snippets from a sunday afternoon

i saved the link to this guardian piece, nothing prepares you for being the daughter of ageing parents a few weeks ago. but it took me awhile to bring myself to read it. there are surely a multitude of reasons why i would avoid reading it. guilt over not talking to my mom often enough. guilt that i'm so far away and all of the burden falls on my sister. sorrow over my dad's death. dread that the article would hit a little too close to home. the realization that my one remaining parent's ageing is matched by my own. the inevitability of it all. and reading it at last this morning was all of that and more, what with it being a tale of the horrors of modern hospital care as well. thankfully, we didn't experience that with dad's short hospitalization, the room was private, the personnel quiet and kind and very responsive to our needs. but it is a question for all of us...what kind of life do we want to live, all the way to the end of it? and will the world we've created for ourselves allow it?

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there's a teeny tiny little frog on the floor. he's admiring the chickens and fox on the kitchen island. we're so glad we did this. a friend of ours is an artist and we asked her to paint chickens on our kitchen island as a feature. when she was almost finished, we asked if it wouldn't be fun to include a fox as well. and it made all of the difference! all of the chickens are done from photos of our own that we've had over the years. well, until the fox took them all.  and the fox, it's ours too, from one of my photos of it a couple of summers ago when it was hanging around. we haven't seen it at close range this year, tho' i did see it at the end of the pasture the other day. i'm not sure it's that same one or if it's a different one. but i'm so pleased with the version christina painted - it has precisely the right amount of mischief.

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facebook is once again bringing out the worst passive aggressive tendencies in me. or at least thoughts of them. it's apparently a thing at the moment, among the more religious set, to have one line posts extolling the virtues of god. things like, "god is good." "god is real." and other fantasies. and it's making me want to post things like, "god is fiction." "god was made up by a bunch of old white guys who wanted to secure their power." or maybe something like, "odin rocks." "thor is the man." but to be honest, i don't want to be involved at all. i don't want to be subjected to such nonsense and i don't really want to participate in it. i don't want to feel passive aggressive. i don't mind what others believe, i just think that belief is something private that shouldn't be shoved in everyone else's face on facebook or billboards or anywhere else. can't we all just quietly believe what we believe?

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what are you binge watching these days? me, i'm watching masters of sex, the drama based on the lives of masters and johnson and their pioneering study of sexuality. i'm well into season 2 and already dreading when i run out of episodes. husband and i also rewatching battlestar galactica. speaking of religion, husband would join a church of battlestar galactica if it existed. he's convinced that adama is god. to the point where i could imagine him saying "adama dammit" under his breath if he hits his thumb with a hammer. it is a well-written and rather deep series and it does hold up to a second, in-depth watching.

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we made it through our first childless week. the child loves her new school, but all that she was apparently missing was snacks, so we delivered some on friday evening and husband did a quick fix of her bicycle. it is quieter around here, but i can't say that we're in mourning over it. it just continues to feel right that she's taken the next step on her journey to growing up. and us? despite many people asking about it, we haven't been running around the house naked. there were a few sunny days this week, but frankly it's never really warm enough for that. 

100 happy days :: day 99

the final coat of red paint on the kitchen floor.

another step in our long process.

we're getting there, slowly but surely.

100 happy days :: day 81

these are a selection of the little quotes and drawings i'm working on in the new kitchen. they will line the baseboards and have meaning for us in various ways...either because they are favorite sayings, or were said by our respective fathers or because they amuse us in some way. i've limited the palette to only black, red and a few gold or silver accents here and there, which has been both restrictive and a good thing. i love how they're turning out.

the cool kitchen :: an update on the progress

great strides have been made in the kitchen since our last update. i've shown you this red door before, but now it's hung up and the chalkboard has been painted next to it. i just love it!!

husband carefully crafted this 4 meter long kitchen island and he's putting it in place before the final coat of paint goes onto the floor. it's magnificent. and it's made from scrap wood from the harbor, so it's also upcycled. he's incorporated some very fine details. he's getting pretty good at this working with wood thing.

the sink, the dishwasher and the stovetop will go into this and leave plenty of counter space for rolling out cookies and such.

fitting in the panels. husband actually chose to use MDF for a very smooth surface, as we're going to have them painted with whimsical chicken art by an artist friend.

and the painting of the chickens has begun. we had a lot of fun, laughing and talking and listening to music. people should really consider having custom art done in their homes more often. our friend loves the project and we love having something very special. and it might not be as expensive as you might think.

here's where it stood at the end of the first day of work. it will probably take a couple of weeks to be finalized, but this is an ongoing project and we're not in a hurry.

as for me, i'm writing quotes and drawing little doodles on the baseboards that line the room. husband wanted to have those in place before he does the final coat on the floor. he's also given the floor a treatment of filler, as there were many little bitty holes showing up in the floor, despite 5 coats of epoxy paint, so that's why it looks dusty all of a sudden.

