Tuesday, September 15, 2015

not a hardship & Grace is talkative


After our month long trip you may be wondering how we managed for so long in a confined space. I'll start off by saying that it wasn't a hardship - at all. Our camper/villetta has all the amenities of home and in many ways feels like as much a home as our house does. The trip gave me back the ahhhh feeling that I used to get whenever I stepped into it.

One thing that made the month easy was our huge outdoor living space. The weather was generally good so we spent much time outside. The 180 view extended our eye space to the horizon. I like. But even when 'forced' inside we were comfortable. Three large picture windows and four smaller ones framed the views to the water, there was no feeling of claustrophobia.

The living room is set up for comfort - we are on vacation! A (reasonably) comfortable sofa and Ikea poang chair make a cosy seating area. There is a coffee table that has room for feet, coffee cups, and a few books. The TV, stereo system and fireplace are across from the sofa. Cuddling up to watch a movie is a good way to spend a rainy evening, and if it is cold the flickering of the electric fireplace warms us. I got a bluetooth receiver so that I can play the music from my tablet onto the blu ray player. Surround sound speakers make for good dancing vibes.

We usually have satellite TV (how decadent). We didn't watch much TV this trip though as the weather was so good. The last full day was rainy though so we watched 3 old movies on TCM. During the stock market crash Carm watched the business news network during the day. We also have internet! That is a must have otherwise I wouldn't be able to post my blog :-o

On a rainy day if I want to quietly read I go into the bedroom. A fan over the bed and a reading light behind me make a perfect reading spot.

Cooking is easy. The kitchen has decent counter space and lots of storage. The gas stove is awesome - I love cooking on it. I don't use the gas oven often - I also have a microwave convection oven. I move the cutting board from the stove top to near the sink so I can look out the windows while I do the prep.

The dining room has a proper table and two padded chairs. It is a tight squeeze to get in on my side (no gaining weight for me!). The view out the picture window was fabulous. Sometimes we are more informal and eat at the coffee table. The lid lifts to eating height - an old people's coffee table!

Grace enjoys the camper too. She has a big cage outside - she loves being outside. Her inside home is in the back corner of the living room with a window on two sides. She likes seeing what is going on in the world.

The dogs are sometimes underfoot, but usually keep out of the way by sleeping on their beds - they have two sets: bedroom and livingroom. The main living room bed is under the dining room table, we took two chairs out to make room. The other bed was under Grace's cage but Spike wouldn't go under there anymore so I moved it out onto the floor. They all use it sometimes now.

There isn't much that is missing from our little villetta - I think we could live there indefinitely.

During a few minutes of quiet time this afternoon I made a list of everything Grace was saying:

oh my
whatca doing baby
hi baby
where's laura
do you want some
hey girl
whooo
its very nice grace
ruff
okay
come on bella
hey, hey, here
Laura's got
good girl grace
bella come here
its very yummy
look out baby
where's laura
gracie bird
oh my goodness
what is it
you are a very nice bird
gracie bird
what a very good bird
what goodness grace
kabira
okay
yum
look out
wanna go outside
Kabirdy (her made up nickname for Kabira)
squeek squeek (squeeky toy)
… plus lots more that I couldn't make out

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