sold!

It's been two months, almost to the day, since we listed our house and now it is officially sold. Had we listed 2.5 months ago it would have sole in a minute, but the market went soft and we sat a bit longer than is comfortable. In the end the first buyers, remember I said they were nervous entering the roundabout, didn't follow through when faced with the 48 hour clause that required them to buck up or back out; it was a second buyer who won the prize. It is a young couple who've been looking for a couple of years and we hope they'll be happy with their choice. This house has great Feng Shui but it is big and demanding too.
And now we will do some grieving but there won't be much time for that as there are many details to organize with a comprehensive renovation of the new place and a trip to the Maritimes thrown in for good measure.
While I was taking the real estate sign photo I couldn't resist the rhodos. It seems to me I post a lot of flower photos but sometimes I just can't help myself. I wish I could capture the scale for you easterners who might be reading, but it doesn't come across. The red rhodo is about 12x12 feet, the purple is shorter but even wider. they are really enormous and only about 20 years old. And I can't take any credit for them other than benign neglect.

Lots of other things are in bloom right now, about a month behind schedule but since the weather has improved I am trying not to whine about it. Besides we've got last night's hockey game to really whine about. That was awful! 

The yellow tree, laburnum, is stunning right now and quite nondescript otherwise, (should have bloomed in April; I really can't help saying it), and I have managed to keep ahead of the aphids on the lupin.

the kitchen garden has been yielding nicely

We've had some fun evening on the deck as well as some quiet ones talking about our continues good fortune. We'll miss it but there will  be compensations aplenty. 

a new clematis to replace a passion flower that didn't survive the winter

I've said this a lot of times lately but here it is again: thank goodness we are making this move now because if it was ten years form now I don't know how we would manage. It's overwhelming even for us, and a tremendous physical as well as emotional effort. And while I say I will miss our roofed deck and balcony, today I was thankful that we don't have to find someone to clean those roofs!

And as final word, I've done some more work on the buffalo and it still hurts to hold my arm in that position. Oh well.