The two of us spent the Fourth at our son’s in Providence,
R.I.
Our youngest (although now that he’s fifty that sounds a bit odd.) owns a house that sits pretty much in the center of the city.
Over the
years, he’s renovated the carriage house in back and recently also purchased
the house next door. His long-range plan is for an income-producer for each
twin. It’s been a long road full of
many, many, many renovations, most of which he’s done with his own two hands. I
try not to learn some of the details, like when he was up on the roof of the
three-family house repairing the roof tiles.
Just the transformation of the carriage house – which initially
needed guy wires affixed to the ground to prevent it from falling down – into the
home where he and his family now live is worthy of a lengthy post in the
future.
Once he acquired the three-family next door he was able to use
its back yard to indulge his love of gardening, and a person could spend a good
fifteen minutes out there just naming all the plants he’s put in over the past
year. Yesterday, we enjoyed the result of this, sitting on a patio he’d
installed, gazing out over the new grass to the laurels in back, and wolfing
down the brisket he’d smoked.
It was a day of small children running through the sprinkler,
smaller cousins trailing after larger cousins, and catching up with relatives
on our DIL’s side of the family. We are truly fortunate that all new additions
to the family tree have been wonderful ones.
Although sometimes we all need a little time to ourselves. Case in point, grandtwin Lola here in the hammock cocooning with her books.
