Missing it Already

Looking up the hill, towards the house on a misty spring morning

My parents have sold their house.
I'm surprised by how wistful I'm feeling for a house and a place I didn't grow up in. I suppose I hadn't realized until recently, that I've become attached to the place.

I'm not sure exactly when my parents bought the ranch style house in the "middle of nowhere", (in reality, on an old dirt road in the country, about a 20 minute drive from where we grew up) it may have been just before we bought our first home. I'm going to say less than ten years ago. Funny, how a place can grow on you so quickly, but then, a lot can happen in ten years! LOL.

I will never love another place like the home I grew up in as a child.  I lived in that home from Kindergarten, until I moved out after College. I still had a bedroom there when they sold it. My Dad has said that they never should have sold that house, our childhood house, but I think it was time. Everything in life happens for a reason, and some things you just outgrow.

I learned in high school, that a House is not a Home. How did I learn that, you ask? Well, let me break it down for you. Our old, century home was getting a new basement put in, it had to get lifted up and moved from its foundation, so we all went to live with my Grandma for a few weeks... A month? I can't even remember. It felt looooong. I loved my Grandmother (rest her soul), but her house, was not my home.

A House is not a Home. You always hear people throw around old platitudes like that. I just did, and I'm about to do it again. ( They're so overused because, they're usually true.)  You see that phrase  painted, Folk Art style, on little plaques. "A House is a not a Home, unless it's filled with Love", blah, blah, blah. Right?!
Well, I say, A House is not a Home, unless you're comfortable enough to walk around naked in it. A House is not a home until it has shared your treasured memories, your tears, your fears and your dreams. A House is not a Home until you know all of the noises and creaks it makes when in settles at night. Sometimes, you realize, a House is not a Home, until you sell it and have to move away.

My Dad, giving Griff a ride, the way my Pop used to do for me.

Oscar, on the hill in the side yard

So, now my parents have sold their house. This house I didn't think I was so attached to -- this is the only house my sons have known their Grandma and Pop to live in.

My eldest son has been anxiety-ridden since he first heard that my parents were going to be selling the place. He keeps thinking that they will have already moved by the time we visit again, or the house will be gone when we go back. He keeps asking "Why are they selling their house?" and I have to explain that it's too big. The house is too big for the two of them. The yard is too big. On the only free weekends they have in the summer, in the evenings after work, they are cutting the grass. Seriously. It's a lot of grass. Even with a riding lawn mower, it's a good 4 hours.

Looking out over the pond

"Peep" The neighbor's duck that waddles over for  visits

One of the many Hummingbirds 

Going for walks in the field beside the house

The house itself is lovely. Nice layout, big, beautiful kitchen, great deck. But, it's not just that.

They have amazing neighbors.
On the one side, an old cemetery, (They're quiet and they never complain. Can I have a rim-shot, please? Budum-ching.) Behind them a little forest, the other side a nice field surrounded by farmland and neighbors across the road who cut their grass for them when they're away on vacation. You couldn't ask for better.

Nature, steps from the door. They have a great pond in the backyard full of frogs, fish, even a big snapping turtle named Prehistoric Pete, until it was discovered "Pete" was laying eggs. They now call her "Petra". The pond attracts all sorts of woodland creatures, from birds of all varieties to Deer and mink. The woods behind them and fields beside them are full flora and fauna. Great for a walk with my camera and the kids.

Wild Ladies' Slippers at the edge of the forest

old apple tree at the edge of the field

Back of the field

Tiny mushrooms on the forest floor

Little froggy found in some leaves

Walking in the field

Praying Mantis in the long grass

There is nothing like the country life. Just down the road, there is a sign in a field that reads " You are in Corn Country, EAT CORN" and it's not long until you get to one of the stands at the side of the highway that sell corn on the cob, vegetables from the farm, honey from the hive or freshly baked goods.

I'm going to miss the Auction Barn down at the corner. If you have never been to a country auction here are some tips:

Wear comfortable shoes. Nothing open-toed.
Be prepared to get dirty.
If you do not like the smell of body odor or manure, breathe out of your mouth.
If you do not have a pick-up truck, find someone who does and borrow it, because you may purchase furniture you were not intending to buy.

I'm going to miss walking with my kids down the old country road, seeing the farms, the cows, the horses, the fields. You get it by now, right? It's pretty idyllic if you like that sort of thing.

And so, next weekend will probably be my last visit before they move in July. We're putting on a Baby Shower for my sister, so, they'll be some more happy memories in that house. I hope to do lots of walking, laughing, playing and picture-taking. After all, "A House is not a Home unless it's filled with Love" ;)

A look at a flower

Clematis

Poppy

Iris

Clematis

Poppy

Iris

Considering the amount of rain we've had,  (see : None) my garden isn't doing too badly this year. I thought I'd add a few photos I took today.

"Stop and Smell the Roses"
There you go, I've said it. Very cliché, I know. Also, my roses aren't blooming, yet. But, take a moment and have a good look at a flower the next time you're in a garden, or are given a bouquet. They are amazing things! Every year, those same poppies come up and I try to find a way to photograph them that can show the detail and texture, and every time, nature says, "Good luck, lady."

I never have to go very far to find something inspiring to paint. The colours in these few flowers alone are amazing. Also, I found a dead bumblebee in the grass which I have put aside to paint later. Am I the only one here who does that kind of thing?

I'm becoming known for collecting "natural wonders"for reference for my art.
Someone brought me a dead butterfly the other day, and I just received two lovely old nests (a tiny one woven with birch bark and what may be spider webs and pine needles) possibly a hummingbird's and an empty wasp nest from Mike's Aunt and Uncle up in Verner.

I have a frozen hawk in my downstairs freezer awaiting a permit and a bird wing in my upstairs freezer awaiting painting. I found the wing of a woodpecker on the road the other week when I was on a walk with Oscar. It had been run over a few times, but cleaned up pretty good. It's sitting with my acorn collection in an old robin's nest by my front hall mirror at the moment.

I need my own studio space! I paint in my livingroom at the moment and must take out and put away everything each night. It's getting quite cluttered here!