On our way to see BS!

Haven't been to BS's house in ages and ages... and it's our first roadtrip together, first meeting-of-the-family... let's see how we do!

Excitement, adventure, and Teenagers In Love!

Swimming Pool

Why does the weather man even bother to predict anything right now? Everyday is the same: sun in the morning, humid, high in the 90's, possibly scattered severe thunderstorms in the afternoon. For the past few weeks, the next few weeks it is the same...except...

we had one of the bucket-dumping storms, and the new laundry room became rather like an indoor swimming pool. Not just a drip of water, or a splash here or there, but a pond. An absolute pond.

So today manz is up on the roof, with tar and shingles and other mysterious roofing stuff- apparently the area around the vent pipe was never filled in right, so much cutting and pounding and now that part of the roof is secure again. And the siding that blew off a while ago is back on the house... roof will probably need more work (probably as in definitely) but hopefully no more pools...

Laundry Room!

The laundry room is finished! New foundation floor, new ceiling made from recycled wood, painted, new vinyl. It's beautiful~ makes me actually want to do laundry!

Thank-you, manz!

Raining on my parade...

but not in our studio, which is cosy and pretty. Max is curled up in the man-chair, boy is meandering about the house, manz is at work and bear is...being bear. Rubbing her face on the man-chair since he isn't here to smoosh up her face and rub her eyes (sounds odd, but she loves it)...

Anyhoo, it's pouring- summer rain- I've been working on my neurobiology paper which is gave me a fit because I don't know how to use Adobe Illustrator (photoshop and I are great pals), and got all stressed out about boy-money-situation.

BMS (boy money situation) has to do with financial aid, getting his dorm room and magicking up a considerable amount of money by Friday. Which is at once possible (thank god) and a royal pain in the patuska since that money was earmarked for house things. And it's stressful because I dislike dealing with money, which is why I have everything automatically deducted and love getting paid once a month. It's just that it's August (this *always* happens in August), I really would like the house to be mostly together by school start .... (the manz is working his butt off- but being female, I lust after things like a new couch. Not a necessity, at all, but it would be sweet.... along with dreams of tankless hotwater heaters....mmmmm....we do have the mostbestest shower thing ever though...) Anyway, the boy got charged with 'room damages' which turned out to be a lost-key plus 'improper checkout', so I rained a bit on *his* parade... but he paid for that (leaving him broke broke for the rest of summer, do I have a problem with that? Why no, I do not). And I'll come up with the rest of the housing money- I know he will pay me back in late September when his school money comes in, but in the meantime....grrrrrr.....

So I will sit here in my beautiful studio, listen to the rain and the fan, vent on my blog (thank you all for listening! and thanks to the manz for keeping me calm, and the boy for taking the responsibility for the check-out screw up)... I will focus, focus on neurobiology and try not to complain *too* much... after all, I have a happy family and we are all safe and well... even though I really, really, REALLY want a cookie about now....

Family

Sometimes simple things can revel allot- like, for instance, toothpaste. Goldilocks would be proud as we have 3 tubes in the bathroom... why? Because there are three of us and we like different brands? (No, I buy what is on sale) Because we all brush our teeth at the same time? (No, toothpaste spit grosses me out)... we have three tubes because we have three distinct personalities, as exampled by the technique of tube-squishing.

Charles's tube is on the bottom right. The neatly folded tube of Crest, that is carefully and expertly squeezed from the bottom in order to maximize the usage and minimize the waste. Logical. Thrifty. Neat-and-clean. Precise. Like the toothpaste, he is focused, able to draw a straight line, keeps things orderly and wastes-not. If this tube was wearing clothes, it would have on a tie.

Grendel's tube is at the top. A boy-tube, it is an attempt at a neat squeeze, but not quite mastered as clearly. The bottom is beginning to realize the pressed-out-flat logic, but the top shows signs of haste. Trying to do the 'grown-up' thing but not quite there yet. If this tube was going to work, it would carry a messenger bag instead of a backpack or briefcase.

Then there is my tube, the small one in the center. It's squeezed in the middle, has a distinct impression of my hand- same way I squeeze paint, with chaos and love. Speaking of which, there is a streak of white paint on the tube... (between the C and the r) *everything* I own gets paint on it. It is a tube in a hurry, a bit careless but always has just a little bit more hidden away in the corners when you least expect it (and need it most). If this tube was a pocketbook, it would be one of endless compartments full of linty mints, kleenex and loose change.

