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.

Sunday at the Beach with Kyle

HURRICANE KYLE LOCAL STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
1103 AM EDT SUN SEP 28 2008






...HURRICANE KYLE WILL PASS EAST OF NANTUCKET EARLY THIS AFTERNOON...

.AT 1100 AM AST...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE KYLE WAS LOCATED NEAR
LATITUDE 40.4 NORTH...LONGITUDE 67.7 WEST OR ABOUT 140 MILES EAST-
SOUTHEAST OF NANTUCKET MASSACHUSETTS AND ABOUT 355 MILES...575
KM...SOUTHWEST OF HALIFAX NOVA SCOTIA.

KYLE IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST NEAR 24 MPH. THIS GENERAL
MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT DAY OR SO WITH SOME
DECREASE IN FORWARD SPEED. ON THE FORECAST TRACK...THE CENTER OF KYLE
SHOULD PASS EAST OF NANTUCKET AND CAPE COD EARLY THIS AFTERNOON AND THE
COAST OF MAINE TONIGHT. THE STORM WILL MOVE NEAR OR OVER NOVA SCOTIA
AND NEW BRUNSWICK TONIGHT AND EARLY MONDAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 80 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. KYLE IS
A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. KYLE IS MOVING
OVER COLDER WATERS AND WEAKENING IS LIKELY DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.
THE SYSTEM SHOULD LOSE TROPICAL CHARACTERISTICS ON MONDAY.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 70 MILES...FROM THE
CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 205
MILES.

After The Storm

It was probably around 8:30 that night when I finally got to the grocery store and the humidity of the approaching Hanna was lingering visibly in the air. The AC of the market was a delight and I lingered for a while, trying to sort out exactly what sorts of things I needed. So many things, and most of them I remembered. But not the plastic cutlery I'd need to cover having forgotten to grab any silverware to eat my Cobb Salad with...so another trip out was required a little later on.

It was great, after such a very long and wet day, to have a nice shower and settle in for some dinner and a bit of snuggle time with the cat, and outside the open windows (most of the rain, naturally, fell while I was actually moving...tho we had a few bands of the stuff come through in the night) we listened to the wind picking up, that exhilerating sound when the gust whistles just a little before dying off that tells you things are getting interesting. But after the day we'd had, "interesting" was a relative thing...and a little of nature's fury was a welcoming cleansing.

Amazingly, I wrote for HOURS once I'd eaten, not having journaled in years, either for fear of having to deal with what I might write, or that someone else might read them and react free of all properly context. After so many years, it was nice to let the words spill out the end of the new pens I bought just for the occasion. It was a fun night, actually, by the light of just one or two lamps, with candles to accent, in case the power should fail...which never happened.

There's not yet a mattress in the Gardener's Nest, and so Badum and I fashioned a nest of our own out of assorted sleeping bags, comforters, afghans and pillows on the living room floor, which is working out pretty nicely for us. We lounged around there together, listening to the radio and the storm. Once in a while, one or the other of us would wander off to explore or examine some new spot or other...the other eventually showing up to see what we were looking at.





We drifted off to sleep as the wind howled outside, rain battering against the roof, but the real fury of the wind came in the early morning hours, when we woke to watch as the treetops outside the windows swayed back and forth.

Still, we weren't troubled by it and relaxed for a little more radio, reading and writing as it came and went...and then, in much cooler, less humid air, the glorious sun returned and the world seemed new.

Not having the computer set up has been driving me a little crazy, but there've been other things to deal with, really...and no internet access at the Nest yet, anyway. So following are some un-retouched photos, snapshots in the real sense, of our new digs. Call these the Before shots.

Without being able to check email or read blogs or anything, I also spent some part of the evening almost entirely figuring out just what sort of decorating schemes might be just right for the place. For the sake of some feeble sense of mystery or suspense, I'll leave those details for another time.

Meanwhile, here's the living room and our current sleeping accomodations. Yes, there's LOTS of green, too much even for this Green-loving Gardener...but it's okay, I can work with it. (Of course, since Sunday I've moved MANY more things in, so to properly picture, imagine almost all the free floor space here filled with boxes or loose piles of books. I think I'll be donating seriously to the local library's ongoing book sale this winter.)

This is the smaller and L-shaped of the bedrooms, which I think will at some point house the comic book collection and probably plenty of the afore-mentioned books. Again, green...but please, take note of the fantastic natural light coming into every room. I keep thinking I've left lamps on, and then remember I hardly have any.

Next up is the master bedroom. Double bed frame, but no mattress or box-spring. I've a plan to acquire one, but that may still be a little ways off, while I concentrate on either things.

Still more green (but a slightly paler shade than the Elphaba Green of the other rooms) as we circle around to the dining room. Again, all the floor space now full.

From the dining room, one can go out onto the balcony through the screen door--we love the cross-breeze from that--or up a step to either the bathroom (below, right) or the kitchen (below, left). Both of those latter rooms, as you can see, are rather pink. This too, will change.

I have learned, from the previous tenants, though, that the rather intense pink of the kitchen is called Bed of Roses pink, so I will probably salvage some of that. I think it would be enough to leave the pantry area pink.

A pink pantry, how perfect.

And out the kitchen windows? Remember that fantastic pink rose hedge I showed you the other day? Ha ha...love this!

