The Slow Lane

Home is now in the mountains in Ashe County, North Carolina.  We went to Raleigh on Friday (L had an NCGS Board meeting on Saturday) and planned to come back on Monday with some furniture in the trailer.  Late Saturday afternoon we realized that with a prediction of snow in Ashe County on Sunday, the roads would be still wet on Monday.  We made a quick change of plans, packed up the trailer and the car and came back Saturday night.  We were here to enjoy the snow (though it’s practically all gone now).  It was a beautiful snow, almost 4 inches, covering trees, limbs, bushes, ground and structures.

There are so many things to enjoy here that we want to be here and take advantage of all that we can.  Of course, we will never run out of projects, but it’s nice to get them done.  The other great thing about being here full time is having all of our “stuff” in one place.  In March we will bring the last of our things to the mountains and officially conclude our move.

We have rented the house to a nice family who work near by and are friends of our next door neighbor. We are excited and they are excited.

We have almost emptied the house of furniture, dishes, books, and lots of the things that were in drawers or cabinets or garage. We still have a few more things to move to our new house and we have sold a lot of things in the last several days.

After working frantically to “declutter” and clean, the house that we have lived in for 22 years is now on the market.

We’ve had to come to terms with several realities. Some of our “treasures” were stuff that should have been discarded long ago. Some of the things we considered treasures would likely be seen by others (especially potential buyers) as clutter. The house really needed more cleaning than we have done in recent times. It really is nice to see through clean windows, for example. Wall paper in the bathrooms and foyer that we never removed came down and the walls were painted. Another reality is that there are lots of people who might not like blue as much as we do.  The rooms that needed fresh paint are now a different color.

So, now the house is for sale. If you or anyone you know is interested in buying it, please call our realtor.  We will be ready on short notice to leave the house when it is shown.

L is 69 today. This picture is my birthday card to her and breakfast at Krispy Kreme got us started on the day.

This picture was taken from an open window looking across the driveway in front of our house.  The rhododendron are especially pretty this year with more blooms than I remember any of the past six years.  Earlier this year the mountain laurel were also full of blooms.

There are lots of rhododendron we can see in the front and on one side of our house.  We see it also when we travel to and from our house.  My understanding is that most rhododendron bloom every other year.  I’m sure the weather also affects the number of blooms.  For whatever reasons, this is definitely the year to enjoy the rhododendron.

The second picture is taken from the road just before reaching our driveway.

After observing the bees for several days, we did not see much activity and only a small number of bees. We did not hear the sounds in the wall as we had originally heard. The owner of Carolina Wildlife Removal came back this afternoon and agreed that there was probably not an active hive. Perhaps they had moved on to look for a better site, or the queen had died. Anyway, he agrees that it is best to leave them alone and observe for a month or so and assuming no increased activity, we should caulk the hole. We are happy to make that decision.

June 5, 2011

I saw no bees by midday and caulked the hole.  There have been no bees since.

Probably the only connection between cataract surgery and honey bees is that they are 2 things I’m dealing with this week.

I had a cataract removed and a new lens implanted in my left eye on Tuesday. Four years ago, I had cataract surgery on my right eye. Already I can tell a big difference in my vision. The surgery itself probably took only about 15 minutes or so. I began taking two types of eye drops four times a day 3 days before the surgery and will continue these drops plus a third type for another 10 days until I see my doctor again. I also have a plastic shield to wear over my eye at night for the first week, and I’m not to do any heavy lifting or bending fo the first week. I’m following doctor’s orders and am recovering well.

Now for the bee part: We have had about half a dozen honey bees in our den in the last 2 days. We have also discovered lots of bees flying around our chimney area. They go in and out of a small hole or crack between the chimney and the siding between the first and second stories. We called Carolina Wildlife Removal and the owner came late this afternoon and gave us a price for removal of the bees. He thinks they are probably in the space between the joists separating the first and second stories. They will have to take out part of the ceiling in our den and/or if they are in the wall, they will remove some paneling. The work will be done next week and they will rescue the bees and donate them to a beekeeper. It turns out the owner grew up in Sampson County near where I grew up and we know some people in common.

Meanwhile, L and I will get in a visit to Como, and I will get past my lifting and bending restrictions just in case there is some related (or unrelated) work I need to do.

This year we have discovered that we have at least 9 flame azaleas on our lot.  Some are tall enough that one can walk under them and not see the flowers unless you look up.  Some of them we saw this year for the first time probably because there are more flowers.  The flowers are orange except for one that is more yellow.  We would like to have more of them and may try to root some for planting in more visible spots.

I was not able to get a picture of the black faced fox squirrel we saw amble across our yard and woods.  He paused at the bottom of the ramp and stood up so we could get a good look at him.  He looked strange because he was bigger than a gray squirrel, his tail was longer and more bushy, and because he had a black face.  His nose was white (or light colored) and so were circles around his eyes (though pictures I have found show white ears more than around the eyes).  The first picture shows the general color (more brown with black ends), and the second picture shows the balck face in better detail.  Put the black face together with the coloring in the first picture and it looks pretty close to the fox squirrel I saw.  I have seen black squirrels, brown and gray squirrels, but I had never seen a black faced fox squirrel before.  I had to look it up and these were the closest pictures I found.  The squirrel I saw did not have black feet and underbody shown in the first picture.  The underbody was actually a light color like the nose and eyes (ears?)