After five happy years, circumstances dictated a change and my family left behind "the last homely house" at the outskirts of the village. Finances, an aging old house, and a lot of maintenance featured in the decision, and we are settling in at a newer home in a different part of the island. It will in time become home, but not quite yet.
The last few months in the old place were beautiful, once summer storms let up September ushered in an Indian summer we are still enjoying, with warm sunny days and butterflies & blooms even now in November.
A pair of white-tailed does turned up in late summer, still so young the spots on their flanks hadn't faded, and they became regular visitors to the old apple trees. I never tired of watching them stroll around the yard, at mid-day and often at dusk, with late day sunshine glowing behind them. I hope they survive the hunting season, poor things not as wild and cautious as they should be.
My Sarah Bernhardt peony was, with some effort, dug up and transplanted to the new yard, its third move in the last 14 years it has travelled with me. Turned out some previous tenant had left the remains of a flower bed out front, so it was fairly easy to find it a new home.
My son grew up from boy to young man at the homely house, from 13 to 18, and the place holds echoes of airsoft gun tournaments, boys' late night laughter, music, bicycles, Risk and Middle Earth role play games, a host of growing up times. The years flew by so quickly. Sentimentally, I imagine the old house with its own sleepy memories now that it stands empty and quiet.
I miss the golden light on the garden in the morning, when frost shimmered on the Autumn Joy sedum and sparkled in the early morning sun. The apple trees, the tall hackmatacks, and the crows calling for their morning bread crusts, I will remember the peace most of all, stepping out into the morning light with a hot coffee and no company but the chatter of chickadees. It was just right for us then, now it's time to move on. So a fond farewell to the homely house - it was a wonderful home these past five years and will always be with us in memory, remembered with much love. So the Homely House Journal comes to an end.
