The newcomer

It's been a little over two weeks since we moved, and things are starting to feel a little more like home here. This morning I baked some chocolate-chip cookies for our kids who are coming here for the weekend, and I've been hanging pictures and getting the rooms just-so.

Cookies with a view!

I'm not sure how long it takes for a place to really feel like home, but I seem to remember it's anywhere from 6 months to a year.  At least that's how it felt the last time I moved.  I do know that learning my way around a new town often proves an exercise in patience.  Errands I would have run effortlessly in our old town are challenging in our new one.  For example, I decided to have a picture of the kids enlarged this week, and looked online to find a photo place who could do it.  I got the address, but failed to locate the shop.  Eventually I called them, and discovered I'd been looking in the wrong shopping center -- their place was across the street from where I was looking.


That kind of thing happens all the time.  I do it driving around town, and I do it in my kitchen.  I finally felt at home enough in the kitchen this morning to bake cookies, and I'm glad I did.  The only way to become familiar with something is to just go ahead and immerse yourself in it.  


While I'd love to be harvesting summer vegetables and making wine in earnest, right now it's all I can do to do a little baking and try not to lose my head when running errands.  That's how it is when you're a newcomer.