Seriously, my one great pearl of advice is that life is to short to stress the toothpaste. Everyone get their own tube, use it as you see fit... but squeeze mine from the middle!

Ring!

Isn't it beau-ti-ful? This morning I was sitting outside, dutifully reading art history while eating cherries, and the manz comes up with something hidden in his hand.

Now, he had disappeared for a few minutes- I thought he was off doing 'man-stuff' (the bathroom continues to be quite the project. Today it is requiring acquiring hacksaws and soldering irons, pipes, faucets...)...anyway, he says to me, he says "hold out your hand, I have something for you." So the heart is all skip and flutter and he goes to put it on and it doesn't fit.

Then I discover that it nudges apart in the back- only the finest quality found-in-the-neighbors-driveway-bubble-gum-machine-rings nudge apart in the back, you know. The manz has standards! It has a lovely gold-on-plastic finish, the mystic triangle design which imprints quite nicely when smacked against ...... various people who occasionally deserve a royal smacking. (I am still the king you know, even if his two non-big-toe toes are longer- supposedly, according to him, whosoever toes are longer than the big toe rules the roost.... Have *you* heard of this? I haven't heard of this...yet it seems to be the case)

Suppose I'll keep him, big toes, bubble-gum rings and all. (I'm not just saying that so he will turn the water back on. Honest.)

Space Onion

It's one of those days. A get-out-of-bed-on-the-wrong-side-day. A day where production does not meet ambition and equals frustration. A day where I am totally derailed and just clatter off the tracks... where even a nap does no good.

All I managed to do today was create this image of a space onion. It's a photoshoped image of a blooming onion, not even particularly clever or anything- and doesn't fit the assignment I was supposed to be working on- but is an oddly reassuring image of the universe... the big bang envisioned as fair food. And everyone knows that 'big bangs' are the result of bloomin onions... no mystery in that.

So, what to do? The boy is sleeping, the doggs outside, the manz should be home from work soon- should I continue to beat myself against this paper? Create cosmic concepts with photoshop? Attempt to clean, hang art, prep dinner? Take another nap? Read? (ugh. design history. I did manage a chapter today, but... it was all about how the first commerical jets were designed with square windows- looked great, but the air pressure caused faults in the corners, which became cracks, which became leaks, which resulted in crashes, which is very depressing. I will forever more make certain that all my travelling windows are rounded)

Secret Service Bra

I received this package in the mail a day or so ago- a nice puffy package from Theresa... I knew that she was going to mail me back my key that I left there, but I couldn't figure out why a key package would be so very puffy.

When I opened the package, there was a lovely black lace bra- but no key. I rooted around in the envelope thinking it must be wedged in a corner, or fell out on the floor when I was pulling out the bra, but no luck- and I was puzzled (appreciative but puzzled) that she sent me a bra... Now, Theresa is known far-and-wide as the bra fairy, and she just gave me a bag of bras, every color of the rainbow. Lovely bras. Every-occasion bras....so why this one? Other than that it was black, lacy and..... I went to try it on, and *there* was the key.

Carefully taped into the side panel, very spy-vs-spy. Quick fantasies of being a Bond girl flashed through my head (but I am no Ursula Andress) ok....well maybe Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle? (but I'm not that thin...) Nancy Drew? would never have been caught dead in black lace- way to wholesome for that. Hummm..... I'll just have to add it to my Dr. Girlfriend wardrobe.... (no, I don't look like Dr. Girlfriend either, or sound like her, but I like her style!)

Snakes Alive!

So, yesterday Charles was working on the bathroom and called me in to look at something he found it the closet behind the tub (above)... it was a shed snakes skin. I retrieved it- most of it- stretched it out and measured it. It was a bit over two feet, and is now outside drying.

He mentioned that he had found a snake in the garbage can when we were in the mountains- had disposed of it- where there are mice there are snakes.

