The Tale of the Maiden and her Sailor

 There once was a maid and her sailor.
They were soon to be wed, yessiree.
The sailor was tall, dark, and handsome;
The maid was as fair as could be.

The sailor, he left bright and early
For the church that beautiful morn,
But he soon was a-sittin’, not movin’,
With a tire that was tattered and torn.

Well….
He tried and he tried to keep movin’ along,
’Cause to persevere seemed like the norm.
But two, three, and four flat tires later,
He still hadn’t weathered the storm.

I s’pose you all may be wond’rin’
What our fair maid was thinkin’ that day,
When the clock, it struck one—two—and then THREEEEE!!!
And the wedding-time comin’ their way.

“Oh dear, will he make it here safely?”
Our fair young maiden did sigh.
But she knew what to do with her problem,
And she prayed to her Father On High:

“Lord….
“I’m gettin’ married here this evening—
Oh, how the candles, they will shine!
I'm gettin’ married, and
There’s no denyin’
My nerves are fryin’!
So get him to the church—
Oh, please, just get him to the church on time!”

His sailor-friends left to go hitch-hike,
But his best man, he stayed with him fast;
And six, maybe SEVEN FLAT TIRES later…
He got to the church at last!

~“The Sailor’s Story” Copyright ©2004 Kerry Goodwill (condensed)

~*~

The above is an excerpt from the song my mother wrote (which she, Peter, and I performed) for my grandparents’ 60^th wedding anniversary back in ’04. While it takes a few creative liberties, it tells the humorous tale, in a nutshell, of the trials my grandfather went through to get to his wedding.

 The year was 1944. World War Two was still raging, but that didn’t stop Frank Goodwill and Lois Ream (my grandparents) from falling in love and deciding to spend the rest of their lives together. The wedding was set for the evening of September 9^th, at the church in Monterrey Park, California, Grandma’s hometown at the time.

The wedding party. Love Grandpa's smile!
Pretty sure the bridesmaids in matching dresses (far right) are Grandma's sisters
Betty and Margie. No clue who the other people are, LOL.

Although Grandpa only lived a relatively short distance away (by car), it took him all day to arrive, as the tires on his car kept blowing out. This being wartime, and tires being rationed, he had to borrow ration cards from his sailor buddies traveling with him seven times during the course of his journey. As the song indicated, all but his best man eventually decided it would be faster to hitch-hike to the wedding venue.

Grandpa arrived at the church only a few minutes late—which Grandma actually didn’t notice, being so caught up in wedding what-nots.

She wore a handmade gown of satin brocade, and non-rationed canvass sandals. Grandpa of course wore his Navy uniform.

That look of anticipation isn't just Grandpa's love of sweets--
he hadn't eaten all day, so he was genuinely hungry!

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know we visited the old family home back in August of this year, during which time we found Grandma’s vintage wedding gown and Grandpa’s uniform in an old trunk in the attic. Sadly, neither Peter nor I can fit into them, otherwise I’d have talked him into doing a photoshoot, LOL.

I did model Grandma’s dress back in 2000, as part of a fashion show for a mother-daughter banquet at her church at the time. It fit my fifteen-year-old self just about perfectly, apart from being a bit loose in the bodice and too long in the skirt.

All the "brides"! The ladies wore their own wedding gowns,
and most of the girls (barring the flower-girl at center) wore their grandmothers'.
Yours truly second to right (still not sure how I ended up with the biggest bouquet, LOL).
My Mom at far right, moddling her 1981 homemade wedding gown.

Grandpa took one look at me, then turned to Grandma and asked, “Was you really that skinny when I married you?”
Thanks, Grandpa. :-P

My grandparents were married over seventy years, until the Lord took Grandpa to his Long Home in November of 2016, at the ripe old age of ninety-seven. Grandma joined him three years later, shortly after her ninety-third birthday. They raised three sons, endured several hardships, and enjoyed many fun times camping and celebrating special events together. While their marriage was far from perfect or ideal, they were committed to God and to one another, and that is a strong testimony in this day and age.

I thank God for their commitment, and for the fact that we now have tangible reminders of it in the form of Grandma’s gown and Grandpa’s uniform. I thank Him, too, that they are now reunited, and praising their Savior together, for all eternity.

