The great house preparations came to a head this week. As well as clearing upstairs for our first guests of 2015, we also had to have a major purge downstairs (which has been serving as a dumping ground for things without an obvious home). As soon as the first guests depart on Sunday, we have less than 24 hours before round two, when we will need the spare room downstairs in service.
The final onslaught was finally over on Thursday with a little help from our cleaners. Clare and Jonathan arrived on Friday afternoon, thankfully with the weather (which has been looking more and more grim) holding fair.
We managed to cram in a week of tourism two days:
- sightseeing in Dahlonega
- a drive up through the Appalachians. We included a stop at Neels Gap where the famous Appalachian Trail crosses the highway, providing an opportunity to walk a few yards on the trail (been there, done that!) and to see the famous “boot tree” where hikers throw their old boots up into a spreading oak tree.
- a barbequeue on the Big Green Egg on the porch
- and, of course, a visit to some of our local wineries to sample the products.
Clare and Jonathan left on Sunday morning to catch a flight down to Florida (their official destination on this trip, Clare was presenting a paper at an academic conference). We were left, with temperatures plummeting outside, to prepare for the next visitors’ imminent arrival.