Welcome to Sunnyhill

Great chunks of granite and layers of shale; lakes, rivers and streams; the rise and fall of hills, the long views; the colors and textures and scents of fields and forests; the call of cardinals – we are back in Otsego County.  For me, this is a return to the landscape I grew up in. …
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A long day of driving brought us from a rather grubby LaQuinta in Cheyenne, WY to a very pleasant Fairfield Inn in Des Moines.  The animals are fed, and so are we.  Everyone has had access to a bathroom – which is really the biggest deal for Hazel who has no access all day.  We…
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This morning at our last breakfast in California for a few months Jay and I were reflecting on the Bay Area we were leaving, where we had each spent so much of our lives.  Jay said, it isn’t a place of abundance.  I was taken aback – there is so much stuff here – but…
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You could say that the move we’ll soon be making back to Cooperstown started in 2014 when, on a visit to Peter and Aviva on Shacktown Mountain Road, we all drove to Cooperstown and Jay and I first saw what a beautiful community it was.  As we visited again, after Peter and Aviva moved there,…
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Charlie doesn’t know that we’ll be leaving Pleasant Hill in just three weeks.  I haven’t had the heart to tell him that we’ll be heading back to country where the snow gets so deep that he has to be carried.  He loved Sunnyhill for most of the year, but he didn’t love the winters.  Projecting,…
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Spring weather has arrived.  I sat in the sun in the front yard of Jay’s house at 2057 Hoover Avenue in Pleasant Hill.  Jay’s Dad, Jack Bosley, bought the snug two bedroom one bath house in 1967 and lived here until he died and Jay inherited it.  Jay lived here on and off, but for…
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The sale won’t close until March 30th, but I signed all the paperwork on March 9th to sell the house that Joe and I bought some 29 years ago.  When we went house hunting the only guidance we gave our Realtor other than price was that Joe didn’t want an Eichler.  She dutifully showed us…
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Jay and I drove to Sacramento on a clear, cool Wednesday. In a park near the capitol we met a few of my first husband’s friends, gathered at a monument to veterans to remember Terry’s life.  Chuck, who was closest to Terry, had initiated the gathering and invited me.  I hadn’t seen or communicated with…
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We walked up the pathway from the Quinn’s lovely old farmhouse in Hartwick towards our car after dinner. Their porch light went off and we were suddenly again aware of the deep black country sky we had lived under just up the road. Orion was high in the sky, and brilliant. I had not forgotten…
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I had foot surgery on December first, to correct a bunion and a hammer toe on my left foot. Jay, who had been through foot surgery several years ago (before we met) had warned me that the recovery would be long and painful. He didn’t exaggerate. The first week was hydrocodone and helplessness. Now, half…
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