May 31, 2008

The upstate New York experience: green, green, green

VALOIS, New York, USA - The Admiral and I experienced our first real rain last night, the first since we left California last December for Mexico.

Not a drop fell in our part of coastal Mexico while we were there and it was so extraordinary last night that I stood outside at 5 a.m. for a few minutes, letting the rain pelt me. Yes, I now am sneezing, slightly, from the cold and wet, but it was worth it.

I have never been to our Seneca Lake house this early in the spring season. The reward for coming in now is that everything is in bloom, flowers, trees and weeds, too. (Please pass the kleenex, would you?) But because it is early, I have been able to get a closer look at various projects (unobstructed by brush) and figured out what I hope is some easier ways to accomplish things. More on rebuilding our cliffside path to the lake in another blog.

Sideyard
Plants blooming all around the house

The nicest experience in coming back this year was how good things are. The house had been cleaned before we arrived (and was really clean) the yard had been raked and mowed (and looked like a golf course), even the outside of the house looked a little cleaner. My work cleaning and organizing the tools paid off the first time I went looking for my various rakes and shovels and other implements and they were hanging up - right where I left them.

Un milagro, as we say in Mexico.

One thing that really stood out was how good the guest cabin looked after being painted by our friend Brad last summer. The cabin cleanup has been my worst nightmare every summer, as it would be gross on the outside and equally problematic on the inside.

This season, I just go up and sit on the little patio and listen to birds.

Seneca Lake cabin
Seneca Lake cabin new paint job survived the winter

Next on the list is finding a summer car for the house - the white Buick has been sold and the rental car is waaay too expensive to keep for more than a week or so.

But why do all the reasonably priced cars and trucks for sales have to be Ford motor products?

!Madre mia! (another Mexican expression.)

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