Life takes us down many paths, and if we’re lucky, we may get to choose which path we prefer.  Last Fall, my husband had a landmark birthday.  We knew it was coming, so early in the Summer, we began our quest for a new home.  We talked it over and decided that we needed either one-floor living or a home with a bedroom and a full bathroom on the first floor.  At least a two-car garage.  A dining room to feed our large family.  A great spot for a smaller rose garden.

A SMALLER Rose Garden?

The summer of 2023 was brutal in my garden.  Smoke from Canadian wildfires began in May and clouded the sun.  It made my roses stretch up and get leggy, reaching for the sun they could feel but not quite find.  This smoke continued for much of the time through the end of Fall.  We could smell and taste it at times, and it made us choke.  June got close to 100 degrees and when July began, it started to rain.  Not showers, but bucketloads of water pouring from the sky!  When the rain stopped, everything was saturated for days.  The sun was blistering hot but I had much work to do as weeds were springing up everywhere!  I had to forego my spray program last summer because my roses never really dried out before the rain began again.  When it was dry enough, it was too hot to spray.  I was outside as often as I could be, weeding and deadheading.  It was a never-ending battle for my 250 roses that I never really had a chance of winning.  With this climate change, the weather can be relentless.  I couldn’t help but think, ‘I’m too old for this stuff!!’  My husband has seven years on me, but I am no spring chicken, either!  Time to reevaluate my garden time!

A Bigger House and Property

We put our house on the market just after Hallowe’en last year because we had found a house we really liked.  I must have Zillowed through thousands of properties before I found it.  Bob and I had lived in the Connecticut River Valley for almost 40 years, and I decided that if I was going to continue gardening, we needed to move to a cooler spot in the state.  I was focused on the lovely, rolling hills of Eastern Connecticut, where I had grown up.  It is usually 5-10 degrees cooler there than in the river valley where the heat gathers and persists.

Well, this house that we had really liked failed all its inspections and it was time to search again.  At that point, my son, Tom, got in touch and stated that most of our family had settled in eastern Connecticut and they would like to have us closer.  At about the same time, I found a house in Columbia that was majestic and lovely.  And in our price range!  And, within 15 miles of all my kids! We went to see it in early December and put in a bid on it.  Our sellers accepted, said that they realized that we needed to sell our house to buy theirs, and stated that they would no longer show their property until March 15, 2024.  How lovely and kind of them!

Home

So, after months of showings, our house sold to a lovely lady named Debbie in March.  Packing began in earnest at that point, and my best friend, also named Debbie, offered us her barn to store our delicate things and stuff the movers would not take on their truck.  We closed on April 15, and after a month, at least the first floor is pretty much done.  Yes, we bought a house that is bigger than our Suffield home, and we have some property: 1.74 acres.  We are atop a really high hill and have a view of the rolling hills to the east.  We catch the cool breezes from our lofty heights!  I brought a bunch of potted roses with me (many thanks to my dear friend Jason who was digging and potting roses I had labeled for moving, while I was packing inside) and I hit the Spring sales at J&P and Edmonds Roses on-line.  I have about 50 roses to plant.  I got the first two in the ground yesterday.  There is more to this saga, but the first garden adventure is for next week’s blog!  Happy Spring!