I suppose the new electronic mice repellents are working, because we haven't seen as many mice, but... I moved a bookcase in the kitchen yesterday and curled up tight was the little chicken snake in the picture (with tongs). We put him outside in the woods to live a happy snake life... later, when we were cleaned up and thinking about dinner, Charles noticed something moving on the kitchen table (still covered in stuff from the studio). We searched carefully all over, nothing- but then down in the dog basket, where we keep the leashes and doggstuff, a much bigger chicken snake was all curled up looking at me. She was well over two feet long and quite strong, but out she went. Hopefully that will be the last one, but I'm cleaning with caution...

Charles just ripped out the rest of the shower, found out the wall behind it needs replaced as well as the tub faucet/handles. Back to builders!

he really does have the patience of a saint to put up with all of this- one thing just revels another thing that needs fixing, snakes and mice... yesterday morning I was teasing him about what strange animal would show up, turns out it was the snakes. I'm not going to tease him about that anymore or we might end up with elephants in the yarden!

Before- laundry room

This is the laundry-room beforeish. The washer/dryer is out, and the ick floor is up (layer of carpet on layer of vinyl).

The wall is showing it's ugly green self- that was hidden by the washer and apparently the owner never bothered to finish painting it.

Our laundry room was at one time the worlds-smallest-bathroom- a sink behind the door, toilet where the dryer hose is coming out and the tub at the end of the room where the bathroom door is. Skish. When they put in the new bathroom, they didn't take out the other things exactly- the water lines were capped, but the old drain pipe is still there, and the toilet line just was kinda plugged and had a hunk of wood on top. That whole area- around the dryer hose- was rotted through, the rest of the floor soaked under the carper/tile layers- everything hidden by carpet and washer and dryer.

You can't see it in the picture, but the ceiling was much the same- tumbling down over the dryer. It is amazing that the floor didn't break or the ceiling cave in before now- when I bought this house I *did* have it inspected, I *did* know it was old, had issues and was a fixer upper. I just kinda closed my eyes, jumped in and hoped for the best. (NOT recommended. but we needed somewhere to live...)

Now that Charles is working on the house and uncovering all it's ills, I am amazed that it hasn't fallen down. I feel guilty because it is in such a state, but he is patient, just sighs and says "oh well, we'll just have to replace the: floor, wall, ceiling, shower thingy etc." then gets onto the creative part that he loves. He is doing things correctly, and I admire that- I am much more haphazard in nature and a mess when I am working.... yesterday I just put stuff in the studio, painted a tiny strip of bookcase trim (carefully painted!) wore an apron and STILL ended up with a streak of white paint across my skirt- right on the butt. Lovely....and I didn't notice until this morning.....(had been out prancing about Walmart in the skirt earlier that day...jeeze...)

btw: Sid made a break for freedom and has vanished into the yarden....

Sid the Turkle

Sid is a striped mud turtle that is now living in our garden, in a make-shift pond made out of a plastic paint tray. We were on an early morning run to Wal-mart for paint and the manz spotted the turtle trying to cross the road. So of course we turned around to save him, and we need a garden turtle...so, now we have a Sid.

Well, for as long as he likes us- he is a young, active fellow and will probably be off to larger ponds in a bit, but at least he shan't be squished by a pig-truck. That's a bad way for a turtle to go-

Working on the house all weekend- pictures coming soon! Laundry room, bathroom and I finally a) put stuff on the studio shelves (well, I made Grendel put books on the shelves so that counts! b) unpacked my suitcase from Texas c) cooked! Yay for cooking! (of course I am trying to diet, so I am not eating everything that I'm cooking, but make treats for fellows regardless).

Kyle is here- he has photos of bear tracks- big bear lurking around his house. If we were there the bear would probably want to come up and dance with the manz or something- he attracts all animals. Kyle calls him Tarzan...

Bear Studio

The studio, with the new bear, painted shelves and the new floor! It's sooooo pretty! I apologise for not posting the past few days- just lots of work (that class is *really* hard) and excitement with the house.

Boys have been over all the time, we took a trip into the city for more house supplies, found a good used simmons sleeper-sofa on craig's list for the guest room, upgraded the tv (yay! it's flat! This is the first tv I've ever had new? all the others have been give-offs)... it's wonderful.

