Hiking in the snow, dead bats...and other stuff!

Last weekend, we went hiking on Saturday up at Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia. Imagine our surprise when we turned the corner and saw this! There was still quite a bit of snow hanging around up there, and it was windy and cold. But we found 4 geocaches!

As for the Roost, look what we found on the dog's porch.....a dead bat! We have no idea what happened to him. He'd been dead for awhile, and the dogs (fortunately!) didn't seem interested in him.
Tom is so brave.....

It was quite chilly on Saturday morning - this was the smoke from "Mommy's" chimney drifting down the valley.

I went for a long walk and found what I hope will be a woodpecker nest. He (or she) was busy inside pecking away. I waited for a pretty good while, but they never came out so I'm not sure what kind of woodpecker it is. But I'll be checking back each weekend to see if there's more activity.

Inside, we did a few more things....

First we hung our chicken clock in the den.

We hung our rooster trivet on the porch.

We hung our "weather stick" (Those of you who have been up, know what it's real name is!)

and I brought up some new pillows for the sofa

I found them at World Market - aren't they great?

Spring...maybe????

OK...maybe, just maybe, spring is right around the corner! We finally got back up to the Roost for the first time since just after Christmas. The pipes made it through the winter, and everything else survived!

The weather was so beautiful....I had daffodils that I had dug up at home that needed to be planted....so I planted,

and planted....

and planted 120 bulbs!
(Can you tell how thrilled I am to be photographed!)

The Parkway Foundation got some new glasses, so we took a pair up to the Roost and christened them

And we finally brought our NC map back up and hung it in the twin room.

Suzie is having a really hard time settling in up there.

No really....

Can't you tell how distraught she is?

Christmas weekend

We headed up the weekend after Christmas, and here is what our driveway looked like... It was fairytale beautiful...

We had several visitors during the weekend...

We had a monster snowdrift on our deck from the snow that melted off the roof - we couldn't open the screen door!

So we stayed inside most of the weekend, and did some redecorating. We rearranged the twin room and hung some pictures...

We also hung some pictures in the queen room...

And I had to add this picture of the old house that my cousin sent me...who knew what happened when snow started sliding off the tin roof!

Lucy's birthday

Sunday was Lucy's birthday, so we all went up to spend the weekend at the Roost (her choice!). We did a lot of porch sitting, since the weather was cool and windy.

Tom and his loyal minion....Last weekend, we picked up my new china cabinet for the kitchen - what do you think?
I love it!

And I forgot to take a picture last time of our housewarming gift from John and Patty - it's a large trivet that we plan to hang on the porch near the table.

Sunday morning was cool and foggy and I went out for an early walk to see a beautiful sunrise. I saw 5 deer (2 adults and 3 babies), and a beautiful red fox.

I found a few new wildflowers - Viper's Blugloss.....

and Boneset.

There are lots of others blooming, but that's all I took pictures of!

"Citiots" come to the Country

This weekend my cousins, Patty and John, came up from Raleigh to visit the Roost. We had a great time - the boys went to the dump and the hardware store, and the girls went cruising on the Parkway and antiquing!Here are some of our purchases: A small vase and S&P shakers A great looking plate....
And the best purchase of all - the piece of furniture for my kitchen corner! We'll pick it up next weekend and I'll post a picture in the house later. My cousin John is a master electrician, so he crawled up in the attic and said we could move the thermostat (which is now right in the middle of that wall). He's coming back in the fall to move it for us.

Wildlife was abundant this weekend - There is a mother deer with a set of twins (no picture, sorry!) and the turkeys came out every evening to feed for several hours - there are 3 adults and about a dozen younguns...

Saturday evening was filled with drinking and talking...

And, Rilla, I finally hung the great pictures that you brought up! They look perfect in the Twin Room!

Old friends...

We had a nice surprise a couple of weeks ago. Some old friends came up from Florida to visit us at the Roost. Kerry and Jeanna moved to Florida several years ago. Kerry worked with us at RJ Reynolds, and also helped Tom build the deck and do many other repairs at the old house. It was really good to see them. We went up to Doughton Park for a picnic on Saturday.....

Jeanna

Tom and Kerry

and the boys played with a glider...

On a different note, we finally found a sofa for the den - a sleeper from World Market.

Many Many updates

I am "woefully" behind in my posts - so here's a long post with lots of pictures - in no particular order....

New chest in our room.

Dresser that was in the can house at the old house that Tom refinished - and a second hand mirror I found at a consignment shop.

Headboard for our King bed

Runners for the hall.

Second hand vase with new flowers

Bluebird houses....Tom put up 3 around the house, and within 45 minutes we had 2 pairs checking them out and fighting over who was going to get which one!

New curtain for the kitchen

Harry and Anne back up on the wall

Rooster hook for the porch

Funky chicken napkin holder

And last but not least - moonrise over Catherine's Knob!