30 July, 2014

last day

Here we are at the end of our summer vacation.  Tonight we fly out.  We've spent the last two nights staying with our wonderful friends in Connecticut across the road from our old house, and last night we had dinner with Oscar's girlfriend's family.  A nice little stop between the heartbreak of leaving Vermont and going home.

So before we get caught back up in life in Singapore, I thought I'd share some last photos from the summer...taken with my actual camera, not my iphone.
 We spent a morning out at the Dorset Marble quarry which the kids LOVED.  It was a pretty mild day and we went early, mid week, so it wasn't too crazy.  When we drove past on a sunny Saturday, it was like a public swimming pool on a hot day in a small town!
 The water is DEEP here (and breathtakingly cold) so all the kids jump off the cliffs.  I had fun watching them build up the courage to finally jump.
Kit

Ella (finally!)
 Remi even put his monkey blood to use and scaled this tree to help some other kids make a rope swing after they spent half an hour trying to lasso the tree.

Unfortunately we didn't make it back there as it's a good 40 minute drive from our house and the snow making pond is closer and not so crowded.

As for my annual "leaving the house pictures":
 The Shut up and Dance banner made by my friend from work has found a place in the music room.  It seemed only right.
 Up above the piano, with my growing collection of birds.
 Matt's guitar collection is growing pretty well too.  Only the guitar in the corner and the ukelele on the shelf aren't his.  His amp collection is in the cupboard.  But don't worry about him not having any guitars to play back in Singapore, as he has a collection there too.
 And while we are in the music room, this is the print by a local artist (Martha Stevenson) that I bought last year and didn't post any photos of.  It's of our town, South Londonderry, although our house isn't in it...it's about another 9 houses to the right.
 Definitely a cosy little room, even with the uneven floor which makes the book case look like it's falling over.
 The window seat isn't quite so cosy right now as I cleared everything off ready for our new windows that we are getting put in...Fancy that, windows that OPEN!
 In the green room, my curio collection is growing...
 The new green plate there with the frog is called a "road kill" piece by a local artist who finds road kill (mostly frogs) and presses them into plates.  I got it at an estate sale.  I'd love to have some of these things in my art room for the kids to draw, but for now they need to stay here.
 Another purchase this year.  Brooklyn artists, bought in one of my favourite little galleries in Brattleboro, Gallery in the Woods.  It's machine embroidered.
 He's sitting up there by the rooster throne chair.

And as for outside:  Well, it's a bit of a mess.  We have had the drainage problem by the side of the house fixed with a new french drain.  I put weed felt over it before I left to keep out dirt and stuff.  We will have to put either soil and grass or something on it next year.  I still have dreams of a stone patio out this side of the house at some point.
 There's that little bit of red roof that was missed over the door...hopefully soon to be remedied.

 My garden is starting to look good.  All that work I've done over the last 2 summers taking out weeds and making planting beds has made SUCH a difference.  And I'm loving the plants that my neighbour and realtor put in for me last autumn.  The day before I left I was out doing a bit more weeding out there and saw 3 garter snakes living in that wall.  The year for snakes this year...we have another 3 or so living around the back of the barn as well as a few bigger ones up the back.
 The new roof colour is definitely better.
 Out the other side of the house is a big mess!  But hopefully we'll see stone walls and terraces there next summer.


 Another drain to hopefully cut down on the amount of water in our basement.  And weedcloth at the back of the barn there to prevent me from having to do a massive weeding session again next year.
 I did manage to finish painting the back of the barn, and once the landscaping is done, we can look at putting in a deck there and putting a better door on the back too (and once the deck goes in the gas tank won't be so ugly as the plan is for the deck to be raised above the tank
 Looking over towards our neighbours' barn (airBnB)
 Yep, it's a big mess.  But I can't wait to do before and after photos with this.
 Looking down onto the side garden.  It's a pain having to mow this grass all the time which is why I'd like to make it a patio with some garden beds around it.  That grey is the french drain.  The work I've done with the red slate everywhere has made SUCH a difference in keeping it nice and clean around the house.
 Looking down at what used to be a pond...
 Now filled with gravel.  Seriously we had a frog living in there.



 This summer we also cleared all around the shed, ripping out plants and putting down more gravel.
 Looking back up towards the back of the land.  The pile of stones is what the digger pulled out and what will be used to make a stone wall...
 dirt and soil.

 From here you can kind of start to visualise what it will look like when we have a deck and some terraces stepping down to the house.
 And while we had the digger here we had him rip out a big pile of old trees and yard cuttings etc that were here in a fenced off garden area.  It's opened up the back of the land so much, and it's a big flat area up there....we have plans....although much longer term ones.
 This is up by the shed, looking across the driveway that goes up to another house to our neighbours' lovely big back yard.  It's really pretty up here.
 And this is walking down the driveway back to our house.  The back barn roof is the next one to be done.  Also exciting.

 It looks so different with all the plants pulled out and cut back.
 And along this side is where I managed to paint the upper dormer windows and top trim this year.  They don't look very finished because I didn't bother painting the storm windows.  The new windows we are having put in are white anyway, so they will contrast against the dark blue.
 And there's Dave, my little hire Yaris for the summer.
 I can't wait until this view looking back up to the shed looks like a real garden!
So much to look forward to when we next see the house!  Farewell (and Fair Well) my lovely home.

2 comments:

  1. somewhat amazing, all seems just so much work, makes our Triabunna project look so easy, mind you have a few more years than we do. Pleased to see Matt's guitar collection is coming on well...but no Gretsch Country Gentleman...yet, perhaps next year
    love
    Dad

    ReplyDelete
  2. I LOOOOVE your collection of things on the table and i WAAAAAAANNNNNNNNTTTT your embroidery piece on the wall. Magic xxxx

    ReplyDelete

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