Author: handmadebyjo

Lists

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140513 Back Forty

The morning walk about is really a double-edged sword.  The quiet and beauty is wonderful but I look at this view and think about the to-do list that gets longer each and every minute. . .sigh.

I look at so many things and think about how bad it must look to the uneducated eye.  Those who have no idea the work that goes into a place this size.  In the next minute all I see is potential.  We are all about sweat equity but that can also make the list look overwhelming.

I am a list maker, always have been.  The to-do lists are separate – inside and outside. They are broken down by season, then priority. There are some indoor things that can be done (and should be) when the weather is not so great outdoors.  So there’s always the list of short-term, little projects indoors when it rains.

Then there are the small, medium and large (read dream) projects outdoors.  All of the outdoor projects I have to really break down or I would be overwhelmed.  I also have to be realistic about my timeline.  I want everything done now but know that’s something that’s not going to happen. I know that there are two more weeks before I plant my vegetable garden so tilling moves up the list.  Picking up sticks getting ready to mow should be done right now since the grass is ready to be cut everywhere.  There are leaves coming out on the trees and undergrowth that needs to be removed, that should probably be done today.  Hmmm, rain, rain, go away . . .

There is a half dressed loom waiting for some attention as well.  That’s the danger, all I really want to do is weave, but . . .

I use what I want to do to motivate what I need to do.  It’s my reward for getting things done.  With that I guess I will don weed whacking gear and head out for a couple of hours of destruction followed by a couple of hours of weaving.  That’s the plan unless the sun comes out and I’m distracted by a flower garden.

If You Feed Them They Will Come

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140512 OrioleSurprisingly their favorite food is grape jelly.  He’s perched on a bowl of it.  So beautiful.

 

 

New Day

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140508 Sunrise

I often post photographs of the sunrise over the weathervane in Rowe but today’s feels a little different.  After much prep I am here full time.  It’s not exactly the way I had anticipated this all happening over the years but really, how many of us can say that things turn out the way we planned?

I understand that I am more than fortunate to be able to do this in a place that is so special to me.  It’s not so much the house or property but the spirit of a place that’s been my home for well over 50 years.  I have lived in other places for much, much longer than the cumulative number of years I’ve lived in Rowe but there is no other place that I feel calmer, safer than here.

The bedroom I’m currently occupying faces east.  I chose this one for the sole reason of seeing the sunrise in the morning.  I just situated the bed so the sun wouldn’t shine right in my eyes should I oversleep and miss it peeking over the horizon. I also crack the window open a bit before I go to bed to have the frogs lull me to sleep at night and the birds wake me up in the morning. To me there is no better way to end or start a day.

The move went like clockwork, my father is settling into his home of almost 50 years.  He slept late and commented on how he hasn’t slept that well in 2 years. Although he will miss the people who surrounded him in his time away I can’t help but think this will be healing in its own way.  Rowe is so much more home to him and Fort Pelham Farm is what he brought into my life.

Weaving Wednesday – The Huck Experiment Continues

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Huck treadling

Last night this is what I did at the beginning of class.  I had to decide how to weave my third towel in the series.  What I had initially thought I was going to use for treadling was not what I ended up doing.  The pattern for lattice didn’t take into consideration that I have 2 inches of plain weave on either side of the towel so I ended up with very large weft floats with them caught on the edge with a floating selvage.  My brain just wasn’t willing to figure out a way around it (or even if I could) so I just switched to the lacy huck border.  It was only a little confusing.

After finishing the requisite 28 inches of pattern (and 3 other towels) I’m finally getting a feel for what this is doing.  I read the article about making warp and weft floats with the plain weave involved but somehow it always takes me to the end of the warp before I figure it out.  That’s the advantage of a long warp I guess.

The structure of huck is beautiful but it really can’t be appreciated until the weaving is taken off of the loom.  The release of tension allows the cloth to pucker in the most wonderful geometric ways.  One more towel to weave next week then they will be hemmed and washed.  That’s when their beauty will really shine.

Huck Lacy Borders

New Old Photographs

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Myrta Hill (1)

For as many years as eBay has been in existence I have been bidding on and purchasing old process photographs with children and dogs.  In recent years these have become a little too pricey for me to win often.  The photograph above is one I recently purchased for a very decent price.  It’s an ambrotype in a pristine Union case.  In the case was a slip of paper that read Myrta Hill and Mrs. R. E. Smith, woohoo!  For me this is the holy grail of photography finds.  I can match the photograph with a family.  After a brief search on Ancestry I found Myrta’s family and was able to contact the owner of their family tree and send them a copy of the photograph.