~*~

Until next time, Gentle Readers,
God bless,

~ℛ~

 

Passing the Torch

This post is in honor of my faithful mascot, Booffy Bear, who has been my near-constant companion since I was a year old, and may have been one of my first teddy bears (if not very first).

With bestie Baby Curly, circa 2008

He’s seen a lot of life, has Booffy—everything from tree-climbing to swimming to camping trips...and he once got hung up on a telephone wire, but that’s another story....

It’s kind of amazing he’s lasted as long as he has, really. Not that I was especially rough with him, mind you...but like I said, he’s had some Adventures in the thirty-three years he’s lived with me (what he did in the ten years before that, I have no clue, and he doesn’t remember). But it has begun to take its toll on him.

The mortality of inanimate objects was first brought home to me in 2002, when I discovered a small hole on one of his paws during our Summer vacation that year. I think there was another incident a few years ago, too. And then in June of this year, I found several small holes in three places on Booffy’s back, and a weak spot along one arm seam almost an inch long. Thankfully, I was able to do more emergency surgery...but it was rather traumatic for both of us.

You know the scene in Toy Story 2 when Andy’s mom tells him, “Toys don’t last forever”? And when the cleaner cautions Big Al, “You handle him too much, he’s not gonna last”? That’s what immediately came into my head at the time.

With Lucy, after her reconstructive surgery,
October 2012

That day, I realized how temporary material things are, and it shook me up, to be honest. Because my little buddy-bear isn’t just a thing to me. He’s my best friend, my constant companion, my confidante. He’s been a source of comfort when I was sad or lonely. He’s stayed with me when all my other friends left. He’s family.

But I knew the damage he’s beginning to suffer would only get worse as the years go by. I knew I’d have to “shelve” him for good—put him on display along with my other vintage toys—and not handle him any more than necessary, if I was to preserve him.

It popped into my head to find a replacement—another bear of this sort, but in good condition. Theoretically, the new bear would perhaps last another thirty years before needing repairs...possibly more, since I’d be considerably gentler with him than I was with Booffy, LOL. A few searches on eBay yielded several likely candidates...but my two drops of Scotch blood balked at the prices people were asking.

Fast-forward to October 11 of this year. Mom suggested a trip to the local Goodwill, which I’m always up for. I usually poke around the toy section these days, in case they have any Beanie Babies to add to my collection. That day, they had a “Booffy clone”—in great shape for something made in 1976—for 99 cents.

Um, YES, PLEASE!!! 😊

It was totally a God-thing.

It's a bit unreal to think that Booffy
once looked like this....

So now I can let Booffy go into retirement with a full heart, knowing he’ll be safe from any further damage, and that I still have a faithful mascot to keep me company. I thank God for once again showing me His love in the little things—things that, admittedly, are probably very silly to the rest of the world, but are deeply important to me.

I don’t know what to name my new companion yet—I tend to call him “Boof” or “Buddy-bear” when I call him anything at all, but I have a few ideas:

~Buddy

~Boffin

~Booffy 2.0

~Bingly

~Bradley

I’ll update this post when I’ve settled on a name. *UPDATE* Decided on Booffy 2.0 (or Booffy2), since that's how I think of him.

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

~ℛ~

Christmas at the Town House

This will be our first Christmas in our new home, and overall, the Christmas Season has been good this year. There have been some hard times, feelings of “bah humbug” and “all the magic of Christmas is gone!” but there have been some blessings tucked here and there.

[And I was going to post a pic of the new house with its new paint-job here, but apparently I haven't uploaded it from Mr. Phonie yet....☹]

We hosted a dinner party in the middle of the month with our Monday night Bible study group and had a blast. Everyone brought something to share, and everything was delicious!

The Bells of Grants Pass performed three times this month, the last “gig” earning us a new member—a young fellow who played handbells in college and learned some advanced techniques. Hallelujah!

It’s become a tradition in our family to see the live annual performance of the Nutcracker Ballet, and this year was no exception. They mayn’t have the best technique or choreography, but it’s still a good show, and it’s always fun to see what new things they add each year.

