Temporarily yours...

There has been a temporary population explosion in Shakeytown this week - snowmen are the new garden gnomes! And way cooler too (in every sense of the word).

Here's some from round my neighbourhood...

just chillin...

anatomically present & correct! as long as you don't look at the arms...

cute-as-a-button mini snowgal 

And there've been some pretty cool snow/ice patterns from the slow melting process...

Alas, snowmen (& wimmin) are but temporary friends. Like many things in our lives they are here for a moment and then gone forever, to linger only in photos and memories.

Of course, over a lifetime, some moments seem longer than others. Childhood (especially that of your own offspring) feels like a brief moment... or at least, just a brief moment ago. Surely it can't have been that many years since the pitter-patter of tiny feet was actually made by tiny feet and not enormous size 10 boots?

It's been 6 years since our last decent dump of snow, enough to build a snowman with at any rate. I was looking for some old photos earlier tonight and found this:

This pic, from the big snow of 2005 (which wasn't as big as the Big Snow of '92BK (before kids)), looks like ancient history now. And I know that when we moved into our little blue house, our kids were even smaller still...Now, they're basically all grown up... and the house they grew up in is about to come tumbling down.

dwarfed by the new garden ornament

The elasticity of time & process never ceases to amaze me. We spent months waiting for a definitive answer from our insurance company and now, within just a few days of receiving the payout, our project manager is raring to go. The phone call came on Wednesday, "there'll be a digger round at your place at 8 tomorrow morning".

Holy crap Batman! We thought we'd get a little more warning than that - how's a girl supposed to plan a demo party with no notice and no time (to plan or to party)?! That's ok... I know where there's a good party happening tomorrow night, and I'll be there with bells on. Well, not literally, 'cos that would get in the way of the audio recording I'll be doing :)

So, today we went to say farewell to our little blue house, while it was still intact...

front fence is down already...

too big to go down the driveway

Crouching digger, Munted house

Understandably, the short notice resulted in a slight delay... work wasn't able to start at lunchtime, as had been planned, 'cos both power and internet cables needed to be disconnected first.

The last of the cables is cut

Props to the utility companies - both jobs were lodged this morning & done by 5pm, and the demolition will start first thing tomorrow, at about 7.30am. I hope none of our old neighbours were planning to sleep in! I figure I'll be able to hear the demo crew start bashing & crashing from my backyard, so I'll wander round with my coffee & camera to check out the action. It seems our time as homeowners came to an end a little earlier than we had planned. Soon we will have no mortgage, but neither will we have our family home.

Like many relationships over the years, I never anticipated that it would end this way. I never imagined that we would be the last family to enjoy her quirky charms - the crazy stairs, the gorgeous dark wood panelling and leadlight windows - and definitely never imagined that my children would one day look down on her lifeless remains.

Au revoir le maison bleu - although we were only temporarily yours, you will always be ours.

 Thankfully, memories last longer than snowmen.