Name Change in the Middle of the Road

Just thought I'd share why I named my blog the House on the Hill.  Besides the obvious of course.  I had set up my blog and had written a few posts about how we ended up in the foothills of the Appalachians, via the midwest.  I just had not published them because I wanted to scan old pictures in to go with the posts and I will do that.  Eventually.  I set up the blog while I was still hunting for what was to become the House on the Hill.  I called my unborn blog,  A Tale of Two Houses and the description included "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" and was using other Dickensonian references.  Because I fancy myself a literary sort.

But then came the day that they actually moved the house in and I followed it being pushed up the Hill, with my heart in my throat.  Just waiting for it to jack knife and roll over and over back down the Hill.  On top of somebody.

As I started up the Hill, a song popped into my head and incessantly repeated itself over and over and over.  The song continued to play even after the first half was sitting on the site and I was standing atop the Hill watching the second half come up.  

It became almost a mantra and the repetition calmed the nervous jitters that had seriously overtaken me.

Cotton Jenny

written by

Gordon Lightfoot

There's a house on a hill

By a worn down weathered old mill

In the valley below where the river winds

There's no such thing as bad times

And a soft southern flame

Oh Cotton Jenny's her name

She wakes me up when the sun goes down

And the wheels of love go 'round

Wheels of love go 'round

Love go 'round, love go 'round

A joyful sound

I ain't got a penny for Cotton Jenny to spend

But then the wheels go 'round

When the new day begins

I go down to the cotton gin

And I make my time worth while to them

Then I climb back up again

And she waits by the door

Oh Cotton Jenny I'm sore

And she rubs my feet while the sun goes down

And the wheels of love go 'round

Wheels of love go 'round

Love go 'round, love go 'round

A joyful sound

I ain't got a penny for Cotton Jenny to spend

But then the wheels go 'round

In the hot, sticky South

Where they say well shut my mouth

I can never be free from the cotton grind

But I know I got what's mine

She's a soft southern flame

Oh Cotton Jenny's her name

She wakes me up when the sun goes down

And the wheels of love go 'round

Wheels of love go 'round

Love go 'round, love go 'round

A joyful sound

I ain't got a penny for Cotton Jenny to spend

But then the wheels go 'round

Though this is a Gordon Lightfoot song, I have to admit that Ann Murray was the performer caught in the loop running on and on in my head.

released in 1971
1. Talk It Over In The Morning
2. Most Of All
3. Bring Back The Love
4. Let Me Be The One
5. Night Owl
6. Destiny
7. Please Smile
8. I Know You Don't Love Me No More
9. You've Got a Friend
10. Cotton Jenny

Little did Ann know that she was performing in all her 1971 glory atop a hill in rural Alabama that warm spring day.

In my heart that day, our house became the House on  Hill and so the unborn blog became the same.  Because I guess I really am more a person who gets things stuck in their jittery brain than a literary type.  But, just to show you how appropriate the House on the Hill is, let me show you a few things I drive by regularly. 

By a worn down weathered old mill.....I drive by this every time I go to the big town, the Almost a City in Georgia to shop or to the doctors office.  Not the Real City where M works, you know the Hotlanta one.  The Almost a City, that thinks it should have a Vatican there.  I love the way this old mill looks!

This is really an old grist mill.  I tried to get a picture of the water wheel in the back but the trees totally cover the opening.  It sits on a  small creek but it was hidden by the trees too.

In the valley below where the river winds.....Actually, this is Terrapin Creek, taken from atop Duggar Mountain, the only real mountain close to us.  Though the Terrapin runs through the valley below us it is just a creek.  But it looks like a river, by IL standards anyway.  I mean really, does it look like a creek to you? 

 

Duggar Mountain is now a National Wildlife Refuge and I hear it is a neat place to hike.  I just hear that, because hiking is not something I do.  Anymore.  Though I'd like to do it again.  Someday.  Maybe. 

 In the hot, sticky South, where they say well shut my mouth, I can never be free from the cotton grind.....These are the fields that line the roads all the way to the hills where the House on the Hill is.

 

This is the way they look now.

That's our Hill back there!

There are still a lot of bolls

and  blossoms too.

I hiked into somebody's field and took these too!

but give it a few more weeks and this is what I will see.

Instead of hearing about the corn "firing", I hear about the cotton "popping."

Then comes the day these roll into the fields and small bits of cotton fill the air and line the roadsides

and rows of huge bales lay in the fields.

I drive past them to go anywhere.  I have to admit, I hardly ever notice them anymore.  But every once in awhile I get caught in a memory and suddenly feel like I am in a foreign land and I look around and search for the lush corn fields of central IL.

I ain't got a penny for Cotton Jenny to spend.....We don't have many, so I really have to watch our pennies, that's why I look for great buys, bargains  and clearance stuff.  I want those pennies to go as far as they can!  We work hard for what we have and don't expect anything else.  That's just the way life is and I believe it means more when you earn something for yourself.

Wheels of love go 'round.....Lots of that here too!  Love for each other, for our children, for the GrandGirlies and for our families near and far. Lots of love, tears and memories for those who've gone before us - now watching over us with more wheels of love.  Guiding us in what we do with that strong, sure love that our family shares and never forgets.

Janet, the sweet girl that made me an aunt

Joey, my precious nephew

My baby brother, Joel

Steven, my big brother

our wonderful parents, Pop and Mother

There is also lots of love for our chosen home, both the land and the house. Yep, I love the House on the Hill and enjoy living in it and working on it.  And I love living in the Deep South; just wish it was next door to IL.