hello

just a quick hello. the thing is i have so much to say but it does not seem to want to come out.

i am well, the weather has been lovely. i am obsessed with japanese greens, music and plums. lots and lots of plums.

perfect saturday on the frontier

this weekend, saturday to be more precise was perhaps one of the loveliest days i have had.

k was home, i knew this because when my eyes opened in the morning there he was right next to me

our first full weekend in our new home.  we went out together and did our morning chores, when we came back in i made crepes as i told him about frontier house the pbs special we watched a bit of it, both of us taking it all in knowing that some of what they were living would be our way too.

The sun was out finally and we decided to create a new horse pasture, put in screen windows, clean barn and pick a site for our garden, it was bliss-even though it was work it was humbling and good work, soon the clouds opened up and within a few seconds we were soaked to the bone although it felt more like a reward for our hard work. Later in the evening we were invited to a private dinner and jazz session at a cafe in town, we had such a great time.

i love when work and play balance each other out. I also like when lilacs bloom and your house is filled with their sweet smell.

thursday sun

it is the first morning in a long while that the sun greeted me. I have open the windows wide andthe birds

sing so clearly that i have to look to see if they are not actually in the house, i must find away for you to listen to their song.

 tomorrow i meet k. in boston then he will be home, the first full weekend since our move he will be here, i am  excited to have him home with us. we will do some work, hike, eat, sleep, watch a film and i will be happy in his company.

les oiseaux noir

i have not yet begun placing things in their right place, much work to do outside to protect les animaux.

i am trying to let the house tell me where things go. a craving for simplicity with well made things that come from times past and made with care and old world craftsmanship. 

it is saturday, i am listening to the Opera, it is very dark. aujourd'hui des grands oiseaux noir a pris un de mes canard- une tristesse qui me prend par le coeur. 

k will be home this evening and we plan to go out for dinner so he can watch the bruins play, i hoping for some where cozy but i never seen a television in indian restaurant have you:)

i hope you are well dear readers. 

the truck

I have not picked up my camera for one, i misplaced my charger but last night a few shots as k and i strolled. slowly i have been recounting our move. la porte rouge is also my journal, i can one day look back  and read my life's passage. I contemplated if i would talk about our move, the physical part- the logistics. please free to skip this part if you would like.

K and i  had changed our plans several times, well more like i changed my mind often emotions taking the better of me i often made decisions based on how i felt and how i do not want to feel. finally we decide that we would get the moving truck Wednesday night, empty my storage unit that i have had for ten years  and stop at the studio to pick up things. we did just that and felt good our plan was headed to a good start even, if it was raining. Arriving home we starting moving boxes from our home into the truck
 and finally stopped because it had begun to storm.

the next morning we started really early packing the truck none stop, getting discourage at how much left to be done. we moved all day long into late night how it possible to have so much stuff. we were do to come right back to get ducks, chickens and let the house cleaners into clean the house for the next person. Finally on the road around ten p.m. we had four hours of driving. K in the huge truck that i am very surprised we do not need a special licence to drive and i in my friends farm van with les chiens est chats.  Sixty miles into our drive on the mass pike ( suicide highway) the very large truck broke down right there on the highway. it took four  hours before roadside assistant came, three am by now they told us that that they would tow it forty miles and give us a new truck WHAT?  there was no way we were going to unload the truck only to unload it again. they agreed to tow us the tree hours to our new home - i was so happy for that. that is until a mile from our new home the tow truck could not make the turn so he abandoned the truck there on the road with everything we owned. It was 6 am, k found a floor to sleep on and i spent hours on the phone with truck company hoping for  quick fix that only came two days later- that is right two days. we could not make it b back to get the feathery friends and the horses were on their way. the van that i had been driving held a few things but somehow no one told us that we could not lock the doors for they would not open again! oh and also i got my friend to open the house for the cleaners that promised me a tip top cleaning, ended up being there for only two hours and took one hundred and fifty dollars and left the house in such a state that new cleaners had to be called and paid for  .( i have always cleaned them myself spend ten hours or more at times, this times i decided that the move was too big and that we would treat ourselves to house cleaners- what a very expensive endeavour it turned out to be, advice do not be charmed by someone who calms your nerves on the phone as says" nadia do not worry my team will have the place like new" my mistake craigslist random.

friday my parents arrived, i felt so bad that they where coming to such chaos yet they where so helpful special for the spirit. the thing i worried about the most was the horses and how i was not there to bring back with the transport, it was the thing i feared the most yet that was the smoothest part of the whole move.

okay i have bored you to death, but i had to write all this down, there was many more crazy things in between, like how we went back for our ducks and chickens and upon arriving home after a four drive i was texted " you forgot a duck" i cried and cried" the duck is safe now but a perfect mother i am not.

*i just like the pic of the birch tree, last night.

a visit to a view

Yesterday my friend catherine and i took a trip to my new home in vermont, the last and only time i had seen the house in person k and i had to snow shoe in to get to the house since the quarter mile drive way was covered in feet deep snow. as we made our way up the drive i could not believe how beautiful every thing was. when i entered the house i was so happy that i twirled around like a child but then i was stopped in my tracks for the views outside the window was so grand it took my breath away.

Our goal was to start building the horse fence, but shipment delayed we decided to walk around the property since i had not seen the pond yet. Catherine kept looking at me and saying "it is like looking at the grand canyon in away, so vast" the mountain tops covered in snow, clouds below the mountains. we were high, high in delight of what we saw and felt.  then we went into town, it is so perfect with it's little shops, sustainable restaurants, coffee house that reflect the universities around.

Back  at the house late afternoon it was a summer day, we built a very temporary chicken fence, and every few minutes one of us would comment on how quiet  and peaceful it was.

truth is i am still pinching myself,  two weeks feels so far away!

*catherine showed up with red wellies. love them!