Missing my dad

Last weekend I bought a few watercolor brushes and paints, thinking I’d start to play around with learning the techniques. And when I asked about a case for storing brushes, the clerk showed me a matchstick mat with a cotton lining, individual stitched pockets for brushes, and an elastic tie to hold it closed after rolling it up. And I realized the purpose for the rolled up matchstick placemat that we found with Dad's painting things.

I keep trying to remember more about his art and painting, but the memories are faint. How carefully he packed the army day pack with his supplies, everything in its proper place with no room to spare. Using an old drafting board to mount his paper, instead of a new lightweight masonite board. The way he carefully attached a piece of kraft paper to hang down and protect the painting in progress. I wish I’d paid more attention to how he mixed paints, and the colors he kept in his kit, and what brush types and sizes he had. I wish I’d realized how expensive paper and paints and brushes were, and that maybe the reason he didn’t paint more was because the money went to raising his daughters.

It was during my high-school years that he got involved with Allied Arts, helping to set up their art shows, serving on the board, and submitting paintings. Two of the paintings that my sister has, the shore birds and Tipsoo Lake, I remember winning awards at Allied Arts shows. One of the shows was in the brick bank building in Old Burien, and during the evening, one of Dad’s friends drew a pencil portrait of me (which I disliked, because it was pre-contacts and I didn’t think to remove my glasses). I can’t remember what happened to this sketch; hopefully I have it tucked away somewhere.

My strongest memory of my dad painting is sitting with him while he painted the lighthouse on Whidbey Island, which to this day I persist in calling the Fort Casey lighthouse, not the Admiralty Head lighthouse. This painting is hanging in my living room. I also remember spending an afternoon with Dad and Laurie, sketching a scene along a river (can’t remember where). He said we needed to draw the scene first, then we could paint it. I never made it past the drawing stage.

It’s nice to know that the places he painted live on in those paintings, even though we don’t remember where some of them were. The grey farmhouse that hangs in my bedroom and the red building next to the railroad tracks are surely gone forever, but the lighthouse will always be there. The scenery pictures take me to those places whenver I see them. The shore birds, the windswept trees will always be Beachside State Park. I never visit Tipsoo Lake without thinking about that painting and the missing mountain, and how realistic it is... most of the year, the mountain hides behind the clouds.

I know he was proud of each of us, and loved us, but do you think he was ever disappointed that none of us followed in his footsteps and became artists? Between us we learned so many other art forms, and he was right there with us: sewing, stained glass, batik, photography. I think he would have loved quilting... choosing colors and design and making it all come together would have been right up his alley.

I miss him.

The art of watercolor

A definite bonus of my research into the art of watercolor is getting a better understanding of what Dad went through in order to paint. He painted before the days of nylon packs and lightweight easels, all the multitude of handy bags and carrying straps to make things easier. And his preference for painting out of doors involved a lot of gear: the drafting board, the china plate for mixing paints, the canteen of water. Plus his paints, brushes, towels, paper towels, a folding stool. Everything lugged miles down the beach, or up and down steep hills to get to the perfect spot. I have memories of watching him carefully pack everything into a small canvas pack, each piece in its designated spot with not a bit of space left over.

I have the drafting board, the canvas pack, the army canteen, the stool, the small metal storage box, and the heavy divided plate from Seattle College, before it became Seattle University. The two small brushes didn’t survive the years, but one was a sable brush and must have been treasured. I also have a china palette made for the home studio, a monogrammed weight used to keep his sketches from blowing away, a rectangular plate with round depressions to hold a squeeze of paint, and shallow oblong depressions for mixing. It's crazed and stained. His collection of paints is the most precious to me, because it tells me what colors he preferred to use for his landscape work. Surprisingly, most of the paints are still pliable and could be used.

To my recollection, he never painted at home. Our small house was too small, perhaps... and once there were three small girls running around, there was no safe haven for an artist.

Orangette

I’m reading the best book, by Northwest author Molly Wizenberg. It's called "A Homemade Life," and it's the title that grabbed my attention as I walked into my neighborhood library. The author also has a blog, called Orangette, which has become a daily read (and is bookmarked here on my own blog).

The book is a funny memoir interspersed with recipes, and I hadn't even finished reading it when I bought my own copy (and a couple more for gifts). The book lives on the table next to my bed, and I read a chapter every night before turning out the light. I can hardly wait to try out some of the recipes. Don't these sound scrumptous?

• Dutch Baby pancakes with lemon and sugar
• Roasted eggplant ratatouille
• Blueberry-raspberry pound cake (also good with blackberries)
• Coconut macaroons with chocolate ganache
• Slow-roasted tomato pesto

I do believe my mouth is watering...

