Social butterfly

I'm staying with my friends, the Renzis, on their goat farm in Chester Springs. David and I had our rehearsal dinner in the barn here, so this farm holds a lot of special memories. The Renzis also have a native plant nursery, so much of my gardening was inspired by what I found here--and by Catherine and Al.

Catherine and I began the day catching up on the issues of being a farmer in a wealthy ex-urb and on the challenges of being a student in a foreign country. Then I took the train into Philly to have lunch at Dandelion with my cousin, Bill Casey, namesake of his father and grandfather. I spent summers in Atlantic City, Ventnor, and Margate visiting all three Bill Caseys and a few dozen cousins, aunts and uncles. Good times, those.

Then the train back to Malvern. I missed the 2:45pm I intended to take because I was on Track 4A instead of 4B. The bloody train went right by me. I took the 3:15 to Malvern and proceeded to run/walk for a half hour to my chiropractor appointment in Frazer. My friend, Judy, picked me up and took me to dinner then back to the farm. A day full of friendship--something I definitely miss in Ireland. I will find "my people" over there eventually. We plan to move into our house Feb. 1 and classes at Queen's finish in May. In the meantime, I won't have time to sing in the choir at church or take the pilates class at the club up the street from our new house, the kind of things that help you meet people.
I've been showing my friends various photos from Ireland and came across these two. A friend told me a while back that I have too many sunny pretty pictures and I should show the other side. So I took a picture of an abandoned house in Killyleagh. But I also took a picture of the house beside it.

On a related note, as I walked along Rt. 30 from Malvern to Church Road, I was struck by all the boarded-up shops. Most of the strip centers I saw had a majority of storefronts papered over. I'm familiar with the failure of the inner rings of suburban neighborhoods. It's surprising to see Frazer--the outer ring of the outer ring--with so many vacancies.
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