It's doubtful one of our favorite local bar/restaurants will return after closing due to COVID right after Christmas 2020. Although a chain, Mia Francesca Trattoria never had that feeling. We started eating there when it first opened in 2011 in a pleasing space on the lobby level of a brand new Renaissance Hotel. We knew many of the staff well. The location is just minutes from the house in the area called Midtown. Just a basic two level shopping mall named North Hills when we moved here in 1977, it has morphed into a small 'town' of its own, north of the downtown city. Not just high end retail shops, boutiques, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, hotels, gyms, movie theatre etc., but elegant multi-story apartment buildings, a posh senior living complex. . . . . and mini skyscraper office buildings - the newest of which will reach 35 floors! Around these buildings more land is being acquired so quickly we can't keep up with the landscape changes and ongoing construction.
Houses built here on prior farmland in the 1960's to 1980's (when IBM moved so many people from the north to work in their huge facility) are disappearing fast. Small ranches, split levels, and cottages of that era, are selling like hotcakes for high prices, then being razed and huge homes in the $1-3 million dollar range popping up almost overnight it seems. It's definitely a seller's market, with houses usually selling, some with bidding wars, as soon as a sign goes up. Our neighborhood is a 'hot spot' for real estate listings. Phone calls, cards stuck on the mailbox, letters in the mail, are daily happenings here, all stating a version of. . . . . . . . . .WE WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE!
We will not be enticed easily! We have a figure which seems somewhat obscene compared to what we purchased the property for new in 1986! If someone truly wants it and agrees to pay that amount we could perhaps be persuaded to sell. Where would we go? At this late stage in life it would be hard to make that decision. Right now it looks like we will stay. . . . . . certainly after doing all this gardening lately!!!
MIDTOWN - Raleigh, North Carolina - Spring 2021
'Home Sweet Home'
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
John Howard Payne (1791-1852)
Here at the 'homestead' we planted all these marked trees
along with dozens of shrubs and perennials.
The tiny trees each started out in one gallon pots many years
ago - and I think we'd truly have a hard time moving
and leaving them behind!
.png)
