Things that go to new homes

I woke up the other night thinking, "What if we're making the biggest mistake of our lives moving back to Britain?"

It's the 3AM brain that's dangerous. At 7AM I was feeling okay, but I'd be lying if I said everything is rosy and shiny here. There have been meltdowns and melancholia, and it feels like we're undergoing death by a thousand very slow cuts.

We've sold one car, and we shipped out our boxes of things we can do without (I hope) for 6 to 10 weeks.

After advertising our couch and matching chair, a young woman couldn't wait to get them for her first apartment. So we're using a patio chair and the rocker that will stay here with my sister.

The TV is now on the floor because we don't have anything left to put it on! It was on this chest that my dad made in the '70s - a friend just bought that from us.

Before that the TV was briefly on a side table after another friend bought the TV stand. Now the side table holds the computer because the computer desk is in the garage for our last garage sale tomorrow.

Next week other friends will be buying all the remaining furniture and the bicycles, the computer will be erased and donated, and we'll clean the house, sign stacks of papers, and relinquish our keys and our home. It makes me very sad because I've really loved living here. I find some consolation in the thought that we leave a legacy behind - sort of like organ donation.

Besides the furniture going to new homes, our everyday dishes went to a young woman who wanted to have a matched set instead of putting up with her boyfriend's odds and ends.

A lovely artist who lives down the road bought a small vase at our last garage sale because she wants to use it in a still life painting.

Some cool contemporaries bought my two Balinese frogs - they'll give them to a friend who is a musician with a frog pond. The frogs may end up in his music studio!

Our old bedroom dresser will hold clothes for two little boys as they grow up - one is only two months old now.

And our house will be loved by two new people who moved here to be near their son. Maybe this will be their last home. I wonder where my last home will be.

After the house sale is complete, we'll take some road trips here before we fly across the pond in mid-June. Until I get a new computer in the UK I'll be depending on my 7-year-old netbook, and my camera card doesn't fit it (so old skool). I think this is a good time to say See ya later, au revoir, arrivederci. I'll share photos from Wales - you know, sheep, hills and strange road signs - as soon as we've settled in our new home!

Val

Oxytocin Hugs

It's about two and a half weeks now until we move out of our house, and about 35 days until we fly to the UK to start our new lives. Although our house is looking very empty, there's still a lot to sell, much to do and people to see. It's getting harder to de-stress by thinking happy thoughts - or procrastinating.

So I flew to Palm Springs.

Of course, it was a pleasure trip. I'm lucky to have two very dear, longtime friends there. One has been diagnosed with cancer, and he may not be able to travel to see me in the UK. So I just had to squeeze in a visit.

I've known these guys forever. Back in the '80s and '90s, I worked with both of them at various restaurants. They got married three years ago, coincidentally right after I wrote this post, Love is Love.

We spent almost three days hanging out, talking and talking and talking, and seeing the sights.

We toured Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, the home of the Annenbergs, where they hosted the Queen and several presidents. President Obama was there in February for the US-ASEAN summit. And yes, I was a little excited to be in the same house Barack had been in!

We went to very cool restaurants, and ate way too much. We hiked, we biked, we shopped.

I saw Alyson Walsh's book in a great display - she's in very good company here.

And when I was supposed to come home Friday evening, my plane was delayed, so I got one more night to visit and stay in their comfy guest room.

My friend Frank said that if you hug someone for more than 10 seconds, it releases oxytocin and makes you feel good. There was lots of hugging, and oxytocin was spurting through my system when I finally checked in to fly home.

Palm Springs Airport

Hugs!

Val

Things I can't take with me

People often ask me, "Val, how do you stay so calm and cool when there is such chaos around you? You just sold your house (in two days) and you're moving to another country. Another country! Won't you miss EVERYTHING? How DO you do it?"

I smile graciously and reply, zen-like, "For everything that must be given up, there will be something to take its place. Memories are yours to keep and cost nothing to ship. You must learn to bend like the willow or else you will break like the oak" and other such nonsense.

