Looking southeast from the dining room.

Our house is getting set up, one familiar scene at a time.

*There* being:  from the rampart of a castle we can see from our house. 

We wanted to take Skye to see the castle that’s visible from her balcony.

And *this* is the view from *there*.

I know. This country is crazy-beautiful.

This is the view from the room adjacent to Skye’s.  

John has laid claim to the library office downstairs – it has bookshelves and a fireplace, and boasts the perfect exit to the lower patio for cigars and whisky, if he’s so inclined.  Our three saddles are down there and when I walk in that room I can smell the faint and indescribably wonderful (to me) odor of *horse*. It’s a nice place for a guy.

On the top level are four rooms:  Skye’s nursery and the garret room on one side, a bathroom in the middle, and our master bedroom on the other side.

I was secretly glad that John wanted the downstairs office. I like the cozy garret because it’s close to our girl, the view is the confined serenity of our tiny and colorful yard, and it’s very quiet.

There are even empty window boxes ready for planting.

But maybe I’ll wait on the planting for now.

But I’ll be posting what I’ve archived.

At least, if my settings work, I’ll be doing that.

Have a good week, everyone!

One of the “up” sides to having a house where there is a host of living challenges (unreliable hot water, heat, and a chimney that smokes) is that at least for the chimney problem, the remedy is being able to see a Chimney Sweep.

If you didn’t know that they’re lucky, well – they are.

This guy was funny; I asked him to hold Skye for a picture and he obliged – but seemed uncomfortable. Come to find out he has no children of his own – but sweetly he said to me as he waved goodbye, “Madam, I think your baby made me lucky today, too.”

“Lucky me,” I thought. “I get to hold her everyday.”

I think a lot more dishes would get done if everyone had one.

After a long month, we are supposed to have internet at home tomorrow.  Not posting entries sometimes felt like a vacation, but after awhile I started to miss it.  By tomorrow night, I hope to be publishing an entry from the desk in the room next to Baby’s. It looks out over treetops. A writer’s garret of my very own!

Though our house is *messy and unsettled*, and there are lingering problems with heat and hot water that make living difficult – I’m seeing a glimpse of order in the chaos. 

But the most important things have been and are here with me. As I look back over these last silent 30 days of cold showers and perpetually cold feet and hands – that’s what I choose to remember.

Otherwise known as “Purple Glory” trees.

Two of these beauties grace our front yard – diminutive trees, but they boast energetic blossoms in late summer.

Well, OK, then!

One hides an ugly drainpipe at the NW corner, one hides the junction with the garage addition at the SW U-bend.

Purple is a beautiful color, indeed.

More pictures from John of the house we’ll be living in in Germany.

Love this “hidden” fireplace off the “party room” (as John calls the next picture).

Ready for visitors by October!

This will be Skye’s nursery in Germany.

What do I do with a pole right in the center of the room?  And a sloped ceiling?

On the other hand, the new refinished crib will look great with this warm Nordic wood!