my double life

While up at the house this weekend we watched AVATAR which is, I have to say, one of the most overrated and predictable movies I've ever seen. I do, however, relate to the concept of living a double life. Having stayed up in VT for 8 days, it was super surreal last night coming "home". It's like stepping into my double life. Especially having spent so long working on things for the house while down here. I now feel like I need to reinvest some time in being here, in this life, in the present. And yet, it is so hard to leave my house behind.

And it's not just the beauty of my gorgeous new "antique silver" dining room walls, and crisp grey-white trim framing snow falling outside...

(only half the dining room is done- the 2 walls either side still need to be refinished, but having painted out the red with that gorgeous colour has made SO. MUCH. DIFFERENCE.)

Or my lovely new bright and airy hallway...

Or our lovely yellow front room which is such a cosy room...
...but the lovely feeling I have up there. We spent thanksgiving with our besties (the ones who introduced us to the loveliness of VT in the first place) who live up the road (in VT terms) and met lovely new people. We had a wonderful housewarming party with lovely neighbours and our new and old friends who are VT weekenders. Yesterday our neighbours popped in and helped us finish off the curries that Matt had cooked for the party. It feels like a community- more so than I feel down here.

(the wreath was a house warming gift)
But it's also the wonderful wildness of VT. The quality of the air, the quietness of the place. It feeds the soul. Yesterday Ella, Matt and I went for a walk to collect some pine cones to make some Christmas decorations...

On the way back we went down by the river (from here you can look back and see our house)

The water was near freezing...
This is the "swimming hole" which Kit was in just a few weeks ago. Not anymore though as it has a layer of ice over it.







(the old place across the road from us which I had a dream that I bought and turned into an art gallery)
We came back with a VT Christmas tree on the top of the car (we'll get one for up there next weekend). We need to get into the spirit of things and decorate the house down here (and a good tidy up wouldn't go astray either!), even though we will spend most of Christmas up there. It's tough coming to grips with this double life!