Meet the beautiful Fawn Lily that grows wild in our forests on the pacific coast. She's dainty and delicate, loves the shade and is also known as Trout Lily, Dog's Tooth Violet and Adders Tongue in other parts of North America. Yesterday, while we were trying to decide just where to situate a house on our new land, I noticed that they're in bloom . They won't survive the clearing and digging when building begins, so I'm going to rescue as many as I can before the chaos begins. They may not all survive but I'd love to save as many as I can.
We move at the end of April and most of our belongings will be put in storage for the duration. We'll be living with my daughter Meghan and her family for 2 months or so and then...we don't know yet, but it won't be traveling as we had previously thought. By the time we arrived home from Mexico and living out of suitcases for two months, we knew we wanted...needed...to stay in one place for awhile.
The packing is well underway as is the process of "mentally" leaving and separating from this place that has been our home now for eight years. (the longest either of us has ever lived anywhere!) Although we've loved living here and the home has so many wonderful memories of good times with family and friends, I'm more than ready to leave and start the next chapter in our lives. I'm excited to be packing up all this "stuff" and feel lighter already!
I'm thinking I could easily become a minimalist, but I'm not sure it would last!
BEAUTIFUL pics, Kate! I hope you manage to save quite a few of those gorgeous looking lilies.
The end of April???!!!! Goodness, that's not long til then at all...what a busy bee you will be! The kids and I came back from the States with nothing and had to start over afresh. It's amazing just how easy it is to get by living a minimalistic lifestyle and quite refreshing actually.....ten years on, I have no idea how all this stuff around me accumulated but it did. If we had to move now, we would need a huge removalist truck, quite the opposite to the ten large suitcases we had all our possessions packed into years ago ~ :)
love, light and peace,
serena
Posted by: Serena | 04/16/2009 at 02:13 PM
Gorgeous photos! The lilies look like they are dancing. Minimalism lasts as long as the next packed box! This I learned the hard way. LOL :)
Posted by: Genie Sea | 04/16/2009 at 02:38 PM
Serena I'm impressed that you could get everything for a family down to just 10 suitcases...I know what you mean about it being refreshing though, as one of the best life experiences I've ever had was living out of a backpack for 2 months. It was incredibly freeing!
Posted by: Kate I | 04/16/2009 at 09:20 PM
Genie...I know it wouldn't last, but I can dream!
Posted by: Kate I | 04/16/2009 at 09:22 PM
Hi Kate,
I am still getting used to your new blog name, still looking out for posts from Thru My Lens Lightly and wondering why there haven't been any! Doh. Anyway, I love this photo of your house, it is beautiful. But I am so excited for your new plans, Tom and I dream of building a house one day although I doubt that it will ever happen because we'll probably not be able to afford it. But we used to pour over Sarah Susanka's "The Not So Big House" designs and just loved them. I look forward to seeing and hearing all about the building process once it starts! :)
Hugs, Kerstin xo
Posted by: Kerstin | 04/16/2009 at 11:35 PM
It really does sound like you are ready for a change, and that is good. The process of packing and physically leaving (I think) is bitter-sweet. The leaving the familiar, the sights, sounds smells. Leaving the memories. But clearing out and making room for all sorts of new things. Good luck!
Posted by: Martie . | 04/17/2009 at 11:25 AM
I got so excited to see the Mama Eagle and babies I didn't go down on your posts to see all the pretties. Flowers are just a passion of mine, guess it is from being a floral designer or more probably my Mama who had the same passion. It would be hard for me to leave such a beautiful place as yours, and I did leave my beautiful home on the coast of CA 5 years ago. It was bitter sweet but I was ready for a change and also to downsize. That is a good feeling but so hard to do at times. Those things all become a part of your life and then they are just things. Good luck in your move, I am sure whereever you go or do it will be successful.
By the way my son-in-law here in AZ is from Victoria and his family live close to Sidney. I think that is why I have had a connection to your blog and you also take pretty pictures and I love reading your thoughts. Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment, it was an honor. Have a super Sunday.
Posted by: Barbara | 04/19/2009 at 08:03 AM