our future neighborhood and Andy

Hi everyone! 

This is a long post for me...warning.

I remembered my camera when we were in our new neighborhood last night. The light conditions were not favorable but here are a few shots of our street and lot.

Fresh ferns had popped up since we visited the other day. Wish there was a way to save them but they will undoubtedly be crushed when construction starts. The lot is long and narrow. The house on the left was just finished. They chose yellow siding, at least it is a happy color. We will go with a cream most probably.

 All the trees are flagged for the survey. We will lose all the oaks in the center and try to keep those on the perimeter. 

This is the view towards the marsh from the lot. The limbs on the left are oaks that will remain and obscure part of the view which is fine with us. They will provide shade in the hot summer and differentiate our lot from the others that do not have trees on their frontage like ours does. So our front garden will have more shade, we prefer that for the double porches.

View towards the neighbors. The clump of oaks to the right of husband will remain.

Our lot is between the two houses here.

Husband checking out the view which we love! The lawn is protected park space but rarely do you see it being used except at sunset. There are swings to relax and enjoy. Most residents stroll over or ride bikes and the older residents tend to bring their cocktail or wine and arrive on golf carts, departing the moment the sun sets. So the street is very quiet. We feel blessed that we will be able to see the sun set from the house.

This view says South Carolina!

Looking down the street in the other direction. Park on the left.

 This farmhouse styled home is just down the street. It sits on a small pond on a beautiful lot.

Looking back towards our end of the street. You can see the beautiful garage apartment with a screened porch in the rear of the house.

Across the small pond is the large neighborhood pond. There were two people fishing yesterday. One fellow was fly fishing and an older lady had parked her bike and was fishing all by herself which I thought was awesome.

Wish the sky was blue, these shots would have been prettier.

The fly fisherman is on the left, you can barely see his blue shirt.

We will love walking and biking our neighborhood.

We happened upon a Red Buckeye or Aesculus Pavia in a naturalized area next to the pond. The stems are pink.

Moving away from the pond towards the rest of the neighborhood. You can see that husband is alone... 

We lost our sweetheart Andy last weekend. He deteriorated very quickly. Appearing normal on Wednesday, he slowed down a bit on Thursday but Friday morning, he suddenly could not walk and did not respond to strong pain relief. He could not lie on his side, the lump increased in size as the day went on and he stayed in one position most of the day. Friday night he stayed in a frog position all night and every time I checked on him, he was awake. The pain relievers should have allowed him to sleep but had no effect. 

Taken two weeks ago.

Our soft lovely boy was not going to suffer, he went to heaven on Saturday. We never saw him ill until the last two days of his life! A blessing he went so quickly but a shock to us. He seemed to be so happy and had not lost his appetite or his handsome body, except the stupid hump between his shoulders that haunted us. Needless to say, we feel very lonely without him. Trying to figure out how to live without him right now. I know we will adjust but right now it feels very sudden even though of course we knew what was coming. Losing a pet never gets easier, no matter how many you have said goodbye to.

This photo of Andy was taken in our last house two summers ago after a bath and trim.  A typical stance, he is watching me cook but checking out the black squirrels that were always under our bird feeders. We also had chipmunks that lived around our patio and scampered around us as we sat outside. They would run right by him but he accepted them as he did all the frogs on the edge of the pond. Squirrels were another matter though and he was always chasing them up the maple trees. He only caught one once and it was not pretty.

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So that is all for now. 

Having more free time now that I no longer have children at home, no longer have to care for a  big house and yard or have a big dog to take long walks with everyday, I am going to start blogging more often. I will share some gift ideas as my go-to last minute gift drawer has depleted and need to find  some nice things to replenish  it with. May even do my first giveaway with some local goods from the Low Country. So come back soon!

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

Beaufort historic homes

Take a quick little tour of the beautiful homes of Beaufort, SC. The town is situated next to the Broad River so many of them have water and/or marsh views. Make sure to view in full screen!

lowcountry living/life changes

Warning-wordy post ahead, not my usual!

              There are changes on the horizon for my husband and me. Our youngest child has just graduated from high school. Husband has been working from home the last year and loving it. We can now live anywhere as long as there is perfect internet connectivity. 