Keeping up with blackberries… or trying to

I'm picking blackberries daily right now. They're later than usual, and it's a bumper crop.

From the latest batch I made a free-form pie sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. It was a bit juicy, so it needs modification (maybe more cornstarch in with the berries). Glad I baked the pie inside a ceramic pie plate and not on a cookie sheet as recommended! I scooped servings into bowls and topped each with vanilla bean ice cream... yummy.

The berries are amazing this year. For once we didn’t get a lot of rain, so the fruit is big and dense and has lots of flavor. I made a pie last weekend, and will make another one tonight (probably will freeze it). I’d like to pick enough to freeze several pie’s worth, so we can have blackberry pie this winter.

This afternoon I picked more blackberries and found yet another thing I love about my new refrigerator: the lower pull-out baskets in the freezer are the perfect size to hold cookie sheets full of berries for freezing. How cool is that?

I watered plants, sprayed the volunteer blackberries with Roundup, and scoped out the new “berry” bed next to the chicken coop. I’ll have lots of room for the blueberries, the gooseberry, and the rhubarb with room to spare. Maybe I’ll reserve a long strip next to the coop for raspberries… I’ll have a trellis built by next spring when I can dig plants at Laurie’s.

Blond cats

James is our big American Shorthair cat, and contrary to what you may think, James is a girl cat. When James wandered into our lives, I was listening to the country singer, Jamie O'Neill. Since both had hair with lots of shades of blond, I named our new cat Jamie. It was inevitably shortened to James, but she also answers to Blondie to or Blond Cat.

As long as you rub her tummy when she asks, this cat is content. Here she is, interrupting a session of folding clothes by putting herself smack in the middle, and making sure she's the center of attention. Cats do this so very well...

My favorite farm stand

If you're ever in Kent, be sure to visit Carpenito Bros. It's by far my favorite flower & produce market. Just drive north on Central until you see small mountains of fresh bark, and you'll know you're in the right spot.

In the spring, the place is packed with nursery starts of flowers and vegetables and herbs. In summer, it transitions to a fresh produce market. Most of the fresh veggies come from their own farm, south of town. The place is packed most days, but especially in August when the fresh corn arrives from the farm. They haul it through town on tractor-pulled trailers (John Deere, of course!), which is a sight to see.

My favorite time is the transition zone between the end of flower season and when the fruits & vegetables start to arrive. The hanging planters are spectacular.
















I took my sister and brother-in-law there today. We were stocking up for their visit, but first we spent a half hour walking around the flower side of the market.

At least it wasn't a zip line…

It took a couple of days to be good and incapacitated, but once I was and begged off work, I learned I wasn't alone.

I got some chores done on Saturday, then pulled the same muscle in my back that I did last weekend. Bummer. It twinged the rest of the day, but no real bad pain; still I took it easy. Sunday, the big chore was mowing the grass in the morning. It was a gorgeous day, dead quiet in the neighborhood, and the mowing went pretty well. I didn’t prune the fencelines, so had to do some creative ducking. That and 2.5 hours of bouncing over the rough lawn (especially the areas that used to be horse pasture), and I was crippled when I finally finished. The grass looks really good, though! I took a long hot shower, then met the Mayer clan for lunch at Anthony's, then sat with the heating pad in the evening.

On Monday, the blasted back was even worse. It was interesting even getting out of bed, and pulling on clothes wiped me out and sent me to the sofa and the heating pad turned on high. Getting to work was not even an option. Thank goodness I have a boss with chronic recurring back pain; he’ll understand. So I sent off a message, and as I expected, Sean replied in favor of staying home... with a side note that I found highly entertaining:  "Oh man, that sucks… I know all about back pain. You and Glenn, jeez... he is also out today due to a bad back & neck, although it sounds like his was self-induced thinking he was 20 years younger and doing a ‘zip line’!"

A zip line?! It sounds like Glenn had a lot more fun than me, right up until the point he hurt his back, that is!

Books for a country farmhouse (or cabin)

My day-to-day life always seems to include researching something. Sometimes it’s because I want to learn more; sometimes I’m looking for ideas to use in my own life (or house or cabin). This list was made because of my plans to work on the interior design of our cabin, and is a blend of Cottage, Lodge, and Adirondack style.

Our county-wide library system (which in 2011 was declared to be the busiest & the biggest in the country), is an amazing resource for just about anything you want to research. With a little help from the Amazon "look inside" feature, I narrowed my list to these titles, and reserved them from the library. A few, like the Arts & Crafts Cabin, I've read before. This time I may add a couple of titles to the home library.

