chronicled & illustrated

complimentary,
originally uploaded by nuanc.

Did you feel it? It hit me last night.

September.

The weather turned windy and cool. All the little needle-y things I didn’t get done this summer suddenly seem vitally important—even though last week the thought of them caused no sparks in the nerve endings of my brain. Suddenly it wasn’t summer anymore.

{{ Sigh }}

It was an excellent summer. We stayed home and worked. How’s that for a good time? But, it was both what I wanted and needed.

My husband relaxed with me into joint projects on our house that had been neglected all last summer. We did mortaring and carpentry and painting and poured concrete and dug up rocks and dirt and then filled the holes back in. Now that Labour Day’s over, we have a new deck that is brilliantly blue (see above) and already well-loved.

Next summer will be for putting a roof over it and railings and so on (and on and on), but I’m already so pleased to be able to step out my front door onto what is completed. Barry’s reaction is also gratifying. I knew I missed and would love the porch, but he’s at least as happy with it as I am and can’t wait to get out there. Somehow being up on a porch (rather than down on the grass where our patio table and chairs used to be) is more relaxing—almost hypnotizing. It’s given us what my sister calls the ‘rag-doll effect.’

In addition to that outside work, I was able to complete our charity’s website (see EPIC at epiccharity.com) and I finished a short story. See my progress bars! Whoo! So what if I didn’t get much done on the quilt or the novel….that’s what September is for?

Not likely. I have all those needling things, plus a webzine that was sorely neglected all summer, and two trips upcoming. I go to Maine to see my lovely son and granddaughter for the last half of September and to Houston for most of October. November is National Novel Writing Month and then Christmas. Well. No wonder I love summer so much.

I always thought that life would slow down as I got older. Not sure where I got that idea but it’s completely the opposite. Days, weeks, months fly by with increasing speed.

However, there’s nothing like a good stay-at-home summer with lots of completed goals to set up the rest of the year.

NEEDLING THINGS TO-DO LIST:

EPIC Minutes
New EPIC Business Cards, Letterhead and Mailing Labels
New Darvintyne Business Cards
Book Club on Saturday night: Reading, Cleaning, Cooking
New Posts to PCQ
Letter to PCQ Subscribers

Now. That’s not so bad, is it?

Our Scaffolding,
originally uploaded by nuanc.

Two days ago we finally began again to work on the outside of our old house. This work has been going on so long that we actually purchased our own scaffolding.

Hmmm, come to think of it, that may be the very reason it’s gone on so long. If we were renting scaffolding, you’d better believe that Barry would find the time to work on it!

Either way, it feels great to be back at it. Last year Barry was so swamped with inside work all summer that the only thing we managed to do was move the scaffolding from the back of the house to the front. So it’s been two years since we did any painting and 5 years since we began it.

That first year, we laughed about it taking us so long that the first painting would need to be re-done by the time we got back around to it. We’re not laughing anymore. I think neither of us had any clue that it would take us this long. And the thing is, we’re five years older and not exactly feeling like spring chickens! Who knew that was going to happen?

Our house looked fine on the outside when we bought it six years ago, but it was very plain and had a flat roof. Predictably, that first winter, the roof leaked so Barry, who once made his living from carpentry, decided that he would put on a pitched roof the next summer. We were lucky enough to be able to get our talented and hardworking (!) friends, the Sobers, to help along with two young men (Mike and Andre) from the local trades high school, and the work was [mostly] done by the time winter set in.


The next summer we began to shingle and paint the gables and new roof line. Barry had always loved the wildly painted Victorians in Halifax and San Francisco, so we made our plan, chose our five colours and began on the first big gable.

I named the five gables—which are all different sizes—the granddaddy, mama, papa, teenager and baby gables. As of two years ago, we had finished all five gables and had only a stretch of roof line across the front of the house (see below) that had to be painted (still a complicated paint job, taking four of the five colours, but a breeze compared to the time-consuming gables). Since last summer was a bust for outdoor work, that’s what we’re doing now.

Once this is done, there’s plenty more work.

Our front porch has to be completely re-built! In August we hope to get the foundation and decking of that done. Next summer: the roof of the porch. The next? Painting the porch, including one more gable. And some time in there the bulk of the house has to be painted (it will be the same colour as the shingles of the gables) as well as all the windows. Any sane person would hire at least some of this done but so far, my husband’s sanity is questionable. I think even he, who likes to maintain control of his project, is wavering.

So why isn’t this unending project a drag? I certainly do not relish going up and standing on the top of that scaffolding! It’s something I’ll never get used to. But I am proud that I’ve learned to do it, that I still can do it and that I’ve overcome a certain fear of heights to do it! The main reason that it’s fun to get back to it is that it’s our project. Our house. Our scaffolding. Our colours. Our folly, if you will. The inside of our house is beautifully detailed and preserved. We feel that the outside should be as special.

We know not everyone would agree with our wild paint colours but we don’t have neighbours to offend so there’s no one to answer to. One day it will be finished and will be a show piece. And if that first grandfather gable is peeling by then, so be it. It’s an old house after all.

