Heavy nesting

While others may spend their Labor Day weekend sunning at the beach, picnicking in the park or shopping til they drop, I have other plans. I gots me a date with a log splitter.

We'll be reducing a downed eucalyptus tree and other various assorted trunks and limbs to sizes suitable for burning, and while we're at it I intend to also finish stacking the remaining cord and a half or so of hardwood we bought last winter (which has been languishing in a heap for almost a year) AND run the sticks and twigs I cleared from the studio site through our chipper, which Mr. A's kind, generous and talented brother has recently restored to working order. Also, tomorrow morning we're inspecting and cleaning the community beehives, and at some point we'll be filtering and bottling, in our own kitchen, the midsummer harvest of, I think, just under a hundred pounds of honey. I have set myself a goal of completing the entire operation without introducing a single dog hair into the process. Wish me luck on that one!

So yeah. Labor Day!

In other news, Tater seems to be ailing again. He's not lethargic or out of it, but he doesn't want to get up out of bed or walk around much, he whines if I try to make him walk, and he wouldn't eat his dinner last night. On the other hand, when I took the garbage out last night he felt good enough to wander out to the street with me, with his tail relaxed and wagging and an easygoing expression in his walk. He even drank some water and took off down the road exploring a bit, which I took as a good sign. This morning he was slow again and wouldn't take any dog food, but when I offered him some chicken he wolfed down as much as I would give him.

Usually whenever anything seems wrong with him I take him straight to the vet. This time, I haven't. It seems like I never get out of there for under a hundred bucks, even when it turns out there's nothing really wrong with him. In this case he doesn't really seem sick, just in pain. So I'm keeping a close eye on him and hoping it's just his poor injured ankle getting worse, as I've been told it will as he ages.

Sometimes I have thought of suing my ex-husband for all the money I've spent over the years, and will continue spending, to take care of that injury, since he was the one who caused it. These are some of my final (I hope) lingering bitter thoughts about the man, and I know that acting on them is out of the question. But every time I hear Tater cry or see him limping along on his ruined leg, a little anger comes up that I still have to deal with.

Moving on: With everything else I've committed to doing this weekend I don't know if I'm going to have any time for the studio, but I'm hoping that if nothing else, wrapping up some of these other projects will clear out some mindspace – not to mention physical space – that I can use to start at least moving in that direction. I love this time of year and am looking forward to doing a little nesting before the weather really turns.

In preparation, this morning I was reading the Home and Garden section of the San Francisco Chronicle and ran across this wonderful paragraph, in an article about living with color:

Those who are comfortable living entirely in candy colors, meanwhile, find renewal at every turn. "When I get up in the morning, there is a feeling of joy," said May Baratta, 80, who sleeps in an alarming sunflower yellow bedroom. "My living room puts a smile on my face," she added, attributing her good mood to the periwinkle blue curtains, chartreuse linen walls, psychedelic floral upholstery and cyclamen pink throw pillows. ... "[Adding color to my home] has been the best thing that has ever happened to me," she said with fervor. "It makes me very, very happy."

Periwinkle blue curtains? Chartreuse walls?! This sounds like my kind of pad. Right now I am living in a room that is a nice medium shade of blue – nice, but not really my style. The rest of the house is basically beige. Then there's the clutter, most of which is not even mine. It's kind of depressing.

All of this is coming to the forefront of my attention right now because I have a house guest coming In a few weeks and I know I'm not going to have the house together by then, not even close. It's good motivation to get a few things done, I hope – but my greatest motivation for working on this house is the fact that I feel myself shutting down emotionally every time I look around, and that's not the way I want to live.

So the color article was inspiring! A clean, uncluttered white room with lots of light, mango-colored floaty cotton curtains and shiny kiwi-green wooden floorboards would be enough to make me happy for the rest of my life. Or maybe bright green fabrics and a watermelon red floor. Yellow walls. And something soft to sit on. And flowers.

A place to play with colors, especially during the cozy gray days of rain and winter. Something to look forward to – more than look forward to, to actually create and enjoy.