Saturday!

Good news/Bad news on the Developer saga, which unfortunately continues... Bad news? No matter how much I was willing to keep our lawyer in nice ties the past two years, there is nothing we could do to stop that developer who is hell-bent on running his sewer line down our side of the street.

Good news? Being a Realtor in 2-states I know that he has no more right to the right of way than we do and he has to make every effort to minimize the destruction his project causes. So while the rest of the neighbors have let him cut down their trees and plow through their front yards with a tractor the size of Spain, I demanded he find a way to AVOID our fence and tear up as little of the right away adjacent to our property as possible - Last week I showed him that we put the split rail fence in like we still live in California where the earth moves, so it's cemented in about two and a half feet deep. To remove it he would have to destroy it and if he destroyed it he'd have to replace it and all the plants and bulbs we have planted around it. I also demanded they find a way to avoid the 35-year old dogwood and our Japanese maple. But the tide really turned my way after I showed him the report I received from the certified arborist I hired, which states that the Japanese maple in our front yard cannot be replaced for under $20,000.00, because after that conversation work stopped for three days and the mini-Cooper of tractors showed up yesterday!

It still stinks that this is happening at all but at least the fence will be spared and my climbing roses and the trees we love so much will survive. I'm no Santa Cruz tree-hugger but I moved to the country to be left alone. I don't need your sidewalks or your street lights and after spending $18,000.00 to install a new sand filtration septic system, I surely don't need your sewer!

Loving Spring green!

We started our Saturday in the yard, then we drove over to Greensboro to wander through the Craftsman faire at the coliseum. I didn't find anything I couldn't live without but Tom Butler (www.tombutlerart.com) was there so we chatted with him for a while and bought another of his paintings. The frame on the new piece matches the piece I commissioned from him two years ago, which is a bonus. Tom said he and his wife moved to the beach last year after he suffered a heart scare - I told him to take care of himself because I'm in no hurry for his art to become valuable! Any way, it was nice to see him and I really like his work.

Here is a nice woman painting a Country landscape

A crooked clock!

After the Craftsman classic we popped into the Antique marketplace because we had time before our dinner reservation. They have quite the collection of vintage toy ride-on cars, trucks and planes!
Seeing the price on this Roseville vase made me feel pretty good about the one I picked up at the estate auction last weekend. This one is much smaller but priced a lot higher, and it has two chips while mine is perfect. We prefer perfect!
This is my favorite dealer - The name of her business is The Queen's Rubbish and most of her offerings are English.
A perfect end to a perfect meal at Ruth's Chris steakhouse tonight - Warm apple tart. I took a picture of our entrees too, but I'm embarrassed to show you because I'd rather you did not know how much food we ordered. After all, there are children starving in the Sudan!