7-29-09

Artist. Teacher. Scientist.
Today I got the watercolors I ordered. Can't wait to get creative and use them!
This evening I went outside after a rain and took some really cool pictures with my macro lens. The first here is a garlic blossom by the back door.

This is a naked lilly. I love the background colors on this one.

This is the unopened blossom of a daylilly. How do you spell lilly? Lily? Lillie? Lilly?

More to follow....

7-28-09

Southland Jamboree! This time we brought chairs, a picnic supper, and
Frisbee. Aza and Squirt, we will take you when you come home next
month, we promise!

7-27-09

Frisbee at the Masterson Station dog park. He liked it better than the
first one we took him to, but overall was not very social with the
canines or sapiens.

What I don't like about getting old(er):
1. I can't read maps and newspapers without glasses. Forget phonebooks
and my own handwriting.
2. My feet hurt when I get up and stand on them in the morning.
3. My knees hurt when I get up from sitting.
4. My kids grew up and moved out on their own and I miss them so much
each and every day.

What I do like about getting old(er):
1. I can start up conversations with strangers and not care whether
they "like" me or not. And I've made some great friends that way!
2. I can go almost a whole month without a headache now instead of a
week. Thank God for waning hormones.
3. I feel connected to my mother and my grandmothers when I do or say
or think or cook or look like them. Ursula, Gwen, and Big Chrissy- I
love you all. I aspire to your strength.
4. Waking up each morning with my best friend. Nooooo, not Frisbee.
The other guy!

7-26-09

I nursed a brewing headache today, taking it easy- naps and light reading in bed. By early evening I was out of the woods enough to go on an adventure. Dan and I went to the Victorian Square area of downtown and had dinner at a place called DeSha's. Crab cakes and fried green tomatoes, I had.

This was a really beautiful fountain nearby. After dinner we drove over to the Red Mile, a harness racing track. Some minor races were going on and we watched. We struck up a conversation with a couple and they ended up giving us season passes to the races which begin next month. Visitors in August and September, get ready!

7-25-09

Welcome party at the neighbors' house.
Our super-nice new neighbors threw us a welcome party tonight and invited their friends and the folks up and down the streets around our house to meet and greet and eat! We had a great time and met such fantastic people with whom we could always find things in common. I made a big spinach salad- the kind the kids always love with bacon, almonds, red onions, strawberries, and baked a bazillion chocolate chip cookies. Everyone brought something yummy to share, and it was so much fun. What an honor...

7-24-09

Naked Lilies. Naked Ladies. Surprise Lilies! Whatever the name, they are beautiful and they are filling up my gardens today. What a surprise!

We have lots of Lilies... one of my favorite flowers.

Today Dan and I got our Kentucky drivers licenses. We are officially Kentucky drivers. Had to turn in my Virginia one. Symbolic, that was...

7-23-09

Worked most of the day on the NARST proposal and finished second
draft. Oh how I hope it gets accepted. We had a wonderful delicious
dinner at a restaurant called ..... can't remember. Oh, Dan says it
is called Rossi. Afterwards we walked in the arboretum where I took
this picture of the UK watertower and our shadows.

7-22-09

I guess today was productive. Dan and I hung this tobacco drying thing on our wall. We had used it as a pot rack in the old house, and we mounted it with plumbing hardware to use as a coat rack in the "mud room" hallway. Opposite the tobacco thing are windows and a counter and cabinets. I used curtains from the old kitchen and hung them on plumbing hardware too: copper tubing, fittings, and brass fittings in the wall. Also hung one over the sink in the new kitchen.

This morning I felt really angry and anxious because a company that licensed my curriculum has published it to look like their own creation. I spent the morning fuming and waiting for a reply to my direct and assertive/demanding email to them. So the day turned out OK in spite of my morning. Wrote the first draft of my NARST proposal.

7-21-09

Oh my. I start work in only three weeks. Well, at least my office
looks nice. Today I hung a drape over my window. It looks a little
funny to me, like the iron rings are spaced too far apart. Opinions
anyone? It feels very homey being surrounded by my own furniture and
stuff and I think I'll work well in this space. They gave me a brand
new four drawer lateral file cabinet. Sweet!

7-20-09

Today we had a landscape professional come out and teach us about our gardens. There were a few varieties of wildflowers she couldn't identify and this is one. That's my foot. Same Danskos I've been wearing for 10 years now.... So we went to Home Depot and bought soaker hoses because she said we had a lot of root competition and some of the plants were showing stress from lack of water. Not much else to report today. Spaghetti for dinner. Dove bar for dessert. Tomorrow I'll go hang out at my office for a while.

7-19-09

Today was the first day we had time to go exploring the countryside. We drove all the way to the southern tip of the county where there is a ferry across the Kentucky River. Reminds me of the Hatten Ferry across the James in southern Albemarle. It could fit three cars at a time. Pretty cool.

Next we went to a nature preserve called Raven's Run Nature Sanctuary where we went on a hike to the cliffs overlooking the river. There were lots of limestone outcroppings and I got to see these cephalopod fossils in one rock.

We went to dinner at a seafood restaurant. I know Mom, you don't get good seafood "inland" but it was pretty good. Only .8 miles from our house, so a nice walk. We had bourbon bread pudding for dessert. Yum! Tomorrow a landscape architect comes to help me with the yard. I drew a scale drawing of our plot with all the gardens and what plants/trees/wildflowers I know of. I hope to get lots of help.

