Staying at Noreen's at Susannah Farm

I've decided to shorten Hugarita's name to Hugita (her full name is actually Hugarita Drolma Prasad-Desai and she's from Guyana) - but that's probably too much information. Anyway she will be popping up now and again, like the tree frog she embodies, in my photos - so you get a gold star if you can spot Hugita in the photo - sometimes it will be easier to spot her than others  - and sometimes she will have walked off-stage...to take refreshment in a nearby pond.
So I'm staying at Noreen's whom I met many moons ago in Arizona at Jetsunma's retreat place near the town of Young. Noreen has gone away for a month and asked me to mind her house while she is away. She, and others from my community, live in rental properties situated on a farmlet/tree nursery called 'Susanna Farm Nursery' http://www.susannafarmnursery.com/. I've never seem so many different kinds of pines. It's beautiful and mostly quiet except for the occasional gun-shot (this is the land of hunters) and the sound of planes flying overhead (the 'Farm' is located under the DC Dulles Airport flight path). At least I don't mistake the planes flashing lights at night for Hailey's Comet which I did once - years ago in Beechworth.  And figments of my imagination didn't stop there.There are beautiful fire-flies here at night. Years ago when I was having  night time walk  around the  Migyur Dorje Stupa I deleriously mistook the fireflies luminous green light for wolves eyes in the dark - until I realised the wolf would have to be extremely cross-eyed the way his eyes were moving!

Noreen has a fiesty 90+ year old living in a separate dwelling part of the house. The owner told me the other day the house was pre-civil way which means pre-1861 - so it's very old from an Australian settlement point of view. The State of Maryland supported slavery but because it was so close to the border it straddled both north and southern state opinions - with most residents siding with the Union. Some of the biggest battles of the Civil war occurred in Maryland - and it was a Marylander that shot Abraham Lincoln dead. Here's some inside and outside piccies including a bone-fide ceramic shower head surround -  along with copper piping. Some things were made to last on this property and not, thankfully,  slavery.

And guess what! Noreen kindly lent me her car so I could learn to drive - my heart was in my mouth the first day I drove alone. And it does require some constant thought to work out which way I should be turning my head - but turn my head I do - because that is essential. Fortunately it it is a semi-rural area and I can only drive between 3 points - the town of Poolesville http://www.ci.poolesville.md.us/ - the Temple www.tara.org and Harris Teeter (Supermarket). I've always avoided driving like the plague in America. The thought completely stressed me out - but no-matter - sometimes the only way to learn is to jump in. Pray for me! And everyone else :)