what a long, strange trip it's been...

What a strange feeling!  Instead of facing a bank of windows with a view of a tree-edged pond, I'm facing a blank tan wall as I sit at my computer desk.  Borga is chewing noisily in her crate at my right, instead of being on another floor.  Tall stacks of cardboard boxes clutter the room.  Still, I'm glad to be here.  We're finally in Indiana! 

I don't know how to do justice to the move itself, other than to say that nearly everything that could have possibly gone wrong, went wrong.  Movers called in sick, a major underestimation of the amount of stuff we had, a millipede invasion, mysterious power failures, terrible hot and humid weather, daily rain, injuries...ceaseless work, sleepless nights, sleeping on the floor, etc., etc.  After spending an entire week on the garage (where we kept a lot of our business merchandise), THIS is what it looked like...24 hours before the buyer walk-through, and 1.5 days before the actual closing.

But we were given a miraculous reprieve when, because of a bank error, our closing was delayed by 3 days, giving us enough time to finish up.  What a delight it was to see Todd carrying out the very last box!

I was too tired to take more than a cursory last look at our place.

Do you see Clotilde in the driveway? She stayed close to the Uhaul as we packed, sleeping in its shade or rubbing against our ankles.  I'm happy to report that several neighbors volunteered to take over the care and feeding of our little strays.  We'll miss them, though!

The long drive to Indiana!  We were completely exhausted and had to take at least one 30-minute nap, but didn't want to linger too long.  We wanted to make the trip in one day.

Because of road construction, it took about 13 hours to make it home.  But we made it! Todd had a helpful co-pilot...

...and we made sure to take a few silly pictures on the way.

For the first several days in Indiana, we were so exhausted that we spent a lot of time sleeping.  I don't ever remember being so tired after an experience!  But slowly, we're adjusting.  I joined the gym, Todd arranged his office space and made sure that all the trucks and Uhaul were unloaded into our storage units, and we're now looking for a house.   I think it will take a couple of weeks, at least, until we have some semblance of a normal schedule...but we're getting closer every day.  We took our first hike yesterday, too.  There's a nice trail about 5 minutes from the apartment.  What a great feeling to have a camera in hand again!

Looking forward to more hikes, kayaking, farmers markets, new experiences, and new friends!

it's like a heat wave...

Another 95 degree day, and with frequent cloudbursts, everything is growing like you wouldn't believe.  We have a vine on our outside deck railing that grows inches every day.  Inches!  I want everything to be caught up for the new homeowners, so I spent most of Saturday working in the yard, weeding.  With some good company.

It's exhausting to keep moving preparations going on within the house and also deal with a very needy yard, but I would be ashamed to leave a mess behind for new people.  I learned a painful and valuable lesson when we bought this house.  Under South Carolina law, water cannot be transferred into your name until you have the house deed...i.e. after closing.  Despite grudgingly agreeing to leave the water on for a day to give me time to make the transfer in person at the downtown office, the former homeowner called the water department first thing the next day and told them to shut off the water immediately.  I will never forget how that felt:  being in a new state and new house, surrounded by contractors and stacks of boxes, and NO WATER.  I felt so unwelcome and I couldn't believe the insensitivity and meanness behind it.  But it really brought home the value of the Golden Rule to me, and I'm determined to never be like that woman.

So, 95 degree yard work.

I did find some interesting insects while I worked.  This red-sided flat millipede was happy to pose for pictures, since he was long deceased.  These are also known as almond millipedes, since they secrete benzaldehye, which is a chemical note in the scent of cherries and almonds. 

I also saw one of my favorite leafhoppers.  They're all pretty, but this one has red eyes!  It's also one  of the larger leafhoppers.

The finch babies are growing quickly, but so is the cowbird.  It's hard to see from this photo, but the cowbird (on the right) is much larger than the other two.  I see that he has smothered the third finch.  I definitely detected an odor, which is unusual for these nests.  Or could they all be finches?? Only time will tell!