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rem koolhaas' cool thoughts on architecture

and more specifically the hermitage in st. petersburg.

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jill lepore takes down disruptive innovation.

it's so good to see someone taking on trendy business theories 

(tho' whether it's still trendy after 20 years is debatable).

and clay christensen, originator of the innovator's dilemma, answers back

(with a bit of the wizard of oz's "don't look at the man behind the curtain" air about him).

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and now on a lighter note...this cute little video is clever and spot-on.
(if websites started dating.)

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overheard at whole foods is my current favorite FB page.

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have you seen the little post i wrote over at #stuckinplastic?

100 happy days :: day 59

i know the red door was already featured here in my 100 happy days project, but i couldn't resist sharing it again, now that's hung up where it belongs. and there's an area of chalkboard right next to it, so i can write the menu or quotes or whatever i want on the wall right next to it. it just couldn't look any better, unless maybe once husband attaches that big black knob that's there on the stool. it's so perfect, matte black, like the chalkboard. so much happy.

100 happy days :: day 50

we painted our concrete kitchen floor red.
could there be anything bolder? or happier?
i think not.

and my happiness project is now halfway!

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need to do some weekend getaways to visit these streets.

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how do others see you?

100 happy days :: day 30

this red door to my pantry. it matches my red kitchen-aid. i know this because i took the mixer to the paint store.

100 happy days :: day 24

slow but steady progress on the new kitchen. that ceiling looks just awesome. husband has done a great job. the windows are about to be ordered as well, so soon we will have a big leap forward in progress. hard to believe this was once a pig stall.

progress on the kitchen project

it's been a long time since i showed you any progress on our kitchen-to-be. we've had a real bricklayer here for the past two days and now it seems like there's really been a lot of progress, so i had to share some snaps. this is one of those interminable projects because we do it as we have money for it and husband is doing much of it himself (all those beautiful wood beams you see are him). but it feels like things are finally moving in the right direction. there's heat in the floor, so husband has worked faithfully all winter and has done a beautiful job with the wood. tho' he bricked up a bit in our brewery, he's not really a bricklayer, so we hired one in. it only took him two days to brick the whole thing and man does it look great! it's looking less and less like a pig stall and more and more like a home. and husband is pleased because he says it's starting to match the picture of it he has in his head.

when i am old i shall have a yellow pantry door

the pantry portion of my new kitchen is soon ready to start putting all of those cordials i've been making on shelves. husband sourced some cool old doors for the kitchen and i'm painting the one for the pantry a bright, sunny yellow. it will be on a wall that's otherwise painted with black chalkboard paint, so i think it's going to look really cool. it's going to be a sliding door, a bit like this pin. the other doors in the kitchen will also be painted bright, wow colors. i took my kitchen-aid mixer down to the paint shop and had her mix up a red to match for the door into the laundry room. i've yet to decide the other two. 

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honestly, i love that the russians granted asylum to snowden.

the guy should be given a medal for the unlawful acts he's exposed. 

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a group of bloggy friends is going to take food & culture

 and a writing course from the free online catalog available from MIT. 

if you'd like to join us, click this:

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i loved this piece on the daily routines of 12 writers.

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let's do this to all the walmarts.

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read about the awesomeness of the farm where we got our molly cat last summer.
it makes me sad that no one in this country thinks like that.

future kitchen progress

it seemed like time for a little kitchen project update. when i first showed this to you back in march, it looked pretty impossible that it would ever be cleared of all of the old cement flooring, pig bones and 2800+ buckets (husband didn't count, but he calculated) of dirt. but this weekend, husband hauled out the last bucketful and it's now ready for the next stage - which is fixing the foundation and preparing the flooring (structure, insulation, heat elements, pouring of cement).

march 18

march 25

april 1

april 8

april 9

april 15

april 15

i find it quite unreal that husband did all of this by hand and mostly by himself. i kept him supplied in coffee, various cakes and lunches. it was impossible to get a machine in any of the openings to do it with a small digging machine, so it had to be done completely by hand. pretty amazing, don't you think?

where all that dirt and rubble went.

husband hauled trailerload after trailerload down to our lake, where he built a little road (not shown) and this small peninsula, from which we'll build a little dock to tie up our little boat and generally from which to enjoy the lake.

project pizza oven

and because he can never stop, on sunday, he worked all day on bricking up the pizza oven and foundation for a little smokehouse so that when we get our pigs and it's time to make sausages and bacon, we'll be able to pop them in there to smoke.

project smokehouse

i hope also to be able to use the smokehouse, without smoke, to dehydrate fruit, veggies and herbs.

under the old oak tree

this is placed out the door of the new kitchen and will eventually be a large patio area. there will also be a small sauna. that's something we wanted at the old house, but didn't get to because we decided to move. the pizza oven is also a long-desired feature and it's nice to see it starting to happen. just out of this shot on the lefthand side is a gorgeous old, majestic oak tree. it's gonna be great!