Part 2, Valley View

On a September afternoon in 1990, RH and I drove down the long driveway leading to what we would name Valley View.

We were immediately smitten with the 1920 white clapboard farmhouse...

with the two barns...

the smokehouse...

 and the cow/chicken shed...

and the 24 acres of hills that hugged them, and the creek that ran through it, fed by a waterfall at the back of the property.

Everything made sense then, contracts falling through due to failed inspections on two other houses, fruitless weeks of searching to no avail, our mortgage money set to expire in one week.

Valley View was waiting for us.

For over 25 years we loved this secluded place, building on a second bathroom and dressing room...

gutting the first bathroom and rebuilding it, adding on a brand new kitchen...

and laundry room in a five-month renovation.

Making a picnic shelter out of an old cow/chicken shed that became the family celebration spot...

We replaced roofs and numerous other projects over the years, but one of the first things we did was make a dooryard cottage garden with a picket fence.

Our two younger children were only 9 and 11 when we moved to Valley View and these hills were their playground. They roamed it and so did our four grandsons, and later on two granddaughters loved to visit.

There were large cookouts back in the valley around a bonfire, with sometimes as many as 30 present, the brave ones trying out the big rope swing that flew out over the creek by the waterfall.

And of course there were 25 years of Thanksgivings, Christmases and birthdays there.

Our life took place at Valley View.

Once RH and I were in our 70s though, it all became too much for us. The large house too much for me and the land for RH. I prayed for someone young and full of energy to buy it and take care of it, not let it fall to wrack and ruin.

Maybe it was time to leave.

RH wanted to move away from the cold, from shoveling snow and from keeping light bulbs burning under the house and in the well house in winter.

He wanted to move to a beach town in Florida where our daughter and her husband live.

I wanted to stay in Nashville and find a sweet little cottage. I wanted nothing to do with the idea of moving to Florida again after the three years we lived there about three decades before.

This woman needs hills to rest her eyes on and four distinct seasons to accompany her throughout the year.

I flat out said no for a week but then gave in when it became clear that one of us was going to be very very unhappy if I didn't.

It always hurts to be transplanted but sometimes it's necessary.

A quote I wrote down years ago from one of Sarah Ban Breathnach's books led me to the books of Louise Townsend Nicholl. I said these lines to my house at Valley View many times over the years, not knowing that it would happen long before I ever imagined it would.

I will give my love to the house forever.

I will come till I cannot come, I said.

And the house said, I will know.

Louise Townsend Nicholl.

These lines broke my heart when I went down the steps with Otis and Milo...

and through my cottage garden on moving day.

I turned around 360 degrees, trying to remember it all, my house...

my gardens...

to the surrounding hills, and to our big Brown Eyes...

who would stay there with our son who had bought our house and who was driving one of our vehicles to Florida, and last of all to my firstborn son who was also my neighbor, standing there waving to me as I got in the car and we all pulled out of the driveway.

Before we had travelled 15 minutes, my brother-in-law in the large moving truck signaled to pull over, that the tires seemed wobbly or something like that. For a few minutes hope sprang in my heart. Was this a sign that we shouldn't go?

But on we went, the moving truck, RH's pickup truck pulling a trailer and my car.

It would be exciting, I told myself. A new beginning, a chance for RH to hand over to sons the stress of running a family business, and me from years of bookkeeping and answering the telephone, a job I would not miss.

Instead I would retire and RH would work for our son-in-law as a project manager. 

RH would have the beach time that he loved and we would explore quaint little Florida towns around us, something I looked forward to.

It would be an adventure, but would it be home?

Part 1, Return to Dewena's Window

How do I begin again here at Dewena's Window after being gone for almost five months?

I'm a little nervous to try because during my time away I've taken an easy way of blogging by writing at my old blog to satisfy my need to create, but lately with comments turned off so that it's become more of a journal than a blog.

Many former bloggers have gone to Instagram now but that's just not me so Across the Way has worked for me. And yet I've missed the Window.

Back in January I had planned to do a one-year anniversary post of living here in this 1935 cottage that we now call Home Hill. But as you know, we'd had a rough fall and winter after losing Milo and Otis to leptospirosis, and then we were focusing on helping BreeBree and James Mason adapt to their new home. Time went by since my post about them and now summer is here, seemingly a good time to jump back into the water.

When I began looking for pictures to show you of Home Hill, I came across so many of the house we lived in while in Florida for 9 months after we moved from Valley View, our home in Tennessee of over 25 years. I only shared a few of the Florida pictures at the Window back in 2016 because...well, most of you know that I wasn't very happy there and I found it difficult to blog about.

So it occurred to me that it might help me to begin posting here again by sharing more of my Florida story with you, along with pictures that should help you to understand why I was such a fish out of my comfortable pond.

