This week saw the success of our Open House. We had sent invitations do a dozen or so of our neighbours, who have made us very welcome and have helped us in several ways. Lisa had prepared a mixed hot and cold buffet which went down very well (and we had enough leftovers to keep us going for a while). The slow cooker (a.k.a. crockpot) turned out to be just the thing for mulling a copious quantity of wine. We threw the house open for inspection, stressing that the lower floor is still very much work in progress (and will be so for quite a while). There were several interesting comments. Of particular note was the (approving) comment on the view of the house from Highway 19 now that the trees are bare – “I could see the house from the road in the Spring when the yellow siding was not painted – but with the paint colour you have used, it vanishes from view now”. The decision to adopt forest colours was obviously the right thing to do!
This week was our sixteenth wedding anniversary – time does fly. We had considered going back to Stone Mountain (where the event happened on a winter morning in the open air under the carillon bell tower) but in the end we decided to do as we had done for the past few years – a night out at the cinema and a meal in one of our favourite restaurants. We went down to Dawsonville (the nearest cinema) to see the final episode of the Hobbit trilogy – the cinema was remarkably empty for the first day of showing. Afterwards we drove back to Dahlonega and to one of our regular haunts, The Oar House. When we got there, we were surprised to find the place all dark and unwelcoming. Obviously closed, though no notices about it. We gave up on that and went to the Back Porch in Dahlonega. When we went two days later to get a couple of bottles and a chat at Three Sisters Vineyard, we mentioned the Oar House to our friends there. We and were told by the tasting room assistant that it had closed on Tuesday evening this week – her partner was a cook there, they had all been given notice and all the perishable food stocks were divided up amongst the staff. I hope someone takes the restaurant over and can make a go of it.
As previously described, my labours sorting out the packing cases meant that we had all the boxes of Christmas stuff into one place. All the tree ornaments which had been secreted away for two years emerged, were sorted and picked over, and carried upstairs to decorate the 8 foot high tree. The results were fairly successful!
With the house prepared for Christmas, we needed a few visitors to admire our efforts. That will be handled by not one but two brunch parties for friends. On Saturday Sandra and Jeff (whom Lisa had met through Master Gardeners) came round. And on Sunday it is the turn of Allison (who has provided some extremely useful advice on interior decor) and David.