Yeah. I'm Still Here

So my last post was three months ago, and I just re-read it, and I said something about not posting for a month (at that time) and how I hoped it wouldn't be that long in between again. Obviously I did not meet that goal.

So lots of changes since that last post. I moved out of my brother's old house, where I had lived for almost 18 years. The open house and all of that happened after I left. I'm sure that it sold, but I don't know any of the details. I know that I made a big mistake letting my curiosity get the better of me, and looking at the pictures of the house when it listed. Either my former sister in law, or the horrible real estate agent, made the decision to paint all of the beautiful natural wood cabinets and window trim in the kitchen, that I so loved, and by the way, my brother picked out, WHITE! I wanted to cry and throw up simultaneously when I saw it.

My new home has lots of wood, in fact the entire interior is real wood paneling. "Wood Jerry. Wood". (Channeling a little Seinfeld there). I was able to dig up a few clumps of Day Lilies and my Hydrangea from the house before I left. I am really bumped that I just didn't have the time and energy to dig up the rose bush in the back or the Lilac that I had planted over 10 years ago.

The backyard and some Poor Man's Orchids

 The day lilies transplanted well, and even though I didn't have any expectations for blooms this year, they did, and were beautiful! The hydrangea too. I also was gifted some Crocosmia Lucifer from Jo out of her garden, along with some Astrantia. The Astrantia is blooming right now. I also bought a few more Crocosmia at Kent's across the street and one from Haggen that is blooming right now. I was pretty excited two nights ago, because there was a Humming Bird around the Crocosmia in the evening.


I didn't let the cats out for the entire first month, and they tolerated that a lot better than I thought they might. They have since gone out supervised and done pretty well. I still have things that are not in their final place because I need to figure out some additional shelving in the living room to get stuff up and off the floor. I decided not to give myself some grace time on that, but my goal is to have it together by Christmas because I would like to host the Cookie Party here with the gang if I can swing it.























I still go on Colossal.com all the time, and today there was a post that I highly encourage you to check out if you like Van Gogh. Someone on Reddit that has the user name Melonshade has uploaded digital images of Some of Van Gogh's paintings into Photoshop and then altered them to look like Tilt-Shift photos and they are so cool! Check it out.

Happy Easter 2016

Happy Easter!

Of course I saw this video on Colossal.com, where I find everything cool. The video is from Jiri Zemanek, check it out, it's a lot of fun!

Egg courtesy of Babs

So this month has been a bit crazy, and I realized just how crazy when I looked and saw that my last post was over a month ago. By this time next week I will be in a new home. Still renting; the house is not new, but it's new to me.

My sister in law messaged me on a Tuesday asking if I could be home to show the house to three realtors on Saturday, and it's been a whirlwind ever since. It's been a bumpy ride, and I was originally under the gun to get things ready for an open house on the 26th, but thankfully due to circumstances with things that had to be repaired before it could be shown, all of that will be happening in April.

The biggest surprise was that I was able to find a place to move to fairly quickly, and I can have the cats. HUGE thanks go to my boss Kelly for helping me find it. It was probably a good thing that I made a big push at the beginning of the month to get things packed and into a storage unit and out of the house so I am not doing all of it at once.

I am doing better than I thought at looking forward and not looking back too much. For as many things that frustrated me here over the years, there are still things I liked about this house. There are pros and cons to everything it seems like, but I am going to make the best of it.

I am going to miss the hens from next door. It was really funny - Friday when I came home from work I found an egg on the front porch. I took it over to Teggart and we were pretty sure it was from Babs, the little Bantam, and my favorite. He gave me an egg from one of the other hens, and I made an omelette for breakfast yesterday. Then in the afternoon she laid another one on my porch! It was just as perfect and small as the first one, so I knew for sure it was her.

Breakfast!

The other funny thing from this weekend was yesterday morning when my friend Jo and I came back from taking a load out to the new place and saw this garage sale sign taped to the light post across from Haggen on Meridian. It reads "Our crap, could be your crap!" Jo spotted it first, and we both cracked up! Big thanks go to Jo for emailing me two Saturday's in a row asking if I wanted some help, because I still feel too guilty and awkward asking for it.

Our crap, could be your crap!

I always knew I had a lot of stuff, but having to pack it up and move it just confirms it! So this next week is going to be crazy, and by the end of the day next Sunday I should be completely out of the house on Queen St. and into the new place. Hopefully it won't be another month before I post again, but I know I will be busy unpacking and figuring out where everything goes!

Ice Stacking on Lake Superior

This is mesmerizing. It was filmed along the shores of Lake Superior near Duluth Minnesota by Dawn M. La Pointe, Radiant Spirit Gallery. 

Real Estate

So this week everything just got real. Tuesday my sister in law Cindy messaged me that she wanted to know when I would be available for a few realtors to walk through the house.

Yesterday morning realtors from three different agencies came to the house. I was reminded of the experience of buying a car for the first time with my dad guiding me. He taught me how to tell who wants to work with you and who doesn't. It turns out the husband and wife that first arrived were the ones that Cindy has chosen or vice versa, because I honestly don't know exactly how that goes. But they asked the most questions and to me that's a sign of interest.

At the end of their visit I realized this whole situation is going to be more involved than I thought - and I really wish I had found a new place to live already so I don't have to deal with it. I have zero desire or intention to let people enter my home while I'm away at work. It's a scary prospect for the safety of my cats and my privacy.

I'm also facing a rental market and system for finding a place that is vastly different than it was 20 years ago. The last time I had to look for a place was that long ago, when I moved to the apartment in Ferndale. I was there two years I think,  when my brother Mark asked me to move into his house. He and Cindy were finally moving in together in Seattle, and he didn't want to sell his house.

Back then everything was in the newspaper, now most of it is online - but not all of it. I'm unfortunately finding that the small apartment units that are rented by the owner are not online, not even on Craigslist. Pretty much all of the larger rental companies have a two pet limit - so I'm screwed. I don't even have a car to live out of. ...

So hey, let me know if you see anything!

The Color of Winter

I have exactly two blooms on my red Christmas Cactus - love that little extra this time of year. My pink Geranium is also blooming; I can't remember if it's the first or second year that I've wintered this particular plant inside.