Fifteen years

Lilac buds ready to pop

Walking home today in the blustery wind with raindrops spitting every few minutes, I was hunkered down inside my fleece and with my raincoat pulled up to protect me from the wind and wet. It wasn't pleasant, but on top of that, the sun kept trying to come out to change the narrative. Before long, I was almost home and happy to be thinking about coming inside and getting warm and dry once again.

Just before walking up the driveway to my apartment complex, I saw these lilac bushes sporting beautiful buds, soon to become flowers. Lilacs don't last a long time, but while they're around, they are one of my favorite flowers. And they're purple, too!

Yesterday marks fifteen years since SG and I pulled into this driveway with a U-Haul filled with our Colorado belongings, ready to start our retirement years here in the Pacific Northwest. He had come here earlier, with his car, to find a temporary place for us to use as a "jumping-off place," and he had found a nice two-bedroom apartment and starting staying there for a month or so, before flying back to Boulder to finish our journey. As it has turned out, we are still here, in that same apartment, fifteen years later. 

And we decided that Bellingham was just the place for us after all, not needing to look any further for a good community to join. It was important to find somewhere close to the ocean and not too far from the mountains. Bellingham fits us just right. I am still hiking in the mountains and know the trails around town intimately. We didn't know any of this when we got here, but I cannot imagine having found anywhere else that fits us so well. 

At first, we traveled to Canada (just a half hour away) quite often, but as the years have passed, we have stayed closer to home, and the pandemic closed the border for a few years anyway. Now we make short excursions to local stores for supplies, but otherwise we have graduated from being world travelers to elders who enjoy puttering around in our small home town. Having each other is the best! I hope we can continue like this for awhile longer, while we still have our health and mobility. Who could ask for more?

:-)