It's funny how the measure of a day is often meted by the last hours of the day. By that standard, this day has been a blessing...
I slept 'til 8:30 and had breakfast (fruit and yogurt) in the small fridge in the Ark, ready for the morning meal. It was quite cool; wearing flannel pajamas and a long t-shirt, I headed to the Palace to use the laptop and eat breakfast on the couch...as close to breakfast in bed as one gets! The day's work yielded these results: the infamous PTPI (pot-to-piss-in) is now totally painted (well, the pot's the same, but the wicker holder has a fresh coat of spray paint and looks great); two wooden hangers that will hold flower pots have been polyurethaned and are ready for the porch railing; and, yippee!!!, I painted the trim on the Palace door. It took me nearly as long to affix the blue painter's tape as it did to paint the yellowing vinyl grid. I'll give it a close look in the daylight tomorrow, and if it needs touching-up anywhere, I'll do that before removing the tape and giving the windows a final cleaning. I was so eager to get the painting done that I didn't even see that I'd missed a strip until I got ready to paint that upper left-hand area!
Tomorrow H and I will tackle several projects: hanging a third rack in the carport onto which I can hang tools; organizing wood on the wood rack so that a bin can be freed to house the riding lawn mower and push mower (thus freeing the carport to house two vehicles again); hang the closet rack in the laundry area so I can actually hang some clothing up in the Ark; and mount the smoke alarm.
My roommate from prep school, Barbara, is coming up Wednesday with her golden, Gabby, and I'm eager to have my 7 Acre Wood look presentable for company. The last three guests I've invited haven't made the 4-hour journey from Winston for one reason or another. While it's always a disappointment when friends can't come up, a 4-hour drive is a long way to some people. For me, the 190-mile journey simply takes time. It brings me to a place where I am at peace with myself and am surrounded by beauty that I never take for granted.
Today's sounds included hearing the machines in nearby fields baling hay. Although I cannot see the state highway from the cleared portion of land, my property is bounded by 614, so I hear an occasional car or truck rumble by. Sounds travel easily in the country...
From morning through mid-afternoon, the sky leaked periodically, enough so that I moved the items I was painting/polyurethaning underneath the carport and alternated tasks until the rain stopped and I could paint the grid on the Palace door.
Painting is one of my least favorite tasks, so I phoned H and L and asked if I could join them for the afternoon "puppy walk." After a relaxing walk and an extended visit with the barn cats, we had dinner: a scrumptious salad, primarily from our garden - lettuce, cabbage, spinach (all ours), plus carrots, celery, tomato, cucumber (grown by my dad), and onion. Add to that leftover onions and potatoes cooked this past Saturday, and we had a tasty meal. We've been blessed with dessert almost nightly - carrot cake takes days to eat when there are only three to consume it!
I stopped watching the Wizard of Oz just after the tin man joined Dorothy, Toto, and the Scarecrow... first time of my life that I haven't closed my eyes when the house fell on top of the wicked witch! (I'll admit to not having watched it as an adult...) Still, there's something about ending a day with friends that makes even a paint-filled afternoon seem like a day worth repeating! I suppose that's a very good thing: I've got a book case, five shelves, and a compter table still to prime and paint....I hope to finish that by Monday!!!
Rest well, friends. Anne
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