On your mark, get set...

Grow!

It's really spring at our house these days and this time it is no April Fools joke! Lilacs, tulips, primrose, bleeding heart and forget-me-nots, Solomon's seal, peonies, trillium and aspargus. So much to take in and enjoy!





As I've mentioned before, Ken and I have been pining away for a grander farm house for quite some time now - one with higher ceilings, wide plank floors and tall windows. We'd love to live in a house with the character and architectural detail still intact despite renovation and modernization.

Today we went to look at this house.

It's an 1855 Carpenter Gothic style summer "cottage" on almost two acres. It has a dramatic entry with an enormous curved staircase and on either side of the stairs are two large parlors. There's a balcony overlooking the front yard, a porch off the dining room and another lovely secluded screened porch off of the kitchen.

The property has several small out buildings, including a little stone structure that may have been an old smoke house back in the day. We were definitely smitten with the charm and the character.

This is the door knocker!

The house has almost everything we could ever want except for the right location - it's right on a major road and about 30 minutes from the college. Also, it has no distant views or a barn.

I mean really, how can we possibly think of giving up this view?
The reality of moving and making a new space our own has once again renewed our resolve to make our present house exactly what we'd like it to be. Time to appreciate what's right in front of us.

Fixations

The weather has turned on us again. After a three-cat night our backs and necks are a little creaky and sore from sleeping in an over crowded bed. At breakfast I mentioned to Ken that I thought it might be snowing. He immediately insisted it was most definitely NOT snow I saw. I think I may have heard him mumble "You're dreaming, it's impossible, this is April after all". A few minutes later I mused that perhaps it was cherry blossoms or some other kind of tree pollen floating in the air (though by this time I knew I was just fooling myself). Defiantly Ken insisted again that it was most definitely NOT snowing. I gave up for the moment thinking I'll have one more cup of coffee, that'll do the trick - maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me (it could be the pink eye you know).

On our way into town we were serenaded by the music of ice pellets hitting the windshield. We sometimes hear this same sound on the Weather Channel as a sound track to a forecast of "light wintry mix" (as if we needed to hear what was headed our way). I decide to offer one more possibility for the fluffy stuff falling from the sky , "Maybe it's volcanic ash from Iceland". Ken, still not taking the bait offered "It's NOT snow, it's just thick rain (hrrrrumph)".

Okay uncle, I give up. Time to change the subject...

Now you'll just have to trust me on this one, but at exactly 11:05am this morning it looked like we were having a full blown blizzard.
Then 35 minutes later...tah-dah!We now return you to our regularly scheduled spring time weather
already in progress...

My fixation with finding the ideal practice/teaching space has intensified since I discovered that there's an online community of people who work in their sheds - who knew! There is even a national shed week in the U.K. I believe the celebration takes place in July - guess I'd better get cracking on this project so I can participate.

Today I found more inspiration for my ideal design.
This feature is now on the top of my wish list.

A shed with a hot tub...now there's a reason to get up and get practicing!

A Room of My Own

I'm in the home stretch now...just two more weeks of classes left, a few days of performance exams, a little tidying up to do in the studio and then my days will mostly be my own. I can hardly wait!

As summer approaches our list of projects grows. We're up to two solid pages already. Projects range from landscaping the front yard, to staining the deck, along with major demolition and partial wall removal. There's also indoor painting, wallpaper removal and expanding the vegetable garden (including putting in a new fence). At this point I'd like to "lose" this list and reprioritize with a new and improved version that looks something like this:

• Sit and contemplate my belly button for at least an hour every day
• Linger over dinner, leave dishes in the sink, sit on the porch and listen to the peepers til after midnight
• Have friends over for dinner once a week
• See at least one movie a week
• Read a book (or 25 books for that matter)
• Hang out at the Farmer's Market over coffee and take in the music and the breeze off the lake
• Attend those amazing free outdoor concerts on the Commons and at Cornell
• Lose some weight (oh rats, wrong list)
• Take Ken to see the Andy Goldsworthy wall at Storm King
• Make regular trips to NYC and Philly
• Work on my old time music skills and find friends to play with
• Learn how to enjoy practicing again
  

I'm liking this version of the summer better already.

The other thing that has me very excited personally is that we're starting to talk about finding me my very own "room of my own" practice shed/hut/retreat. I've longed for decades for a dedicated practice/teaching space separate from the house. I also want a tree house and a pony, but that's another post all together.