Speaking of which, our Nutcracker collection has mushroomed in the last few months. This has seriously been the Year of the Nutcracker for us, LOL. I’ve actually toyed (oops, my Cat Noir is showing 😊) with doing a Nutcracker Advent blog series like Kendra did a few years back....

This year, we joined up with a fellow member of the Bells of Grants Pass and her friend to form a recorder quintet. Despite some setbacks and scheduling what-nots, we were able to play some Christmas carols for a open house at one of the historic houses in town.

Clockwise from left: Sylvia & yours truly on Soprano,
Mom on Bass, Peter on Tenor, Ellen on Alto

I must say, I didn’t realize how much I missed playing my recorder until we started this group. Hopefully we can keep it up and do some of the Baroque and Renaissance music we looked at intitally. ’Cos that’s my music Happy Place. 😊

Anyroad, here’s wishing all my Gentle Readers—and anyone who happens to stumble onto my wee corner of the Blogosphere—a very Merry Christmas, a Blessed New Year, and much, much Joy!

God bless,

~ℛ~

Goal-setting

With the New Year comes hope—hope that 2017 will be better than 2016, which was a rough year for us…especially December, since we were dealing with my Grandpa’s passing on November 30^th on top of all the other stress and over-commitment that was our Christmas season. -_-

Hope that the Good Lord will fill in the “missing pieces” in my family’s lives.

Hope that He will resolve some conflicts and frustrations that are blocking us from moving on and having some joy.

Hope that I’ll do better at reaching the goals I’ve set than I did last year. :-P I’m not going to go back through my list and count all the goals I didn’t meet—that’s too depressing. Instead, I’ll make a new list and pray for God’s strength and perseverance to complete it!

~Goals for 2017~

·        Organize. All. The. THINGS!!! Sorting and culling. Finding a place for everything from bed sheets to beading supplies. Ridding myself of things I don’t need or even want anymore (except a few special keepsakes, of course). Simplifying and streamlining my personal space.

·        Build my Dream Dollhouse. This has been a dream of mine for twenty-three years, and after a lot of second-guessing, confused praying, and almost physically painful waffling, I’ve decided that yes, this is something I want—something I almost need—to do. It’s time to stop dreaming, hoping, and waiting—and start DOING!
Also under this category: Doll-making. Deciding which of my numerous dolls/kits will have the privilege of living in the Dollhouse.

·        Writing! Main goal: Finish Prince Nácil. Before the family lock me up in the Tower of Ecthelion with nothing but bread and water, LOL. Also fine-tune and polish up some details for the rest of the House of Othniel/Main Series, the “spin-offs,” and work on that Blog Party I want to host someday.

·        Bethlehem Bazaar. This is a scheme Mom and I (mostly Mom) cooked up, due to the sad lack of much of anything Christ-centered at the local Christmas Bazaars. We’re talking with other church-folk in the community, and getting ideas for things to make that will focus on the Birth of Jesus. Mind you, not EVERYTHING will HAVE to be Christian-oriented; my contributions will mainly be crocheted hats (inspired by this pattern, with tweaks, of course), teddy bears that are safe even for babies, perhaps some Irish crochet hair ornaments, and of course my Wild Rose Designs jewelry.

·        General Good Habits. Things like being more cheerful/focusing on the positive, drinking more water, getting some form of regular exercise, being more regular with my Bible reading and contacting friends, going to bed and getting up at a decent hour—that sort of thing.

·        Taking Time for FUN! Spending less time on the computer [read: surfing the Internet] and more time doing things I used to love, like reading, yarnwork, embroidery, drawing, sculpting (polymer clay), miniatures, writing. Putting time slots in my schedule for those things and giving myself permission to do them. Convincing myself that my interests and hobbies are VALID.

I have a few fun craft projects I’d love to do this year, too, but I’ll share those as they progress (or I finish them). That way, if I don’t get to some of them (or I decide not to do them), it’ll be less awkward. :-P

I’m oddly hopeful about this year. Perhaps, please God, this will be the year when things start to settle into place. The year we can start thriving and blooming where God has planted us.