The fact is, life moves on, and there are tears and goodbyes and regrets along the way. The highs and lows make up life's rich tapestry (I've got loads of aphorisms, don't I?). So I'm concentrating on those free-shipping memories and looking forward to creating new ones on a different canvas, because I can't take everything with me.

I can't take my grandmother's rocking chair, which I've been fortunate to have in my possession for ten years. Now it will go to my sister or one of my nieces.
 

I can't take my fantastic rotary dial telephone because it won't work in the UK. But I'll sell it for as much money as I can milk out of it.

I can't take my sister, but I can look forward to showing her and my brother-in-law around Wales and England when they come to visit. And my sister and I will always be connected. Not least because I'm chaining her down.

I made this necklace for her because she told me she liked this saying, which she saw in my post at Christmastime. I also wanted a necklace with that saying, so I made a matching one for me that continues the phrase, connecting the sentiment.

I had some little jewels, which happen to be our birthstones, and I added a bit of lace from a pillow our grandmother embroidered. Mine acquired some bubbles while the resin was drying. I'm calling it wabi sabi - beauty in imperfection. Just like life.

And all manner of thing shall be well.

Val

Hey, I made scones!

We're just about to list our house for sale. As I've mentioned before, I will be sad to leave this house - this neighborhood - this town.

But come on, let's get on with it!! I feel like my mind is living in two places at once, and my physical body is now in a place that's "staged" and soon to be thrown open to strangers. We have to keep it CLEAN!

So I took refuge in a new little beach hut.

It helped me maintain some feeling of sanity, although I probably shouldn't have fed glue to the neighbor's dogs. (Kidding, but do they really need to bark so much?)

Hey, I made scones!

 And little tiny knives, and a fake jar of jam, and a little magazine and book.

There are beach towels and blankets for sitting on the sand. And a little parasol in case the sun is too bright.

And a big bottle of wine!

Although I had to go wandering around the house to find the supplies, which have been tidied away in various places, I think this turned out pretty well. Maybe one day I'll have a life-size beach hut to escape to. Fortunately, I can get a life-size bottle wine right now!

Val

Scavenging through my files

It's time for Scavenger Hunt again! Thanks to Made With Love for hosting.

I was not very clever this month and could never remember even one of the prompts on the few occasions when I was out and about with my camera. So I'm trawling through my old photos to find ones that might fit the prompts. I think that still qualifies as a Scavenger Hunt, don't you? Most of these have not been blogged before.

Local

Taken just down the road at the corner of Happy Lane and Ecstatic Acres Drive, 2015

City

Seattle alleyway in 2013 with random tiny person

Crisp

Ice on the river behind our motel on our recent trip.

Street Art

Seattle 2014 - the file name on the jpeg was Street Art, so there you go.

Tiles

Tiles used on Local Street Art.

Rocks (This was a little confusing because the prompt said RocksStairs, but I think it means Rocks and Stairs. Or maybe it was meant to say RockStars, in which case I failed.)

 At the coast in December 2015

Stairs

Seattle again, 2013

Hair

This was me about a year ago.
I still think of myself as a brunette - I guess that's a bit delusional now.

Stripes and Measure - same photo! Striped jacket, thermometer measuring the temperature (incorrectly).

Large

 Large watering cans in Las Vegas, 2008

For One

Very blurry - sorry - but I thought it fit the prompt perfectly! Montacute House, UK, 2010

Landscape

 Landscape, with lots of water - Crater Lake, Oregon, May 2009

That's all for March, ready to turn in to April. Don't believe anything you hear tomorrow!

Val

Sight Unseen

I don't consider myself a very brave person. Where physical peril is involved I'm a bit of a wimp. But I have taken some leaps of faith in my life, and so far I'm still standing.

My latest leap of faith (with Mr. S) is buying a house in the UK - sight unseen.