Here's the father, bringing a meal.  I love hearing them sing on the front porch!

Day in the yard aside, most work is being done indoors.  Moving prep is tough, especially since we have so much business inventory!  The good news is that a contractor was able to saw the wooden grids off of both the broken and unbroken doors...

...and the whole glass unit was able to be removed.  Our repair will be under $2000, instead of $8000 or so.  Huge relief! 

It's hard to believe that we're moving in 11 days.  It just doesn't feel real.  Still, I'm going through the motions of this move is really happening, even if it feels like each day will be much like the prior day, just like it has for the past six years.  Part of going through the motions is planning for things that we're excited about doing, and one thing we're both excited to do is to buy bicycles and start riding.  There are lots of bike shops and trails in Bloomington (home of the "Little 500" bike race), and I regularly ride 50 miles a week...in a gym, anyway.  So I had to buy these shirts to commemorate our inaugural ride:

I found a dance studio and a gym.  Different knitting clubs that meet three or four days a week.  Book clubs. Quilting.  Gardening.  Bird watching. FOUR farmers markets. A massive continuing education program at Indiana University, just down the street from our temporary apartment.  Opportunities for all the hiking and kayaking we can handle, just minutes away, and of course we have lots of friends in the city.  Maybe it doesn't feel real is really I'm afraid this is too good to be true!  I believe in preparing for the worst while hoping for the best, so I suppose I won't give in to excitement until we're pulling in our new driveway.  I've definitely got plenty to keep me distracted until then! 

Have a great week!

a milkweed bug hug

"It is little wonder that Mrs. [John Quincy] Adams did not always see the point and was grateful for the ending, the more so because a quasi-pointless existence had been very draining to her husband, who had been worn down by his listless existence and by the climate, and who, as she put it to him, had sunk into a 'state of inanity.'"  

This is an excerpt from Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon by Michael O'Brien, and I thought it was incredibly apt for our current situation.  With multiple 95 degree days behind us and a string 96 - 98 degree days in front of us, Todd doesn't even like to go outside now.  Indiana Julys and Augusts are miserably hot, but then it's over.  Here the heat will just keep going.  I'm encouraged by the thought of cool September mornings, but I think he is having trouble remembering them, much like Frodo in Return of the King who can't remember the taste of strawberries (why stop at one literary reference? Ha!).  But I did convince him to go for one last hike at the Botanical Gardens. 

Much of the garden is shaded, which provided a nice respite from the heat.  Lots of shade plants were thriving.  I just love the vivid colors of their hydrangeas.

Even the white hydrangea have a little splash of green to help make an impact.  I love them!

Sometimes it's the shape, not the color, which provides the pop.

I loved seeing the flowers, but I was especially pleased to see some insects.  I thought these two milkweed bugs were fighting over territory...

...until I saw this!

Love was in the air!  On another plant, I saw another milkweed bug with her babies.

I saw lots of flies, of course.  This one let me get pretty close.  That amber drop?  Vomit!  Flies use their digestive enzymes externally instead of in their gut.  Pretty cool!

It felt good to stretch our legs, even though Borga was pretty tired after our walk!

At home, the usual suspects.  Clotilde is staring down chipmunks...

...or driving Tabitha crazy in the sun room.

Bosewichte is loving his new sleeping spaces.

The finch babies are growing, although I still can't tell which one is the cowbird.

I posted this picture on Facebook with the notation that Todd and I will likely feel like these two toads that I found in our carport when we move into our new apartment, since we're so used to having more space.