7-18-09

Weedless at last. Dan and I did our first "gardening" by pulling all the weeds in the bricks between the house and the studio. We also went to the farmer's market, went Krogering, had a fabulous dinner with blackberry cobbler for dessert, and watched "Big Jake" on PBS.




With vanilla ice cream. Dontcha wish you were here to have some too?

7-17-09

Today was really strange. I woke up at 6am or earlier perhaps, and couldn't go back to sleep. So I sat up in bed and turned on the light and worked on the unfinished quilt at my feet. And finished. Here is a picture of the two now-matching quilts on the twin beds. Jes and Aza, come on home!

Yesterday I hung paintings, so I have a picture of those too. But what was strange was that after I finished the quilt, I went over to the studio and started to paint. I painted three watercolors. I was half asleep while doing this, you see- so afterwards I went back to bed. Woke up around noon. Yikes!

I went over to see the paintings and one turned our really cool. It's a gift for a friend so I won't post a picture of it because I don't want to give away the secret. I put it in the mail for her after I woke up at noon!

After lunch I biked to my office and worked all afternoon. It's really a nice space for working. But it doesn't have food. I'll have to carry some over there for munchies.

7-16-09

I almost didn't have a photo today. It was a busy day: coffee with
neighbor, walk to bank, wild race to UPS store to mail a textbook,
hanging pictures, dinner with new colleague and her family. I just got
home and crawled in bed with my sewing then remembered to take a
picture.

Happy 101st birthday, Nana. You helped me sew my life into the quilt
it is today. I wish you were still around.

7-15-09

Today I worked in my office unpacking about 10 boxes of books and
other stuff. It's nice and cozy! Rode my bike to and from, then walked
the dog for about 45 minutes. I'm tired.

7-14-09

Today I worked on the quilt I bought. I needed two twin quilts but
found what I wanted only in a twin and a king. I looked all over for
another twin then resigned to modify the king. It has been way more
work than I anticipated. I hope to finish it this week.

Also today I performed an ancient native American ritual of cleansing
the house. I opened two windows in each room, lit a bundle of dried
white sage, and asked for a blessing in each room from the basement
all the way to the attic as I waved the smoking sage. It was powerful,
and I felt different things in each space and especially near the
piano. Afterwards I lit a white candle, sat and meditated in the room
I felt needed the most cleansing, played prayerful songs on the piano,
then went outside leaving the candle in that space. After a time, I
came back in the house, carried the candle from room to room closing
windows- the last being the front door. What surprised me was how much
the rituals resembled those in the Catholic church. Incense, white
candles, prayer, music, and blessings. It felt good and I feel at
peace tonight knowing this space has been blessed in a special way.

Took Friz for a nice walk after dinner. Tomorrow I plan to bike to my
office and work a half day there.

7-13-09

This is our den. I should have posted it yesterday when we hung pictures in it. The windows were a challenge but we came up with a solution. Below is an indoor photo without flash of the phlox I picked and put in a vase on the front hall table. The light was coming in through the coffin window this morning and lighting up these flowers. I messed with the aperature and shutter speed and got a pretty cool photo.

My friend Robin, an artist in Cville said that I should just hang her painting first then the rest would fall in place. But we didn't know where to put this lamp, and when we did I just knew that her painting would look great next to it in our den. It's a print of a painting she did from Humpback Rocks back "home."

I got a lot of exercise today. First was vacuuming the whole house. It's a smaller house but it still took 1.5 hours with all the switching from hardwood floor to rugs and vacuuming the molding and one of the many dusty ceiling fans we have. Then after dinner (all food from the farmers market- best corn I ever had!) Dan and I rode up to my office and back so I could practice some more. It's 2.6 miles each way. Not bad without traffic at 7pm. I wonder how it will be during the school year.

We tried to get our Kentucky drivers licenses today but didn't have Social Security cards. We had passports, birth certificates, VA drivers licenses, credit cards, check books, car registrations- you name it. But we didn't have those little light blue cards with that special number on them. So no go. Everywhere we go in this state we are asked for our SS#. Out loud. In public. This state just doesn't get the whole identity theft thing. I wonder if my university ID will have my SS# on it.

Oh, one more thing. I bought a lithograph from an Russell Richards, an artist back "home" and it arrived today wrapped in bubble wrap and surrounded by peanuts. I love it. I got the "Innacurate Map of Cville" in a handmade frame.

7-12-09

We hung pictures today. The walls are plaster, so it's a challenge. Dan did a great job and didn't make a single crack.

I picked flowers from the garden for the front hall table

And Frisbee lounged around on the couch watching.

It was a quiet Sunday. We met more neighbors while on a walk after dinner (homemade pizza: tomato, basil, fresh mozzarella). Tomorrow will mark two weeks in our new house. It's still strange.

7-11-09

Farmers market, Lexington Kentucky. The Saturday edition. We scored
two tomatoes, two Chinese eggplant, an onion, six ears of corn picked
this morning at 6:30am, and a package of snausages.

But the big news of the day was the bike ride- my first in a decade.
Dan got my old 1984 Cannondale in shape and we took off, in the rain
at one point. A cyclist I will be.

7-11-09

First horse sighting in Lexington- at Keeneland. I had a lovely lunch
with Virginia-native friend of friend, with lots to be discovered in
common. She took me to see the horses- what a sight. They are MUCH
more beautiful than the statues and paintings I had been seeing for
two weeks.