Getting There With Diversions

Posted on by Sandy Webster

The new bed quilt set arrived…soft as a kittens tummy. And the color is perfect because it will go with the grey walls of the room and the large painting that will hang overhead. …..aptly named Starting Over – Coming Home.

A walk out to the dam and another over to the new house. Progress! Finishing siding…

And the porch…

So nice to see a door hung. I met the electrician to go over where wiring will need to be. Such a delightful man. Very helpful and thought of all the things I did not. Like, “If you are getting out of your car here with a six pack of beer, you want that little garage refrigerator here and not over there.” That advice determines where an outlet needs to be. And so we walked through every room and talked about what furniture would be where. He kept asking if I was sure there was not to be a television in the living room or bedroom. I assured him that only in the den/office was fine. He was also good at telling me about how many recessed ceiling lights would be enough and I could have some of them dimmable. They will let me know before the drywall goes in to see if I want to make changes. Nice.

I made another two cups of lemon myrtle gin and celebrated with an Australian flavored G & T.

When I would walk over to the house these past couple of months I collected scraps of two by fours. I wanted them different lengths to carve into house shapes for block printing. Friends in Australia have set our art challenge for the year based on letters of the alphabet. April is the letter “H”. Perfect for me to think of house as the topic to interpret. So last week I carved.

I wanted them to be in there natural state with just carved spaces that would not receive the color. And I must say I have been following the Ukrainian printmaker, Olesya Dehuraeva, who lives in Kviv and has been finding scraps of wood and using them to print with the black soil of her devastated area. The pieces are haunting and have a sense of the hurry with which she must be working to stay safe.

Even though I planned on making these prints from two by four scraps with my watercolor made from the house site, Olesya’s prints showed me again that the intention of the artist must take precedence over any other considerations, and to just do it.

So, find a brush, get the watercolor soft enough to transfer enough color onto the block and print quickly.

I had to soften the surface beneath the printing paper and sometimes hit the block with a wooden mallet. It was easy to go over again if necessary because I had marked off where each block would be printed.

I looked at it, but not for long before deciding it would be fun to stitch around each house so I punched the holes through the heavy paper first.

Then I stitched it with a very dark brown thread.

I had erased all the pencil guide lines before. Then I sprayed it with a fixative before steam pressing the paper flat…well sort of.

And guess what! I didn’t like it! Still don’t. So this morning I spaced the houses further apart and made a change in one of them. It is drying thoroughly before I think of what I want to do next to it. Scraps of something like tar paper would be fun to cut into strips to add as roofs but I will make another trip to the site to see what is there.

Something tells me it needs a black crow and I have one I carved a long time ago. I will wait and see where it goes next. But my thought was that when satisfied, I would have it framed and hung over the front door on the way out to remind me I do have neighbors now.

Isn’t it odd how Olesya’s scrap wood and black soil images make your heart sink. And mine in this somewhat cheery yellow ochre of my new home can make me smile. Both our intentions have been met.

And if I feel like threading a needle I have this to work on.

I cut up the owl print that I thought needed cloth and stitch added. Then found more cloth to piece the pieces together. I am going to fill it with more of those randomly directed black marks until I either like it or just say, “I don’t like that at all.” And give it a toss. It is so funny how easily we can deceive ourselves into pathetic being passable. Or passable being perfect.

This morning the fellow came to clean the shop before repainting it. By the time he finished it no longer needs painting. It almost sparkles. I pawned a swivel rocker off on him and we were both delighted. I cleaned the porch that was covered in pollen and am relieved that there is so little to move or pack up out here. My cleaning lady will take all I don’t have a home for and donate it to her church.

It is sunny and quite warm today.  I can see the leaves popping out at the tips of branches. Lee and I would have been sipping a beer and feeling lucky to have such a view. I am ready to leave and hope to meet with the realtor this week.

It turns out he does not need difficult dental work and is eating most of his meals.

More later…..

 

Moving Right Along

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Yesterday this king size bed went to a new home with all its linens and pillows. Then came the new double that was adjusted to the right height and all the moves it is capable of were tested out.

As soon as the men left, the cats and I tried it out for ourselves. Delightful! Especially the “Zero Gravity” setting where you are gently lifted on each end to where you feel like you are floating.

Dilly has taken to watching some of my old British mysteries….Like Pie in the Sky. Nice escapes from every day worries and thinking too much.

This morning I went for a walk at the river. Much more Spring-like than before.

Then it was off to look at light fixtures and fans. Only came home with the lights for the bathroom vanities.

The fans I will get later…most of them are rather ugly and ordinary. And the search for pendant lights for over the sink island in the kitchen will have to continue. Designers are showing little imagination in this area or entirely too much. Most have glaring odd shaped lightbulbs that would be close to eye level. Others look as though they were nicked from an abandoned warehouse. None wanted to disappear into the background. The search online was not much better. Still lots of time.

