Day 2 in Durham

Our little house is on a short residential dead-end street, with about 12 others. There is a creek past the end. If you walk up to the beginning, where you turn in, you can hear the highway traffic, very loud most of the time, but at our house it's not noticeable. From there, you can turn right and go to a very busy street (4 lanes), with small shops and restaurants. If you turn left, though, you come to a sort of park, where young children ride their bikes up and down and around on dirt hills, under the watchful eyes of their parents. Since the weather has been warm and sunny, and it's vacation time for many, it's been busy whenever I walked by. 

We turn left again and pass more small houses with interesting things in the yard--signs or junk or gardens. There is another park in a couple blocks, with an exercise loop, and it connects to the Ellerbe Creek Trail. Ray has walked it several times already, with and without Cameron. If you cross the trail and walk about half a mile through the golf course, you would come to Amelia and Kevin's house. Ray has done it other times, but not yet on this visit. 

There is some controversy in our neighborhood. It used to be young families and retired couples, like us. Now, though, a lot of the houses have been turned into rentals on airbnb, which includes ours most of the time. The neighbors complain and I feel bad. Nearer the entrance, they have built a second, tall, narrow house on the lot with an existing house. It's not ready yet, but looks pretty peculiar. There are big windows facing the street, so the front room will have lots of light. The side of the house close to the next house has almost no windows. It looks like there will be a balcony or roof deck. I hope I get to see inside one day. We have heard that the empty lot across the street will have 4 houses on it (after they tore down one). It seems like it would feel pretty crowded. Is this a solution for the housing crisis? I doubt they will be "affordable." 

The weather has been very warm, but I guess it's warm in Massachusetts too. My skin is not dry and itchy any more. Yay!

I made beans and rice for our New Year's Day midday meal. Amelia made cornbread and roasted squash (that she grew). Of course I left out the ham. Almost ready to sit down and Amelia asked about the greens. I had bought kale for the purpose. Damn! I said. I had picked out a recipe for creamed greens that I thought would be good, but there wasn't time. Amelia and Ray tore up some kale and put it in their hoppin' john. But I made the creamed kale after dinner and will eat it today. I had a little glass of champagne that made me pretty sleepy. Amelia spent a couple hours on Zoom for craft club. There was only one other person, but she made some progress on her next project, a gingham sweater that looks pretty cute. I am struggling with a sweater I started a few weeks ago, from the neck down. I think it will get easier, but the short rows and the pattern chart made it pretty complicated--too much to do when I'm watching TV in the evening, which is mostly when I knit. 

Our big adventure New Year's Eve was to go to the Durham Library and get library cards. It is a beautiful new building with the latest technology, but there weren't many people. I suppose there are lots of ways to read nowadays and the library is less crucial. I read library books on my phone mostly. Ray found a mystery author that intrigued him, Elizabeth Peters, so of course he checked out 5 of her books. Meanwhile, I picked some gardening and landscaping books and one cookbook.