No, that's not it, but ours is No. 4.

It's amazing what you can do on the internet. Mr. S spent a lot of time looking for houses within a certain radius of the town where his children live, and as he kept looking he noticed prices kept going up. We decided we had better get something before we couldn't afford anything. So we bought an ordinary (affordable) house in mid-Wales, sight unseen, in a location we've never been to! We'll be living in a tiny hamlet, just down the road from a small village, which is just down the road from a small town, which is just down the road from the English border.

No, that's not our house, either. I don't want to give the exact location because of the paparazzi and all that, you know.

Using the magic of the internet, we've driven down our road on Google Street View, we've "visited" the local pub (dating from 1310) and even met our neighbor! He's a painter/handyman and has his business listed at his address. That shows up on Google maps, so Mr. S gave him a call and talked to him before we bought the house. The neighbor (I'll start using British spelling once we've moved) had already been cutting the grass and looking after the house while it was empty, so after we bought it we made arrangements for him to continue. He's been so helpful, checking the mail for us and doing a few repairs. Since the house is sitting empty for several months, this has been an even greater asset than having two bathrooms!

Just down the road is Lake Vyrnwy (pronounced 'vern-wee), which you can see here in The Telegraph's article of Britain's Best Lakes. I tried to download some copyright-free photos, but my computer said no, so I hope you'll follow the link and see how stunning the lake is. More photos and history here from a local B&B.

It'll be so fun exploring the area. I'm already following some local businesses on Facebook, so I know what soup the nearest deli is making and what's on at the winery. Yes, an English winery!

Nope, that's not the place either. These photos were taken by me in 2012, and as I said, I've never been to my new home before!

Val

Flux

Have you noticed how time is, yes it is, going faster all the time? When you were 7 years old, one year was one-seventh of your life. When you're 59, a year is one-fiftyninth of your life. The years are scientifically shorter as you get older! Yikes!

As I'm on the cusp of a major life change and moving to another country - for the last time - I can't help but think about the passage of time and my passage through places on this earth. I'm thinking about how the years seem to have disappeared in ordinary days of work and watching TV. I'm wondering what my future life in Great Britain holds and how much the country has changed since I last lived there. And I'm still wondering why the British don't rinse the soap off their dishes.

pondering, 2010

When I started blogging a few years ago, I joined in with other 40+ and 50+ fashion bloggers, taking selfies and trying out new outfits. I had just bought some new clothes and cut my boring bob, I was ready to take the plunge, so I started blogging at Late Blooming Sparkle.

 

January 2013

People who knew me were surprised that I was suddenly taking an interest in fashion, and many of my friends and acquaintances still don't know I blog because I've felt self-conscious about it.

March 2013

I had fun trying new things, writing up silly posts and taking photos, but it wasn't really me.

September 2013

I'm impressed, though, by the camaraderie and wide network of lovely women worldwide who keep up with each other's blogs, offering encouragement and advice and humor. I don't want to give that up, but I have cut down on my blog-reading lately.

March 2014

I decided to blog as Muse Fondue to widen the scope of my blog. Now I'm more likely to post about crafts or my attempts at photography. I love to get lost in creating little things, mostly dioramas in tins. I know that's a pretty narrow-interest niche, but it's my narrow-interest niche.

my latest, sort of an experimental piece

tiny railroad model figures on a bench with a Parisian background

For the next few months, I'll also blog about the changes in my life. I don't want to bore you with stories of cleaning door jambs or sorting through old socks. I plan to write about some of the profound but universal stuff churned up in such a major change: looking at past and future, learning to change compass points in life, and saying meaningful goodbyes to people and places, maybe for the last time.

with my mom and cousins in Florence, Oregon, 2013

Whew, got myself choked up there.

Anyway, thank you for your lovely felicitations on my last post about my 20th wedding anniversary. I hope you'll keep reading about my wild ride!

Val