brautigan days...

leaden, gray, cloudy days always make me think of

richard brautigan. maybe because i discovered him

while i was living in oregon many moons ago. oregon 

schooled me on many things; starting with fenders

on bikes in perpetual rain and ending with the

beauty of brautigan.

this weather suits him perfectly.  

“Gee, You're so Beautiful That It's Starting to Rain

Oh, Marcia,
I want your long blonde beauty
to be taught in high school,
so kids will learn that God
lives like music in the skin
and sounds like a sunshine harpsicord.
I want high school report cards
to look like this:

Playing with Gentle Glass Things
A

Computer Magic
A

Writing Letters to Those You Love
A

Finding out about Fish
A

Marcia's Long Blonde Beauty
A+!

 1)my favorite nest this winter 

2)my mystery spinach.  i planted it, but damned if i

remember what it's called...bought it from bulk jar at

the feed store. threw a bunch of it in some soup tonight.

3)first camellia of the year. 

painterly...

i painted for hours today.  one hundred and four years

ago whoever built our house put a small metal fence 

around the property.  i'm fairly certain that was the last

time it was painted.  hoping that i can finish in

one more long day.

summer sleeping porch...

the old-lady house has a summer sleeping porch. 

this spot was well thought out.  it's very high up

to grab even the faintest whisper of a breeze.  

it faces east; brilliant bright in the mornings, 

aptly ducking out of the searing western summer sun.

it has more window than walls, superb for lying on the

floor and feeling perched in a tree.  i recently

emptied the room, painted it white,(truthfully, 

i painted it a burnt orange..blech ,

 then dark red..eww, before realizing white was ideal), 

found a plush wool rug, and a bean bag. for 11 months i sat

in this room as my favorite nursing spot with roxie. 

i've watched spring buds

slowly emerge from the walnut tree that shouldn't 

be thriving here, and pretty snowflakes fall slow-motion

past the window-walls.

i've decided i like it most spare. i'm on a search for

a low, round, wood table and that's going to be that.

a spot for my beer. a spot for my butt.

that's that.

my meditation spot. 

one brick at a time....

every time i look out at the pathway i built a couple of days ago,

i think about that johnny cash song, "one piece at a time".

i hauled these bricks in a green plastic wagon, weekend

after weekend. a load at a time. before my morning coffee.

over and over till i had enough to cover the perpetual mud pit.

something outta nothing.

positively maybe

we recently decided on a new color palette for our house and had it painted. i swear, it was a more difficult decision than naming our children. they seemed to name themselves but the 'old lady' house refused to be forthcoming with any preference as to what colors she would like to spend the next decade in.

in the process of trying to choose colors, i got in the habit of checking out other old house colors on my walks around the neighborhood. there was a particular house i really liked. all cool blues and purple-ish greys. the owner was standing the yard as i walked by the other night. i stopped to tell her how much i liked it.

"uck", she said. "i hate green houses", gesturing her hose towards the house while she watered. "the sun and weather faded it to this green and i can't stand it." so, i'm thinking, this house is blue. i mean, clear-as-day blue. "it seems like a nice blue-ish color", i said all diplomatic-like. "what?! worst. green. ever.", she frowned.

so this got me thinking about times when i don't have a shade of doubt about my position. my recollection. my idea. my knowledge. i argued for hours about whether or not a coffee table was alive, for christ's sake. you know, you're having dinner with friends and your husband/friend/lover. later on, the two of you discuss something that was chatted about that evening. how can he remember it like that?! that's not the way it happened at all!

well, what if you're wrong?

what if it didn't happen any particular way and how we each experience it is the end-all accurate truth? what if i spent a lot less effort and time defending my perception and more time hearing how everyone else sees it? what if i'm nearly always wrong?

my neighbor walks in the door of a green house every evening after work. i walk by her blue house and wave while she waters. what color house do the folks across the street see in the morning as they have coffee? what color house does the mailman deliver to everyday?

you tell me.

gotta gate!