• Aged To Perfection: Adding Rustic Charm To Your Modern Home… (Linsley)
• Arts & Crafts Cabin (Obomsawin)
• Cabin Fever: Rustic Style Comes Home (Carley)
• The Cabin: Inspiration for the Classic American Getaway (Mulfinger)
• Cabinology: A Handbook To Your Private Hideaway (Mulfinger)
• Cottage: America’s Favorite Home Inside and Out (Connolly)
• Cottage Style: Ideas & Projects For Your World (Farris)
• Cottages: The New Style (Trulove)
• Easy Cottage Style: Comfortable Interiors For Country Living (Bauwens)
• Farmhouse Book: Tradition, Style, and Experience (Larkin)
• Found Style: Vintage Ideas For Modern Living (Butler)
• New Cottage Style: Decorating Ideas For Casual, Comfortable, Living
• New Country Style (Grigg)
• Rustic Revisited: Innovative Design For Cabin, Camp, and Lodge (O’leary)
• Shortcuts To Decorating Country Style (Atkins)

I spent a couple of weeks going through this big stack of books, enjoying the eclectic mix of styles, and seeing how others have incorporated country elements into both old and modern homes and cabins. When I was through, I bought Arts & Crafts Cabin and Cottage Style. But there are a couple of others that I'll add to the library, when we're ready to tackle some bigger remodeling jobs (one day), or when it's time to build our retirement home.

Rustic lighting for a lakeside cabin

Inspired by our visit to our friend's cabin, today I went looking for decorating ideas that would work with our own lakeside cabin. On the Cabela's website, I found the perfect lamps: they’re the same style as the porch lights we installed above the front and back doors. These Grand River Lodge lamps come in three styles: table, floor, and pendant.

For some time now, I’ve been mentally rearranging the furniture in the great room (if you can use that term for a wide-open but small cabin layout). There's a cozy area in front of the woodstove where I keep the Adirondack chairs, and have often thought that the area would be perfect for a cozy upholstered chair and a floor lamp. If I swap the fridge and shelf unit, it would work perfectly. I love sitting there on cold days; so do the kitties. If we move the futon to the second floor, we can make a cozy sitting area there (and an extra bed), and the Adirondack chairs would be a great addition to the living room.

After much e-mail conversation about lamps, we decided to get four table lamps, two for the living room and two for our bedside tables. And we'll get a pair of pendant lamps to hang over the 1950's formica table; Dave will need to do some wiring but says it will be easy to do. Finally, we'll be able to get rid of the ugly fluorescent fixture that hangs there now.

Easy weed control

A satisfying weekend, digging in the dirt (once it warmed up). On Friday, I finished my new corner sitting area: hauled away the branches, leveled the dirt and raked it into the low corner, dumped ant bait on the burgeoning ant hill… grrr.

To control weeds, I used a technique that also works great for establishing new flower beds on top of a patch of lawn: cover the area with layers of cardboard, stake them in place (or hold down with rocks), and top with a thick layer of bark. I've been bringing home boxes from work the past couple of months; nice to have a free source of materials. I used the U-shape pins sold with landscape fabric to hold them in place so they won’t slide around, then sprayed the cardboard with water. This helps them start to break down. It took the 8 bags of bark I bought this week, plus a 9th, to cover the cardboard.

The corner is now finished, and I love the way it looks. I’ll look for a small side table to go between the Adirondack chairs, something big enough to hold a lamp and glasses. I can see myself sitting out here in the evening, reading and sipping a glass of wine, relaxing after a day at work. And it will be a perfect spot for an intimate talk with a friend, a place to escape a noisy party on the patio.

The other task for Friday was digging the lemon balm out of the last 1/3 of the flowerbed, and planted hollyhocks in about half the bed. Besides the salmon pink double that Marion gave me, I also have a dark red/black single, plus rose red and white (both double). Enough to fill the whole bed, and by next year, it should be a solid hedge of hollyhocks.
On Saturday, I finished my other major chore in the yard today: scraping up the former bark pile that became a small garden, right on top of the concrete parking pad! Between the lemon balm, pasture daisies, and a few other perennials. I had quite the little volunteer garden growing there, but it was time to reclaim my parking spot!

I spread half the rich, loamy soil in the flower border, then planted the rest of the hollyhocks, fertilized them, and spread bark, then hosed the dirt off the driveway. I decided to leave one small lemon balm plant at the end of the border, but will chop the roots occasionally to keep it under control. It’s fragrant, and makes a great filler for flower arrangements.