Maybe this is the year I’ll actually do something instead of just dreaming about it. ;-)

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

~R~

A Christmas Prayer

Life is busy. So often the dull, mundane, grown-up things pile up, leaving us no time or energy for what's really important...like blogging and keeping in contact with friends. December is especially busy, with parties and church activities and other fun what-nots, and of course Christmas shopping for loves ones. But as Christians, we need to take time to be still, to remember the Reason we celebrate this special Season, and give thanks to God for making a way for us to be with Him forever.
And so, Gentle Readers, I leave you with this delightful poem, written by my mother many years ago, that beautifully illustrates this mindset. Enjoy!

At this lovely time of year
When festive is our way,
Help us remember You, Dear Lord,
And what took place this day.

When carols gay fill all the air,
May we sing of Your birth
And thank the Father up above
Who sent You to this earth.

Praise to the Father and the Son
Who came down on this day;
A Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes
With no bed but the hay.

When we see lights twinkling so bright
Upon the Christmas tree,
Help us remember that one star
That shone so bright for Thee,

To guide the wise men from afar
And shepherds in the fields.
May we allow Your Light to shine,
In us Your love reveal.

And thought the tree is pretty now,
It soon will fade and die,
Reminding us of that harsh cross
You hung on in the sky.

And when we wrap each special gift
For loved ones young and old,
Help us remember frankincense,
The sweet myrrh, and the gold.

And yes, the greatest Gift of all—
The Gift of love You gave,
To live and grow in all our hearts,
Our sinful souls to save.

Please help us keep You in our lives
As we go on our way
Through all the busyness and fun
The joyful Christmas Day.

© Kerry Goodwill
7/22/88
(Used by special permission)

Have a very Merry Christmas, and a Blessed New Year!
God bless, and much love,
~R~
(And the Peanut Gallery ;-))

Class of 2016

Today, my "baby brother" graduated from Rogue Community College.

Pictured with his Outstanding Student Award
('cos he didn't have his diploma yet when we took the pic)

It has been a long, grueling three years since he took that big step and made the decision to earn his AA, but God has been faithful to uphold him (even when being run through the meat-grinder that was that first year at North Idaho College--OY!), and He has brought him to this point.

 The college presented him with their Outstanding Student Award this Spring for his nearly-perfect 4.0 grade average and good attitude and work ethic. And considering his Electronic Engineering professor has only had nine students with that GPA since the 1990s till now...oops, there go my buttons again.... :-D

Congratulations, Peter! Mom and I are so proud of you!

Life at Longacre, Part Two

~Inside Longacre House~

Gentle Readers, please forgive how long it’s taken me to get this posted. I honestly didn’t mean for the delay to be this long, but like the man said, “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” :-P Plus we sold some of our furniture and bought a few new pieces, so all the pictures I’d taken were obsolete and I had to take new ones! AAH!

But they’re all taken, and now that choir concerts and Easter cantatas and festivities are over, I have some free time to finish my virtual tour of Longacre. So pull up a chair and enjoy! (And don't forget to click on the pix to enlarge!)

* * *

Well, now that I’ve given you a look about the accessible grounds, it’s time to head back up the hill for a tour of Longacre House.

I feel I should mention here, first, that our settling on this house, out of all the homes we looked at, was totally a God-thing. I’ve never seen His hand at work so transparently, so blatantly obvious. We looked at several other places, but one by one, God eliminated them. They were either too old and run down, too close to the road…or too both. This one, while it initially wasn’t my first choice, was the only one that was well-kept and livable (apart from a strong cat-odor in the carpet), and wonder of wonders, the price was right in our budget, even though we took a loss on the sale of Prairie Cottage! Awesome! :-D And just for the record, my “But I don’t want this place” feelings vanished on Moving Day, and all at once it just felt like home…even amid the chaos that is moving in. :-)

 

Peter did an amazing job of packing the moving van

Built in 1972, what is now Longacre House is actually a mobile/manufactured home (which is partly why it was such a steal) that the former owners used as a sort of Summer home. It had already been updated with double-pane windows, a heat-pump (which kept us nice and cool in the Summer and warm when the weather turned cooler), as well as a new coat of paint inside and out, and some laminate and linoleum flooring. We ripped out the ginormous carpet in the main part of the house (with the help of some old friends from California, who dropped in just eight days after Moving Day, to help us out), and Peter installed laminate flooring to match what was already in the house. Our California friends bought him a chop-saw and the right kind of blade for laminate flooring, to make the installation easier.