I love it when that happens.  I love the investigative work that goes into this and I am all too familiar with the feeling of seeing new old photographs of relatives.  Being online with the genealogy community has given me so many opportunities to communicate with relatives that I had no idea existed.  They all are similar minded and very open to sharing what they have.  There have been instances where I have met long-lost cousins with photographs in hand and others that have emailed me diary transcripts from the mid to late 1800’s.

In the past few months, with online connections, I have seen photographs of my father as a baby and my grandparents that I have never seen before.  It’s really a wonderful experience.  With this photograph arriving in the mail I was able to share that experience with a total stranger and that is something that makes searching these little treasures out worthwhile.  I often wonder when I buy one of these what happened to the photograph’s family, especially when there isn’t any identifying information with or on the photo.  Because of the time period of my collection we are going back a few generations and in my mind I know that someone’s estate was cleared out and things put up for auction.  Either there were no family members left, they didn’t realize what was in the auctioned items or they didn’t care.  Sad.

I have been the “keeper” of family photographs forever.  Someone’s household is cleaned out the photographs come to me.  I scan them, put them in chronological order and file the originals away.  I currently have thousands of photographs from all branches of my family as well as Bill’s.  The beauty of this is in the sharing.  Being able to show other family members the photographs they have never seen.  Sharing is a little gift on my part but very often it seems like a big gift to the receiver.  I know, being on the receiving end is wonderful.

Posting will be a bit sporadic for another couple of weeks.  I will be packing up all those photographs and moving them to Rowe (hopefully their final home).  No small feat because moving them can be a real distraction.  I have to just move them and not look at them until I have time.  I expect regular postings to resume once I’m there.  Send positive thoughts for a smooth transition!

Respite in the Salt Air

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There are times when you just need an opportunity to play.  Today was just that.  Cait and I spent last night in Rockport, MA after a wonderful concert by Deborah Henson Conant at the Shalin Liu Performance Center.  As usual, sleep was short and I got out of bed at 6:00 AM, dressed and took out the camera.  Staying in a spot on Bearskin Neck allows you to be in the heart of some amazing things.  Here is some of what I saw this morning.

140413(1)Sunrise.

140413(4)Buoys.

140413(6)

Dinghy.

140413(3)

Lobster shack.

140413(5)Dinghies.

Shack (6)Point of reference.

It only took 40 minutes for me to be centered once again.  I need to make more of an effort to take my camera out every single day.

 

 

 

How Things Change

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140410 Sunrise

I don’t sleep much these days.  I wake up early in the morning (often very early).  I squint at the clock to see if it’s too outrageously early to get up.  My rule is if it’s before 4:30 AM I have to stay in bed.

Getting up really early affords you the opportunities to see the sun rise.  It seems like I take a photograph from the same spot looking out the living room window a lot but in doing so I’ve seen some amazing sunrises.  Yesterday was a perfectly clear beginning to a beautiful spring day.  Finally!  It has been one long winter.

With spring also comes some huge life changes for me (all of my family really).  After spending the past 30 years travelling from Enfield to Rowe and back I will be moving there full time in May.  Unfortunately I will be moving there without most of my significant others.  They will continue the weekend commute.

This was not an easy decision to come to.  Dad will be coming home and I will be staying with him.  Every single person that hears about it has asked me the exact same question, exact same words “So, how is this going to work?”  I tell them all the same thing – “I won’t know until I’m in it”.  You do what you have to do.

It seems as though everyone I know my age is dealing with the same issues that we are.  We are all caring for our aging parents in one way or another. I’m not sure most of them are living separate from their spouses for days at a time but our relationship is strong and we look at it as another thing to work through. I am fortunate that my father is pretty capable at this time.  His health has stabilized.  He’s pretty sharp as well.  Throwback Thursdays could take on a whole different tone with him telling me the stories behind the photos.

I think the loss of sleep comes when I wake up and start thinking about what I take with me and what I leave behind.  I look at it as leaving things behind because I will be leaving a large piece of my life in Enfield.  Don’t get me wrong, I will not miss Enfield for a minute.  I will miss my home, my bed, my furniture, my tchotche.  This is the part that has almost immobilized me.  I wander around the house at times and think “Should I take this?”  I packed a few things and brought them to Rowe at the beginning of the week.  When it came time to unpack the box I just wondered why I packed what I did.

My life has been so different in one place or the other.  I guess I didn’t realize how different each life was until I had to think about walking away from one.  I moved to Enfield when I married Bill. My kids were born and raised there.  They are grown and I went through the empty nest thing years ago but I will be leaving the Mom part of my life in Enfield – at least the biggest part. Not sure that makes sense – suffice it to say that this will probably be the biggest change I have ever made.

Time will tell.  I was horrified when my father was in rehab and then moved to assisted living.  I couldn’t imagine my health being bad enough for someone to move me away from a place I loved and had lived in for 50+ years without so much as a discussion.  I knew that if his health stabilized I would bring him back to Rowe.  He’s counting the days, for different reasons I’m sure.