It's true...we've found a tiny temporary apartment to live in (approved, just need to sign the lease and pay the deposit).  We've also found warehouse storage space for the business that, ironically, is bigger than our apartment!  But today is the absolute most stressful day.  First the appraiser comes.  If we don't pass, the bank won't loan the money for the house.  The contractor comes to try to fix that broken door.  If he can't fix it, the whole wall unit will have to be torn out and replaced, and that repair could be as much as $5,000 (plus the original $1000 for the attempt).  The buyers will have our response to their home inspection requests today, too.  If they don't agree, the whole deal could fall through, which is too awful to even contemplate.  So I'm headed to the gym, and then will try to keep busy and NOT THINKING ABOUT THE POSSIBILITIES until we get some news.  Stay tuned! 

let the sun shine in...

We had our last torrential rain storm on Friday!  Thankfully we didn't lose any trees this time, although we heard the cracking of trees or big limbs falling in the woods fairly regularly.  It's gardenia time, but delicate white flowers and constant wet do not mix well.

However, they persevered, and new blooms are ready to burst open!

The ducks love the rainy weather.

The goz do too.  I see them daily feeding on soggy vegetation down by the pond.  They're getting so big!  The oldest ones have finally taken on their adult coloration. 

They grow up so fast...sniff sniff!  At least the babies are still babies!

Meanwhile, since the weather is finally dry, Clotilde has settled on the stairs outside our sun room.  Tabitha objects strenuously but there's nothing she can do, really, except be grumpily watchful.

A bit of excitement on the front porch!  Last week, I noticed a finch egg smashed on the driveway.  Odd...how did it get out of the nest?  When I had time the next day, I checked and saw this:

Amazing!  See the larger speckled egg?  That's a cowbird egg.  Cowbirds don't make their own nests.  They watch and wait.  When they see a bird leave an existing nest, they sneak in, steal and destroy an egg, and replace it with one of their own.  The nest owner doesn't suspect a thing, even when the cowbird egg hatches a week before the others and the young bird is unusually big.  So the young cowbird will be bigger, stronger, and get more food than the other finches in this nest.  Sometimes they smother their competition. Mama cowbird, however, can move on without a thought and continue depositing eggs.  She can lay up to EIGHTY EGGS in a 2-year period!  But many don't survive, which will likely be the case here.  Cowbirds eat insects, and these finch fledglings will be fed seeds.  The young cowbird will probably starve.  There's a big internet debate about whether people should remove and destroy cowbird eggs when they are found in other nests, but I try to have a non-interference policy.  I'm curious to see what happens here! 

Work has been slow, and I've been working on things that don't make a big mess that have to be frantically cleaned up for showings, like puzzles.  I am an addict and have finished two in the past 2 weeks.

But soon, I won't have time for puzzles.

We sold our house!  As long as all goes well with inspections, etc., we close in early July.  It still seems unbelievable.  I'm not sure when we're packing up the house...where we'll stay when we reach Indiana...if we'll be buying or renting while we look.  For this type A person who's a compulsive planner, this is both exciting and scary!  Especially when we'll have truckloads of merchandise, 2 cats, and a dog.  But at least I know that it's going to be an adventure!

Have a great week!

snake double take

With the temperatures climbing into the mid-90s every day, I'm trying to do my prowling around the property in the mornings.  I haven't seen the little fawn, but evidence of its existence is evident in the daytime pacings of its mother.

It's rare to see a solitary deer in daytime, unless there's a baby about!  Meanwhile, our goz are playing coy.  Most of their time is spent at the far end of the pond.

But sometimes they'll come by for a visit.

Six is now five, but we still have three older goz in our other group.

Meanwhile, we have a lot of other activity.  A turtle traversed our driveway on his way to the pond...

...and an anole watched me from a fence post.

Another snake slithered by as I walked the pond edge.

It looked like a copperhead at first, but I then verified that copperhead markings, while similar, have an hourglass shape. 

This was a non-venomous banded water snake.  Harmless!

Someone didn't make it...

Of course, the outdoor cats that we feed are usually around, getting into some sort of mischief!

Our indoor cats are somewhat less active.

Borga, however, watches everything with taut-nerved attention.

Have a great week!