Smugglers Cove Whidbey Island

Have you ever built a house?  We sure haven’t.  I cannot envision the lines on the paper as real walls and windows and doors.  I could not envision the driveway and yet, it is there.

We played around with bits of furniture today.  Tiny bits of paper, scaled to size and added into the rooms.  I need to be pushing the furniture around the room.   I just do not have that interior decorator/house designer/builder vision.  I sure wish I did.

Geez…I can’t imagine all the trenches that need to be dug.  Electricity, water, phone…really?

And so, I feel like I am blindly forging ahead and hoping for success where other people can see.  All the while, I will be surrounded by forest, close to the sea and happy for all of that.

Inching forward?  Maybe; hopefully.

Plans are being poured over.  Ideas are getting kicked around.  Options are soon to be on the table.

The bottom line is always money.  It has to be.  We could end up with pockets full of lint and a very nice home.  That is not okay.

We need to balance the future home and the money needed to achieve comfort and financial solvency.  Stability.  Sustainability.  Big dreams.  Big responsibilities.

This is where our desire to be frugal and our desire to be comfortable collide.  I hope the collision is like the fog meeting the forest; gentle.

This was the sunset on November 6th.  It was spectacular.  Those clouds were rolling through the sky at a fast clip.  There were small, foggy clouds underneath that raced by…you can see one behind the tallest tree.

Colorado has some spectacular sunsets with the Rocky Mountains in the background.  I was a bit worried that we’d lose that beautiful night sky…au contraire!  As you can see, the sunsets can be amazing and if we had been in a slightly different spot, the mountains would have been in the background.  Nice.

Lately, I have been admonished to look forward, live for today and plan for tomorrow.  I thought I did those things, but selling a home of 20+ years made me look back.

Well, today that house is being sold.  The closing is probably happening at this very moment and so it is time to face forward and embrace the new life.

Tomorrow, we will look at more homes.  Are we still building?  Don’t know.  We have the rental for a year and we can pick and choose what we do and when we do it.  Our pockets are only so deep.  Having a fixed price is a good thing.  Having money to adjust an already-built home so that it fits our style is a good thing.

Island life is slow.  We need to back off the gas and enjoy.  Indeed we do.  Indeed we will.

We would love to have a wood stove in this house.  There is nothing like standing in front of a wood stove and warming up.  No such luck here.

So, as part of the warmth and keeping busy projects, I just finished sewing up these felted fingerless mittens.  Again, the thrift store was the source point for the material.  These are made from the sleeves of a sweater, hence the tighter ribbing at the bottom.  Now, to decide whether or not to embellish them.

Our lives are comprised of little projects, house hunting, cooking, reading and going to the gym.  It’s not a bad way to spend the next few months.  We are still waiting for the CO house to wend its way through the selling process.  We do not want to make any big decisions any time soon.  We appreciate the farmer’s markets, art studio tours, library classes, etc.

I have been making Halloween decorations. I love finding things to make and then locating the materials at the thrift store.  I found a big piece of muslin and a small piece of some looser fabric.  Then I found two Styrofoam eggs to use in order to get the curvature of the ghost heads.  I put the eggs on top of two empty plastic bottles, draped the fabric and realized I needed something to support the arms.  I broke a wooden skewer in half and stuck each of them in 3 oz paper cups and had my supports.  I did have to buy the spray starch…I swear I had some in Colorado, but who is going to pack and move that?  Not me!

Now, if I just had some kids to enjoy these!

This is one of the ponds along the golf course by our rental.  It is really nice to live on a bankrupt golf course.  No one golfs.  But, the trails are open and the dogs are loving them.  The dogs went in that pond awhile back…oh, ewww.  They loved it and came out smelling like serious pond water.

I don’t understand why golfers, especially those who live along the course, aren’t out there putting or something?!  I’m tempted to do that and I don’t golf.  The greens are still mowed and kept up, hoping for a buyer to come along.    They are beautiful.  They meander through the neighborhood…all 18 holes.

Some folks still have their golf carts…and they wash and polish them on a regular basis.  I want to walk over and remind them that the course is kaput.  Then, the other day while I was walking the dogs, a golf cart flew down the trail with two young men carrying on…oh, now I get it.  They are boys with toys!

Ya gotta laugh at that one.  This garden is outside of Langley.  Langley is a lovely little town by the sea.

Today was the Bayside Farmer’s Market and there are only two more.  The growing season is coming to an end, but unlike Colorado, some things hang on all winter.  I have lettuce planted.  I don’t expect it to do much, but just the thought of having it in the ground and not freezing is miraculous and wonderful.

Our favorite seeded baguettes are sold at the Saturday market.  We just found out that the bakers only sell at that market.  That is some seriously sad news.  It is also a super nudge to get us into the kitchen baking bread.

Today was the first rainfall of any significance since the day we arrived.  It finally feels like the Pacific Northwest.  The sun peeks through once in awhile, the wind is blowing and occasional rain is falling.  Tomorrow is supposed to be quite story and I can hardly wait to visit the beach post-storm.  What will wash up?  What new shells will surface?  Driftwood?

And the seasons begin to change and we change along with them.  Let’s try and find one good thing every day.  That’s my new goal.

Today, we picked what will probably be, for us, the last of the blackberries.  The vines are still heavy with fruit, but we have 40 jars of jam and more berries to process.  I think we are done!

We visited the local gym and I think we will join.  When the rain is falling, we can swim in the pool, walk on the treadmills, or do whatever.  Zumba?

It has been just plain weird weather since we arrived.  We drove in to 2 nights of pouring rain and thunderstorms and since then it has been dry and warm.  Remember, this is the Pacific Northwest.  It rains all the time, or so people think.  Driest August ever.  3rd driest September and thus far October is warm and dry.  Weird.

While we wait for the CO house to sell, we started looking at houses for sale here.  Can’t hurt.  Talk is cheap.  It’ll be good to know what ‘x’ amount of money can get us.  To bad we can’t yet fill in the ‘x’.

This week, we saw a home with amazing gardens.  Someone loved this place.  Someone loved to have fruit trees, grapes, flowers, chickens and such.  It was a fabulous property.  Tomorrow we move on to look at another interesting property.

This morning, there was a rabbit in the backyard.  Loved it.  I had just been thinking that the girls must miss chasing squirrels.  Look out bunny.