I take comfort in the fact that I will be able to garden more, walk in the woods, sit and soak in the birdsong, play with Chester.  Compensation for being put into a somewhat difficult situation. I will also be able to see the sun rise from the same spot every single day.

The Pantry

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140404 Pantry

I finished building and painting the shelves for the pantry.  The painting was fine but the building was not without its cursing.  There is nothing like trying to fit something that’s square into somethings that’s not.

Sunday I moved a few things into it but will work on that in earnest this week.  There is still the pantry closet to build that will be going in on the end of this in what was once a shower stall.  The floor will then get another coat of paint.  That will have to wait for a few weeks since there is another room that needs finishing.

This is the perfect solution for the time being.  Eventually this room will be going away to make room for a kitchen expansion but for the time being a little paint and elbow grease has made it into something functional.  It’s kind of amazing how you can use a little imagination and come up with this.  Remember this is how it started out.

140308 Bathroom to Pantry (4)

One project down, thousands more to go.

 

The Clocks

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140405 Clocks (3)

This past Saturday morning the family clocks were taken from the house for cleaning and regulation.  They were taken by a man I have known since the early seventies.  I have known that something needed to be done with them for many, many years.  They used to run.  I missed their chimes and the deep tick tock of the oak wall clock.  There is nothing that whisks me back to childhood faster than closing my eyes and listening to that clock.  There were times at my grandparents house when it was so quiet that was all you heard (I have to add that it is a particularly loud clock).

140405 Clocks (2)

The story goes that this clock was taken from a factory by my grandfather.  They were replacing it with something else I assume, I’m also assuming it came from a woolen mill.  It was filthy, black I’m told.  He painstakingly took it apart, cleaned it up and got it working.  Then it was placed on the wall in his parlor on Stafford St.  There it ran for most of my life, it probably ran for a good deal of my father’s.  When my grandmother left the house for a nursing home it was the first thing that came to Rowe.  There it ran on the wall in the living room for another 20 or more years.  My children had the pleasure of growing up with it’s sound and presence for their childhoods as well.

140405 Clocks (4)

The workmanship on this clock is spectacular.  The woodwork, the brass is beautiful.  It is the sound that is most important to me though.  We complain about not knowing what time it is in the middle of the night because it no longer runs.

I have to tell you there was a little anxiety when these clocks went out the door on Saturday morning.  The only reason they did is through a conversation I had with someone the day before.  She told me her brother in law was repairing clocks now that he’d retired to Heath and gave me his phone number.  I went to high school with him, worked a summer job with him, knew where he lived.  The only other lead on clock repair I’d had was a guy in Conway.  I didn’t know him but I knew he was good – I just couldn’t call him.  I didn’t know where he lived and I couldn’t let them go.

I’ve been told it will take about 6 weeks to get them going again, they will then be returned, put in their respective spots and started up.  They will be worked on until they are running perfectly.  I’m beyond happy about this and so pleased they are with someone I know.  I’m also looking forward to waking up at 4:00 AM and knowing what time it is.

 

 

Throwback Thursday

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1937 Holland Pond (1)

This is my favorite photograph of all the ones I have from my father’s side of the family.  A few months ago I was thinking about our connection to water, swimming and boating and thought about this image.  I went looking for it in the place I last remembered it being located and it was missing ( along with a lot of other memorable photos).  I came across them a couple of days ago – woo hoo!

This image was taken on Holland Pond in MA around 1936.  I really don’t know any of the story around it.  Who’s boat was that?  How far away was the photographer (no long lenses then)?  Was this vacation?

My father has been filling in details as photographs have been coming out from family members recently.  He told me that every year his father had vacation in the first weeks of July because the mill shut down. This is when they went to Canada to visit family and took time to do vacation sorts of things.

My father looks like one happy kid in this photo.  I recognize that smile – our children were brought up on water and in boats.  They always had that same smile while they were on the water.

1937 Holland Pond

They also took the photos with each other.  Vacation photos.  Take my picture photos.  It’s nice to see that has happened for as long as there have been consumer cameras.  Now these common photos are family treasures.

1937 Holland Pond (2)

When I go through my archives and now with new images coming to light I know that this was probably my grandfather’s 1928 Chevrolet Coupe.  My father tells me about an accident they had with it in Canada.  It’s funny what he remembers (everything).

It’s funny how things repeat themselves over and over again, generation after generation.  My parents always took vacation the last week in June or the first week of July.  We always take ours around the first two weeks of July.  Maybe it’s a regional thing because of the weather but I’m willing to bet it has more to do with your upbringing.  Just as I’m willing to bet these take my picture moments are half done out of the notion that it’s what you’re supposed to do while you’re on vacation.