October 1st! Not only have we begun the last quarter of a year which — is it just me? — seems to have only just begun. But Pater and I have also just begun the fourth year in our urban home. We’ve lived here three full years now and while there are many elements I will always miss about living at the beach, on a small island — and also, to be honest, about living in a detached home — for the most apart we are content to call this condo home.
There were so many steps to this transition. I didn’t undertake it lightly when we began, and it’s taken at least as much physical and emotional energy as I’d expected. But I’ve finally got my own workspace, the last step, really, in making this home work for me.
I’ve posted about some of those steps over the last three years — here and here, for example — and this morning, over at my reading blog, I’ve posted about the process of culling my bookshelves as part of transforming the condo’s second bedroom again, so that besides serving as our guest room and our TV room/library, it also hosts a workspace for me, where there used to be a closet.
I hope you might find the post interesting — I decided, after my first year blogging here, that I’d keep a separate reading blog, but I’ve been wondering lately about re-integrating. . . .
Meanwhile, Happy October! Have you bought any pumpkins yet?
No pumpkins yet, but have big plans for pumpkins for sure. The absolute best time of year. However I am opposed to pumpkin spiced anything. Just say NO!
Racing to finish work here to leave in 4 days for Maine for 5 weeks of work and seeing family and friends. The weather is still hot there, I read…please bring on the chill and changing leaves.
4 years in the condo? Wow, never would it seem three years have gone by. Yikes
But you seem increasingly happy and settled in your nest and on your terrace. And now
..work space too. Very happy for you.
A.in London
I enjoy both of your blogs (reading and this one) – I find I enjoy many of your reads. Observing from afar, you seem to be gifted in finding pleasure in your varying environments (beach, condo, travel way stations), a characteristic to be prized it seems to me.
ceci
Transitions, especially changing homes, is hard for most. You've done very well and seem content in your new environment. I've known a few people to make a change and reverse it. For me, I live by, "nothing ventured, nothing gained"…Life is an adventure and I'm here for the ride. Susan
I will head over to your workspace post.
Like others, I find it hard to believe that you've been 4 years in your city home. I enjoy reading about your busy city pursuits, which remind me of the life I left in Edinburgh.
No pumpkin here! Pumpkins at Hallowe'en didn't exist in my youth – we had viciously hard-to-carve turnip lanterns, and I still prefer a 'neep' lantern as being traditionally Scottish and more connected to the land. They do grow all around, whereeas pumpkins travel a much greater distance to get to us. Plus they smell better when singed by that candle inside! I am with A.in London in refusing spiced pumpkin anything. I have only once tasted pumpkin pie, made with tinned pumpkin, and thought it the work of the devil. Appropriate for Hallowe'en perhaps! For a nation where Hallowe'en was part of the deep belief structure from pre-Christian times we really don't embrace it now. Children still 'guise' from house to house, homes with children may put a lantern, turnip or pumpkin, in the window, but that's about it. I don't know anyone who decorates for Hallowe'en. The supermarkets do their usual job of trying to encourage extra spending of course! But it is worth pausing and thinking of it as one of those 'liminal' times, and stripping away the commercialism, wondering about that and feeling some of the mystery.
No pumpkins:). I have developed an aversion to them, unless they are pretend. I saw some glass ones with lights inside, maybe I'll do that instead. Or perhaps I am simply now a curmudgeon and best give that signal to warn people.
I'm very glad you are setting up this workspace. I look forward to seeing what comes out of it.
I enjoy some pumpkin dishes (Hokkaido pumpkin is best for that), but refuse all types of seasonal decoration. This place is stuffed with too many things as it is. I Better head over to your other blog and see if I can get some ideas on culling…
Three years? I think you both like it here,although there are happy memories(and will be forever) about the island life
I love your books blog,but I would like book posts here as well
I agree with Eleonore-yes to all kind of pumpkin dishes,but no pumpkin decorations
Dottoressa
Ugh!! I responded to the first four comments and my response got lost — so I'm experiencing what many of you have and I don't like it!
