Smugglers Cove Whidbey Island

So, this is a photo from a week or so ago.  There is no snow at the moment.  We need rain.  I can’t even believe I am saying that – again.

The 25th has come and gone.  Family was here – fun times – good food – interesting memories.

So, today I decide, with prodding from visitors, that art work must be hung.  We have loads of art.  I picked up the first piece to hang, nixed it and went on to another work.  Got it figured out and guess what.  The bag of picture hangers is nowhere to be found.  We have searched high and low and in between.  I thought I was going to have a total meltdown.  This is just not okay.  I had that bag in my hand a couple of days ago.

Did it get tossed with the holiday paper and wrappings?  Has my faltering memory just taken a long leave?  Frustrating, to be sure.

So, off to the hardware store to replace something that is undoubtedly sitting and laughing at me.  That bag full of metal.  Bits.  Stupid bits.  Where is it?

Remember the holiday village I gave away?  I also gave away loads of ornaments.  Today, I unpacked a box with eight, yes eight, ornaments.  Man, that was a teary moment.

The good news is that I gave lots of the ornaments to our children.  Just today, my daughter-in-law gave me a bag of ornaments – knowing I had given away so many of mine.  Well, there in the bag were many old friends!  There was one that our son made when he was three and another he made at five.  I showed them to his son and he was amazed his dad could have made such great ornaments when he was “practically a baby”.  Luckily there are always holiday helping hands at pre-school and kindergarten!

Oh, the snowman in the photo.  Made from thrift store bits and pieces, with a bit of new stuffing and a new hat!  He will now join the next generation of holiday fun.  What’s old is new.  Simplify….

I wonder where they are going?  I realize the obvious answer is south, but loads of birds overwinter on the Island.

I used to know the patterns of the Colorado bird population, but I am rather ignorant of the Island bird behavior.

I can tell you that there is a fat piece of suet outside that no one has touched.  It is in a new bird feeder that has a bit of seed at the bottom.  No takers.  Nary a one.

So, I am left to create reasons for the absence of my winged friends.  There are a wide variety of birds in the surrounding forest.  Are they so content that they don’t need the suet or seed?  I think that is totally plausible.  They aren’t junk food birds.  They haven’t been trained to eat hand-outs.

Has the leveling of trees, in preparation for the house upset their status quo?  Of course it has.  Are they still so jolted by the clearing of land, that they aren’t brave enough to venture near the deck?  I don’t know.

I do know that many of the birds on the property flit in, under and through the dense undergrowth of ferns and small trees.  I need to get out there with a pair of binoculars and get to know my bird neighbors.

Hopefully, when the re-seeded meadow grows in, the birds will explore.  I trust they will.  I want them to.  I am sorry I messed with your world, but I am all about re-righting your backyard.

Last year, I started collecting entries on scraps of paper and stuffing them into a memory jar.  The idea was to notice something special about each day, jot it down and then read them all on January 1st.  I cannot wait to open them up.  I might make a collage from these special notes.  It was a good task, to look around and observe details.  I am guilty of moving too quickly or just flying blind.  Wonders abound.  Flower petals, clouds, songs, animals, smells, sticks, smiles and more.  I so appreciated the thought of the memory jar and the fact that it made me stop on a daily basis and look around.  Slow down.  Breathe.

Towards the end of the year, the entries became more sporadic and isn’t that just when we need them the most?  And so, I plan to do the jar again next year.  I will slow down and look around and breathe. There is so much out there.  Embrace the tiny moments.

…clothes, that is.  Boxes are being unpacked.  Oh my.  Sizes between the time of packing and the time of unpacking seem to have changed.  Did the clothes shrink or did I expand?  The food on the Island is to blame I am quite sure.

And so, this presents a challenge and another step towards simplicity.  I have way too many clothes.  Loads of them no longer fit.  I started to box up things in a now-too-small size, to put them away in the walk-in closet.  Why ever would I do that?  So I can look at them stuffed in the box, much as I would be stuffed in the clothes?

What is the deal with clothing?  Do I enjoy having a closet of choices, even though I always wear the same things?  Is it a sensory comfort?  The sight of a full closet brings satisfaction?  Where do I think I am going to go in some of those outfits?  This is a conundrum and one that I want to solve.

Okay – TMI right now.  I left Colorado with a minute amount of underclothing.  Here’s what I discovered.  It was enough.  More than enough.  And so now I have unpacked more and I wonder why?  Lesson learned – I hope.

