Just over a week ago the sale (purchase) of the house finally closed. It was the longest house sale I’ve ever heard of (12 months) and it added to an already long year. After struggling with the bank, my lawyer, bankruptcy court, and the title company, things were finally hammered out and I can relax again. It’s difficult for me to believe I’ve been stewing in this uncertainly for nearly 3 years now, but boy have I crammed a lot of living into those 36 months!

It’s safe to say that my crazy divorce phase is officially over now, and I needed this kind of closure—the real estate variety—desperately.

Before the bitter cold and winds hit we moved the plants indoors. There are a few that are truly struggling right now due to the neglect they suffered this year at the hands of my back surgery. Right now it’s this cactus of mine. It’s covered in scale and I need to either toss it or love it up with some scale treatment this weekend.

I intend to love it up.

I’m back to writing a novel this November for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and it’s a creative non-fiction work centering on my garden but since it’s a draft, it’s bound to include a lot more as I revise it. Describing my garden as it is now has been a lot of work. I’ve lived here for 10 years and it’s time to change things so it’s comforting to begin with a solid story on solid ground. The idea that I can go back and fictionalize things is enticing too.

I can edit both the garden and the book simultaneously.

Before the writing marathon began I went shopping at Portland Nursery for a few more houseplants. I’m working hard this month to get them all situated and tucked into the house too. I am moving them from one room to the other and I am repotting a few even though I know it’s not the most ideal time to do so. The Haworthia babies will look nice outside next year. I think I have at least one dozen. Lastly, after the house sale closed we found the kitten we’d been looking for and he is everything we’d imagined he would be and a whole lot more. His name is Quincy Mercurio Carbone.

The Mister picked the name Quincy. I chose Mercurio in memory of Freddie Mercury because he was both a crazy cat lover and one of my all-time favorite vocalists. The Carbone was chosen today because it means ‘coal’ and Quincy looks kind of sooty. Besides, one of J’s favorite memories of Christmas in Italy as a boy was receiving rock candy that looked like coal from the Christmas witch so it seemed fitting.

Quincy is the very belated Christmas gift from last year from me to J.

He’s the little squirmy naughty piece of coal in our Christmas stocking this year. We’ve earned him.

Oh, and we DO plan to get a Christmas tree.

This should be interesting…