Taken this morning before catching our flight back to frigid temperatures in Chicago and our last two nights staying with Bill & Junko before we move into a furnished rental in the city (closer to work for Jim and heated/covered parking space for our car for the winter).
Apologizing in advance as I'm likely to be intermittent in commenting during the move. Thank you for your response to the horse shots -- I have a few more that I may post as I suspect time for photographing will be a bit limited.
Background for new followers: (a) house fire Nov 2014, (b) rented a condo during massive reconstruction/rebuilding project in our home after fire and liked condo so much we decided to buy it, (c) Sept 2015 moved into our post-fire reconstructed home after reconstruction completed, (d) sold reconstructed home June 2016 & purchased condo we'd lived in during fire reconstruction but inherited renters who have chosen not to move out until July 2017 (their legal required move out date) despite having bought their own place July 2016. Thus, the array of temporary living situations with all our things in storage.
A beautiful flower with lovely bokeh! Safe journey home! Be happy in your furnished rental - at least Jim is close to work and won't have to commute! Be strong - the end is in sight! I hope your tenants get their just deserts! Karma! Fav for your lovely image!
A beautiful image. The lighting is exquisite. At last you can say 'we move into our condo this year'…. It will be lovely to get all your own things around you again, come July.
Absolutely delightful wee flower - you have captured it fragility so well against such a gorgeously muted pastel background of bokeh Best wishes in your new accommodation !! :)
Wonderful capture. The focusing is fantastic. a fav. for me. I remember all that you have gone through. I missed the fact that you bought the condo you had rented while your house was being reconstructed.
@squamloon You are so right - we keep in mind we're dealing with a 'first world problem' and that there are REAL problems facing people every day! We can be frustrated, but we have to realize that when there's a happy end in sight...it's not that big a deal.
@taffy Oh I hope you didn't take what I said as an affront. I was actually thinking about how much you'd been through since I left, and have seen that in several stories.
@squamloon Oh -- no worries! I literally meant what I said...what's kept us going is knowing that while we can be individually frustrated, in the grand scheme of things, given what COULD have happened to us in the fire, we know that all will be well and finally we even have a date of when this will all be behind us. We're just tired of not being settled for what will be almost three years while knowing we are still leading a very nice life so it feels wrong to really complain. No affront taken at all!
This is such a lovely shot, Taffy. Thanks, too, for the the update. It's useful to see all the moves in one place. I'm sure you two are very much looking forward to settling in July! Safe travels!
I'm sure you'll be missing the warmth of this shot almost instantly! Wow- it does seem like only yesterday that the fire broke out and your whole world turned upside down. You do have a positive attitude about it and are doing an excellent job at keeping it in balance. The little flower reminds me of you- looking towards the sun to see the beauty in life. Great shot!
The background bokeh is the perfect backdrop for this pretty little flower. There's definitely not any of these in IL right now; 0° here this morning. Thanks for the update on your housing situation. How incredible that you're going to (eventually) going to taking pictures again from that amazing lofty view. Looking forward to seeing those kinds of shots again.
@lyndemc Thanks Denise! It's been a shock to the system -- soooo cold!!! But we did get out a bit today to run some errands. Not quite the same as meandering around in 80 degree sunny spots!
@tunia Haha! That is one thing that we keep saying as a 'silver lining' -- so much stuff we would have had trouble downsizing just went away with the fire. And with each move and stuff in storage, there are things I know when we get them back, we'll just turn around and donate them. Some things have been in storage for over 2 years!
Oh now this is quite gorgeous. Those petals look so malleable I want to handle them. Just catching up on your house situation - what a fiasco! I would love to know - because I have read your references to it several times before - what is a condo? Anyway. Here is to 2017 being your year for finally settling in to your chosen place.
@helenhall Condo is short for condominium. Like an apartment building (can be any size -- even 2 units) where the owners own their own unit and share in the cost of the overall building (in contrast to when renting). The condo that caught fire was a 2 unit one and we then had to gut it and reconstruct it. It turned out beautifully but we decided the number of stairs (we had the 3rd and 4th floors) were too much so sold it to buy the one we'd been renting. That one is a 37 story building so has over a hundred units and ours is on the 33rd floor and all on the same level - no stairs. We can't wait to move into it. Here are links to it from earlier days in my album: http://365project.org/taffy/365/2016-06-15 and http://365project.org/taffy/365/2014-11-27 and for our night view from the living room - http://365project.org/taffy/365/2014-11-21 . We are very excited that we now own it, if only we could live there!
Wow, you will be back in the high rise!! I wonder if you will be out on that balcony much ;) You had a fantastic view, how wonderful that it will be your new home. Congratulations on the sale and purchase.
ahhh,,,for the fragrance, one of my favorite flowers! You and Jim and have incredibly patient through all this, and I hope the upside is that it might feel like Christmas morning as you unpack boxes of items you now haven't seen for years!!!
@Weezilou I'm sure you're right about this -- but it will be next fall when that happens. Our little rental is so tiny that there is no room for anything of ours (wishing we had our bread knife and a few other kitchen items that they don't have here, but mostly it's completely furnished and comfortable -- just teeny).
@taffy I understand that "teeny" is the up-and-coming style size for this generation! Ken and I were in Ikea today and they showed a fully furnished room, kitchenette and bath in 750 sq ft! To me, that's "dorm room"! I love having space to "ramble", even if you're likely to find me in the corner of a room at my computer day in and day out!
@taffy I read that to Ken and he said, "Close... It was 280 sq ft!" OK...that's a nice sized bedroom closet in my book!!! It WAS a dorm room... (He just said from the other room, "Numbers really aren't your thing, are they?" (And he might wonder why I married him! I need his sort!)
@Weezilou Heehee! Just sent you a photo of our cozy condo via email. I can't remember the last time I lived somewhere where an iPhone could capture the entire living space!