Last night I considered counting all of my shirts and pants and sweaters and other things and doing some amazing mathematical equation to see how long it would take me to wear all of that stuff.  I will might do that.  It would be mind-boggling.

Today, I am wearing a t-shirt I just cannot part with.  My mother gave it to me.  It is raggedy, torn, thin and I love it.  A few oddities will stay in the closet.

Things we need to constantly remind ourselves…

Change is Good – Every Day is a Gift – Slow Down – Breathe

We are settled enough to start to enjoy this lovely home and our gorgeous forest.  Walks in the woods are delightful.  Sunrises and sunsets – we enjoy them.

There are still many, many things that need to be done.  No one has a home that is complete and done – do they?  I don’t think so.  There is always a task at hand.  Boxes to be unpacked, furniture to be bought or moved or tossed, art to be hung, and we make progress almost every day.

We always have a list of tasks and sometimes we actually do those tasks.  More often, we are distracted by this and that and led to other tasks and it’s all good.

The other day we went to the thrift store and I started rebuilding my holiday village.  That’s one of the things I regret giving away, but now I have new buildings and somebody has mine.

Full Circle.

Doors are hung.  Boxes are slowly being unpacked.  Furniture decisions need to be made, but not right now.  Leaves are falling.  Geese are flying overhead.

Yesterday, we saw our first resident salamander.  Small and brown and fabulous.

We are ready for life to slow to a calm wonder.  We are ready to sit.

Wood needs to be gathered.  Wood needs to be chopped.  Fires built.  We will sit and watch the storms.

Many, many years ago, we lived in Alaska.  Alaska is a beautiful, wild place.  Our tiny cabin had no running water.  We hauled water in large containers and it was all good.  We showered at the University.  We had an outhouse.

As the winter progressed and set in, the trip to the outhouse became arduous.  We had a 2-year-old.  Think about it.  So, we eventually purchased a porta-potty and placed it in the only available space indoors – right off the kitchen – surrounded on 2 sides with windows.  A session on the throne was accompanied with the fear of visitors traipsing down the driveway and up the porch.

Years have passed.  Jobs have changed, degrees have been earned, another child born, moves made.  Retirement.  A new home.  Another forest.  Another public toilet.  Yup.

In the new home, we have NO interior doors.  Not by choice.  Issues with the first doors.  New doors and new paint and they now sit in the garage.  From the master bathroom, there is a direct line of sight to the window on the front door.  Deja vu?  I hold court and expect to see any of a variety of workmen wandering up to the door.  Surprise!

The move is progressing, albeit slowly.  We are hindered by age and health issues.  Nasty fall colds have descended.

We also have some unresolved issues.  The water has developed a very nasty sulpur smell.  Ewww.  It is not pleasant.  We have been doing research on this issue and it seems to be a result of the water heater anode or the holding tank.  I know nothing about this sort of thing.  Luckily, my better half is a former chemist, science-nerd and basically brilliant.  He is all over this problem.  We can’t really live in the house until the water issue is fixed.

However, the days are ticking away until the end of the month.  We have to be out of the rental.  We need to clean the rental.  We need to finish moving.

Yesterday, as part of our “leaving the ‘hood” journey, we hired someone to mow the copious back lawn at the rental.  They edged it and mowed it in a flash.  I watched them edging the very long grasses against the fence.  It looked very tidy.  I hate tidy.  Who spends time doing edging?  Really?  So, so tidy and neat.

It is painful to take over boxes and then come back to the rental.  I want to stay in that lovely home.  I want to sit on the porch and listen to the birds and the frogs.  Yesterday, the fog was beautiful as it whispered through the forest.  Soon.  Soon.

That is not box #6 of 93 boxes, but rather, it is a box that was packed in June of 1993.  Hither and yon, it and others have traversed with us.  They have been in Alaska, Colorado, California, Washington and now, they are on the Island.  This morning, this box was in the first load to be taken to the new house.  It has been allocated to the garage…again…  There is still a bit of work to do, before we can move things into the main living area.

And so, we have moved two loads of boxes into the garage.  Boxes that have been left, forlorn, in the rental garage.  Now, they have a new garage.

Please, please, can I unpack?  Soon?  It’ll be my every gift-giving holiday rolled into one.  I can’t wait!