Sold, Closed, Moved!

It has been an exhausting week, but a very good one.  We got the keys to our rental home one week ago.  The only thing I did not like about it was that the driveway was in very poor condition, full of potholes.  I found out that it will be repaved soon.  While we were at the house, we looked out the window and saw some of our new neighbors!  There were two little speckled fawns with their mama lurking behind them in the woods.

That weekend, both of our sons and their wives and children spent the weekend with us in Wake Forest one more time.  They took load after load of boxes and stuff from our old house to the new one.  The three older grands had a ball playing in the woods and along the edge of the pond.  And, they were the first ones to try out the hot tub!

We had a moving truck come on Wednesday to get the furniture.  Everything did not fit in the truck, so Charlie and I made two more trips on Thursday to get the last of it and clean out the old house.  We put the dog in the kennel during the move.  I just don't think she would understand that we were letting these men take all our belongings!  She is acting anxious and clingy, but I think she will enjoy it here once she gets used to it.

Since then we have been unpacking and trying to find things.  Today I finished the kitchen and pantry, but still have not found our silverware (the stainless variety) or our knife set.  We got the TV and Internet set up today, so we are starting to enjoy the comforts of home.  Not to mention soaking in the hot tub at the end of the day.  

At our closing, the new owners said that they would take good care of our home.  Well, it is their home now.

And we are getting familiar with this one, and I think we will enjoy the woodsy yard and pond and privacy.  This was the view out of the sliding glass doors in our bedroom this morning.  We feel very lucky.

Of Dirndls, Deer, and Drama

When my husband was younger, he was first chair trombone at Grimsley High School in Greensboro.  He did not pursue being in the band at NCSU because it conflicted with the ROTC program.  However, when we had been married for a few years, he joined the Little German Band.  This volunteer group was started by staff members at N.C. State, and Charlie was working in the business office at the university.  We had some great times with the band, who played for free beer!  We traveled with the band to Germany and Austria in 1976.  I bought a dirndl in a beautiful lake village on St. Wolfgangsee, Austria.

Sometime during that wonderful European trip, we conceived our first son.  He was promptly nicknamed "Helmut" by the band members! 

Anyway, as I was de-cluttering and re-organizing my closet, I came across my dirndl.  I am sure I could not even zip it up any more, and have not worn it in many years.  Charlie quit the band when our boys were little, and only played once more when the band had a big anniversary re-union.  But, this costume holds very fond memories for me.

There is gorgeous hand embroidery work.

Look at the lavish amount of lace on the sleeves.

Anyway, I wanted to offer the costume to someone in the Little German Band or Dance Group.  I found a website with a contact e-mail address.  Soon I had an interested band member who wanted the dirndl.  Since she lives in Apex, she offered to send me a pre-paid UPS shipping label.  When I received it yesterday, I loaded up the package and the dog.  I figured we would go for a walk on the nearby greenway after shipping the box.  There is a UPS store a mile from my house, so I went trotting in...and found out that the label was from Fed Ex, not UPS!

I could not think of a Fed Ex location in Wake Forest, so I cruised through downtown and along Main Street.  No dice.

Then, I remembered my i-Phone.  Surely "Siri" could help me!

Have you met Siri?  She is the voice that allegedly helps you manage your life via the Internet, your calendars, contact lists, etc.  There is a commercial on TV where she forecasts the weather, finds a restaurant that delivers tomato soup, sets a reminder to clean house, and plays dance music.  All instantly.

Siri does not speak "Southern" very well.  The usual reply to my inquiries is "Sorry, I don't understand what you mean."  After about eight fruitless tries, she finally turned up three Fed Ex locations, all seven miles away or more.

So, Kasey and I drove to Raleigh and found the Fed Ex store, which my i-Phone told me was on the opposite side of US 1 from where it is actually located near the Best Buy store.

Mission accomplished.   Now, since we were in North Raleigh, maybe we could walk on a different greenway that we had never tried.

Siri reminded me that Camp Durant was just a few miles away.   This hidden-away jewel has a lake, a small wildlife zoo, and lots of trails.  It was the location of the Field Trip from Hell when I took my special education class there one year to walk the nature trail.  One of my little autistic students decided to walk in a swampy area, got his feet stuck in the mud, and guess who had to go pull him out.

I got him out, but one shoe and sock remained in the mud.

This did not sit well with the little fellow, who commenced a screaming fit while I retrieved the muddy footware, attempted to clean it off with a Kleenex, and tried to convince him to put it back on. 

Oh yes, and two of the other boys got in a fight on the trail, and the little girl petrified of bees had to be practically dragged along the path.

