Dear Friend,
This past week we officially started our year at the Hemlock Inn. It had been almost a month since I'd written but so much was happening: we sold our house, my car, all of our belongings except what would fit in a box trailer. It took us 7 days to travel almost 3,000 miles across the country....even surviving a tornado in the middle of Kansas.
Sitting in the library of the inn tonight I found this small paper-backed book on the shelf wedged between two larger books. It looked like it needed a breather....and it also had this in it:
I have no restless longing
For the lure of distant towns;
I'll take the sun and shadows
And the country's ups and downs;
All I want is just a cottage,
Beside a rippling stream,
With the country all around me,
And a little space to dream.
-All I Want from Blue Hills Calling by William Allen Allhands
In our small little cottage, with the country all around us, I've found some space to finally dream.
Today's highlight was being invited to come and sit on the porch of a local storeowner. I told her I would definitely be taking her up on that. The highlight runner up was visiting the trash dump with Innkeeper Mort this morning and meeting "Smiley" and a local dog named Bosco.
I know I haven't been able to write much over the past few weeks on the blog but here are a few recent posts about our trip cross country, selling our house, and moving into the Hemlock Inn:
Trailers and Tornados
On The Road
A Year At The Hemlock
Inseption
It's All Clear Now
Deep Creek
We are supposed to get Internet hooked up next week and I will be a regular on the blog again. I'm looking forward to a some routine again!
Oh and not the highlight of my day: walking down to our cottage after most of the inn was asleep...on Friday the 13th. It was pitch black and all I had was my iPhone flashlight....and then my battery died. Then I heard a large animal-like rustle in the woods. I'm sure it was one of the three deer we saw in the clearing this evening...but I imagined a three-story bear behind me...and I broke out in an all-out-bounding-panic-run...
Have a great weekend. And Happy Friday the 13th.
Love,
Ashley
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