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What a lovely surprise on Saturday afternoon, we decided to go for hike with the dogs and we found this great park is only 4 miles from the house. The visitor center has a museum talking about the history of the area including details of the Manchester Company Mill that was burnt down in 1864 although some of the walls are still standing. The visitor center is one of only 21 worldwide to achieve Platinum status for its energy conservation.

We headed off to the river where one of the advantages of all the rain was the shoals were really active. I understand that they usually get a few kayakers braving the rapids.

 

A little further on we saw glimpses of the old mill – it must have been impressive in its day. It was 5 stories high and at the time of building was the highest building in Atlanta.

It was a little strenuous in places but we really look forward to many more walks there in the future.

We rounded off the evening with a trip to Joe’s Crab Shack. It is just another chain restaurant, but one we have been hoping to try for quite some time and we were pleased to see there was one in Douglasville.

I started the evening with a vodka spiked iced tea and followed it with a steam pot filled with crabs and prawns.Yum !

 

 

Sunday 17th I was up early taking Rob to the airport for a change, one more trip to New York to empty the house and hand it over to the Realtor.

He took all the good weather with him, it rained and rained and rained. Wednesday was my birthday and the high spots were Skype calls to Alana and my Mum a pile of really good books of the area from Kat and a number of cards including one from Rob. Last year I got a present no card, this year card no present but most years ….nothing. No one can accuse him of being predictable. I treated myself to some sewing time.

On Thursday I was treated to a scene from “Birds” when hundreds or crows descended onto the garden. Thanks goodness they did not stay too long

Very late Friday night Rob returned home – his truck looked like a scene from the Clampitts.

 

 

 

Flew to Minneapolis last Monday and the weather was down at 5 F blinking freezing. I had an early appointment on the Tuesday and woke up to 5 inches of snow on top of the car. Luckily one of the advantages of such cold temperatures is that the snow is light and fluffy and not heavy and wet. It did not take too long to get the car uncovered but it made for a very “interesting” drive.

 

On the Wednesday night I was able to go and visit my first live basketball team we had great seats and I did my best to support the home team despite their close loss. I have to say there are as many time outs as there is actual playing time but there was plenty of activity going on in the breaks. Everything from dancing to the Memphis street flippers and a slam dunk squad. Flew home on Thursday evening and the knock on effect from the winter storms in the north east meant that it was gone midnight by the time I got back.

 

All the animals were pleased to see me back and this time I have also taken a photo of the barn cats as well. And yes I am going to buy them some new bowls.

 

I was thrilled to see we have daffodils in amongst the trees – It was a great surprise and reminds me of Wales. Friday morning we went to get the cars tagged but I will let Rob relate that tale.

 

The soil around here presents a number of problems. It’s an acidic red clay that needs plenty of lime to promote healthy pasture. The clay soil absorbs rain fall slowly and given that we have hardly any flat areas, water run-off and subsequent soil erosion is an issue. The best solution is to promote the growth of a healthy and vigorous pasture. This will provide feed for the alpacas and conserve the landscape.

The majority of our pasture has only been established in the last few years after clearance of the forest. It is a “work in progress”. Step 1, for me, is to get the soil tested to see how much lime I will have to spread this spring. So out I went, taking plugs from various parts of the pasture. The local agricultural college runs a test lab. I’ve told them what I want to grow and they will come back to me with their recommendations in a few days. This is going to be an interesting project.

Well whatever counts for normal at our place! Friday I decided to stop wasting any more time and go and discover the joys of getting a Georgia driving license. So first you have to queue for a number and then wait for your number to get called. Having filled in the right form and provided the requisite 5 pieces of identification, I was then informed I would need to do the full written and physical test. Oh joy yet another queue and then off to the PC to answer the written test. Only got 1 wrong and that was debatable (although decided not to point out that they were wrong). Now I got to wait for the driving examiner, first parallel park between cones, them some reversing exercises and an emergency stop. Then off we go out onto the main road, we spent about 20 minutes navigating around the local area, never above 35MPH and no passing, dual carriageway or joining traffic. Thank goodness I passed everything first time and without any errors but I have to say it certainly explains why the standard of driving in down town Atlanta is a bit hairy, nothing in the test prepares them for driving on a 5 lane orbital road at 60MPH with traffic feeding on an off every couple of miles. Anyway I now have my license, so back off home to gloat to Rob!

We decided to tackle my sewing room again on Saturday and we finally made enough room for me to actually sew something. Although we also brought in all the fabric from the RV and even I had to admit even I was surprised how much I had. Sunday afternoon I drove out to Marietta and joined Veronica and the other ladies for an afternoon of spinning (fiber not bike) I have to say there is something very special about spinning my own yarn to a good enough quality that I can actually knit socks with it. Can’t wait till I can actually do that with fiber from my very own Alpacas.

Monday morning brought an early start to the week – the only high spot being the glorious sun rise that was visible out of the window at Hartfield Jackson Airport. Off to Minneapolis where I was greeted with a balmy 5degrees F – thats -15C to all the Europeans. 5 inches of snow last night and more due later in the week.

 

Well as you saw from Mr Rob previous post. He arrived back home with many many boxes! Most of which were loaded into my sewing room. After running up and down stairs all day just trying to find a place to put things down it got closer to the evening with still more things to allocate a home to, so we changed to running up and down to the barn with the wheelbarrow just to make sure that things were at least going to be kept dry.

Then comes the fun job of unpacking all those darn boxes. The jury is still out on what was the most challenging, finding homes for all the stuff or trying to find the things we actually needed. I still have not found the legs for the sofa, the dogs get fed regularly so I know they have not done anything with them. Although one of the things we did find was the weighing sales. Where we very quickly discovered that Mr Rob had dropped 10lbs and I had lost 3lbs (which is because I am smaller and not because I was doing less work)

By Sunday we could actually see the floor and work surfaces again, so we decided to make the most of a very nice day and take the girls out for a long walk, it’s just another of the joys of living here, we have the ability to walk out of the back of the property and straight onto a series of trails.

On Tuesday my rest from traveling stopped and it brought a big smile to my face when I realized my first trip would actually be back to New York City. I stayed at the New Yorker hotel which whilst very dated, it had a nice Art Deco feel to it

Wednesday I flew over the top of the bad weather and went to Nashville for 2 days. I am currently sitting at the airport waiting to fly home to Georgia.

it is so easy to loose the habit and then you end up always blogging about stuff that happened ages ago.
So here is my catch up and I will try and update it more often. Lets finish off the Baltimore trip, lots of good food and fun mixed in with the work and I sense a theme with the restaurants there. Here is a picture from the outside of Cafe Hon yet another Elvis.

This weekend I finished hand knotting the afghan I embroidered for a friends wedding, I used designs from Janet Sansom they stitch out so well, I love them.

Saturday morning I went to Quilters Attic, I spent the morning in a 5D software training class and the afternoon in a class making the Suzi purse insert, I finished a large and a medium.

Very cute. I will use them to store quilting supplies in my basket. I was able to finish 2 more blocks for my PB & J quilting Bee.

I went running with Gil twice this weekend, 4 miles on Friday and 3 on Sunday morning and then last but not least I stitched out another Janet Sansom design as a centre for a decorative pillow

Looking forward to this week, couple of dinners with friends and wedding on Friday.

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