We live in a house that was purchased for a family of five and lots of pets (now down to just one dog and the fish and frogs in the pond...they don't know they are pets!) has felt too large since our oldest two flew the nest. Our entire second floor of four bedrooms sits unused unless we have guests. Youngest son has enjoyed a full walkout basement suite of rooms, a perfect teenage space to share with friends. 

We love where we live.  It is physically beautiful here in the Chagrin River valley of Northeast Ohio. The  village of Chagrin Falls and other neighboring towns are charming and quaint with Western Reserve architecture built by New England settlers. There are rivers and wetlands and maple forests everywhere. The people here are Midwestern friendly and kind. 

And we love our property. I share that love here on the blog. We have filled the lots of the three homes we have had with plants, lots and lots of plants. Even our little starter apartment when we were first married, had a beautiful balcony full of plants. 

But....

We are outdoor people. We love the sun and warm weather. We are at the stage of life (pre retirement) where we want less of lots of things...less house, less stuff, less chilly grey days, less house maintenance. And more of other things...more year round outdoor activities, more travel, more discoveries and new experiences, more flexibility. 

So....after mulling over possible destinations all over the US and even the Caribbean (husband's company is based there), we decided that our hearts were in the Coastal South, where we started out thirty years ago. We used to explore the barrier islands of Georgia and South Carolina on weekends when we lived in Jacksonville, FL and fell in love with the beauty of the marshes and oak trees of the Lowcountry. And the people, warm, polite and so courteous, a slower pace of life.

So after touring different areas last week, we have made an offer on a lot that fronts the marshes that line the wide Broad River in Beaufort, SC. The lot is to the left of our rental car in this photo. The beauty of this lot is that the lawn that borders the water is protected green park space that cannot be developed. Our little lot, which the house will take up most of, receives the benefit of a big, beautiful and protected piece of property right in front of it. There will only be room for a long narrow house with a courtyard garden and plants and trees around the perimeter. It will be so much fun to discover Southern plants and plant in Zone 8b! 

View from the house.

The Broad River is in the background, past the island with trees, you can see the bluffs in the distance on the shoreline across the river if you look closely.

Across the park, towards the house.

The lot next door has this pretty house on it. We will be smack next to it and there will be an eventual home right next to us as well. Luckily we have oak trees and magnolias between us. We will have to look straight out towards the water but will have wraparound porches on both floors to help us do that. Most homes in this area have double porches for obvious reasons. They have ceiling fans and the ceilings are usually painted light blue.

These two pics were taken on two different days, check out the sky color. The neighbor's home has the advantage of a corner lot so they can maximize the view.

Our side windows will look onto this side of the neighboring house.

Enough about that for now as we have to settle the lot purchase first and then sell the home we are in now, which may take some time. Do other people want extensive gardens? We will see. We were able to sell our other homes relatively quickly with lots of plants, hopefully it will happen here. I worry that prospective buyers will see it as too much maintenance. 

Here are a few shots of the adorable Beaufort, SC that will be our  new stomping grounds once we are done with all the buying, selling and building.

Small town living but lots of good restaurants, even chic ones like this! Husband carrying my purse.

We saw kayaks being toted so many times, one of the most popular activities along the rivers and marshes. We will have our own and be able to kayak from our neighborhood.

Downtown is next to the Beaufort River, you can see the water down this alley.

One of the cute shops. This one, M Home & Garden, had lots of fun things for the house.

Isn't Luther's cute?

The ice cream parlor had perfect root beer floats and grilled cheese!

Another alley to the water, this one brick paved and lined with palms.

A storm was rolling in.

Cars waiting for the pivoting bridge as a sailboat went through.

The bridge pivots sideways to allow space for tall boats.

You can see the open position better here. I love bridges and find them fascinating.

So it is an exciting journey for us and I want to take you along with me! We were not intending to build a home so that task will take some time to figure out. I may be absent for periods of time while we prepare this house to sell and come up with a design for the new house but I will post along the way when possible.  

What do you think of our new journey? Do you think we are crazy for moving to the hot Deep South? By the way, it was perfect weather while we were there, balmy, breezy and not muggy but we know July and August will be difficult. We will try to plan travel to cooler climates (Colorado Rockies!) during those months. Also need to be here in Chagrin Falls for some of the summer so our son can see all his friends for the next few years while he is in college.

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy