Painting Thoughts on a Stormy Day

With the heavy rains that spattered against the windows and the exterior walls of the Nest overnight, it would have been an absolute joy to stay snuggled in bed a little longer this morning.

Alas, I had an early morning appointment (the customer had insisted, over my minor protests about the restaurant not yet being open, etc.) scheduled...so was up to prepare for that and also got myself ready to visit the beach after the meeting.

So you can imagine my annoyance to get to work and discover that the appointment had been cancelled in a phone message around 8 a.m...although the message clearly mentioned that the decision not to attend the meeting had been reached the night before...when I was still at work.

So, thanks for your lack of consideration, Potential Customer...I hope there isn't too much bad wedding kharma blow-back from this for you! And that's about as negative as I'm going to let you make me...

My visit to Nauset Beach was certainly a good and fast curative to any crankiness I had about being up and about so early...as Hurricane Kyle churned things about a hundred miles out, there was some wind and rain (I was barefoot, but in a slicker...and delightfully soaked with a warm rain when I finally headed back to the car...more pictures in the previous blog post, for those who may've missed that one!)...and some exciting surf. Our waves here on the Cape are not world-reknowned, though there is still a culture of surfers, who were certainly out there yesterday. But some of the waves yesterday were big and impressive...and once in a while crashed with the surprising KAPOW of a cannon shot.

Most satisfying.

And then it was home to dry off, have a bit of breakfast and turn my attention to getting a little more of the Nest whipped into shape, painting-wise.

The living room remains the focus, as I added some more stenciled leaves to the two tree parts of the room. Since the leaves will become less visible when I've applied the top coat of paint in a day or so, I'm pondering adding a few more leaves to this particular tree-top representation. I guess it will depend on how I feel later on.

I enjoyed some blogger communication today, as I chatted with both Marc and Jess on the phone about their plans to visit Cape Cod for the upcoming Columbus Day weekend. They've actually made reservations at an Inn just down the street from the Nest, as it turns out...and there's talk of an appearance by Marc's Chicken and Noodles, as recently featured at his blog!

Although I will have to work for some of the weekend (these three day occasions are great times to schedule a special event), I look forward to spending the rest of the time with these guys, and also Patrick, who may be catching a ride with them for a return visit to the Nest. (I'll have to save some painting...he's awfully good at it...)

Much has been made about how cool and enjoyable my roommate is. While the Cat Dood is not, like some boys, particularly fond of kissing (he mostly hates when I smooch on him), he is in many other ways a great companion, both fun and caring and not obsessed (as dogs can be) with his next meal. In fact, he is not unlike Ferris Bueller in that, for him, Leisure Rules. If there is a real point against him, he is the only roommate I've ever had who leaves footprints in the bathroom sink.

When he first came to live with me and was a little mal-nourished, he did make a good impression with a mouse-kill, but since then, his interest in mousing has probably been mellowed by being well-fed. I have often joked that he is still interested in mice...the trick is getting them to roll around in the catnip.

So this evening, I was surprised and interested to discover that Badum was doing just a little bit of hunting, and had sort of cornered a breathless and wide-eyed little gray mouse under a bookshelf in the dining room. He chased the mouse from one side to another...and my participation (moving the shelf out from the wall), really only complicated the situation by knocking something off the shelf, which created a diversion during which the mouse was able to dash to the living room...and catch his breath under the relative safety of the baseboard heater, while the cat continued to stalk the place where the mouse had been minutes before.

We'll have to keep an eye on this situation and see what happens and perhaps I'll try not to help next time.

Meanwhile, once I'd finished adding stenciled leaves to the walls, I had a little extra paint left over, and so decided to add that remaining paint onto the walls in a texture that will be somewhat concealed by the finish sponge coat on these walls.


For the texture, I crumpled one of those plastic grocery bags and used that as my paint application tool. Interesting effect, I've always thought, and as I said, only some of it will still be visible when all is said and done.

As I did that, I also made use of the cardboard stencils I made last week, using them to apply some of that paint in the form of large leaves along the baseboard of the interior walls. And then I started playing around with some of the other images I wanted to add onto the walls.


Patience has a little projector thing-y that helped me get some of those images enlarged, though it was not quite as helpful about the enlargement as I had hoped at the start.

While I had to adapt my plan a little bit, things seem to be coming together pretty nicely...and before the night was over, I had the chance to paint in a couple of accent bits, which I'm pretty thrilled with.

Working on this room is so interesting - I find that so many images and ideas and experiences in the Garden, on the blog, in this crazy world of ours are finding their way out of my brain and into my hands and fingers and brushes and stuff and making their way onto the walls here.


Patrick mentioned something in his blog yesterday about how we all seem to become inspired by one another through sharing our experiences and such in bloggety-blog land. I've certainly found that to be true...and in ways I never quite guessed when I started the Midnight Garden a few years back...and in ways I'll mysteriously say you can't possibly imagine. Or maybe you can.

So maybe I'm looking at some of this re-decorating process as a sort of visual journal, an out-growth of that whole experience. Is it all about just addressing the experiences I've had? Am I trying to visualize the future I want? Maybe I'm just thrilled with the way these two dragonflies seem to be dancing around one another and the way the living room's turning into an extension of the garden that grows in my heart.

The creative process of it all certain seems to be opening more doors to the future for me, so I think I'm doing just what I'm supposed to be doing...and exactly where I'm supposed to be doing it. That's an awfully good feeling.

I ran out of steam later in the evening, though I still had a few more things I'd hoped to get painted. But that solar/tribal image and the crow will just have to wait.

Maybe this evening I'll have some fresh energy to tackle that...but I think I'm also going to have to find time to watch last week's two-hour premiere of HEROES before tonight's new episode comes on...so I may find myself distracted with other, very important things.

As I faded to dark last night, I enjoyed an episode of Planet Earth on Discovery Planet. Sigourney Weaver is a great narrator for this terrific series that shows you amazing things you can barely imagine exist in the world. If you have the chance, check it out. It's truly television worth watching.