Country Life

It's been a while since I wrote the last posting on my blog. After our "work phase," i.e., gardening, renovating, unpacking and getting settled in our new home, we finally entered a new stage in our country life, you could call it our "social phase." Some of our old friends came to visit, and our new friends introduced us to southern hospitality with new and informal ways of socializing.

Right after our guest quarters were finished, our first (non-family) visitors, two dear friends from Rutgers, Ted and Linda, arrived from Ohio on the way back to NJ. We had a wonderful time together and enjoyed showing them around our new neighborhood, which included a trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Devil's Backbone Brewery, Wintergreen, and Nellysford. We truly enjoyed their visit and are deeply grateful for the beautiful quilt Linda made for us as a house-warming/retirement present. It makes our kitchen look warm and cozy.
Ted and Linda, we hope that your retirement plans work out for both of you. We wish you good luck and all the best in your retirement, wherever and whenever that may be.

A week later, two other Rutgers friend, Julianne and Ed, came to Virginia for a couple of days. Julianne was performing in Farmville, about an hour from here. After spending a day at our house with these dear friends, we organized a dinner party in Farmville. We invited our German friends from Shipman to meet Julianne and Ed and to celebrate Axel birthday. Afterwards we were able to hear Julianne's magnificent voice in concert. What a treat! What a wonderful, memorable time we all had together.

A couple of days after our visitors had left, we heard a knock on our front door. Having no clue who that could be, we were pleasantly surprised to find out it was a new neighbor. We invited her in and found out that she used to be good friends with the previous owner of our current house. We had a nice visit, she left, promising to be back in touch. Well, not only did she call back the next day, this energetic lady also organized a welcome party for us at her house where we met many other local people, most of them retired, and many older widows, living alone. When everyone left, many invited us to "stop by and visit." Reluctantly, we did! (For us northern urbanites, it took a little effort to knock on someone's door without first calling.) However, we were surprised how much we enjoyed these informal visits. We made the rounds on Halloween to stop by and bring some home-made cookies and spooky candy. This gesture was very much appreciated and reciprocated with my taking home books to read. I was planning to volunteer for the Area Agency on Aging, but thanks to Nancy's match-making, I found a number of new friends (in their 80s and 90s) who are living alone and love to get company. Another neat thing is, these gracious ladies still write letters! Hence, I've been not only visiting, but also corresponding with some of our new friends.

We consider ourselves to be very fortunate to live in such a beautiful, scenic mountain region, surrounded by kind and generous neighbors --- who are becoming our friends.

Last Sunday, the first of Advent, we stopped at Nancy's and Phil's house to purchase a wreath for this holiday season. (We were told that Phil makes beautiful wreaths from the boxwoods, hollies and pine trees in his garden.) One of his lovely works of art now adorns our front door. Is there a better way to welcome our drop-in visitors?