Gardens & Goodbyes

Five days until I move out of our beautiful Yarrow Point house and into a hotel for our last month here in Washington. So bittersweet!  It’s going to be very tough for us to say goodbye to this house and to Bellevue.  There are so many memories here.  Two of my three sons were born in Bellevue at Overlake Hospital.  This was our house after the divorce.  We closed on the house just two weeks after I met Ty Gurney for the first time.  And this was the house Mac came home to as a newborn in May 2009.  We did a two year remodel here, not knowing we’d be leaving for California so soon, so it’s a strange time…good, exciting, scary, but hopefully, ultimately, positive.

The practical now demands attention, too.  I finalized everything with movers today, and tomorrow we start packing up books in the kids rooms, and then the winter clothes, etc. It’s going to be chaotic packing and sorting out what goes to the hotel and what goes to storage, as I have a book due by Friday and I need to write, but keep getting distracted by all the things that demand a decision and my personal attention.

And speaking of practical…my office and files and promo stuff will all be packed as of Friday too, and that includes all the blog prizes that are sitting in my dining room unclaimed.  If you haven’t written to me to claim your prize yet, please do it now.  I have at least 5 unclaimed prizes from my last two blog contests, and you might be one of the winners and forgot to check.  So do check, and if you won, contact me!!   You have until Thursday night to claim your prize, and then it’s too late as everything will be packed up until July 1st when we start settling, and unpacking, in the new house.

It’s a gorgeous day here…the weekend was unbelievably beautiful.  Warm temperatures, blue skiies, lots of sun.  I walked around my garden with my coffee this morning and admired all the flowers that are in bloom, as well as the perennials that are popping up in my shade garden.  I hate leaving my house and my library, but also my dogwoods and my Japanese maples, and the wisteria that is blooming profusely right now.  It’s so wonderful to see my young wisteria that I planted two years ago finally blooming…so glad I got to see it bloom before I left.   I always struggle leaving my gardens…is anyone else that attached to their trees and flowers?

I have a special contest prize for one of you and it MUST be claimed by Friday.  Tell me about life…tell me about something you are reading…or something you are thinking…tell me anything and you’ll be entered for my Gardens & Goodbye prize.  Contest runs through Thursday night and winner will be announced Friday morning.  The winner must get back to me Friday, too.  So talk to me and I’ll keep checking back to read comments in between writing, writing, packing, and more writing.