Trying again, but more briefly
Thanks to A. in London with best wishes for your coming travels (and good luck meeting the work deadlines. And I'm curious: is it the ubiquity of pumpkin pie spice you object to or the combo itself? Cinnamon and nutmeg and allspice and cloves (I prefer the latter two in much lower proportions than usual)? I'm not lining up for Pumpkin Spice Lattes,, but I do like that seasonal comfort.
Thanks to Ceci and Susan for kind words. I do try to find joy in whatever corners available, especially during change. . .
Linda: had a long response to you appreciating your preferene for the 'neep laterns of your own "terroir" and culture — and advancing my own appreciation for Hallowe'en here, which — colonizer/settler agriculture has disrupted the ethnobotany here, so that I grew up with pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns and pies made from them, the mix of spices originally ransacked from other parts of the world. . . And, as it happens, in October, Canadian Thanksgiving and Hallowe'en feature those pretty significantly as connected with two celebrations that are meaningful to many of us. Commercialized, sure, as so many observations precious to us are exploited. But still meaningful. . .
Lisa: Now that we live in a condo, there's not much point carving one — no kids will be looking for that sign that we're handing out treats, no danger of any tricks 😉 . . . We roast a fair bit of squash in the fall and winter, but I'm generally content to get my pumpkin puree in a can — put it in soup regularly. . . (thanks re the workspace — I'm so happy about it!)
Eleonore: We don't get enough Hokkaido Squash here, but it's the best, absolutely!
Dottoressa: Moi non plus with the pumpkin decorations (although I've been known, in the past, to make up a small arrangement of the smaller gourds. . . .
I found you and your writing right when your transition began! I was enchanted by your island home and your decision to change to a more urban lifestyle. I commented that I hoped to move, too. And you mentioned that any attempt to declutter right then was wise to do ahead of said actual move. I believe you had just sold your piano.
Here we are, three years later, and my husband and I have moved! I can't remember how much I have already shared with you but we sold our home of 34 years and have moved just fifty miles north, away from Los Angeles, to a small coastal town and a home with less yard and less square footage. This weekend will mark two months in our new locale…and we are still unpacking!!! We didn't declutter enough!!! :). But, oh, how we love it! The beautiful weather, our home, the proximity to our son and his family (4 grandkids!), our church family, the nearby avocado and citrus groves, the neighborhood, etc. I can tell you how different this locale is by sharing that our yearly auto insurance decreased by eight hundred dollars (yes, you read that right) when we moved. !!!
Also, during your past three years of transition, I have had the delight of meeting/sharing friends of yours and visited your former island. I've thanked you before and will continue to thank you for your warm, heartfelt sharing on this blog. Blessings all around from this technological connection, Frances!
Charlene H
Oh! Yes! Sugar pumpkins here (for pies) and door wreath and scarecrow at front door…had to empty that box. 😛
Charlene H
No, pumpkin soup and pie (sorry Linda B) spices are some of my favorites. A big Thanksgiving tradition in my family is pumpkin soup. It is the Trader Joe's, Starbucks' pumpkin spiced coffee, tea, nuts, candles, hand lotion,that the pumpkin spice should stay clear of. Oh dear, it does divide the masses, this subject. But I agree, those spices in cooking, (where they belong, in my humble opinion), are some of best of the Fall season. Mostly I live for the changing of the leaves in New England. It a much more subtle affair in London than in New England.Pumpkins, gourds, ornamental corn hung on doors-all wonderful NE traditions to me.
A. in London
Charlene: I think the last I heard was that you had just sold and were getting ready for the moving trucks. So good to know that two months later, you're feeling so good about the move. Since you've visited "my island," you'll know what a wrenching move we made, but the reasons for it are still solid and we've adjusted happily (and I never did sell my piano — we decided that a grand Does So fit into a condo 😉
A. Divide the masses it does, and I'm pretty much where you are. . .