The care center called to tell me that Lee has broken a couple of teeth from grinding them down. They needed my approval to call a dentist in to see what can be done. He also has a condition called thrush on his tongue that could be caused by the condition of his teeth.  It will all get treated.  And those in charge of bringing in their dentists to take care of issues in nursing homes called earlier today to let me know how much I should be prepared to pay for services rendered. I told them that it will be taken care of however much it cost but that they should keep in mind that Lee does not communicate well, is likely not going to hold his mouth open for fillings or whatever else they might have in mind.  And if extraction was the best solution to please go ahead with it. So since we don’t have dental insurance and of course are still living in one of those countries without the benefit of government health care, it will be $213 for each visit to the care center, $75 for the first exam, then in addition whatever the procedures cost, but not to forget that it is $213 for each visit. I assured her that I understood and am thankful that we can afford these sudden expenses.

I did attend the meeting with five Democratic contenders for the House of Representative’s seat in our district. Most but especially two seem promising to go against the imbecilic young Republican presently holding that office.  But the interesting thing was one elderly contender who was running late and seemed to readily admit how little he knew about the topics at hand. But he was sure that gas was always good in the past so was good enough for the future instead of alternate fuel sources, and that the only thing he had to say on immigration was we need those “cheap labor” people coming over the border to pick our produce. No one in the room found this candidate amusing or enlightened and he received very little if any applause.

What made me feel somewhat heartened about the politics in our deeply red area of rural North Carolina was how thoughtful and well-researched the candidates and audience were. Not one seemed to be involved in the constant feed of  false narratives.

So many of our once “united” states are willing to let the Republican Party knuckle drag this country back into a time of dwindling civil and human rights. Those of us still allowed the privilege of voting need to not only show up to vote but think hard about what we are supporting.

July 14th seems to be the date to move in to the new house. My realtor and I are extending that by a couple of weeks for a closing on this house and hope it all works out. The last moving truck taking things back north will arrive on the 14th as well.

Now I just need to sell the house when it goes on the market.

Til later….

A Very Good Week

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Patrick arrived and we shared the testing of my Lemon Myrtle flavored gin in a gin and tonic. We agreed it was delicious!

We went on morning walks. Chatuge dam.

And some walks on the river.

Some company.

Mayapples emerging.

morning sky…

Reflections…

We had several meals out finishing with the winery last night.

And most of the time spent packing the last of four trailers headed north.

Amy’s loom.

Followed by all the painted porch furniture, the few things left in Lee’s shop and shed. And my antique wooden flat file for Marla.

And away he goes. A ten to twelve hour drive home.

So many memories packed up. Patrick is going to use the work table Lee made for the shop as his new at home office desk. Such a good use for it. Lots of odds and ends crammed into this load. A final moving truck will be for Patrick to take home the furniture not going with me.

I saw my builder the other morning and we are agreeing that mid July is a good moving date. I did a quick sketch of the front door delivered to the garage.

When cleaning out the storage room downstairs, we pulled out our old kitchen table that will be revived as my new dining table. I sanded off the old finish of it and a bench Lee’s uncle made many, many years ago.

This morning after Patrick left I stained them and slathered on some paste wax.

The laundry has been done and the guest room put back together. Now I will grab a quick bite to eat, clean up and head off to a meeting of those running against one of the most abhorrent young politicians this area has ever seen. Now is not the time to ignore the obsession the Republicans Party has for limiting hard won civil rights…not to mention women’s rights to choose. Besides, it will be good to meet like-minded voters in the area I am moving to.

Til later….

 

More Walking and Packing

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Patrick has arrived and we took yesterday off to check out the building and have lunch out. Not much headway on the house so I did not take pictures. We did talk about where art work will hang and best places for odd bits of furniture.

I walked the dam the day before he arrived.

Saw a pair of mallards.

Then this morning a lovely walk along the river.

And this cypress tree base showing also these root bumps that grow around it in the lower right.

They are such odd-looking protrusions and very hard. It will be interesting to see how high they grow. Right now they look like very strange protruding mushrooms.

I did get a new drawing done for Burke and Wills. They are older and reading books here.

I think the story will open with the two of them in a care home where they are room mates reminiscing about how they met and their adventures.

And I am halfway through the book Mink River. I found I had to stop reading often to just breathe. The author writes like a poet on the fly. Such a story teller. I will hate it when it ends and will loan it to only one person who will read it quickly and return it to me so I can take notes in the margins. It is that good if you appreciate poetic story telling.

I had to look the author up after just a few pages in and found he had written only two other books and many essays before dying of a brain tumor at only sixty years of age. His daughters were so lucky to have such a wonderful story teller for a father.

All for now…..