Neighborhood watering hole -

Up early. Still jet-lagged. The surprise of seeing the sun washing the sky with brilliant colors in the east, and the brightest full moon still hanging in the western sky beyond the back garden oaks, was beautiful. Our aging small house is down in a bit of a dip, tucked into land once a farm, the remaining trees are massive. There are no distant views, no hold your breath scenery, just ancient trees . . . . . and more houses dating back to the years when large houses were few and far between. Beyond them, winding streets and cul-de-sacs lead to Midtown, Raleigh's expansion of city living with almost skyscraper high office and apartment buildings, upmarket shops and restaurants, hotels, entertainment venues, and a few small green areas tucked in here and there thankfully. A manmade lake is in the future plan. 

Meanwhile, we have our old neighborhood watering hole, Eastgate Park. Tennis courts, playground, community building, walking trail, a few picnic tables, a large open field for games, and the best feature, Cooper's Pond. A memorial plaque tells a bit about the pond. established in 1915 by J. Cooper Young, who lived there until 1966. The city of Raleigh purchased it in 1972 to turn into the park so that the "simple beauty of the park land and water would remain for the pleasure of all of its citizens."  Home to Canada geese, mallard ducks, and some very old, large turtles, the pond remains peaceful and is now very colorful dressed in Autumn foliage (above). Nature is busy with paints and brushes and the coming cooler weather here will soon bring down the leaves.

Yesterday, walking around the neighborhood on a beautiful Autumn day around noon, I was grateful that some things don't change. In this rush forward to take down the old and change the landscape with little consideration for what has stood for years, it's still our much loved neighborhood. It needs to remain part of history and continue to bring small moments that lift the soul and bring joy to this sometimes difficult life. 

Thankful for -

 

Always colorful fun at the pumpkin farm!

This really is my most favorite little cook book for the autumn months and I'll

be making good use of it these coming weeks.

Fabulous recipes, both savory and sweet, from one of Britain's great food

 writers Brian Glover.

Today I'm baking pumpkin breads, and yes, I'm cheating by using Krusteaz 

brand pumpkin bread mix which is really good and quick! 

Usually I use Libby's seasonal pumpkin bread mix, also excellent, but this

 one caught my eye and I love it.

So today, one loaf for us, the other to welcome my new next door neighbors

 who just moved in over the weekend.

To use the bread for a dessert I'm adding a simple toffee sauce, and

 perhaps a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Here's the sauce recipe if interested. I usually make half the recipe.

TOFFEE SAUCE 

300g light muscovado sugar

284ml heavy cream

50g unsalted butter

Put the sugar, cream and butter in a small heavy-based saucepan

and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 3 mins, stirring to

 thicken slightly and make a smooth sauce. 

 

It's sweet but a small portion drizzled over is really enjoyable and turns

bread into cake!!!!

Yesterday I baked yet another galette - I'm hooked on these easy, 

one crust, rustic style 'tarts.'  

This one is a plum and apple combo, mostly plums, really good.

Addition of a dash of Chambord Black Raspberry liqueur rather than

 lemon juice, and a little grated butter over the top prior to baking, made

 it rich and tasty.

Do you enjoy baking on these lovely autumn days? 

Thanks so much for all the very kind good wishes in

regard to my 'down time' lately.  I'm OK but just want to 

be able to get about on foot and do things without pain!

I'm peering out the window right now and watching Bob in the

 glorious sunshine fiddling about in the garden.

Soon the leaves will be falling and he'll need help raking - I really

 want to be able to do that!

Happy Sunday. . . . . . and a great week ahead to you all.

Autumn notes -

Small original oil found at a thrift shop years ago.

I'm so behind with everything - here's a quick catch up of what's happening around us. I'm trying hard not to be sad about not being in England now as planned, but I am so missing seeing my family and friends there. 

With October close I feel Autumn days are here despite not much color in the trees overhead yet. Golden leaves fall silently from the fig tree and Bob gathers them daily. The oaks haven't started dressing for autumn, but cooler nights are here so all will be changing soon. Acorns will rain down, followed by crisp brown leaves requiring several weeks of raking to the curb for the annual collections by the city. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks"............easy to see why.

Today our lawn will be aerated and over-seeded, this will require daily watering as there's no rain in the forecast for at least a week. I cannot help much in the garden as it looks like the pain issue in my hip/thigh/knee, now three weeks with no resolution, is coming from my lower spine.  A doctor visit yesterday will see me having PT soon - I'm in a lot of pain - and perhaps an injection down the road. 

Aging is not pretty. 

While at the doctor's office Bob and I each received a high-dose flu shot, suggested for the elderly, and then made appointments for the #3 Pfizer COVID booster vaccination on October 6th. We will then feel even safer regarding the pandemic, ready to get on with life and enjoy a bit more freedom to roam hopefully.  A beach weekend this fall would be awesome, and we are looking forward to visiting family in Arizona for Thanksgiving.