Peter likes his new "toy"!

Installing the floorboards

But here I am, yacking away about the house, when you’re likely champing at the bit to see the pictures. So then, let’s take a look about, shall we?

 Front entry and porch, seen from the High Road. The former owners had a dog, so they rigged this sturdy gate to keep it on the porch. This Spring, we were delighted to discover Spanish bluebells...

Pix don't do them justice

(and one lone "pinkbell" :-))

 tulips and narcissus...

 in the attempt at flower beds by the crumbling cement pathway, as well as some culinary herbs, California poppies, crocuses, and a rose that say clearly, “We’re not dead yet!”

The PORCH! I still can’t get over how big this is! Who wants to come over for a barbecue? :-D

And now, do come in the house itself and have a look-see!

The plaque, depicting "The Last Supper," was
a housewarming gift from "Aunt" Patty
when we moved to Idaho

Entry, seen from the front door. Here’s where guests can sit and remove their shoes if they wish. This piece of furniture is actually a TV stand, and we still keep our DVD collection in it. Please excuse that ugly strip of unpainted paneling…and get used to the sight from now on, because the former owners left some of the funky ’70s paneling unpainted, and we did some remodeling and haven’t had time to paint. That’s a project for this Summer (Lord willing).

Entry (by the door) and hallway, with a glimpse of Peter’s room. The original third bedroom had been converted into a den at some point, so we hired an excellent handyman (recommended by Aunt Betty) to frame it in again. Poor Peter had to sleep in the living room for several weeks during construction (quoth he, “My room kinda doesn’t exist yet”). Some in-progress photos:

 

Peter ripping out the countertop and mini-sink (???)

...with some "help" from Mister Licorice

Framed in!

 Due to limited space, our handyman installed a cool pocket-door (which you can see in the entry photo above). 

Peter put up the massive computer desk and abundant shelving himself, including the ones in the new closet (“Shelves in the closet—happy thought indeed.”)

All of which the cats heartily approve :-))

Further down the hall is the abode of one Tom Wild Rose. :-) 

Thanks to my mom for making this composite image!

 I’m loving the soothing aqua/pale-blue color they painted it, as it fits the feel of my French Provincial furniture. You’ll note that I left off the “unicorn horn” bits of my bedposts (seen here); they just felt too grand, too imposing…presumptuous, even. The simplified look fits the feel of the room better, IMHO.

The window beside the bed faces East, and it’ll be perfect for hanging my prism collection in…once I figure out how to attach them to the blinds….

The closet! Oh, I am so happy about this! One thing I’ve missed these past five years in Idaho is all the storage I had in California, so I'm thrilled to have a real closet again, plus the two cupboards and drawers for craft books and beading supplies. As you can see, the former owners didn’t bother to paint this wall, but hopefully we can find some more of this color next year….

And now, let’s see the rest of the house, wot?

Living room (seen from the entry). Behind the wing-chair are the book closet...

and my jewelry bench, where I use my God-given talents to create unique beaded jewelry. :-)

Living room, seen from jewelry bench

 The lovely oak corner armoire holds the TV, VCR and DVD player, as well as some larger game-boards that wouldn’t fit with our other games. Like the arbor-seat outside, this came with the house, and we were so thrilled! 

Living/dining room, seen from entry

 This house was listed as being 1380 square feet, but after being cramped in the barely-1000sf Prairie Cottage for five years (and the even smaller hotel room for four days before Moving Day), it looks way bigger! We’re loving the spacious, open living room and looking forward to having people over to visit.

Mom’s new piano. We were NOT of the mind to haul our old one down from North Idaho, LOL. Mom bought this one from a local fellow who says it was probably built in the ’60s. It has a much nicer, less “crassy” tone than the other one.

And obviously it has the Mister Licorice stamp of approval! :-P

The Dining Room. Our friends from California helped us replace the ugly, ’70’s-does-Medieval hanging lamp with a much nicer one during their visit. It’s also much safer for people who happen to be over five-foot-nothin’ (which is pretty much everyone of our acquaintance, LOL).