Today I finished homework, worked in the studio a bit (putting up a few books, cleaning out Poppy's desk- which was a mess of unfiled papers) and the manz rebuilt the ceiling in the utility room. (I swear, without him the house would of tumbled down by now...) The flowers in the yard are going crazy, blooming and tumbling out of containers, full of butterflies. I have most of my homework squared away so that I can focus on the cottage now...well, at least tomorrow.

Rui Shi

Auspicious lions of China, Lions of Buddha, Fu Lions, Fu dogs, guardians of dharma and the way.

These are curious types of dragons, smaller than the other oriental dragons, and animal-like in form rather than serpentine. Usually occurring in pairs, they were placed outside the entrances of palaces, temples and the like to serve as guardians. The female guards what is within, the male what is without. The female is placed on the left and usually has a cub with her, the male is placed on the right and holds the sphere- the 'flower of life'. The males mouth is always open, inhaling and representing life, sounding the sacred word 'om'. The females mouth is closed, representing death.

The male Rui Shi symbolizes power and strength tempered by intelligence, the ability to protect and lead, a signifier of royalty. At one time only the elite could own Rui Shi, as a symbol of both blessing and their obligation. In traditional Chinese culture, all wealth carries with it a proportionate amount of obligation- you must serve in order to balance your good fortune.

This Rui Shi is one of Grendel's birthday presents from Charles- he scouted them out at the auction and acquired a small collection to surprise the boy with. There are two sets of pairs, one with a cub, a standing one and this one- which is everyone's favorite.

What is extra curious is how they are appropriate for this birthday- this transitional year of 20 between child and adult, the year of letting go and coming into legal adulthood. I don't just mean the 'oh I'm 21, I can buy booze' type of adulthood, but the bridge between the dependent years to the independent years. Blessings and obligations.

It is also curious- to me- that these are what Charles found... yes, he is observant and knows that the boy loves his dragons, yes, odd things turn up at the auction all the time, and yes, Charles is one heck of a thoughtful guy. But what he didn't know is that a single male Rui shi is a traditional gift from an older man to a younger, signifying entrance into the duties and rewards of adulthood. (of course, it was traditionally only applied to wealthy young men of noble decent...) Still and all, it's very very magic in it's own way...

mmmmmYummmY!

Happy boys, happy happy happy boys. We are home from the highlands, leaving behind fair-food, live music and sitting in the rain until next year.

Fair food is awesome, but then it gets you back. Some of the samplings (we tended to buy things and pass them around): strawberry shortcake, hot fudge cake, strawberry scones, bread pudding with hot apples and whiskey sauce, birdies (sausage in puff pastry), mixed berry pie (hot), spiral fried sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar, apple turnovers. Mostly one of the boys would get something and the rest of us would sample it... with thermoses and thermoses of coffee....

Last night on the way home the boys picked their bests:

best band: Barleyjuice

best newcomer band: Scythian

favorite song: the love waltz- Scythian- kyle, what do you do with a drunken sailor- Barleyjuice- Grendel

prettiest girl: Scotlyn, the oldest daughter of Kyf from Barleyjuice. (Kyle's pick)

Hulahoop girl (Grendel's pick)

best food: apple turnovers from Douglas bakery

new friend that came with us: Aaron from Asheville

new friend that we met: Dave-the-Dwarf from Asheville

wildlife: 1 bear, 1 deer (eating rocks), 1 owl

best performance: Jam with Barleyjuice/ Albannach/ Synthian/ Coyote Run: Ring of Fire (Cash)

best fiddler: Alex from Synthian

best piper: Kyf from Barleyjuice

Hottest girl: pink-dress-girl, redhead in the mini-kilt, brunette in the mini-kilt

Most random act: when Aaron fell asleep during Blessed Blend, and woke up when a stranger gave him a hot, fresh turkey leg!

Most generous act: the lady who gave Gabriel a ticket on Sunday for free.

Who we feel sorry for: Garrett, who fell down the mountain when parking cars (Melissa's friend from High School) and ended up in a leg brace, with a shot of morphine and *still* had to direct traffic from a folding chair

Runner up, feeling sorry for: Drunken fairy, whose boyfriend publicly made out with another girl, breaking poor drunken fairy's heart... (no one should have to cry at the games)

Oddest people: pirate guy (trying to dress like Johnny Depp, including the hair) and the 'celtic witch' (imagine Amy Winehouse at 70 in a leather mini outfit and bellydancer belt, high heel boots... her t-shirt said 'celtic witch', so we aren't being mean...)

