Back in Town for a Bit

Good  Morning from Seattle!  Here's a note I just sent  to "Zanelle":

"It's an hour earlier than I planned to get up.  The clock radio by the bed got mis-set by an hour somehow.  Last night I fell asleep thinking about the determination and focus of some people, like Obama, for setting a goal and putting all their intelligence and energy into achieving that goal.  I felt so inspired to do that in my own life, so this morning I did a little pencil brain storming and pinpointed three areas:  Painter, Gardener and Studio Planner, and all the offshoots of those three.  Big on the Painter was Design Elements, so I came to the computer to search but just had to check the email first, and there you were, so here I am, off target as usual!  Oh well!  Friends are the most important thing in life!"

Well, that extra hour went fast so I'm off to the gym for Pilates, coffee with friends, and a slew of construction related errands.  

Other side

Best side -- other side will be alongside our neighbors' mailbox.
Originally uploaded by JuliMil

Stamped and sealed

Stamped and sealed
Originally uploaded by JuliMil

Soon our presence will be official on this remote road -- USPS will have one more box to fill with junk mail and the odd bill. David needs to hike up the hill with some lumber and tools to rebuild the existing roadside stand. Our part is rotten.

The sun is hot this morning. I had to strip down to almost nothing to finish up the vacuuming. Managed to clean the whole house while listening to Breakfast with the Beatles from 8 to 10, vacuuming during the commercials. Pepper is taking his third or fourth nap of the morning while I sit here looking out at the whitecaps on the water and the mountains way to the east that have slowly emerged from the huge fog bank that hung over the Seattle side. Once the few lingering items in the kitchen sink are washed, I will decide what else to do on this beautiful day, before heading over to Kingston and the ferry. Tonight we're having dinner with Joni and Dennis at the best Vietnamese restaurant in Seattle, the Green Leaf. Just in time, I'm getting a little tired of leftover pasta.

Pepper just teetered out the door to pee and I'll pry myself out of the chair to make a phone call to my garden guru about a box of sawdust.

Too Much Yellow!

Very risky business undertaken this morning -- I reworked the colors on a "finished" painting that never seemed to my liking.  I think it's better now, more harmonious.  Feeling lots of energy out here in Kingston and it looks like David is, too, as he has been busy working on the cabin renovations, filling in for Jake while he is on his trip to SF.  They've started the tiny but very beautiful bathroom, where I get to try my hand at tiling.  Today we're driving up to Hansville.  David will ride his bike back and I'll stop in at the Dragonfly Nursery again, maybe get a Pacific wax myrtle to keep the little red twigged dogwood company.  Two variegated pieris japonicas are waiting to be planted, too, and the rest of those daffodil bulbs.  It's hard work digging in the rocky soil here but my long-handled claw-type twisty tool that Garry recommended helps immensely.  The first debate is tonight and it will feel good to sit down and watch.  

Perspective

Newly installed Dish Network injects 250 channels into our little house overlooking the Sound.  TV comedians reap a bonanza of juicy material as the presidential campaign slogs on and the economy goes into nightmare mode.  It's late, it's dark.  Seattle's lights twinkle across the water, a friendly sight, but I feel a sense of deepening dread over what the geniuses in the financial world have wrought.  All day long I'm busy with tasks and don't think about national news, except on those days when I tune in to Air America, and today, with David in the house, there was no radio on. 

Got up early and painted another Pepper portrait on a block of wood.  Put a coat of clear acrylic on the mailbox, to protect the 100's of stamps from the weather.  Drove to Poulsbo with David to buy a chainsaw and see if the witch hazel was still among the offerings at Home Depot (it wasn't).  Had lunch at JJ's Fishhouse and coffee at the Poulsbohemia.  Back home, I organized the woodpile so there would be room for the fallen maple we're going to cut up with the new chainsaw and I pruned and cleaned up a lot of plant debris along that side of the house.  Then I moved up to the property line, dug a big hole and planted the red twigged dogwood between two scrawny laurels.  By then, it was 6 pm, I was tired and I let myself get sucked into watching "Bird on a Wire" on HBO, enjoying Mel Gibson as if he had never fallen from grace.  Made a stir fry with leftover rice and a big bunch of greens from the garden, garlic, ginger, fish sauce and orange juice.  

I need to remember where I've planted the daffodil bulbs.  There are groups of 5 to 7 in a big planter, in the raised bed where the cabbage didn't survive, down in the circle, up by the azalea . . .  . and that's a little more than half.  Another bunch will go along the garage and I'm not sure about the rest.

Every day here is busy but there's always time to pause and look down at the beach and across the water, watching birds and boat traffic, inhaling the cool, fresh air, feeling the wind and again and again appreciating our good fortune.  It's only at night when the tv is on and that satellite beams another reality into the house.  At least, the comedians keep us laughing.