Goodbye to the Autumn of my days

I started writing this post in longhand on Sunday evening last, seated in my recliner in the Northeast Kingdom and sipping a Manhattan cocktail. Vermont's Northeast Kingdom is comprised of Essex, Orleans, and Caledonia counties and had a population of just 64,764 at the 2010 census. It is in the state's far Northeast and borders Canada. I relocated here in order to be close to my daughter and her family, and to see out my remaining years - hopefully still quite a few, but you never know!

Right now the temperature outside our Cape Cod style apartment building is 3˚F, but last night it plunged to -36˚F - colder by far than Alaska! It is likely to be the same tonight and has not been above freezing for several weeks. It is so cold outside that the salt that has been spread on Route 5 in order to melt the snow lying n the road has absolutely no effect. We have had two separate storms so far this Winter - one that swept in from the Great Lakes to the West of us, and the other a bomb cyclone that swept up the East coast from Florida, giving snowfall in that state and every other coastal state from Georgia to Maine.The ski resorts of Northern New England are crowded, and well over 90% of runs are open.

A couple of weeks ago Liz and I enjoyed watching my granddaughter in her debut stage role, a real treat for someone who has spent so much time walking the boards. I was so impressed with her performance and her singing,. If I had started my acting career when I was at her age I might have ended up as a professional actor rather than a naval aviator. But then the circumstances around my acting career were very different as will be found in detail in my autobiography, The Graceful Retirement of an English Gentleman when I eventually distribute it to family and friends. So far I am up to 97 pages and a little short of 20,000 words.

I have had a pretty good life - have set foot in more than 30 countries and resided in four. Unless I should happenstance make a big win in one of the state's lotteries I am here to stay. The alternative would be somewhere like St Martin or Guadeloupe - somewhere in the French Caribbean anyway. I have met presidents, prime ministers, and even a princess. I have designed websites (currently have three of my own) and have had more than 6,500 articles and web pages published on the Internet so one way or another have left some sort of legacy.

It has been an interesting couple of years here in the United States. I spend a fair amount of my time watching MSNBC (never Fox) and their coverage of the country's political news. It seems that we are getting closer and closer to a Mueller - Trump face to face. That indeed will be very interesting, although it will probably never be made public.Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury has disclosed how most staffers in the White House describe Trump as being childlike. He is certainly a liar and an egomaniac. In a couple of month's time, I will be eligible for citizenship, so I am swotting up on the Constitution and other citizenship-related subjects.

Thanksgiving - and more

This afternoon I am babysitting my grandchildren, Gracie and Owen. Jake and Julie have gone Christmas shopping in Tilton at the outlet mall. Next week is Thanksgiving, and the day after is called Black Friday, traditionally the day on which prices tumble in an annual sell off.  Many outlets have already dropped their prices, and this week we invested in a new washer, a dryer and two-door Samsung fridge, saving about $1,000 on the usual retail price by taking advantage of the Black Friday deals. Jake and Julie will pick up Luke from day-care in a couple of hours' time and relieve me of my duties.

We have now entered my fourth season in the States, and a little more than a week ago the first snow fell - earlier than usual, and just a couple of inches here. On Wednesday there was a severe winter storm in New Hampshire that left some 200,000 people without power over Thanksgiving. Nine inches fell here, and another two the following night. With the daytime temperatures below freezing it was no wonder that I slipped and fell on the ice - still I should have been more careful, and can only blame myself. Many of the New  Hampshire and Vermont ski resorts have already opened up, and the pistes are open weeks before they normally do.

A little over a week ago Liz and I moved out of our tiny apartment and into a house in Littleton. We were going to use U-Haul, but they completely screwed us around. In the end my daughter Julie loaned us her Town & Country minivan, and we got almost everything moved the 13 miles in 5 or 6 trips. Jake helped out with the larger furniture when he got back from Pennsylvania a couple of days later. After a few hiccups with the pellet stove (I think the house has been empty for many months) everything is now working smoothly. It is wonderful to be living amongst one's possessions and to have enough room to swing the proverbial cat.

On Thursday I hosted my first ever Thanksgiving - the menu a mixture of Southern and British cooking. The main course consisted of the traditional turkey, which I cooked along with baby carrots and roast potatoes (which my family has always liked), and Liz cooked a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, a green bean casserole with french fried onions, and a blue raspberry fluff with fruit and marshmallows. We also had sweet corn, stuffing and gravy (mine). To follow (at least an hour later) Julie had brought a home made apple pie, which was accompanied by cream, ice cream or snow cream (there were 11 inches of fresh snow on the ground). A filling time was had by all.

