm tired. The day has been full of packing, moving, cleaning, more cleaning, and tomorrow will be more of the same.

But we all seem to be mostly healthy, we have somewhere(s) to move TO, and we got the news today that our stuff will be delivered on Friday. As in the day after Thanksgiving. As in a day that we have family guests. As in three days earlier than we had requested.

But it doesn't matter! Because what matters is that we should be able to have the carpets cleaned before the stuff arrives and then we will have somewhere to go when the vacation rental runs out on Sunday.

I delivered wine to our wonderful host/neighbors this evening. They have been unbelievably generous with their "back house". Darcy and I have been here almost two months and the only rent I've been allowed to pay is in wine. They live across from one of the most spectacular stretches of coast anywhere, and we've gotten to be one house away from that all this time. We have wonderful friends.

By the end of the day tomorrow, we will probably have belongings in three different houses. But by Sunday or Monday, everything will have gathered together into one house and we can start the process of settling in, putting up art, and deciding where everything goes.

And now I'm going to go blog at Growing Tables and go to bed.

Rain: You Knew It Would Come

It is that time of year again. The weather forecasts now show much more rain than sunshine or even just plain old clouds and today was no exception. We woke up to rain, played out our day through showers and rain, and now it's raining hard. 

I'm not sure what our plan for the rain will be this year. Our first winter here, we lived in a very small rental, so finding entertainment inside was very difficult. Last winter, our house was a constant construction zone. This year, the house is a little closer to complete, although Michael has some designs on our bathroom that will involve us not being able to use it for a long stretch of time. But other than that, we have space to be inside and less pressure to be painting, installing trim, etc. Darcy is fond of board games now and played hangman successfully for the first time in the car today, so there are more options of indoor activities this winter.

The real joy is that Darcy can read books by herself now. I'm waiting for her to be able to spend hours reading novels so *I* can spend hours reading novels. She's not quite there yet, but it will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that one of the first books she sat down and read by herself, cover to cover, was one of her Wright Brothers books.

In Which I Bring The Pretty

I got chastised this evening for not updating the blog more regularly. It's a fair criticism. Life has been busy and the blog has suffered. But because recent posts have featured such lovely creatures as slugs and sharks (which I actually love -- the sharks, not the slugs) and because I know I'm going to post pictures of the slug buffet that is our front yard these days, I thought I'd throw in some pretty pictures.

I used to think of fuschias as potted plants. Really, I thought of them as hanging basket material and not much more. But in Crescent City, they become trees. I've had one blooming since before we bought the house and it is currently loaded down with flowers. I have at least three different kinds growing in the yard, but the white-centerd ones are the most prolific. They hardly look real:

I also inherited three or four more fuschias that are in large pots. They were waiting to be transplanted into the ground, but the previous owner never did it. She said that she always took end-of-season hanging planters and put them into larger pots for a while before putting them in the ground. So I just need to figure out where I want them and I'll have a whole fuschia forest!

Our Fruit

I apologize for the lapse in blogging. It's the whole buying a house, going to a family reunion, painting, flooring, moving...all in the span of two weeks. It'll really take it out of a person. But now we're well-settled into our new house and we have time to breathe occasionally. We also have wireless internet in the house now, so our "old" computer, the one with my beloved Photoshop, is connected to the internet on a regular basis. So blogosphere, watch out! I'm back.

As I may have mentioned in May, when I last blogged, we have a beautiful, very large yard at our new house. It is full of fruit trees and vines and canes and bushes. Almost any form fruit can grow in, we have it. And it is all starting to ripen now. Even though it's been a very foggy late July and August, the fruit is doing well. Today, we finally had sunshine, so I expect to be harvesting over the weekend.

We have several apple trees, with two bearing heavy loads of fruit. I was told that some are baking apples and some eating apples. We'll see as they get ripe. I'm looking forward to both! Apple pies. Apple butter. Apple crisp. Apple snacks.

I need a ladder to harvest these blackberries climing up our holly!

Kiwis! We have kiwis! Real fuzzy ones, too, not the smooth-skinned, yellow-fleshed kiwis. These are the real deal and our vines climb at least 25 feet into the air, with scores of the fuzzy beasts. When they were true babies, their fuzz was quite red and they were beautiful.

Darcy's already done some harvesting. She was so proud. Here she is reaching up to test some beautiful...

...peaches! We've already eaten two of our very own peaches, but none were ready for picking on this day. After all our sunshine this afternoon, I'm counting on three or four of them being ready this weekend. We don't have tons of peaches, but we have a couple dozen, at least. I've been told this is a bad year for fruit trees in the area because we had some late, frenzied storms that damaged a lot of blossoms.

You really should come visit.

Our House! Part Four: The Middle Garden/Orchard

Next up: the "middle" garden. This is planted with (so we're told) apple, pear, peach, and plum trees. There are also blueberries and maybe raspberries, along with rhubarb. The middle garden is bordered by tall trees and more rhodies. The fence at the back of this picture is not the end of the property -- the lower garden is on the other side.

This rhodie is a little past peak, but it shows the rock walls around some of the plantings. Some very serious gardeners have been at work on this property over the years.

Looking back up to the house.

Fruit tree flowering!

Trellis entrance to the lower garden with established wisteria!

OUR HOUSE!! (Part Three)

So this part was delayed a little by a promised trip to Ocean World to (not) pet the sharks. Darcy loves her sea creatures, although we've been living back in Wright Brothers land for the past couple weeks. This round of photos is of the area around the house, which includes a "fairy ring" of redwoods. Michael's already planning a little tree house for Darcy in the middle of it.

Our ring of redwoods! The building behind them is our garage.

Here's a view up the side yard to the house-and-garden area.

The proper front door of the house faces this lawn and garden area, but it doesn't face the driveway, parking, or garage, so like Cima house, it's sort of backwards on the lot.

This is what ends up being the main entrance to the house. Again, like Cima house, it means that you enter through the laundry room. Unlike Cima house, this laundry room is huge and has a built-in desk area along with a ton of cabinets. The cabinets are sort of cream and lime green. Original, of course, but these I actually like.

OUR HOUSE! (Part Two: Front Garden)

The yard is so beautiful that it feels like you're walking through a park. The "front" garden is along the driveway and has frontage on the main road. The lawn is mostly moss because it's so shady. This picture is looking from the driveway.

A picture from the farthest corner looking back up to the house.

We have our own redwood stump! (Plus our own living redwoods elsewhere!)

There are several of these little garden "nooks" around the property. Darcy is going to have the best garden tea parties EVER.

OUR HOUSE! (Part One)

This is our new driveway! Because we bought a house today!! We practically own a park now -- the property is an absolutely gorgeous 1.29 acres of redwoods, fruit trees, moss lawns, and rhodedendrons. About two weeks ago, we decided that maybe we should try to find a house before the Federal tax credit runs away. We looked at our first houses last Saturday and had our offer accepted today!

The property is very beautiful and someday, the house could be, too. It's a 1977 manufactured home that's been so well-taken care of that it has the original carpet. Unfortunately, that means that it still has the original carpet and toilets and cooktop, but those will all be gone before we move in. It is outdated, but in very good shape inside and out, with lots of space. Start planning your visit! (And please keep your fingers crossed for a successful house inspection!)

The property is divided into sort of four spaces: front garden, house-and-garden area, middle garden, and lower garden. I'll post pictures of each in the next few posts. I couldn't go in the house today, so there are no interior shots, but those will come soon, too. We'll have a series of before and after pictures over the next many months.

In the meantime, here are the driveway and parking/garage areas.

From the other approach, you can see the house.

Looking back down toward the road.