Good time was had at the annual birthday-cation! (But we are all glad to be home, in our own little beds... now, if only some magic fairy came along and did all my homework....)

But the manz was busy, busy while we were gone- cut the shoe molding, planted the new roses and repotted the moss roses from the windowboxes, and rehung the kitchen cabinet cabinet doors (that were on upside down for some unknown reason)... He also had surprises for Grendel and I, but those deserve a post of their own!!!

Happy Birthday Boyo!!!!

Grendel is 20 today- imagine. It seems like just yesterday he was little, now he is taller than me, probably smarter than me, forging ahead on his own path. I remember when he was tiny how he loved dinosaurs, numbers, his bear blankie and green dino.... covered his wall in numbers, snuck cereal in the middle of the night, has always been a night person not a day person, has always loved doggs, tv, computers..... learned to type before learning how to write. (and it shows! typing skills = excellent, handwriting = 'creative') ... when we moved to the island he loved the sea, swimming, endless friends over during the summer (house was always full of kids) playing flashlight tag all over the neighborhood, switching weeks back and forth between kyles house and ours. Pokemon everything, his own cabinet of 'Grendel's food' that I was forbidden from, midnight trips to the beach when he was older, friends all slipping out in the night to run wild, coming back with sandy boxers, suspicious paint marks and one pilfered plastic owl. Always good, jut bad enough around the edges to be reassuring. At the cottage it is different- not so much going out as staying in, friends over, up all night laughing and playing games and being... friends. Even when it wakes me up, I love hearing the sound of his laugh, knowing that he is happy and safe and having fun. He is a good kid, and I am lucky.

We are up at the games, thousands of people. The boys listen to music, walk around. He is all kilt and hair, it's like a banner glowing against the sky and trees, it blows around and the girls watch it. He has been talking about cutting it, and that day will come, but today is stamped in my heart- him young and free and glorious against the sky. Old enough to venture forth, young enough to look back for reassurance. I love you boy.

In the Highlands

I am up in the mountains for the highland games and boy's birthday, staying at Melissa's.... I'm using her mac computer (we can't remember the system password to log onto the wireless) and I can't figure out pictures on it.. I'd ask but she is busy getting coffee made for the day.. Last night was cold, foggy, rainy but doable- we camped in the Lee's McCray tent, then headed home about 10. Bear run to the top of the mountain, the introductory music by the local pipe band, the pipeband camp massed band, then the torches and the gathering of the clan. (each clan runs up with a flaming torch in the dark, says a little something- some serious, some funny and clan McIntyre was a bit into their cups so all they did was laugh... the torches are set into this pyramid bonfire frame, very cool in the fog and the dark).

We came home to Melissa's- doggs were glad to see us, especially Max who really wished I brought his pink ski coat after all. They are having big-fun-dogg parties- bear is so much bigger than bella- then they got to sleep in the living room with the boys (Grendel, Kyle, Aaron)...huge tangle of boys-n-doggs. Happiness all around.

Wish the manz was here to see all the flowers blooming- the mountain flowers are different, chicory and laurel, huge lantanas, turks-cap lillies. All along the roadways is a wild tangle. Up on the parkway last night we saw a deer- standing right beside the road, in a gravel pull-out, playing with rocks (looked like she was eating rocks, but apparently there must of been something tasty on the rocks).

Long day today- we want to be up on the mountain soon to get a spot for the concerts, have coffee and firehouse biscuits, talk and draw and listen to music all day long and into the night- shan't be home till very late.

Brain Drain

This is your brain. Well, not *your* brain but a brain... well, actually a brain-based design for this class I am taking. This class that is happily kicking my ass it is so hard (whine, whine, play me a small violin).

This class is on neurobiology, basically the study of how the brain physically receives information, deciphers it and codes it into visual structures. In other words, seeing art as a biological process. It's anatomy and physiology and psychology and mad hard but interesting. But it is in summer and everything is at light speed and there is heaps of work to do each day- and it's all complicated. (I love science, biology and medicine so I am not quite as overwhelmed as some... who claim to be just sitting at their computers crying....)