And then there's the balcony, which faces east. As our tenancy unfolds, I foresee many morning coffees in the days' golden sunbeams...and some container gardening, too.

Meanwhile, the yard is a beautiful green space, surrounded by many trees. There's an incredible array of bird feeders tended by the folks downstairs, the visitors to which are fascinating to both me and the kitty.

The move, at least things from within the house, is complete as of this afternoon. Tomorrow, I'll return to pot up some friends from the garden, who'll accompany me on this new journey.

For those wondering, thanks to being able to adjust my schedule accordingly (and a particularly quiet week for events, thank goodness), the Person In Question and I have not laid eyes on one another in just over forty-eight hours, which I think is good for both of us. Time to let things mellow, again to let them be.

I have been getting in regular morning walks with my girl Emily, in between packing up truckloads of stuff. She enjoys hearing about the cat's adventures and is thrilled when I come in the back door...but we're both a bit sad when I have to leave. I hope we'll be able to work something out there, at least. I do enjoy our walks and such.

Meanwhile, to celebrate being in the new neighborhood, and a successful day's moving, I enjoyed a beautiful sunset at First Encounter Beach last evening. It was lovely to just stand there and enjoy the sound of the surf and the bay breeze in my ears as the sun settled in the west.

Ahhhh...

I've got some fresh flower photos to share with you from yesterday and today, but alas, Time has run short and I must ask you to wait a little longer.

For not the first time, I thank you all for your comments and emails. It surely is wonderful to know I've such love and support out there...you're all the Greatest, really you are!

Just Another Day

The annuals really own the garden this time of year. Most of the big ticket perennials have come and gone. Of the fabulous lilies only green leafy stalks remain. Just a few of the former multitude of daisies are still showing their cheery faces. There is still some phlox to tease the eye and scent the air.

But the day belongs to the hardest working residents in the garden: the allyssum, the marigolds, bachelor's buttons and sulphur cosmos.

The other cosmos still have not joined the show yet, though there are buds forming. I can't believe they are waiting so long this year. I think there's some reason behind that I've not quite figured out. The seeds were certainly sown early enough. Perhaps the soil is too rich for them. The plants are tall enough, some of them topping off at nearly four feet.



I hadn't thought I was going to show you any morning glories this morning, though there were plenty in bloom. And then I spotted this bumblebee tight-rope-walking along one of the twining stems, clambering over tomorrow morning's flower buds.

And this pale pink morning glory was a bit of a surprise, since I've not seen any this color before today. At first, I thought it was actually a bindweed flower, but a closer look showed it to be another color of glory heard from.

Pretty, eh?
Here's something for the Big Book of the Minorly Weird: at work today, one of the waitresses was cutting lemons and discovered this lemon with another lemon which had grown inside the first.

Hardly a sign of the coming apocalypse, but vaguely interesting nonetheless.

We heard of a severe storm warning around 1:00 this afternoon, and within minutes it was swirling in on us, thunder echoing in the distance to the west.

In a matter of minutes, the clouds billowed out of nowhere to obscure the sun and the sky grew very dark. It was sort of amazing how quickly it happened. I learned late tonight that there was actually a microburst causing lots of tree damage not far from the Cape Cod Canal at about that time, which explains the speed with which everything was moving.


As the thunder continued booming and lightning flashed across the sky, the gusty winds arrived first and then the rain. At first, it made a sort of fog as it came in contact with the hot pavement and evaporated.

Then suddenly it was falling in sheets and making visible the great gusts of wind that were blowing in a variety of directions.

I understand there was golf-ball sized hail connected with the microburst, but we didn't see any of that in Orleans, just lots of that heavy, heavy rain, sometimes blowing sideways, helping us feel a sort of kinship with our friends and family in Florida who were braving the battering wind and rain of Tropical Storm Fay.

I did download an impressive radar map of the storm's track and another detailing the frequency and location of the lightning strikes...but sadly, I've misplaced those files, so you'll just have to trust me when I say it was a big, unexpected storm.

[EDIT: 8/20/08, 8:20 am: here's a link to more coverage of this storm, if you're interested.]

After work, I stopped by Rock Harbor for a look out across the bay, where it was cloudier than I'd expected, since we'd ended up having a pretty sunny afternoon following the storm. It wasn't until I got home to Harwich that I discovered that they were having a second storm about that time.

It's much cooler this evening, with temperatures dropping down into the low sixties...and now, after midnight, we've slipped down into the 50s. Definitely a nice night for a sweatshirt. I think I'll sleep well for a change.

There's still some fast moving clouds passing by overhead, and I didn't find the right setting to capture those crisply on the new camera yet.

But really, I wasn't so into photography tonight and mostly just sat in front of the TV and enjoyed some more Olympics coverage. Men's diving, women's gymnastics, BMX bike racing, more running and hurdle-jumping.

It's all good, though I am often a little disappointed that, in trying to make sure we see as much of the games as possible, some of the "lesser" contenders don't get their televised moment of glory. We see all those countries' athletes enter the stadium on the first night, and many of them are never seen again.

Succeed or fail, they are all part of the beauty of the Olympic experience.

Clouds of Lightning

Here's a few screen captures from the storm that rolled through around 8:00 p.m. on Monday.

A Storm: Four Frames

From Sunday evening, around 8:00 p.m.