The wall behind the table houses a built-in china hutch and used to have funky, gold-streaked mirror-panels. As you can see, we’ve replaced them with cherished family heirlooms—in fact, pretty much everything displayed in or on the hutch is an heirloom, and they all have a story.

Across from that is the new plant shelf we built to house some African violets and a maidenhair fern. We’ve missed having house-plants!

Behind that is what we call the Kitty Kastle. You know those scratch-posts they sell for cats, with shelves for Kitty to nap on and tunnels to explore, all covered in carpet? That’s what this is, on steroids! 
There was an old-as-dirt woodstove in this corner, but because it was so old, it couldn’t be certified, so we wouldn’t have been able to use it. The former owners left us the name of a fellow who hauls off metal and stuff for scrap, so we had him take the old stove off our hands. And because we live in a rural area where there are possibly predators (and neighbors with dogs), we decided our cats will be indoor-only cats…which meant they needed something to sharpen their claws on. So, with the help of Aunt Betty and Cousin Brenda, we built this!

The Kitchen. While not as big or efficient as the one at Prairie Cottage (there’s also no possibility of making it so, either), it serves us well enough and has one thing the other kitchen didn’t—a pantry!

Enclosed and shelved by our handyman;
door hung and racks installed by Peter :-D

Mom’s room. I still can’t get over how big this room is! As you can see, it’s plenty spacious enough for typical bedroom furniture, plus a nice custom-built computer desk. 

(The desk was originally under the matching shelf, but that arrangement didn’t work, so we rearranged things, and the room is much better organized now.)

So that’s pretty much it. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little snippet of life in the G family household. Thanks for stopping by!

(For the record, I don’t think I’ll do any more Real Life posts. Life happens so fast—changes before I can finish writing my post. So if y’all want to know what’s going on with me, just shoot me an e-mail at tomwildrose@gmail.com…or better yet, drop by for a visit! You can also follow me on Etsy and Pinterest.

From now on, I’d like this blog to focus on my writing (be prepared for interruptions by the Peanut Gallery!), and I’ll probably be posting pix of my jewelry in shameless self-promotion every now and again. :-P 

Until next time, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

~“Tom”~

Life at Longacre, Part One

~A Virtual Tour of our Oregon Residence~
(Click on the photos to enlarge)

Hail and well-met, Gentle Readers! I’m popping back into the Blogosphere to give you a peek at the new home God led my family to in Southern Oregon last Summer. The pictures were taken in Fall, but due to Moving Madness™, Real Life and my infernal tendency to procrastination, I’m just now getting around to posting this. >Le Sigh<

Anyway, I call our new home Longacre because it’s set on 1.88 acres, but since it’s only ninety feet wide, it extends quite a ways up the hill—possibly half a mile. The name has a slightly Native American flavor to it, although a friend told me it sounds like something out of Jane Austen, too. Cool!

Our new home!

Our tour begins at the road we take to get home—a relatively quiet country road in a hilly, wooded area of Southern Oregon, with gorgeous views of nearby mountains, just a stone’s throw away from two of the three local rivers. As you can see from the picture, there are several trees (TREES!!!) on and around the property, many of them oaks (which don’t grow in Idaho and were sorely missed). The little building in the lower-left corner is the well-house, which not only supplies us with all our water, but with its bright-yellow sunburst decoration, makes a good landmark for friends to find us!

The Orchard

OUCH!!!
(How is this tree even still alive?!)

Further up the hill are the remains of an orchard. We think there are English and black walnut, apple, plum and apricot trees here. I say “remains” because many of the poor trees have problems (the apricots having hardly any wood left on their trunks--see pic at right), so none of them are very healthy. We may end up just putting them out of their misery *cue chainsaw noises* and start over…if we decide we can handle growing fruit.

The Meadow

The Pear Tree

Beyond the Orchard is the Meadow…a small meadow, with a baby willow tree growing in the center. There are also wild roses in one place, :-D and a pear tree at the far edge of the meadow (that bright green one under the golden trees in the upper-right)…which consequently is the healthiest fruit tree at this end of the property. We didn’t get many pears last year because the crows and ravens stole them all….

