At long last, settling into life in New Brunswick

August. It was a strange feeling walking into our new house, keys freshly handed over to us by the realtor. It was still a stranger's house, and I felt like an intruder in a space that felt - and smelled - completely unfamiliar. Though I had spied on it's interior so many times on the MLS website to imagine how I'd furnish it, I still couldn't quite believe that this house was really, truly ours.

Coram, I think, didn't quite know what to make of it either. For the first while, he pointed at everything and responded to my answers with a never-satisifed "Oh!". He'd crawl around the house, poking his head into closets, playing with the old swinging cat door to the basement, or doing funny things that kids do best, like gathering balls of remnant cat hair (yuck!) hidden in places only small hands can get to.

Joash, on the other hand, has become enamoured with the barn spiders guarding the side-entrance under the carport. They are nice and fat, after a spring and summer of mosquito hunting, but Joash still feels compelled to turn on the light for them in the evening for their "feedings." And since we aren't going to kill them, he's decided we should be friends and has urged us to give them names. So far, I believe the one farthest from the door is named Charlotte (of course), who has a current lover on her left named Carlos. On her right, however, is a sneaky spider named Pedro who is intent on stealing Charlotte away but is waiting for the right time to make his move. Then, there's Pig Pen, who can't seem to keep his web clean at all, and the one closest to the door is a big fat spider called Nameless, because he keeps getting closer and closer to the door and there's a chance we may have to kill him one day. Sad, but true.

Apart from spiders and other things, we spent the rest of August unpacking (in fact, I think we're still trying to find homes for random things) and cleaning up the basement. We also introduced Coram to the above-ground pool in the backyard, got into a bit of gardening and watching songbirds flit in and out of our pine tree at breakfast. Coram and I spent a lot of August and September taking walks to French Fort Cove and down the riverside path in Chatham. Meanwhile, when Coram took his naps or played in my so-called office in the breakfast nook, I wrote website content like a madwoman, trying to exercise my brain after a year of career-related inactivity.

Now, it's October - the height of fall. The leaves have turned their fiery shades, setting the forest around us ablaze. At Sovereign Community Church, we've already begun plowing and tilling our "front yard" for a community garden. Today, among the red-orange maples against a clear blue sky, our church deacon was out on his tractor tilling manure into the soil to help prepare it for planting next spring. What a difference from life in Vancouver! Nobody owns a tractor nor several acres to spare for a community garden. Standing in the church parking lot, I can see a field of grass, a forest and a glimpse of the great Miramichi river sparkling in the sun. What a beautiful place to call home - and how blessed we are to be here!

Some pics of our new home and Coram settling in. More on our community garden to come!