Farewell to My Life "Away"

 This week is one of the most exhausting and bittersweet weeks of my year.  This is the week we shut down our life at the farmhouse and prepare to fly south for the winter.  I have chronicled this week many times over the years, and one would think after so many years doing this process it would get easier or that my mental state would be more prepared for what lies ahead, but alas, I am a slow learner.  Add to the clean out the fridge, put everything away for the winter, pack up your suitcase, wash everything you can lay your eyes on frenzy that is on my "to do" list, we had to prepare for a hurricane!  I think it was a blessing and a curse.

Hurricane Lee hit Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI last weekend.  We all knew it was coming and hopefully everyone prepared as well as we did.  Hopefully no one needed all of their preparations either.  All last week I kept saying we were going to over prepare and hopefully it would all would work out.  Well.. it actually did!  The hurricane came and went and it was one of the more interesting and lovely hurricanes I have ever seen!  Go figure!

Absolute favorite part of any hurricane I have ever seen!
I watched this rainbow move across the horizon for about 30 minutes!

Just had to go down at high tide to see just how high it was.

Hurricane Lee came and went and left nothing but muddy yards and rain weary people in its wake.  The past week has been dreary and downright depressing!  September did not win me over this year.  After what can only be described as a rainy summer, September has been more of the same.  My brain works so much better in the sunshine!  Add to the rain the cooler than usual temperatures and the mass evacuation for the hurricane and we were left with each other and the dreary gray sky in our final week and try as I might to get motivated to pack, clean and ready the house for our departure, I just kept dragging my feet.  I did manage to get "some" stuff done and the hurricane prep helped get all the flying objects inside, but darn if the day before we leave...yet again...is like a friggin' marathon!

One of us got to power wash not one but 2 lawnmowers, run the 
gas out of them and put them away for the season.

The poor garden had to be cleaned up and we harvested most of the available produce.
Can I say how much I am going to miss eating super fresh, organic produce 
every day?!

Last but not least we had to empty all of the potted plants that
have provided us with so much joy as they 
adorned our various decks and porches.
This truly is one of the hardest things I have to do every time we leave.

This week has provided me with many opportunities to reflect on what I will miss and what I won't miss when we leave.  I will miss a lot for sure, but after spending a solitary week in the cool and gray I am very much looking forward to some sunshine.  Of course, one week back home and I will be begging to come back to the coolness up here.  Such a quandary...but alas, we must go home at some point.

Things I will miss...

-The garden!  The thought of eating vegetables from the supermarket and not minutes old from the backyard is daunting.  I swear every summer my body thanks me for eating organic vegetables.  The vegetable from our garden taste so much better than anything I can buy at the store, and we get very spoiled.  Meals are usually planned around what we just picked out of the garden.  I have this, this and this...search a recipe and that's what we have for dinner!  Easy.  Add to the garden the brilliant flowers that we have up here and I am all in!

-Having people around who are happy to drop by or be dropped in on at a moment's notice.  Until recently when everyone escaped the hurricane, there was any number of people who would drop by for dinner or invite us over for dinner.  Back home it's just the two of us...every night it seems.  There are no spontaneous gatherings.

-The light.  The light up here is different.  For some reason, maybe it is just my shore-colored goggles, but everything is more beautiful up here...especially when the sun is shining.  The air is clearer, the greens are greener, the blues are bluer, and the air is clearer!

-The ease of life up here.  There is no traffic.  There are many open spaces.  The population is sparse.  The pace of life is a lot slower than the one at home.  When I first arrive these are some of the things that drive me crazy, then after a couple of weeks, I have slipped into the easier pace of life up here and greatly appreciate it!

-No TV!  I have not sat down and watched television since I left home.  If I must confess, I really don't miss it 95% of the time.  Then college football starts...or baseball season gets serious...and I feel very left out.  Add to those things one...or two lonely, gray weeks and I find myself resorting to watching Seinfeld on my computer at night just to pass the time.  Desperate times require desperate measures.  I much prefer the nights when digital entertainment is the farthest thing from my mind!

Things I am looking forward to when I get home...

-My hair salon!  Vanity of vanities!  

-A nail salon...my poor neglected feet!  More vanity.

-Eating out...within a couple of miles from my house!

-My golf club which is only 2 miles from my house and where I have made some very good friends.

-My car.  We have one, very old truck, up here and two people living 20 miles away from the nearest golf club or grocery store with one truck is a challenge.  The truck has been in the shop twice this summer resulting in no car...or borrowing cars.  I miss my car, the one with the backup camera and the blind spot warning and the comfortable seats and the Bluetooth connection.  That 2003 truck is nice and all but it is not my car!  I miss my independence!

There is a short list of things I will miss and things I am looking forward to when I get home.  Today has been a marathon and still it isn't all done.  The leaving is a slow and painful tearing yourself away from the idyllic life we are privileged to live in the summer up here.  Yes, I might complain about the details, but for 3 months of living in what can only be described as stepping back in time to a kinder, simpler life it is all worth it!

Until next summer, farewell to my home away from home.  I sure wish I could channel you when I need you in my "real" life!