Musings

While I'm not really doing a year in review, I am giving up a few photos from the last couple of months of 2007. This was the view from our hotel window in Beckley, West Virginia, back in November when we travelled to Hilton Head. I just loved the rich variety of colour still glowing even that late in the season, and the early morning mist makes it look like I used some kind of a filter, which I didn't being not that great a photographer.

Here is the picture of my lovely piano sitting in our former living room. I had snapped this to accompany my email to friends and family of things I had to sell before the move.


And here is the same piano, same picture in our new condo. Oh, I had a buyer for the piano but a couple of weeks before the move my husband heard me playing and told me later we just had to keep that piano. I'm not sure which gives me more pleasure--knowing that my husband sensed the great loss I would feel when the piano left my life, or actually still having my beloved piano which I stripped and refinished when I was pregnant with Beth, oh so many years ago.

Back on the beach at Grande Ocean, Hilton Head, I was captivated by this forlorn chair left facing the sunset, empty in the cold, as though bracing for the long night to come.

In Sea Pines once more I crept close to this bird who seemed in a bit of a tizzy but never flew off.

He is on the edge of a lovely lake so rich in swampy stuff it looks like land in these shots. Nature is fascinating. How can my eyes see one thing and the picture show something else?

Today the sun is shining and all our snow has gone except for the old dirty pile across the street from my window. I look forward to the day when the large dumpsters that the construction guys have parked will be taken away and we'll just have a lovely little park to look at.

And here is the same view a few short days ago. The temperature soared to about 10 Celsius above freezing and all our lovely snow melted away.

Never mind. More is coming.

Our New Home

Today, my readers, I am giving you some pictures of our new place, and I hope you enjoy the visit. Of course those of you nearby should just get yourselves over and see us (and the digs) for yourselves!
Right outside our condo is this beautiful light standard, a beacon for friends to follow and find us. And we are the end condo so we have lots of yard where our future grandchildren can play safely behind the brick wall and the lovely shrubs.


Our back deck looks up the most beautiful street of very lovely homes. I tell everyone we live in the 'row housing'--poor cousins of these single family palaces.

Here is another view of the same street:

Inside we have the largest clothes closet we've ever had, a walk-in with room for all my shoes on wonderful sloped shelves I found a couple of months ago and just kept boxed till we finally moved here. I am proud to say today there are no more boxes waiting patiently for unpacking so the carpeted floor is clear. What luxury!

And, yes, this is my new office, a lovely airy space facing west and beautifully lit with the setting sun. We almost need to put a couple of easy chairs in here just to watch the day end, it is so stunning.

On one wall I have my keyboard watched over by one of my framed photos of Hilton Head.

Here is the piece de resistance where all my work (and play) takes place. Here I write, I upload photos, I reconcile my bank accounts, I compose music on my software, and--oh, I hate to admit it!--I play computer games to while away empty moments. You can see I still have some photos to hang and a box to finish emptying but really most everything is in its rightful place in the whole condo. I do like order.

I hope soon to have a great announcement of a secret project on which I have been working since last April. This is where I do it. Stay tuned for its birth!