In order to do that I knew I had to start back at our 1920 home called Valley View.

Even though I am happier than anyone can imagine that our son Zack and our daughter-in-law Courtney now own Valley View, pouring their love and energy into it, I've had to admit that leaving it hit me hard.

I felt like I'd had a wisdom tooth pulled without any novocaine and definitely no laughing gas. It was just a couple of months ago that I was able to go back in my computer file of pictures of our lives at Valley View and not need the Kleenex box handy. 

Twenty-six years in one beloved home forms you, has a part in making you who you are. It's not only part of your life, it almost is your life.

And so I will still do a post about this quaint little house we live in now, but I will begin with a post about Valley View next.

Then I will publish a post about our attempt to live in a Florida beach town.

And then I will write about our life here now in the sweet place we call Home Hill.

I believe it will help me to do this and I hope it will help any readers who might still come to Dewena's Window to understand this process we've been through to downsize for our senior years in a way that was about as easy as having that wisdom tooth extracted with pliers.

Meanwhile, if anyone is curious to see posts that show that RH and I really have been around, even though incognito, I welcome you to visit us at my other blog:

http://awindow-lookacrosstheway.blogspot.com/

Actually, after five months away from the Window, I hope you'll still find your way here!

Are you there?

We're Here!

Hello, so nice to finally meet you! I'm BreeBree and I'm 5 years old and chocolate and cream.

Hi there, I'm James Mason, 7 years old and black and tan.

One month ago today, BreeBree and I went on a long ride. I admit, it was a little scary. Who were these strange people who had adopted us?

We missed our fur friends and the cute puppies who came every so often, and we missed our nice people who raised Extraordinary Dachshunds--that's us!

At first BreeBree and I were a little confused but our new Mom and Dad acted so happy to have us that we thought we'd give them a chance. Right away we claimed a big red sofa as our new safe place.

Dad even fixed us a step so we could jump on and off safely. 

James Mason, I think my favorite time on the red sofa is when Mom and Dad both snuggle with us on it after supper. They tell us how much they love us and how cute we are, and we get tummy rubs and then we take a nap while Mom and Dad watch TV. 

Dad has the remote then so the shows are pretty boring, lots of football games--and I wish he wouldn't yell during them--and movies with men like Charles Bronson and John Wayne. 

You think those shows are boring, BreeBree? What's boring is during the day when Mom turns on HGTV. I mean, who is this Chip guy who thinks he's so funny?

I ask you, what makes him so special? He's not as good looking as I am, is he?

Mom and I like Fixer Upper, James Mason! And we love Joanna! She has beautiful eyes like me.

Besides, James Mason, you don't watch it anyway. You're too busy messing up all the pillows on the sofa that Mom fixes pretty every morning. What a mess!

Mom, I promise you, he did it, not me!

Hey girl, I'll admit to that if you'll admit to needing pee pads in the house. Geesh!

Can I help it if I was used to a doggy door at our old home? Give me time, Mom, I'll catch on soon to asking to go outside like James Mason does.

But it's so much fun outside, BreeBree, especially when that white stuff is all over the ground.

         See me fly!

Brrr, that's just too cold, James Mason!

What can I say? I'm an inside girl.
Inside is where my favorite nest is.

And all the toys that nice lady sent us are inside, so I guess I like inside too, BreeBree.

We haven't thanked Miss Kris yet for the pretty toys, James Mason. They came in the most beautiful bag!

Who cares what the bag looked like? It's the toys inside the bag that matter.

Packaging is everything, James Mason, and the bag was gorgeous. Thank you so much, Miss Kris of Junk Chic Cottage! And please tell Peggy thank you too and that I love basset hounds! Can we plan a play date sometime?

And don't forget to thank Gurn and Christine for our new babies too, BreeBree. They're pretty cool. I'll take the one in the green shirt.

Okay with me, James Mason, being that I usually get both of them anyway. Want to tell the nice people what you actually prefer to play with instead of cute toys?

BreeBree! You promised you wouldn't tell Mom who chews up her magazines!

Mom knows you do it. When she's working in her office, I'm the one lying right beside her. Your nest is the empty one and Lord knows what you're up to.

You know what, BreeBree? I don't think Mom minds, Dad neither. They're so happy we're here that we can get away with most anything.

You're right, James Mason. They sure act like they're happy we're here. The only time they get real quiet and their voices sound funny is when we all walk to the garden where those two white pumpkins are and two signs say 'Otis' and 'Milo.'

I notice that too, but we always get extra kisses afterwards so I think they're okay. People are just funny that way, BreeBree.


Well, bye-bye everyone. Mom's told us what nice people you are. Thank you for joining us on our one month anniversary at our new home with our new family.

Y'all come see us again, will you? I'll turn Chip and Joanna off and we'll watch a John Wayne movie, okay?