the chaos that was my office just after the truck was unloaded
I was just helping Sue move furniture into/around her sewing room and asked her “how long to you think it will be until you are completely set up the way you want it to be”? Her response - “just working it one box at a time”.
That is a spot-on description of our last week, following the unloading, by the movers, of countless boxes, all of our possessions, to our new address in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The packing of all of those boxes is a blur, and unpacking will be at a very different pace. What Sue has in her sewing room is replicated in my office. We won’t even talk about the spare bedroom, downstairs room or garage. They will have to wait.
Sue treating the dogs…the living room is all set!
The last two months have been quite a unique stretch on our lives. House-hunting, ideal house identification, offer, acceptance, closure - Thanksgiving, Anniversary, Christmas, New Year’s Day, birthday, birthday - all between mid November and today. If we can get our Raleigh home sold quickly, that’s one big heap of unanticipated mission accomplished.
I’ve roasted my first batch of coffee here, sitting on our back deck yesterday, watching cardinals, woodpeckers, chickadees and titmice on the feeders. A quick scan of the various gardens in the yard indicate lots of flowering bulbs in the spring - hyacinths, daffodils and crocus are tentatively showing their greenery. Buds are swelling on rhododendron, dogwood and magnolia trees. We took our first hike in Dupont State Forest.
Sue’s birthday hike in Dupont State Forest
I managed to dig some greens out of the large pots before we left Raleigh - they are now in fresh potting medium, crowded into different large pots, covered by Reemay (they don’t seem too happy, but I was pretty rude to them, ripping them out of their comfy home). The tomato seedlings begun in Raleigh are in my office sunny window, not looking particularly happy, either - they’ve had quite a journey.
Koda and Marlin are thrilled with the big fenced back yard. Marlin is particularly enamored with the squirrel population. Music sounds great in this comfy little house. Waking up here in the morning brings a flood of possibilities, ideas, activities into our minds - we love it already.
My immediate plans are to answer some emails that are now a few weeks old. Once I get my boxes unpacked (particularly seeds!), attention turns to fulfilling seed requests and reminding myself where we are on the Dwarf Tomato Project. I’ve got events to prepare for - particularly my Corvallis and Connecticut February journeys. I also want to begin to dip in to the local gardening community. As for my 2020 garden, I haven’t really even started to think of that - it won’t be a full immersion, given time constraints, and my desire to learn about the soil and sun patterns and existing planting in the yard. That will be a topic for future blogs and newsletters. Oh, and the book….completion of the Dwarf Tomato Project book will fill in the spots between events and gardening and hikes, once the office is set up.
I don’t envision returning to Facebook or Twitter - leaving them has made me too happy! So Instagram - @nctomatoman - newsletter, blogs, and speaking events will comprise the ways I hope to share my experiences.
Just after closing. It’s ours! We are living in Hendersonville!