Anyway, I saw that there was a greenway trail head on Camp Durant Road, so we tried that first.  It was very shady and inviting.

It also followed alongside a creek that was strewn with large boulders.

 

We had only walked for a few minutes when I spotted a deer grazing across the creek.

Kasey was more interested in the squirrels, rabbits, and birds, and sticking her nose in the greenery along the edge of the creek.

On the way back,  I saw a deer crossing the greenway in front of us.

As we approached, we saw there were two deer calmly grazing in the grass in the adjacent neighborhood.

The deer that live in the woods near Camp Durant must be very used to people.  They did not run off as I approached with my dog and clicking camera.

That was a lot of fun.  I am sure we will return to this area to walk again next time Siri sends me to Raleigh!

Last night we went to our last performance of the season in the Broadway South series at the beautiful Durham Performing Arts Center. 

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We saw one of my favorite musicals, West Side Story.  As always, I was impressed with the musical talents of the cast.  The man who played Tony had an amazing voice that filled the theatre with songs of love and longing.  We have enjoyed the performances so much that we signed up again for next year.  The shows will include Jersey Boys, War Horse, Sister Act, The Million Dollar Quartet, Mary Poppins, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.  Wonder if they will re-enact the ping-pong ball scene from the movie?  If you don't know what I'm talking about, rent Priscilla and find out!

Spring Has Sprung

For the past two mornings, we have had thunderstorms, followed by warm sunny days.  The cherry trees along our driveway started blossoming while we were in Asheville last weekend  They look rather brilliant against the dark sky.

I like to walk on the greenway nearby after a big change in the weather, so I loaded up the dog while it was still misting a bit, and headed for the greenway on the other side of Rogers Road.  The center of the traffic rotary on Marshall Farm Road is looking very spring-like and pretty.

I knew that volunteers had planted daffodil bulbs along the greenway last fall, but had not seen them yet because I have been avoiding the sounds of the earth-moving equipment and logging station on Rogers Road.  But, today I thought they might not be working due to the rain.  Wrong.

But the daffodils look great in big clumps along both the paved and wooden walkways.

I was on the lookout for deer who might be out and about after the rain.  Sure enough, I saw a "white flag" heading to the thicker woods within minutes.  I thought that would be it, until I spotted this doe and fawn on the other side of the greenway a few minutes later.

Can you see them?  They stood and posed for us while I took about ten pictures.  Kasey is very good about freezing in place when we encounter deer so they don't get spooked.

These appeared to be a doe and her fawn, sort of nuzzling each other in a Disney moment.   I just love encounters like these!

There was a lot of water cascading over the rocks, and I let Kasey go in for a dip despite just having been groomed on Sunday.  As soon as the sun came out, it really got warm and she had her fur coat on, after all.

The dogwood are starting to open up.  Usually it is mid-April when the dogwood trees and azaleas are in their glory, but we are really ahead of the game this spring.

Yesterday was my husband's real birthday.  We went out for dinner at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant, with Dave and Emily.  But I had to have at least a little birthday cake for him at home. (Courtesy of the local Harris-Teeter Grocery store.)  We will enjoy that tonight.

I have a beautiful big customer quilt to start on today, so I better get to work.  Pictures tomorrow, maybe!

Art From the Heart

I would like to share with you a wonderful gift from my father to his family.  My dad, Pete Turner, is a retired commercial and fine artist who really does not do much drawing or painting any more.  Once in awhile I get a special card or postcard with his artwork, which I treasure.  If you enter "Pete Turner" in the search text box on my blog page, you can see more examples of his artwork.  This year, my father began a project during our week at Sunset Beach, NC.  My sister-in-law suggested that he make drawings to turn into a coloring book for the great-grandkids. 

The result was a very special book that went not only to the great-grands and grands, but each of his seven children.  I think he made 40 copies in all!  Each contained line drawings in a loose-leaf notebook.

Here is the cover, with a delightful caricature of the artist.

The first page brings back memories of when we moved from the New York area to Cary, North Carolina.  We had a pop-top Volkswagen bus, just like the hippies but without the Flower Power.

I think there is one too many dogs and a few too many kids in that picture!

When my father first began his career as a commercial illustrator in New York, one of his first jobs was to paint Elsie the Cow, the trademark logo for Borden's Dairy Products.  Elsie makes an appearance in the coloring book, as well she should. Part of our family history!

Some of the drawings reflect what Dad was doing at the time...like these sand buckets and shovels that take us back to our beach vacation days.

I am committed to scanning all the pictures eventually, so Dad does not have to keep making hard copies of the pages as new great-grandkids arrive.  My granddaughter, Lily, started working on hers immediately!