living in a historic district has been a learning experience for us. nearly anything you do has to be approved by a committee and the city. anything that would alter the historic value of the home is scrutinized. although this can be an enormous pain and make things more expensive to repair, it's obvious that a lot of homes have been saved from god-awful attempts at restoration. many, many houses have been gutted and completely rebuilt with more that just a nod to the original structure. vacant lots get brand-new homes that are built to the neighborhood's guidelines and don't feel at all out of place sandwiched between older homes with not a 90 degree angle to be found. i LIKE being able to roll a ball in a perfect circle around the dining room floor without touching it, but can definitely see the appeal of brand spankin' new wiring and plumbing. i don't think i've ever lived anywhere where so many people put so much love and energy into where they live. this neighborhood has it's problems but i'm amazed at how much it's improved just in the last three years. now i'm rambling...when i began this post to proudly show my new gate. our house is one of the few in the 'hood that has the original fence around the yard. we spend a lot of time on the porch and roxie would inevitably head straight for the street. my dad built this sweet gate and he and chris installed it. our house has always reminded me of a plain-jane victorian farm house. i can see that gate keeping the cows out of the flower garden and chickens sneaking under to peck around in the beds.

before the gate.....

two good men installing the gate......my dad and chris

rainy days all in a row.....

...always bring oregon and richard brautigan to whirl willy-nilly around in my mind.

rain's been falling for days here. doors are opening that have been stubbornly stuck all summer. floors that were silent are creaking hello. streets are rivers and rivers are swirling lakes. frogs are tuning their instruments for their nighttime serenades. the birds have gone silent. and the fence is sprouting it's baby mushrooms again...

sunroom....

our house, being a century-old, had a summer sleeping porch on the second story. at some point in it's secret past it was enclosed and a bathroom was added. when we bought the house this room was basically the color of mud with a yellow-ish painted wood floor. the bathroom had dated and peeling maroon wallpaper and a perfectly wonderful weathered and beaten floor. we gladly bid the wallpaper adieu and i sealed the distressed, peeling, imperfect floor in the bath just the way it was and chose blue for the floor in the sunroom. the hanging light fixture had been pulled up to the ceiling and it was a fantastic surprise to find that it had chains attached to allow it to hang.

these photos are a bit old, but i like looking back at what was on the walls right after we finished the painting and scraping. the windows look out over the backyard and directly into a walnut tree that is perpetually full of birds. and, need i say anything about that clawfoot tub?

before...and partly into renovation..

after......

roxie's first room

while i was thinking about what i was doing while chris and our sweet neighbors were doing the heavy lifting (see post below and that paul bunyan-sized tub) i remembered that i had taken a picture of roxie's room right before she came home.  secretly, (can't tell hank and joe) i think she has the best room in the house.  like all the rooms in the house, it's always bright.  it's got those three wonderful windows.  

she's a special, lucky, magical girl.   

upstairs guest bath

we knew there were going to be a lot of things we were going to want to/need to change when we bought a century-old home.  rather than look at the big picture we've had to think of it in terms of one project at a time so we wouldn't get overwhelmed.  everywhere you turn there is rotten wood, peeling paint, awful wallpaper, spontaneously appearing nails on the stairs.  really, it's endless.  and worth every bit of work, to me. after shoring up floors that might collapse upstairs and making sure she was solid we started on some more cosmetic re-do's.  one of the upstairs bathrooms was an painted a dark maroon with two different kinds of wallpaper, silver and maroon stripes and roses with bows.  very victorian, but more a 1982 version of victorian.  the linoleum was a strata of decades of bathroom flair. clearly, previous owners had declared their decorating style through their choice in guest bathroom flooring.   i wish i had taken more photos of before.  i think the hardest part was moving that monstrous bathtub into the hallway so we could lay the tile.  i was pregnant at the time and got out of that job!   

chris found that little corner cabinet in the garage and rebuilt it, adding shelves inside in place of a medicine cabinet. 

all in all, i love the way it came out and i can't wait to find some old oil paintings for the walls.  i'm thinking ships and stormy seas.  hank and joe would love that. 

finally....

this is a project that i've been wanting to do for a couple of years now.  we wanted some privacy on this side of the wraparound porch because it is on a relatively busy street.  i planted the vine a couple of years ago and according to the old saying, "the first year it sleeps, the second it creeps, the third it leaps", it should really take off this summer and i wanted to give it something to climb that would create a natural screen.  i put tiny eye hooks every 10 inches and some small gauge wire between them.  i can't wait to see how it fills in!  i've got a lot of private things on hold waiting for just that spot.

strange skies kissing on an old lady

this spring has brought with it the strangest skies.

usually in the afternoon out of nowhere and then ending in downpours that turn the streets into rivers. our old house will moan and purr from the wind running it's fingers around her. she's an arthritic and buckram old lady, but she usually gives in just enough to not topple over by adjusting door jams so their doors no longer close and the floors slant just so to help you in the door and down the hallway to say welcome home and come in from the rain.  

(you can click on the photos to see the sky a little better)