Gardens-Yours or Theirs…

Well, now I am home from two wonderful weeks in Park City, Utah. I was lucky enough to see seven movies at the Sundance Film Festival ,thanks to Dayle, who had visited me in Rome last summer, and Anne, a college classmate. In addition to that fun, I also got to ski four days at Deer Valley, which has totally spoiled me for skiing anyplace else! I also spent some time with Dayle’s family, including Mallory, who had also come to Rome. Mallory, who was our resident photographer as we traveled all over Rome and down to Positano and Pompeii, put together a TERRIFIC Shutterfly book called Viaggo Italiani or Italian Travels. This makes a great addition to my coffee table!

And now I am back to thinking about home exchanges. In addition to planning my next exchange to France in the fall, next week I will once again be the "instructor" for a Vacation Home Exchange "course" in the Newton, MA, adult education program. The one night "course" will be listed in at least eleven other programs in the greater Boston area. Now it will depend on whether enough people will sign up for it! 

Since part of your responsibility of vacation home exchange is to keep an eye on whatever is left behind, you may need to water the garden or houseplants at your temporary “home away from home”. You will be left a list of “to do’s” so you can take care of that. By the same token, you may leave a list of similar chores you would like taken care of it your absence. I was most fortunate last summer when I was in Sardinia, as Piero was enjoying doing some yard work at my house, and I was delighted!

Because I have a lot of houseplants, when I did my three exchanges last summer, I prevailed upon my good friend Jane and my sister Helen to “plant sit” for most of them. There were outdoor plants that needed watering, and I didn’t want to over-burden my exchange guests. Jane took the orchids, and I was very happy to tell her when one of them flowered beautifully during the holidays.

Next post I will talk about vacation home exchange websites...and how to find them.