Week 11 – Olivia goes to heaven

The Passing of a Fur family member

Olivia curled up with Buckingham

This week was marked by the passing of one of our fur-babies. Olivia, the oldest of the gang, was granted rest this week after a very short illness. She was 20 years old and had a remarkably healthy life. She came to us as a rescue when she was about a year old through the New Hampshire Humane Society. She moved with us from so many houses and traveled with us from Canada to South Carolina. She survived living with another member of the family who contracted Feline Aids but she never became ill. I believed she would live forever as she never had any health issues at all. She suffered seizures and lost control of her faculties and since I do not believe in allowing a pet to suffer we granted her peace. It wasn’t a huge surprise after all she was 20. In the last couple of weeks she had been way more friendly to us and to the other animals in the family. She wanted to be a part of wherever we were in the house. Her normal pattern was to sleep on John’s office chair most of the day but more recently she joined us in the family room, often cuddling with one of the dogs or even with one of the other cats. John thinks she was trying to tell us something. Rest in peace Olivia you were a quirky but lovable fur child.

The final stage of the move

This week also marked the final stage in the other major change. Our daughter moved into her new home. If a move has ever been blessed this one was. We could not have asked for better weather and on the day the movers were to come it actually got cold so the roads hardened up again and the moving trucks were able to pass on the roads that had a load limit imposed on them. By Tuesday night she was settled in enough to cook a meal for everyone and to enjoy watching her children as they put together stools for the kitchen counter. It is truly wonderful to see how this was accomplished and I am very happy for them.

We left them on Wednesday after hanging some more pictures and doing some more finish work. We headed out and went to Avon, CT to one of our favorite Inns, The Avon Old Farms Hotel, for a little R&R and the beginning of the rest of our March trip. It was only a three hour drive so not stressful but we have stopped there a couple of times a year for the last 20 or so years and always feel it is a well-earned pampering. The Inn was the site of a family wedding, a christening, a funeral and many, many stops to visit with John’s late mother. It’s almost a home away from home. I love that they are now a Farm to Table dining facility as well.

Stops along the way

We had a good drive to Virginia the following day. Good weather and roads. We did hit quite a bit of traffic along the way, something we are not used to as we usual try to travel on weekends. Thursdays are big days for shipping and that was evident by the number of trucks on the road. We found a spot in Lexington, VA called The Brierley Hill with views of the rolling hills of Virginia and off in the distance the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. One of the things I have fun doing is finding places for us to stop on our road trips. We can’t really stop in “nice” places when we have the animals with us although our Inn in Avon will let us bring them with us but most Inns will not. So this trip allows us to explore some of the B&B’s that we are curious about in different parts of the country. We also get to try some interesting places to eat and do look for places that serve local food. We found one at The Southern Inn in Lexington and John was so pleased they had shad roe on the menu.

The next day we headed for Kiawah Island to visit a friend from Canada with whom we have stayed for a night or two every March for the last five or six years. It has become quite a fun visit and often there was another couple with us and we would laugh about our sleep over parties. Kiawah has one of the most beautiful beaches and John and I went for a 5 1/2 mile walk along it while there. So wonderful to walk in the water in my bare feet. I could on about “grounding” but just to say it really is a wonderful way to walk. Lucky us. We spent a good part of Saturday wandering around the Farmer’s Market that is located not too far from Kiawah. It was a fun way to spend a couple of hours. The mushroom man was out of mushrooms but John has a great time talking to him and learning about growing mushrooms. He had pictures of what they looked like but he said they sell out very quickly. You buy them in clusters. Here is a photo of what they look like. I can’t wait to find some somewhere that look like this and then figure out how to make a mushroom soup.

Now we are in Dataw, our southern home, but not in our own house. It is a very strange feeling to be here and to not be in our own place. As mentioned before, it is rented until the end of April. We are again lucky we have friends here who have opened their guest room to us and we will visit and catch up with our friends for a few days before heading off again. I stopped at the local grocery store and filled up on fruit. I was missing it very much. Now have grapes and bananas and apples and three different kinds of berries. I believe strawberries have just started to come in here in South Carolina. Have done pretty well with the salads at lunch time and minimal snacks. Mostly nuts are our staple snack when traveling. I am still not sure I have this figured out quite right yet unless I bring a big cooler with me but there are lots of grocery stores around so we can stop and get things along the way.