Snippets of autumn last year.

If you've been wondering about the house next door - it has sold. In fact it sold just a week after the sign went up, and at a really high price! Our neighbor, who just bought the house 11 months ago, but did do a lot of interior renovations, made a great profit. We are sorry to see him go but wish him luck in his new job in Washington, D.C. His moving truck pulled up this morning and is being loaded as I write. Best news is the buyers are a young couple who will be living here. . . . . not flipping the property, not renting it out, or tearing it down thank goodness!

Not much color in the garden to share, however a late blooming cluster

 of hydrangea blossom was a welcome surprise this past weekend.

I'm assisting my granddaughter Jasmin as she prepares to fly to Alaska for a best friend's wedding. Besides being a bridesmaid she is the official photographer which is really rather awkward.  Fortunately her boyfriend is accompanying her and can help with camera equipment - my fingers are crossed they will have safe flights and good weather.

I'm also cat/house sitting again this week as my other neighbor heads to Massachusetts for a funeral. Unfortunately his fridge/freezer died over the weekend and I've been storing food for him. . . . . .do you have any idea how difficult it is now to even find a replacement appliance? Can you imagine some models cannot even be delivered until end of November.......if you're lucky!  COVID has changed so many things in life and there seems no light at the end of the tunnel yet. Businesses, some many years old, continue to close down, others are struggling with lack of employees.

This morning baby bunny was busy in the garden - all grown up now but staying close by, at least for the time being. 

Look at the size of those back paws - no wonder they can make a fast getaway!

   

Happy Autumn days to all.

Writing and wondering -

I certainly don't sit around looking this glamorous when in a writing mood!

If you could see me now, early morning, I've thrown on wrinkled linen beach pants

 and a basic grey tee shirt to limp across the damp grass to feed and water 

Nala cat next door again while her owner is lounging at the seaside for a few days.

I would like to be there too - I so need a beach and ocean view for a change.

Limp? Yes, have pulled something in thigh/leg whilst trying to organize a 

lower kitchen cabinet, paying for it now.

I have an affinity for envelopes . . . and writing paper . . . and cards.  

I still take pleasure in writing to people via snail mail but admit to

reverting to email more than I should because it's fast and the recipient

gets the message immediately.  But it's nowhere near as exciting as 

going to the mailbox at the street, or hearing an envelope drop to 

the hallway floor through a letterbox!

Speaking of mailboxes at the street - which are of course mostly 'American' -

here you can see my next door neighbor's box, on the other side of us, but

also note a realtor installing a FOR SALE sign . . . . . . yet again!!!!!

Our really great new neighbor has only lived there since last October and, 

in that short time, has done some incredible interior renovations to update

 the house. We were shocked and sad when he told us he would be putting

 the house on the market as he has taken a job in Washington D.C. and

will be moving. Being in a 'hot area' for housing, with many small older 

homes in the neighborhood being razed and replaced by larger, 

high-priced ones, we are once again concerned as to what might

 happen next door.

Will keep you updated on this of course.

We have a chipmunk problem!

 

Be careful what you wish for! 

There's a population explosion going on here.

 

We had just one chipmunk for years. 

We named him/her Chippy and always enjoyed seeing that cute as

 a button creature emerge from hibernation each spring. 

Chippy must have found a mate somewhere underground this past winter!

We now have several scooting about the garden, coming up on the

 front porch to drink from the fountain, gorging and filling their pudgy cheek

 pouches with fallen birdseed, and digging in some of my potted

 plants. That's definitely a no-no!

But it's not just our garden riddled with chipmunks, neighbors near and

 far in our area seem to be experiencing a gigantic explosion of cute 

chipmunks in their gardens this spring. There have even been news

 articles about them showing up in eastern North Carolina toward

the coast, a place they never called home before!

Size comparison of the Eastern grey squirrel, of which there are millions 

and are a real nuisance when it comes to eating the birdseed, or anything

 else they can get their greedy little paws on, and the smaller chipmunk.

Yes, adorable, cute. . . . . . . and now also becoming a nuisance by 

causing holes all over the lawn and garden.

A few days ago I actually caught this chipmunk - perhaps Chippy or

 an offspring - in the pot of heliotrope, rolling around in the soil 

making a real mess and causing the plant to go sideways.  

I chased it off and had to repot the plant deeper.

Any new creatures sighted on your garden this spring?

Many neighbors are finding cute 'Bambi' fawns, often twins,

 tucked away for safety in their back gardens. Mama deer 

leaves them while she does other things but always comes back

 for them later.

Early in the week the most unexpected visitor seen in our 

neighborhood was a fairly large black bear! Several people were

 able to catch it on video running through their yards, crossing a street,

 and one woman filmed it climbing over her fence. It was last spotted

 heading toward a shopping center - wildlife officers are tracking it. 

We all hope it's not a mama bear who has been scared off and

 left babies somewhere!