Saturday. I am feeling sorry for myself right now. On returning from the supermarket late this afternoon I took a tumble on the ice between the car and the front door, opening up a deep cut on my left cheek and a smaller one on my left eyebrow. Julie and Liz patched me up, but soon after Julie and the kids had left for home, I tripped over a chair leg and opened up the deep cut again. I have been sitting here with an ice pack waiting for the bleeding to stop.

Sunday. A good night's sleep and ready for another day. I have been in the States for almost seven months now. When I arrived at the end of April there were no leaves on the trees - just a few cherry trees in Boston had donned their Spring blossoms. Liz and I were living in a tiny (750 ft²) apartment. It was so small that there was little room to move, so small that when our possessions eventually arrived from South Africa after a 3-month journey, most of the 125 cardboard cartons had to be put into storage.

Well, the seven months has been enough time for me to have witnessed all four seasons. The maples, oaks and birches are once again bare, save for the blanket of snow on their branches. The brilliant green hues of Spring and Summer gave way to the browns, reds, yellows and oranges of Fall, and instead of decking the trees the leaves are now lying on the ground beneath eleven inches of snow. Today the daytime temperature has risen above freezing for the first time in several days.

Instant Recall from my Schooldays

About a half hour ago I walked down to out mail box - it is about a 50 yard walk down a steep incline and is surrounded by maples and oaks. I was immediately taken back more than 50 years (gee - am I that old?) to my schooldays. It is autumn or fall here in the North Country, and already many of the colorful leaves of the woods and forests of the area are lying on the ground. Today there is steady rain falling outside - it has been falling for some time and is due to continue into the early hours of the morning - indeed there is s flash flood warning out for the region, with much heavier rain forecast for later today. So how was I taken back all that time?

Well, my High School education was at Bromsgrove School in the County of Worcestershire in the UK. Back in those days the quad (I believe it is now called Gordon Green) was surrounded by horse-chestnut trees, and at exactly this time of the year, when the leaves were on the ground and had started to rot, they gave off a distinctive and, to me, very pleasant aroma. I experienced that same aroma today for the first time in all those years (I never once experienced it during my 42 years in southern Africa), and my brain or or consciousness immediately recognized and recalled where I had last smelled it.

The brain and our consciousness is a wonderful thing, with billions and billions of connections between its neurons - more than the number of stars in our galaxy. I have several previous posts that refer to it - just do a search for "consciousness" at the top of the page if you would like to read them. To be able to instantly recall something that has been "in storage" for 55 years is quite remarkable.

Fall - a Time of Change

It is a time of change here in New England. Autumn (or Fall as it is called in the States) started officially a few days ago, heralded by the pagan festival of Beltane. The magnificent forests of the North Country are starting to change into the glorious colors that Fall brings. The ever-green hardwood trees of summer - oaks, elms, maples and birches - have started their seasonal change of costume, bringing red, brown, orange and yellow hues to the already beautiful landscape. This is an event that has to be seen, and sees thousands of tourists pour into the region to witness it.

Today's picture

The time of change has come to our lives too. A few weeks back I discovered that I did not need to fly back and forth to the UK every 90 days, and have submitted the appropriate forms, documents and moneys to the USCIS. At about the same time Liz started a new job. She had been working at the local county nursing home in dietary - a job she had come to hate - the 5 a.m. rising, lack of benefits and an environment in which she was surrounded by Alzheimer's and other age-related ailments. She loves her new job, is making new friends, will soon be getting excellent benefits, and has regular hours.

At about the same time all of our freight arrived from Cape Town - all 105 boxes of it. We have only been able to unpack a small amount - the apartment we have rented is only 725ft² - ridiculously small when compared with the 4,570ft² of our Eastern Cape farmhouse. Anyway to cut a long story short this has prompted us to look for a larger property, and a few days ago we viewed what would be an ideal one. It is a good size, has loads of storage space, a heated workshop - in short, just our cup of tea, which has just prompted me to switch on the kettle. We also found what would be a good vehicle for me - a 2002 Subaru Legacy AWD station wagon with only 67,700 miles on the clock. Now all we have to do is raise finance for the to items, so "hold thumbs" please and say a few prayers for us.

In a little over a week's time Liz and I will be taking in the Fryeburg Fair in Maine. I visited it this time 9 years ago and was awestruck. Look forward to a report back on this page shortly.