Anyhoo, rarely is a class this challenging. I am enjoying it but I have to work at it, and she isn't a grade poster so I have no idea how I am doing, though the comments on my pre-paper research and drawings have been positive. (hey, any excuse to whip out my impressive knowledge about genetic engineering and mCherry mice... everyone just kinda stops thinking critically when faced with a sweet little mouse that glows pink...)

So, tonight I have to finish my anatomical drawings (fun), get re-packed for Grendel's annual birthday trip (I haven't unpacked from Texas yet, so it is mostly a matter of shifting stuff from one bag into the other, and adding some sweaters), and spend time with my most beloved man- who is on the FRONT PAGE (half a page!) of the paper with the Turkey Whisperer story. Something of a local celebrity, I know the ladies will be knocking the door down while I'm away- can't have that now, can we? Dr. Girlfriend cannot be thwarted by the floozies of Wallace...this Turkey Whisperer is taken!

Floored!

I am home safe after all my Texas travels- I love everyone, but there is really no place like home. And decidedly no one like the manz, no kid like the boy, no doggs like my big-happy-chasing yard monsters at 3am doggs. Kisses all around!

The manz has been busy while I was gone- along with working and keeping boy/doggs fed and happy (Kyle to upon occasion), he fixed and refloored the studio. Right before I left Bear had put her paw through the floor (combination of big bad bear and not-so-great floor). Well, all that is fixed structurally (good because I am slightly heavier than Bear...slightly), the wood is laid, stained and polyed within an inch of looking like water. (Actually, it does look like water). The color is warm and gold with just a touch of red, the shine and smoothness is incredible. He is painting and placing the foot molding, reworked the new huge bookcase to fit on the walls at sill level...right now he is painting it white (I loooove white) and I'll get to putting stuff away.

What I really wanted to do today is play with the house and the yarden, hug on the man (we shipped the boy off to Kyle's last night so we can have 'alone time') but instead I did trip-laundry and a really-long art history test. Test made longer by internet going down for a few hours and general lack of ability to focus on art pottery, which I personally think is rather fugly. (but I did get to write about Morris design and sewing machines, which was fun!) And answer questions. I like to answer questions, it makes me feel smart.

Anyhoo, the homework is done, dinner is about cooked and the floor is a sight to behold. More importantly I am home to my beloved, who has developed the ability to charm butterflies.

Dear Ridge

Our last day in Texas, at Dear Ridge... we are watching Harper's Island, telling gravity hill stories and waiting for fireworks. Yesterday I got here- all sunshine and Texas heat, playing with the twins, lounging in the hot tub. Today more twins (super cuteness... they like my hair, think it tickles), off to get kolachies (can't spell it, but sure can eat them) and to the art galleries in Clifton...we saw a community theatre play- The Queen of Bingo- which was fun. Then back to the Ridge for more babies, pizza and getting ready to launch tomorrow at the 'crack of dawn'.

I could play outside in the woods here forever, they are so different from ours. Giant clusters of prickly pears, twisted cedars, mesquite (I suppose it is... looks like it, smells like it). The ground is so dry it cracks in places, and the rocks are full of fossils. Not just little things, but huge spirals, full snails, mysterious leaves... even a sea urchin. Strange bones found in dry stream beds, bone turned to rock long ago. Land a living memory.

I only found a bit of a fossil, but collected many tiny snail shells bleached white by the sun, a few fragrant sticks of cedar to turn into something. There are great logs and roots among the trees, wish I had Esmeralda here to drag some of them home (Esme is probably quite happy that she is not here in the heat hauling things. I don't think she'd care for that at all)

I love being at Dear Ridge, it's like living in the woods, in a tree- all wood and west and stone, part of the landscape. There is creeping rosemary around the flagstones, a red yucca (my new favorite western flower) and the plastic catci among the real ones. Bright pottery, a bowl of fossils, antlers twisted into a chandelier. Deer at the feeder in the evening, foxes, raccoons, opossums, wild hogs, tiny bright hummingbirds. I want to return to play in the woods, hunt fossils, talk and drift in the tub.

