2015

After all the snow, ice and linked disruptions we have been suffering, can it suddenly be Spring? Officially USA has leaped ahead an hour for Daylight Saving (unless you happen to be in Arizona or Alaska). Daffodils are blooming by the roadsides. Green shoots are showing in the planter bed of the Great Wall of […]

Followers of this blog will be aware of the increasingly annoying nosebleeds that I have been having. Since last Sunday, I have had five of them. The cause is probably American central heating – “blown air”. Rather than toasty warm water-filled radiators (useful for drying laundry) in England, the system works like an enormous centralized

The snow of last week had cleared away quite rapidly. Once we were able to drive up to Porter Springs Road, we found things much less frozen over than down in the woods. So much so that on Sunday, we went for a drive through the country, bought a few soupbowls at a local pottery, Mark

We were right to encourage Barbara, Paloma and Simon to go down to Atlanta a day early in view of the anticipated severe winter weather. I drove down to drop them off on Monday in increasingly cold weather, and they reached their hotel for the night safely. On the way home there were a few

This blog should have lots to tell including:Explosive electricityArrival after transformationDriving the Appalachian TrailBiltmoreSimon & Paloma off to SavannahScrabbleNeighboursWolf MountainThree Sisters “Cuvee Georgia”Impending bad weatherDash to AtlantaTrip to the Aquarium But we were so busy that I never had time to write it!So, instead, visit the gallery of photographs

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

It has been a busy week in the house doing the last bits of preparation for our next round of visitors. The amount of “stuff” that has been crammed into cupboards and drawers has resulted in the lower floor of the house looking tidy. I have been climbing ladders to reorganise the tops of shelves

We are expecting several visitors from UK over the next month. First a weekend visit by friends from Ealing, then my mother is coming for two weeks (including her 92nd birthday). She will be accompanied by my brother Simon and his wife Paloma. This means that we have to get the third bedroom, on the

This week, we saw a jump in interest in our new home. First thing was that Google Maps posted an updated satellite view of our new home. Normally, in a rural area like Lumpkin County, updates happen every few years. But obviously the new picture released had been timed to coincide with the house being

Since it was a public holiday on Monday, we decided to have a day out – time to mark off another couple of wineries visited. We drove up to Elijay, about 40 minutes West, and visited Engelheim and Chateau Meichtry. New attractive tasting rooms, passable wines (both have vineyards without a lot of age, so