Back at Spiritwood after a year away

We enjoyed our year of travel but it sure was nice to be back home.

Last treats for Whiskey on the day we left in Dec 2009

Of course, homecoming was tempered by the loss of Whiskey, my 27yo gelding horse. He had been weakened by a nasty slip on ice in early 2009, and we had wondered if we should make the tough decision to have him put down before we left. Our vet said he would look out for him, and with a diet of senior food, should be okay. Unfortunately, just five days before we arrived home, he was unable to get himself up after a roll: the strain caused internal injuries, and our house sitter had to euthanize him.

Other than that, our own bed felt luxurious; the water tasted wonderful; the cats were like glue to us... Despite the presence of a 5yo boy for the year, the house was in pretty good shape: no crayon marks! We suspect that the gardens suffered as the house sitters had unexpected other demands on their time, and were unable to cope with gardening. Oh well, at least the snow is covering it all for now...

Our travel blog went well while we were travelling, but kind of stalled when we settled down for three months of house sitting in southern Australia. It was interesting to see how socializing took away much of the opportunity to look after blogging and photo organizing. When we were staying in hotels in SE Asia, there always seemed to be “down time” to deal with such things.