Here is another new bit of my father's art.  He has been making Christmas cards every year since he and my mother were married right after WWII.  I heard stories that he used to silk-screen them in the bathtub of our apartment in New York.  Everyone looks forward to his annual Christmas card, wondering what the inspiration will be each year.

This one is a pencil drawing with watercolors added.  I can't tell you how much I love it. 

The retirement community where my father lives in on a very busy highway in Boone, NC.  That these deer find their way to graze outside his window is rather miraculous.  They must know the back way!

Speaking of deer, we have had quite a few sightings lately.  No, not in the many acres surrounding our mountain cabin.  We didn't see even one last weekend.

The last time I took Kasey to the greenway near our neighborhood, we saw four deer cross the trail not ten yards from us.  I had heard them crashing about in the woods, so wasn't too surprised.  But Kasey was on alert long before they crossed.  Yesterday, we went back to the greenway behind Heritage.  When Kasey starting straining at the leash, I thought there might be a deer in the woods. 

Yup.

Can you see her big white ears sticking up to the right of those birch trees?

She stood there and let me take her photograph until I started moving closer.  When she ran off, I saw two white brushy tails running through the woods.  The other one was hiding!

I think they must have followed us home. When Charlie came home from work, there were two deer in our front yard.

And when I opened the garage door to let Kasey out, there were four in our back yard. 

Backyard Visitors

We looked outside and saw this cute little fawn in our backyard on Thursday afternoon.

When Charlie grabbed the camera to take her picture, I noticed its twin was in the second liriope patch.

They were so cute.  This part of our yard is sort of a natural area that merges into the woods behind us.  We don't really see the deer very often, but I guess these two don't have a mama any more and were not shy about leaving the woods. 

They can eat all the liriope they want, but they are going to be in trouble if they start munching the azaleas and camellias back there!

It's a beautiful, sunny fall day here in North Carolina.   Happy Weekend!

More Mountains and One More Quilt

Yesterday I shared a lot of pictures of our weekend in the North Carolina mountains. Today, I have a few more from our Sunday adventures. Above you see the little bridge over the creek that is our entrance to the Hall-McBrayer family compound. Hyannisport, move over! The driveway you see goes to my sister's home and one that her son built behind it. Take a right to get to Ricky and Mary's new home. To get to our place, hang a left at the bridge.



Then pass the pond and go up the hill.Look how tall the zinnias have grown behind our cabin! The tallest are my height, about 5'7". That mountain soil will grow anything super-size!
Thankfully, there is no hunting allowed on Sunday, so we were able to enjoy our ride in the Gator to the top of the mountain. Here is one of our favorite stopping places, overlooking many hills of Christmas tree farms. As we sat there, a nice breeze stirred up the leaves. It looked like it was raining golden leaves. I felt like I was in a Disney animated movie like Bambi. You can barely see the leaves tossing around in the air in the photos below.

While we were on the mountain, we retrieved the memory chip from the Stealth Cam near one of the feeders. It has been fun to see the raccoons, turkey, squirrels, and deer at the feeder- sometimes all together! This first picture was actually from last month.



Well, this time, there was finally a picture of Mr. Buck at the feeder. I hereby give him the World's Ugliest Antlers award. Maybe that ugly rack will prevent him from becoming a trophy on some hunter's wall. Charlie calls that antler sticking up a "cow horn." He has another antler laying right over his eye.

I had a wonderful surprise on Sunday afternoon. Our friends Art and Mary from college also have a mountain cabin about twenty miles from ours. Last weekend, Art was on a bicycle camping trip, and Mary brought her college roommate, Dottie, to the cabin for the weekend. Dottie and I were also close friends, bridesmaids in each other's weddings, in fact. She got married about ten years after I did. I'll never forget her wedding rehearsal. I was about two months pregnant with Dave, and during the long-winded preacher's blessing I keeled right over in a faint. After that they stuffed me with food all weekend to steady me up! Anyway, Mary and Dottie came over just before we left on Sunday afternoon. I gave her a quick Gator tour, and then rode home with her as far as Burlington so we could catch up with each other.


Okay, back home again. Here is the second of Teresa's quilts that I finished. It is very similar to the last one I posted, but it is slightly larger and has four-patches in some of the center squares. I used the same yellow thread and curvy swirls, but added a funky spiral design in the center squares.

This quilt looks good with A-Muse-ing Violette looking down from my wall, doesn't it!

That's it for today. I am excited that my granite counters and new sink are being installed this afternoon. I am more than ready after having no counters and no running water in the kitchen for the past week. Pictures tomorrow!