Our house up here in the Franklin North Carolina mountains has been on the market for about a month or two.  Lots of lookers but no offers yet.  The view changes hourly, daily, seasonally. Some
days it's blue and smokey. Some days it's pinkish at dusk.  But always beautiful even when foggy.
Our house   We live next to a brand new elementary school. So, if you have kids grades K thru 3 they
can just walk over.  We rarely hear them as we have a bluff between our properties. We do have a
small airport over the forest.  We can watch the small planes or small lear jets land.  I enjoy that.
So, come, buy our house.  We want to move back to Florida to be near our children.  That is the only
reason. 

We took our trip to Glacier National Park. It was awesome.  Came back home the first week of Sept.
We got to visit my new friend Katherine in South Dakota, my brother in Colorado.  Best trip ever.
So sorry I have been absent and not updating the blog. But then no one seems to ever look at it
anyway.  I will add a few photographs from the trip to Glacier for those of you who do not have
a Facebook account.  Take care.  Coming up on my fifth year cancer free.  Making the most of
every day. That is all we have anyway. 

It's August 13 2014.  We sold my Mother's house in Florida.  We went down to Florida for the closing. We had just been there only months before painting the front steps. Now the house is gone. and we are looking for another house in Florida.  Only this one will be on the gulf coast near
Destin or Panama city Beach Florida. Not on the west coast near Jacksonville.  Also, we have decided to sell our home up here in the North Carolina mountains and we had a realtor come by
and walk through.  Waiting for her to get back to us on a price.  Next week we are taking our probably last long trip in our RV. We are going back to Glacier National Park in Montana for the tour that we never got to do in 2010 due to the fact the passes were snowed in, roads were closed and
we never got to see a glacier.  So, hoping August will be a no snow month.

When we came home we had a very magical experience with a baby hummingbird.  I was taking photographs of my wildflower garden and butterflies when I noticed a very small hummingbird just sitting on a zinnia.  Sitting!!  Not hovering, not flying, sitting and drinking nector.  Like a little
buddha.  I thought he or she was ill. As it turned out. It was a baby hummingbird who had barely
learned to fly.  And was a bit wobbly.  What then followed was the most magical hour of my life.
He sat on a flower I held out to him.  He let me take 20 to thirty photographs of him. No fear.
He had no fear.  Alright. That is all the news. Sorry it has been four months since last post.

Back Home in the mountains

We have been back in Franklin N.C. for a month now.  Granddaughter and son visited.  We had a light snow.  Then last two days temperatures below freezing. I had to bring in the hummingbird food each night and put it right back out each morning.  I guess we came home too early.  Next year we wait until May to come back.  I have been eating fresh asparagus. But now I left the rest to seed and make the ferns and make more asparagus for next year.  Too early to plant any vegetables except maybe greens and lettuce which I can't eat.  I could plant Broccoli but it might be too late.  My hummingbird showed up a few days ago when it was spring like and all flowers were blooming. Then we had a horrible freeze, cold front, with high wind.  Blew most of the flowers off the double cherry tree.  Took a lot of the apple blossoms.  I am beginning to dislike winter.  Never thought I would say that.  And I miss the ocean so much.  We had two contracts on our house in Florida that is for sale and both fell through. One could not get bank loan and the other people changed their mind.  Hope it sells soon so we can get a place near the ocean.  Not much else new around here.  There is a bird caught in our roof overhang eave.  We would have to take pieces off to get him out.  They are getting into our attic even. We need to hire someone to screen wherever they are getting in.  Last year this happened also and I had to listen to this poor bird trying to scratch his way out.  Finally my son came to visit and he opened up the gutter eave and out fly a very dehydrated hungry bird.  Hope everyone has
a good month.  Surely winter is over soon.  Later. 

It's now the end of February and we have finished renovating my Mother's old house and had
a realtor give us a listing.  I have been to the beach only twice.  Those were the best warm days
we had.  One in December, and one a few weeks ago in Feb.  I love the ocean.  I wish we could afford our next house on the beach or a block away. 

I don't really think anyone but Cynthia reads this one.  And she can follow me on Facebook.  We put in all new flooring and carpeting.  A new front step, a new front gate, pressure washed the entire house.   And inbetween we got to visit my son and his wife in Gainesville.  And we had some company from North Carolina on their way home from Miami, and some relatives from Winter Park
Florida.  So, it has been a nice chance from spending the entire winter in Franklin, N.C. in the mountains.  Unfortunately this has been their coldest winter in years and the temperatures went
below freezing for days.  Our lawn man called us to say a pipe burst in our well house and water
was running down our hill for a few days. Which is why our electric bill jumped dramatically.
we will have to get that pipe repaired when we get back home. 

It has been a roller coaster winter in Florida.  And I had the worst cold after Christmas.  I think
the drastic constant change of temperatures is actually worse than continuous cold.  I am trying to
watch Grimm while I type this.  It's really sad tonight.  This is about all the news.  Some photo's of
my stay here.  The beach, the house.  Who knows when I'll update again.  We'll be home soon.

In Florida for the Winter

So. Wow.  I  have been AWOL.  I had no idea August was my last post.  Since that post. I have had my yearly checkup at the ENT and still no evidence of my cancer coming back.  Then we packed up everything, shut the house in the mountains down for winter, and headed for my Mom's old house in Florida.  We got  here just in time for Thanksgiving dinner with our son Paul. We are here to fix up my Mother's little house and put it back on the market to sell. Once we sell it, then we will look for a house along the Gulf coast of Mexico around Panama City Florida.  This will put us in the winter between three of our kids.  The one in Pensacola and the other two in Gainseville and Palatka.  At least that is the plan.
We packed up everything we thought we would need down here in Florida.  So far we have put in new flooring in the bedroom. Bought two chairs, two beds, a washer and dryer.  This should be all we will need for the winter.  The kitchen already has table and chairs.  Then we had a yard man neaten up the property and clear out weeds and underbrush.  Next painting the house is in order.

We spent Thanksgiving Day with our son in Gainseville and the next day I cooked a Thanksgiving meal for my daughter Kim who had to work on Thanksgiving night all the way through to Black Friday.  I am not a fan of that.  And I do not shop on Black Friday as my protest.  Holidays should be kept sacred.  We also put new wooden flooring down the hall and in living room.  So, here we are for the winter.  Later.