past the weather

November 2, 2011

We have power again, and have gained 100 years of technology more or less, overnight. Al was trying to figure out how far back in time we'd gone when we could cook on the stove, and the water ran, but there was no heat except from the stove (and the people, and the candles) and no light and certainly no internet. It was his thought that we'd lost 100 years of progress in one quick blink. After we regained power, and before friends did, we hosted many people for eating, cooking and several showers. The best comment was from Rachel exiting the shower. She was asked "how do you feel now dear?" and answered "cleaner than you" which brought down the house.

The town and the power company seemed to communicate well, and they got us power back well before their first estimate. I am thinking we owe a lot of thanks to the crews that came in from other states, like the man from Oregon that Cathy was talking to at the top of a phone pole, or the guy from South Carolina who was taking down a tree in Montague.

I successfully delivered two original works, and 10 photographic reproductions (mounted, signed and shrink-wrapped) to the Crane Estate on Monday. The driving got more and more normal as I apporached the coast – fewer trees part way across the road and leaning precariously on phone and power lines, fewer branches blocking off half the road. Mum and I had a lovely lunch (thanks Mom!!) and I drove right back home again.

After a day of breathing and not-driving yesterday, except for a really good lesson on Image, I realized I have to think about November.

Historically November is NaNoWriMo which is short for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is simply to finish a piece of work that you've been hung up on, or have started but haven't finished, or have thought about but never started. The rules can be summarized as: "write, and don't look back." The theory is that once you develop forward momentum it is easier to keep going. The general advice is to write like crazy in November and spend a month revising (like, say, December) and then if you think it is worthwhile, send it out to someone. Not everyone is working towards publishing a book. Many people join simply because they want to have written a book, and this is a handy support group for doing exactly that.

Last year I joined some people working on a craft version of this, called NaNoCraftMo, where we tried to work on something every day. That was when I started trying to capture the pond I am so enamored of in fabric, and produced a series of pieces my mother loved. You can see those here, here and here. Those helped me produce the pieces I just handed in to the ladies in Ipswich. So NaNo was a useful exercise, and I am going to do something again.

Several months ago I joined the World Sketchbook Tour, but I have had trouble focusing on the sketchbook. If I work every day in November, it will be full, and interesting and done. And then I can mail it. My theme is A Path Among Trees which is perfect for the things I've been noticing lately. All I have to figure out is how I can make my fabric things work in a sketch book.

And then I can spend December doing something completely frivolous and foolish that I can choose from a list of frivolous and foolish things I've been keeping for moments like that.

the organizational scrimmage

October 26, 2011

preparations

I've gotten photographic reproductions from my local print shop.

Paradise Copies is right around the corner from me. They are kind of amazing. Every time I ask them if they can do something, they say yes, and it is cheaper and easier than I expected. This time I had to make reproductions, mount them on foam core and shrink wrap them. With a  short break in the middle of the process for me to make labels, sign them and attach them to the back of the mounted pieces. 

That process is well underway. The last piece is framing the big guys. Al says fall and winter should go, but that I should make more too, because he wants to see spring. 

winter pond

October 24, 2011

pond in winter

Finished! 

The horse show yesterday was fun but exhausting. Our ride went well – we were giggling like crazy through the whole thing, and we made the judges laugh. I think the people who traveled for it had a good time. I think I know a bunch of ways to make it less stressful next year. If I can get a copy of the video of our test, I'll post a pointer to it. 

Fun on horseback

October 22, 2011

I'm distracted with the final details of a horse show being put on at the barn. This is wonderful fun, but takes up rather a lot of time. 

People at the barn started talking about this in that "wouldn't it be fun?" kind of way in the middle of the summer, and the ideas we had just got sillier and sillier. We were thinking about quadrilles (four horses together) and pas de deux (two horses together – I don't have any idea why the vocabulary is French!) and trying to think which horses would actually go well together, and which would just be funny. Then we had fun contemplating costuming, because who wouldn't want ride with a friend AND wear a fabulous costume of some kind? And then we thought that to keep expenses down we could ask people to bring a prize for the Prize Box. And then we got really silly, and said you could nominate a judge (for a small fee) to be your partisan on the judges panel. 

And then Elaine picked a day and asked if I'd actually do it, so I said yes. This Sunday. Tomorrow. To my relief, the fun part is tacked onto some other things that are happening the same day. We have a costume class, and two solo musical rides, and two pas de deux (one is me and my co-organizer; her horse is ENORMOUS and takes huge strides, I am on a smallish grumpy short strided horse so I keep having to scuttle to keep up… we think we are hysterical). 

So, I'll try to have pictures, or maybe video, and I'll report back. 

more shrubberies, more thread

October 20, 2011

shrubberies redux

I have some reeds still on land, at the edge of the pond (you can see where I sketched in their shadows already) and then I get to work on the pond itself.

I was thinking about how snow sits on top of ice, and then melts into it a little, so that the top is quite white, but some places are black with ice. Places where people tossed rocks to see if it was thick enough to skate on, or sticks fell on it, or small creatures left small footprints, all those show up as divots with black at the bottom. What I have to begin with is four layers of silk organza dyed black, gray and white. The rock sits in the pond a little, so the ice has melted around it and refrozen. 

I'm still thinking about how to do this part. I may try something that is removable, if I feel very dubious. 

big birch tree

October 19, 2011

big birch tree

I almost titled this post "return to competence" but then I thought maybe I shouldn't jinx it. I have strong superstitions about jinxing things, mostly I think because of my faith in Murphy's Law (what can go wrong, will go wrong and in the most disastrous way possible). In one of my favorite author's books, Murphy's Law is one of few things that survives a couple hundred years into the future and space faring. That is real power! So I tend to try not to tempt fate by saying things out loud that are going too well. 

This is the is large birch tree in the foreground. I'll have to fill in more of the foreground with tiny trees worked from the back. I managed to make that process work again today, after sleeping a lot and having a nice dinner. 

Worked from the back is a way to use differnt threads in the sewing machine than will go through the regular thread path. The regular thread path pulls thread back and forth through the eye of the needle, and soft threads, fat threads and shiny threads all prefer not to undergo that. The path thread follows from the bobbin is much shorter and more direct, so all those more delicate threads can be used. Except you have to work on the back of the piece instead of the front. This works well if you have a firm plan, but it is possible to get into trouble with lack of forethought. Which is pretty much true of life! 

shadows on snow

October 18, 2011

shadows on snow

The needle issue was definitely tiredness. So was my temporary inability to think of anything else to do. Today I returned to the front to work on the pine trees and add some shadows around the bottoms of the trees. No needles were injured today. I am feeling much happier.