It's time to go home, and I miss my home. I can't wait to see my beloved manz, fuss over the boy, fluff up the doggs. Be back in my world of butterflies and Mexican coffee, constant laughing and someone special to hold on to...

Small Things

It is the small things that make life so precious- these are some small things on the shelf in the kitchen, small but precious. The bird I remember from long ago, not sure where she acquired it, but it's beak opens and it is a tiny container. Bright gold with blue eyes...the rabbit was a gift from Grendel long ago, carved out of wood. Today it reminds me of my favorite rabbit, who I miss lots. The apple is clear and large, catches the light and glows. As long as I can remember Mother collected glass apples- Barbie has the majority of the original collection, but the collection is being rebuilt. (Hold on, going to count- I'm getting a quick count of 26, but they are not all glass- there are a few others. The majority are glass though-)

Thing is about these small things is not what they are, or how they look, or what their value may or may not be... thing is that they carry their own magic to call up the past, stories and experiences and thoughts always to be remembered. The bird reminds me of Mother getting dressed up to go out with Daddy one night- I don't remember why I link the bird to this, but it would of been long ago. Mother's pant suit was peacock blue, her hair red and she had a scarf that was brightly colored...red lipstick. I can smell the perfume, picture her clipping on her earrings. Elegant and excited and beautiful. The apple reminds me off all the apple hunts in dusty antique stores, flea markets, gift shops, glass factories... the excitement of finding an apple, or saving one up, hiding it away until a suitable holiday. The apples displayed in the windows where they caught the sun, or in the old glass-fronted display case. Each with a story, a memory attached. I don't remember much about the bunny except I think Grendel found it in our travels... it is light and white wood and friendly. The bunny and the bird together seem to be talking, and that reminds me of playing at the ladybug house at Headacher.

Long ago, when I was very little, Mother would take me out to the cow field at Headacher. There was a huge flat rock with curious depressions worn by water... little pebbles and flowers all around. That was my ladybug house, and we would arrange pebbles for furniture, decorate with flowers, wait for the ladybug to 'flyaway home'. I felt safe because a stone house could never burn or tumble down (I worried about the song... ladybug, ladybug, fly away home, your house is on fire and your children will burn... rather grim? wonder where it originated from) anyway, we had splendid times out in that pasture. Mother's gift of imagination is priceless.

Today is my last full day with Mother- we are going shopping for a clock and a 'special' dress (watch out Charles! I will be so gussied up that you shan't recognize me!) then home for pizza. I have enjoyed my stay - the time flies by so quickly (yet it seems years since I have been home, and admit to being a touch homesick. I miss the Manz and the boy and the doggs...even though they were bad, bad doggs last night) but this time is priceless and precious and I am so grateful to have it. I love you Mum!

Better Safe than Sorry!

One of Mother's guiding principles is 'better safe than sorry' and that applies to everything. The hall way door is blocked by a roll thing (keeps the bugs out), everything not used is wrapped in plastic, labeled and stored, extra everything is stocked in the cabinets. Duct tape covers door latches to prevent you from being locked out on the patio (good idea!), sticky address labels are on anything that might go astray, bananas are eaten everyday to ward off all sorts of ills.

Sensible, safe, sound. But- there is the fridge. Bananas below, everything in the freezer is wrapped (sometimes double wrapped) in plastic (to keep out the 'gasses'...do refrigerator's still have gasses? I have no clue how they work- it's just magic) Not just tucked around, but twisted, tied, reversed- the wrapping of the icecream is a true art form. It is obvious by the front package that I did not do it correctly as it is already becoming undone....

As I said yesterday, it is near impossible to sneak a bite of icecream (or anything). It involves much puzzling over how to unwrap the desired object, then craftily trying to rewrap the object, Now, I know I can have icecream when ever I want- Mother begrudges me nothing- but *everyone* knows that icecream snuck by the spoonful doesn't have calories where icecream in a proper bowl has zillions of calories. It's a simple fact.

In our house, it's another simple fact that a) icecream doesn't last more than two days b) boys would wildly tear their way into the package if in a moment of extreme desire and c) so would I.....

Is funny because as soon as Grendel was old enough to think about sex, I always told him (and all my other kids) to remember to 'wrap their packages'... suppose that is a holdover from Mother's wrapping habits... but still and all, better safe than sorry!