2021 NOVEMBER Walker Newsletter

 

Hello!

The blaze of brightly colored autumn leaves have faded and fallen to the ground leaving bare tree limbs here in the TN Mountains as cold winds bring freezing temperatures.  I've had my wood stoves going to keep the house warm.  Even the hardiest of the fall flowers are fading away. Warm and sunny days are getting fewer and farther apart as the earth tilts and the days grow shorter.  As the squirrel's scurry around storing nuts, I'm also scrambling to get much needed projects finished outdoors.

The biggest project was and is our sun/mudroom that was leaking and went from bad to worse. Dwight had to completely tear off the roof and replace it- stopping finishing metaling the rest of the house roof like planned.  We also put in new linoleum, which Dawn and Randy helped to lay. You can't imagine the amount of stuff that was stacked and stored in such a tiny room- not to mention all the plants that I over winter there as well. I was dearly hoping to get it painted and everything back in place for Thanksgiving, but like so many remodeling projects it is going slower than planned so stuff is still sitting around the dining room to my dismay.

Meanwhile I've been busy brandishing a paint brush. I have totally repainted the back bathroom, front door, the outside bird feeder, and clothesline so far. Between painting, I've hauled two wagon loads of manure up to the garden and filled six large garbage cans with leaves to help winterized the duck and hen houses. On rainy days, I've been pulling out, sorting through, and organizing stuff under the beds & closets.

Here the other week I ran into one of my former piano students that I had given lessons to when she was just a small girl. Now she is a mother of three children and a nurse like her mother. She asked if I would be willing to give her daughter piano lessons. So, out of the blue, I am now teaching a second generation the joys of playing the piano- not that I am getting old (ha!). What fun!

The first week in November I had a rough week over what would have been Dana's 65th birthday.

I kept waking up at night as memories flooded my mind and cried during the day.  Grief is a process that one must work through as you adjust to the loss of your loved one.  During that week I planted spring bulbs I had bought telling myself that even though they looked dead right then, they would come back to life again and beautify the earth with their flowers. I'm so glad that the grave is not the end. As Christians we have hope of being reunited again forever in a much more glorious place than anything here on earth.

Dawn and her family are planning on coming up for Thanksgiving, which I am looking forward to.  It will be a time of making new memories over the holidays while cherishing the past.

Dorcas