Loons, Trilliums and Eagles

Our Penultimate Day

We are packed for tomorrow! Bags are labeled and ready. 

My trilliums are giving us a beautiful send-off display - isn't this gorgeous?

And then, on our nostalgic boat ride yesterday to see our house one last time,

we were lucky enough to have uninterrupted views of the bald eagles busying themselves at their nest with their offspring. Before we returned home, a lone loon warbled its soulful call, adding another joy to our gloomy weather day.

Photo: D. Schultz

Mark and Su graciously loaned us their downstairs apartment for our last "homeless" week here, and took us around the lake for our final goodbye. This is their beautiful cove, where an osprey gave us a fly over.

Of course, our last days wouldn't have been complete without a visit from two of my "bunnies," Linus and Rachael, who were equally welcome and included in all our activities at 'La Casa Cartisano'.

We are so indebted to all who have helped us complete the last few weeks' chores and errands, with a particular shout out to my PALZ team of superb volunteers.

Farewells, or Hwyl fawr

 2 days remain

Our lake and friend community left us speechless with their warm wishes, generosity and friendship at our farewell party last night. They showered us with so much love, it made us feel warm inside despite the tears. There was an impressive spread of people, food and special touches that showed how much they care - we felt SO appreciated, and we have their good wishes to carry us through the next phase of this journey.

What an absolute pleasure it has been to mix in these circles, rub shoulders with fascinating people and learn from them all. How we have loved being part of this lake community!

Pre-emptive Suffering

3 days left in the U.S.!

I'm really feeling the sadness of leaving now that the busy cleanup period is complete, and we have time to slow down. This time to contemplate is killing me  - so many good goodbyes! It leaves me feeling unsure and questioning making another heartbreaking move.

BUT ... a new life and adventure awaits. Who knows where it will lead? 

So, onwards and upwards - our new Ioniq 5 is ready for us in the U.K. We'll pick it up on Tuesday, May 5 after we land and drive it to our new home. We're currently staying in a friend's amazingly comfortable apartment across the lake from our house in Limerick, which is now too clean to live in! Late last night, I realized that I'd forgotten to clean the hand rail on the stairs - minor details that kept me from rest. Perfectionism can be such a drain.

Our departure time feels as if it's speeding up towards us as we move towards it, cutting down on actual time!

'He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary'

- Seneca

Beautiful blooming jade plant at S & M's house

Gorgeous Maples

4   days

 till lift off

Red maple flowers,

Tender growths dropped by squirrels 

Splay out on water.

Farewell to Paradise

 5         5          5         5          5         5          5    

days till departure

The trash and metal guys did a grand job of removing all our rubbish and assorted collections (looking at all the wires and components in the metal pile, I was asked if my husband was an electrician), leaving us to empty the rest of the house of cleaning materials, implements, kitchenware and food. The drone footage of the yard and interior shots of our cherished home were completed today. The listing will go live on Monday, May 4th, with an Open House the following weekend.

 Our home looks loved, yet empty.

We're on schedule with our tasks! We're exhausted, doing things clumsily and halfheartedly by the end of the day, our feet ache, but otherwise we're none the worse for wear, which is more than I can say for this piece of clothing I was luckily not wearing when a burning ember landed on it.

It's not easy leaving paradise, but we have more adventures to chase

Fascinated by Fungus

6 days left

Look at how beautiful and colorful the red tree brain fungus is - it's breaking down this rotten tree branch and freeing up nutrients.

Peniophora rufa is exquisite up close with its brain-like crenulations

Decluttering the Clutter

7 DAYS to TAKE OFF

Two days after our yard sale, and we're still decluttering the leftover clutter! We successfully got rid of a twin and queen mattress, much to our delight, and the 'metal guy' has promised to relieve us of the picked through electronics tomorrow. We have yet to see if the trash guy will deign to remove ALL our trash bags tomorrow morning too ...

I was fortunate, though in being the one to focus on clearing up the appearance of our yard in anticipation of the outdoor drone photography being shot tomorrow for our upcoming listing with Redfin. It gave me time to spend near the water, and begin the difficult process of saying my goodbyes to this extraordinary paradise.

What more could a person want in life?

     

Peace on earth and economic stability would make this 'package' complete.

Tomorrow we have to finish emptying and cleaning inside our home for the interior shots to be done on Wednesday. No rest for the wicked!

Click Beetle

8 days to go

This little critter can do amazing things - it arches its back in such a way as to force a spine and a groove in its carapace to hook and then release like a spring, forcing its body upwards into the air. It's amazing to watch, but I fear I turned this little one over onto its back too many times just to see it happen. Its ability to right itself once rolled onto its back using this technique might help it escape predators. Some can launch up to 8 inches high!

What an ingenious mechanism!

Moving Closer

The end of an era has come to pass. Our yard sale heralds our departure. My friends are helping me in so many ways, but their kindness and generosity is making it hard to leave!

We had a rush of interest from 9-10:30AM. and thereafter everything was free

The usual suspects, M & D, were there through the busiest part.  Dina's simple yet explicit sign drew the crowds

Tomorrow we will be transporting 'leftovers' to the Dump, and the week ahead will be tweaking and cleaning in time for the realtor photos on Wednesday.

9 days to go!

Dock is In!

This is the paradise we have to leave behind - what a gorgeous, tranquil scene. We put our dock in for the last time over the weekend. Am I glad to be done with that task for good ... but it also means I'll be done with this vision forever. So conflicted.

And the sun was out, too! Bliss

Bluets are Blue-ming

I spotted my fist blooming bluet towards the end of last week - what an exciting leap forward for spring hopes!

These miniscule dainties are all over my 'lawn', in bud, getting ready to open up ... most look like this little bundle with tiny whitish bulbs at the tips of stems

Houstonia caerulea beauty - don't overlook the miniatures

Dispossessed

I'm so happy to be in this situation today - dispossessed of our goods and chattel! Our container arrived on time, as did the loading crew, and they worked as a team playing "Tetris" with our containers. It only took them 2.5 hours to load a full container very, very efficiently

This was the joyful sight of an empty truck coming down our road:

And then lots of team work, banter and fun, without rain or graupel!

 

The crew were personable, well-mannered, experienced and efficient at their job. It made for a pleasant experience. So impressive.

Look at the team effort in hoisting the last of the "IF there's room ..." items. Dale did a magnificent job of calculating and estimating our contents' volume - couldn't have been better!

What a relief to watch a fully loaded, secured container of our household goods begin its long journey to the U.K. 

Thank you to my wonderful team of personal helpers today 🩷

Grumpy About Graupel

 No, we didn't just spill a whole bag of styrene pellets across the yard ...

These horrid little white balls came plummeting from the sky! They're called graupel or popcorn snow

April is really testing us this year. I felt good about crushing some just to get my frustration out!

Container Tales

We were all ready for our container pickup this morning, with our own personal team of four additional helpers, when a disappointing call from the movers forced us to reschedule our week. They couldn't get our container loaded and on its way to us because a crane was malfunctioning.

Look at how ready and organized we were:

Packed and labeled, ready and waiting, waiting, waiting ... our pickup has been rescheduled for Wednesday, 2 days hence. Our helpers, one of whom was wearing a new engagement ring (yes! Linus and Rachael got engaged last night), changed gear and used their time with us to work on other physical tasks still undone.

Dale and Dan had some time together in our bedroom watching the bed compress into its shipping package. Tom joined them later and made quite an impression!

We're keeping our fingers crossed that Wednesday will really be IT, but we shall see. Delays really are disappointing