     

It's hard to tell in the photo, but the High Road (at right) is actually a little steeper than it looks

The driveway splits at this point into what I call the High Road and the Low Road (but unfortunately, neither of them lead to Scotland :-P). The High Road is lined by struggling members of the juniper or cypress family, with creeping juniper and young madrone saplings at their feet. If the trees were healthier, they’d lend a rather grand “manor-house” feel to our humble home, wot?

It ain't fancy, but it's home!

And now we get a better view of Longacre House itself. Note the big, spacious front porch (twice the size of the one at Prairie Cottage) and the lovely, soothing sage-green color the former owners painted it. There are the remains of some flower beds and an herb garden, and a wisteria vine at the left-hand corner (which went bye-bye in late-Fall because we’re all so allergic). The former owners had carpet laid out on the area in front of the house, to smother the weeds, and eventually we’ll probably spread some gravel and make this a parking area.

To our great delight, they left this lovely arbor-seat, and a grape-vine has already taken up residence on it. We’re really jazzed about this grape-vine because it’s a concord—and not just any concord; a highly-prized Dark Purple, to boot!—which means Lord willing we can find us another steamer, we can make homemade grape juice again!

This area has some real potential as a flower garden/thinking spot one day.

Shall we see what’s round the back of the house before we go inside?

"Two Point" (front) and "Three Point" (back)

Here’s the backyard…which obviously needs some TCL yet. But there’s a lot of potential! The little tree turning reddish is some kind of cherry (whether edible or ornamental, we’ll find out come Spring), and you can just make out the apple tree behind the blue spruce at the back of the lawn. We got some good apples off this tree, and what we didn’t eat, the local deer were more than happy to clean up (see picture).

A better shot of the back lawn, taken from about where the High Road connects with the Low Road. Yes, Gentle Readers, we have a circular driveway. *Ooh, vahz!* ;-)

The bushes to the left are rhododendrons and a camellia, with little dog-violets (yay!) at their feet, and some wild cyclamen from Aunt Betty nestled amongst them. I have to watch them carefully, otherwise these clowns will dig them up:

Turkey-turkey-turkey! (--turkey....)

*Ooh, vahz = An expression denoting something is high-class, or very proper. Usually uttered with dramatic sarcasm.

Source: A pronunciation of V-A-S-E, converted by Tasha L. (née H.) into an expression, which was adopted by our family in February 2012.

~Tom’s Dicionary of Whacked-out Terms and Old Family Sayings

The back acre. We were told there was a garden area back there, but now the wild blackberries have taken over. Peter thinks it won’t be too hard to reclaim, though…eventually.

Note the beautiful orangey-red vine maple at right. I don’t think we’ve ever had a maple tree before….

We have hiked up into the back woods a few times—earlier in the Fall before it started raining regularly—but I never got any pix. But Spring is coming, and they’ll be gorgeous when the oaks get their new leaves, and the madrones are in bloom. :-D

The Low Road. This shot gives you a feel for how the house is situated on the property. This one is prettier, however:

We’ll probably leave the creeping Saint John’s wart on the side of the hill to prevent erosion, but eventually we want to clear out what’s at the top of the hill and make some flower beds. You can’t really see them, but there are a couple sweet briars amongst the creeper! Rosehip tea, anyone?

Between the trees on the left, one can see the neighbors’ pond:

Late-October/early-November, 2014.
It's now twice that full with the Winter rains

  In Summer, this was nothing but a little scooped-out-looking hole in the hillside, where the deer sometimes rested under the shade of the trees. After the rains came, however, it quickly turned into a proper little pond. I call it the Naiad’s Looking-glass. :-) (Come Summer, however, it may become merely Deer Hollow when it dries up again.)

The Meadow and the Orchard, seen from the Low Road.

This is directly across the drive from the last shot. Mom and I have evil exciting plans for this site. Like terracing, some flowers, and steps leading from the Upper Level down to the Low Road and the Meadow….

Well, now we’ve come back around to the Y in the driveway, so that completes Part One of the tour. In Part Two, we’ll head back up the hill and see the inside of the house!

Until then, Gentle Readers,

God bless,

~“Tom”~