Before:

After:

Barry’s Patented 6-colour Painting System

I’m impressed with how easily we got back into this painting after a year away from it. Here’s the tricks of painting with six colors (counting the white primer) over 6+ years:

1) Keep the paint (the best quality you can afford) in your house; we have it in the closet under the stairs. You know, like the one Harry Potter had to live in, once upon a time.
2) Good quality paint brushes. We probably spent $25 CA on the four trim colour brushes but they are still perfect after five years. Of course, we are fanatical about cleaning them each time we’re through with them.
3) One colour = one brush. No exceptions.
4) For ease of use on scaffolding, we’ve taken large plastic ice cream containers and made wire handles for them. We pour the paint into a smaller plastic yogurt container (not the tiny ones) and put those into the larger container. When atop near the roof, the handles make it possible to loop the containers over the top of the scaffolding so that you don’t have to hold them while you’re painting. Good for those of us who are wary of Falling Off and need hands to Hold On. I’ve also put them on my belt when there’s no scaffolding handy. When not being used, we have lids for the yogurt containers.
5) One yogurt container = one colour. No exceptions.
6) We use a simple rope and hook and big ol’ plastic bucket to haul things up and down the scaffolding
7) This is totally Barry’s way of doing things. Mine would have been to just use any old brush on any colour and buy new ones next year. I’m proud to be associated with such adaptive compulsiveness. It works!

What it will look like (sort of):

In addition to that fancy camera, I got a computer drawing tablet and pen for my birthday.

I KNOW it’s going to be extremely useful
—especially once I get the hang of it—but so far, all I can think to do is play with it.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

This is one of the things I’ve done. It’s a doodle. An experiment with letters and other marks that could be letters. It was fun to do and as such, it feels as if I’m using my new tool (“For the serious photographer, designer and artist” the package states) as a toy. At what point do I begin to feel serious about it? My husband often asks when inquiring about what I did on a certain day, “Were you working or playing?”

Whew. That’s a tough one to answer. If I enjoy my work, does that mean it’s always play? If I usually enjoy my work but am dealing with a challenging problem, then is it work? Or if I am doing art for no one and no reason, but am frustrated by it, does that mean it’s work? Is doing art for no reason ever anything but play? Where’s the line between a “serious tool” for serious creative types and a toy for someone who’s “just playing?”

Ahh, I don’t care. It’s just my brain playing with words, isn’t it? And some days, that’s what art and work is all about.

birthday present!,
originally uploaded by nuanc.

Today is my birthday. This is a wonderful surprise gift from my husband. I’m thrilled to bits and pieces and would be out taking photos except that the battery has to charge first.
I should be reading the manual but I can only absorb so much at a time. Especially before I’ve even had a chance to take one shot!

Here’s a poem written on my birthday in 1995, revised for today

Birth Day

Sunday,
glistening glinting
but growing grayer
Yesterday,
not as showy
but with morning rolling into
an afternoon of full summer
changing to cool deep night
full of fire flies and intimacy
dissolving into the first thunderstorm
of a dry season

Today
is no memory
yet
present moment
elusive fleeting
already gone
capture impossible
unlike those fire flies
who let themselves
be caught
Let me catch
this moment more fully
these summery sights
this singular smell
symphonious overlapping sounds

As I write,
the sun comes
through clustering clouds
for the third time
I know
because I am witness
that today is no better
than the last two days
I know
because it is now
if there were but one
in all of creation
this would be
the day

I ended my last post by saying I’d be busy for a while with my school girl friends who were going to be visiting from Texas. But instead I’m here because they opted out of coming. It was a shock, as they cancelled abruptly the day before they were to arrive and the decision was already made without my input.

I’m still wandering around picking up the pieces.

My friend decided not to come because the forecast for the week was for rain. She says it’s just a postponement and not a cancellation but that just makes me laugh because when—I wonder—does she think she can come to Nova Scotia with a guaranteed forecast of no rain?

I’m using this photo manipulation I call “Peeling Rain” since it’s supposedly a rainy post.

Peeling rain seems especially appropriate since it’s NOT a rainy morning here in Cape Breton. It’s a gorgeous, perfect summer’s day. Bright sun, light breeze, slightly cool. All I can think is that it’s their loss. They…stuck as they are in blisteringly hot Texas for the summer. And yet, it is my loss as well. I would have loved to have shared this day with them.

Here is my proof of the wonders of a Nova Scotian summer day. All taken this morning, July 5th:

“inner sunshine”

“joy around”

“bee happy”

“blue breeze”

“volunteers”

“purple non-rain”

made myself laugh with that title.

So, I will attempt to regain my focus and work on that almost finished short story…or maybe I should go lie in the hammock and soak up the warmth before it starts to rain.

Cheers.

attention span,
originally uploaded by nuanc.

Summer isn’t good for concentrating. Maybe it’s the leaves rustling or the birds singing or the clouds rolling by. I’d say it’s the heat, but here in Nova Scotia, we haven’t had any yet. It’s summer’s long days of sunlight that can both seem to last forever and pass by in a flash. The on again/ off again activity level. Hurry up and relax.

This is a piece I did the other night after having put a big push on to get several end of the month articles published in the zine followed by the subscriber’s email update. I needed a creative activity that was involving without being involved. For several hours I immersed myself in my photos and photoshop. (I don’t really use Photoshop. For this kind of photo manipulation I use a super simple product called ArcSoft Photostudio. Easy and quick.)

I keep way too many of my digital photos. That’s because I use many of them in these layered art pieces and it’s hard to predict which will be useful later on. I’ve always enjoyed the idea that there are no failures—only the raw material for other kinds of art. I used to tear up paintings I didn’t feel were successful. Then I’d use the wonderfully torn fragments as collage material for others. This is the same.

For the next week all my attention will be with my childhood friends who’ll be visiting from Texas. We’ll laugh.

Tra la~~~