Farewell Bill Murray

I would have preferred to just ride off into the sunset at the end of the summer and look back at his cute little face knowing he would watch over the garden and keep the weeds at bay.  Instead I watched him ride off into the sunrise to his new home down the road a few miles.  I'm going to miss him!

Bill Murray has spent the last two summers living under our shed.  I wake up every morning to his little furry body munching weeds next to our flower bed.  He doesn't make a mess, he doesn't bother anyone, he lives under the shed...not in the shed (as far as I can tell) and has provided me with many morning and evening smiles over the summer.  I really do love waking up and looking out my window and saying, "good morning Bill!".  He just stares back and nibbles grass.

Good morning Bill!

Bill has very good taste in accommodations

This morning when I was having my first cup of tea (aka...barely awake and speaking)  TJ said he had an errand to run and was waiting for me to finish my tea before he told me about the nature of the errand.  He knew I would not take it well.  I told him to just break it to me, expecting him to say he needed my help to do one of our many "closing the farmhouse" chores.  To my surprise he confessed that his errand was to relocate Bill Murray who was now trapped in the "have a heart" trap.  I almost cried!  NOT Bill Murray!  TJ knew I would want to go out and say goodbye to the little fella.  Sniff, sniff!

He looked at me as if to say, "why...what did I do?"

We had a moment...or two.  He came right up and we looked at each other much like we have done every morning and evening ...except without the cage.  I think what I liked most was having an animal in the yard again.  With no dog running around the property these days, I enjoyed watching a cute groundhog named Bill Murray.  He did very little destruction and was kinda cute.  TJ was afraid Bill was going to talk some cute female groundhog into moving into his cool shed for the winter and make lots of little Bill Murrays who would munch the entire garden next summer.  I was more willing to risk it and let Bill and his potential family hang out over the winter and deal with the little lettuce eaters next summer.

It will probably be a few days before I quit looking for Bill every time I go to the kitchen window.  I spend a lot of time at the kitchen sink here at the farmhouse so having something to entertain me was pretty nice.

In other news, Bill Murray is not the only thing we are saying goodbye to this week.  Our summer has come to an end.  Part of the reason I was emotional saying goodbye to Bill was that I am also saying goodbye to another summer at the farmhouse.  It is the last week or hell week as I refer to it.  Plenty of emotions flying around this place amplified by exhaustion.  It was a different kind of summer, but aren't they all?  If I had to guess the number of beds I washed and changed over the summer I might just have to take a nap...my best guess is around 25....not that I counted.  We built it... they came... and we loved it!

So as I close the book on another beautiful summer here are a few of my favorite pictures from the summer of '17.

June had a few very nice days!

and some beautiful nights!

In July we celebrated Canada's 150th and TJ's brother's 60th!

This happy little guy and his Mom visited in July!

And there were more spectacular sunsets...over the water.

One of the attempts at a Lee family photo in August

The "cousin party"....one of my favorite
nights of the summer!

Oh, what the heck...there are just too many to share.  I will forever be grateful for this place my family found to spend their summers..... way back when.  We are thankful for being able to carry on the tradition and pass this place on to the next generation.  May they always know the gift that is "the shore" in Nova Scotia.
And Bill Murray....I hope you find a nice girl with a sweet shed for the winter!