Back the way we came.

We arrived, nearly three week ago, well after dark on a Saturday and went straight to bed.  On Sunday, we arose to discover that Hosta had taken over yard.  We usually come up in the late summer and cut the bloom stalks off before they drop seed, but we missed it two summers ago and there was a short but comprehensive carpet now.  They are a type of plant called ‘monocot’ (like grass) so if you recall the way thick corn roots spread in all directions you can imagine how time consuming it was.  To make matters worse, the hosta had gotten quite cozy with some plants we wanted to preserve…smallish irises, huechera and columbine so in some places they had to be teased out with a tent stake. 

In their defense, I should say that the Hosta got here honestly.  Sam planted them, with my approval, of course.  Regardless, it was clear they had to go so I dug them up and Sam harassed the rich soil from around the roots.  They are, as I write, on their way to being compost.

But first things had to come first so the Hosta were around to witness our gypsy return and subsequent unloading of all manner of Whitaker family accoutrement from the at-maximum-capacity car and a 17 foot full-to-the-brim Uhaul (temporarily named ‘the beast’).  See picture.   I’m glad I took the time to label the boxes so each room could get equally piled up and unnavigable and all entrances could be fully obscured from access.  The beast was due back on Monday at 4:24pm and after dropping some large items at the Habitat for Humanity store, we made it back with 13 miles to spare but exactly zero surplus minutes. When we dropped it off, the check-in clerk opened the back and said, “this smells like a barn. ”  But what happens on the road, stays on the road so I will say no more than it didn’t smell like a barn to me.

Combining two homes worth of stuff and the necessary culling and many subsequent additional trips to make thrift store donations….I don’t even want to talk about it.  Let’s just leave it at men and women have different priorities. All this moving stuff around was making me hungry.

  You know me, so you know finding vendors for our preferred foods was high on the priority list.  Asheville has 2 Earth Fare locations and one Whole Foods plus a food co-op but no Trader Joe’s so buying nuts and dried fruit just got a lot more expensive.  Recently, I went to Whole Foods to get more Jerk rub (for chicken) and found 17 quadrillion kinds of local micro-brewed beer but not the jerk.  A clerk said, “we’re such a small whole foods that we don’t have room to stock everything a larger store can.”…great. And while I’m griping about this Whole Foods, let me just say that a breakfast bar without bacon cannot be properly called a breakfast bar.  But that’s just my opinion.