These lovely animals are losing their natural habitats in this area

 due to the tearing down of older homes and clearing of wooded

 spaces for the construction of larger than life million dollar plus

 houses, apartments, office buildings etc. 

With Google, Apple, Amazon etc. set to move into the area and

 the population growing by leaps and bounds, we will see more

 changes in the months and years to come.

Called 'progress' but really more like destruction. Very sad!

On a happier note - the Carolina wren and Black-capped chickadee

 enjoying the seed wreath hanging on the front porch. We just bought two

more of these wreaths as the small birds are really loving them.

There goes the neighborhood!

       ~ I live on a farm. . . . . . .
       . . . . . . .well it was a farm once upon a time ~

We dug up a rusty tractor seat in the back garden years back, and of course you know how huge our aging oak trees are, towering 80 feet into the Carolina Blue sky. Old farmland, probably very green and beautiful, perched on the gently sloping hills beyond downtown.
Now it's a suburban neighborhood. It changed back in the mid-1960's thanks to - or perhaps no thanks because who likes to see farmland disappear - one of the world's largest and most well-known companies, IBM.

IBM - International Business Machines - "I've Been Moved" - call it what you will - moved a large section of its work force from New York State here to North Carolina and located them in the spiffy new Research Triangle Park (RTP), which is now one of the largest research parks in the world. Named for the three hub cities making up the triangle, Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, or more correctly for the three major research universities in these three cities (NC State University, Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), it has continued to expand beyond all imagination with many international companies' research and development facilities located here, but thankfully no heavy, air polluting manufacturing.

Those several thousand original IBM employees and their families needed houses. This former farm became prime land for several subdivisions planned to the north of the city of Raleigh. With close proximity to a high speed beltline which could get Raleigh residents to work in the RTP quickly, and a strip retail center along the major roadway providing suburban shopping, the newly named North Hills was ripe to grow. Home building began and has never ceased. The shopping center was converted to an enclosed mall in 1967, becoming the first two-story, air-conditioned, indoor mall between Washington D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia. It survived until the late 90's, then fell into disrepair and was sold in 2001, lock, stock and barrel, to a visionary developer who has turned this area into Raleigh's new 'Midtown' - nothing short of a first class destination.

At first we were upset, worried, concerned, thinking our little suburban enclave would crumble and fall. . . . . . . instead we now sit on a kind of 'promised land'.  We now have a fabulous 'village' within minutes of our doorstep. Still not complete, building is expected to continue for a few more years. Already in place are international and boutique hotels, major banking and international business headquarters, elegant apartments and condos in large, but thankfully attractive, hi-rise buildings, great shops and shopping, marvelous restaurants, cafes, breweries, cinema, bowling, indoor and outdoor exercise facilities, and entertainment venues with Summertime weekly music concerts, and a seasonal outdoor Farmers' Market. Currently an excellent retirement community of condos/assisted living/nursing care is under construction. . . . . . .and in our neighborhood we have valuable land under our houses that people want to buy!  

They are moving in, the folk who work in Midtown. They are young, many single, some married and starting families, all apparently making good money, there are great elementary and middle schools in this neighborhood, and they want to live close to where they work. However, thanks perhaps to HGTV, they don't want little brick ranches and such, they want to buy our houses, tear them down and build up as well as out - very nice spacious homes with the latest everything shown on TV or Pinterest. Hey, I don't blame them - if I was young I'd want the same.

Here you can see Midtown rising in the background - we are a little

 further away and can't see the buildings from our house.

Stylish new homes going up around us. This one above is at

the entrance to our street, the small 60's ranch having being knocked

 down, to the surprise of all the neighbors, one day in January.

This is our cottage today, awaiting leafing out trees and flowers for Spring color.
Bob did give the front lawn its first seasonal mow this week.

We've lived here 30 years. Before then we lived close by in townhouses for

 another 10 years when we moved south.

 We've seen and handled the many changes in this neighborhood which we love.
  It's strange that now, almost weekly, strangers and Realtors leave notes on the door or

 mail us offers to buy our home.

But we are staying for the present because, as much as I wouldn't mind a brand

 new, easier to manage one level condominium, without the many garden chores,

there is so much I would miss. The secluded back garden with the screened gazebo

 and potting shed, the big deck, the front porch, the birds, squirrels, rabbits, cats,

 even a fox now and then. . . . . and of course my many wonderful, caring neighbors, 
some of whom have lived here even longer than us.

My garden in Spring last year.

The neighborhood this week.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Below, more views from Midtown Raleigh.

Time moves on. Nothing ever stays the same but when changes come it makes

 a huge difference if one is happy with them. Just about everyone with whom I've

 discussed the development of Midtown appears to be in agreement that it is a

 job very well done in so many ways.

Do you live in the city or country?

Have you seen many changes in your neighborhood?

Are they good or bad?

I would love to hear about your neighborhood.