In my mind this space will be cozy, light and airy, a magical place of contemplation and inspiration. In my dreams it looks something like this
Of course a little porch, a sleeping loft and a skylight or two would make it even more perfect. A good wireless connection is a must and now that I think of it, it'll probably need indoor plumbing too. Really I should just stop all of this, I'm setting myself up for major disappointment.

I wonder if this little number is in our budget...

Sadly I'm pretty sure this one is...

We passed on several fantastic looking auctions this week in an effort to try and make it through the ever expanding piles of stuff that need to be prepared for listing or taking to our booth at the antique center. It was like archeology - we found some ancient things we'd purchased a year ago!!

Here's what we're up against (brace yourself, this is just one room's worth)

Two Dollars a Foot

We awoke in a post-auction stupor which was made worse by more cold temps, wind, rain and a forecast with the "S" word in it. It took two cups of coffee before we could pry ourselves off of the couch. Though we were still a little foggy we decided to check out the first flea market of the season at the antique center. The optimistic (or just plain crazy) folks who run the place decided to try opening the market one month earlier than usual this year and we were pretty certain the cold gray weather would keep the crowds away. Boy were we wrong. Turns out the place was just crawling with devoted hardy souls since early morning. The crowd inside was heavy too, though we were a little sad to see that not much had gone away in our booth.

After catching up with Sandy outside and delivering our thank you gift to her for trucking our stuff home from yesterday's auction, we started to make our way around to see the vendors. Too bad we'd just eaten, there was Thai food and it was looking good (next time we'll come hungry). There were the usual kinds of things - furniture, dishes, guy stuff (mostly unidentified rusted stuff) and then there was this guy at the end of the lawn who looked a little like he was selling and possibly even living out of his car. I was just about to walk away from his table when I saw this

Yes, you guessed it, it's a mate to my giant plaster hand!

Let me just say I was way more excited than I should've been and may have even embarrassed Ken who seemed to stepped a wee bit further away from me the more excited I got. And the price - only $2. I definitely would've paid $10! I immediately went over to Sandy to show off my treasure. It was agreed my foot would make a smashing coat hook and even a great door stop. It was even suggested I continue my search for plaster body parts until I'd found enough to make myself my very own statue of David (though I'm not sure all the parts of the male human form are available in plaster).

We finally saw some sunshine in the late afternoon which meant a little garden time for me. The trillium are in bloom in the woods these days.
On a lark we decided to take a quick drive to see a house for sale that sounded interesting. It's an old farm house on two or three acres and it has a lovely front porch and a barn. Though we're not actively looking to move, we've taken to regularly looking at listings just in case we find something with enough room and outbuildings for our growing antiques business. The listing we saw today has a great barn but it sits right on a main road and is a little too noisy for us. Before heading home we pulled over to drool over two incredible Greek revival homes.

When our house grows up it will look like this.

Good Fortune

We just returned from a long day of big fun at one my favorite auctions of all times. It's three sales all going on at once and it is amazing! We left absentee bids for the goodies inside the hall and spent the day at the sale out in the field. I'm struggling to type right now because I've got two very nosy kitties vying to give my hands a good long smell so they can figure out where I've been all day. The auctioneer stands in the bed of a big red pickup truck and calls over the loud speaker while the truck is driven through the aisles in the field filled with barn-fresh treasures.

It's quite a scene. Now before I go on to wax poetic about the bargains, the chicken bbq, the carrot cake and of course the fries, you should understand the true level of our devotion -- it was in the low 40's today, with a stiff wind and it was often spitting snow, sleet and rain and drum roll please...here's the most amazing part - we stayed out in the field from 10am to nearly 5pm. Devotion or stupidity? You be the judge.

One of the nicest things about today was that we got to spend the day with our best antique dealer peeps Sandy and Bill. When it comes to hanging out and buying simultaneously there is potential for things to be a tad bit tricky for us as we all like a lot of the same stuff, but fortunately for us the vibe is always fun, always silly and not the least bit competitive - we are very lucky. I learn so much from these two veteran junkers, uh I mean antiquers (as Ken says "We buy junk, but we sell antiques").

The list of treasures we won today filled up the car and a good portion of Sandy's box truck. We are set for quite a while or at least until the next auction! At dinner after wards Ken's fortune cookie read "You can't have everything...where would you put it all?" Kinda wished we'd had lunch at the Chinese Buffet before the auction.

Here's a recent photo of our booth

Today we also celebrate a very important milestone - April 17th marks the second year anniversary of Franklin's renal cancer diagnosis. No one expected this sweetest of all buff tabbies to be alive today. This is the kitty who mended my shattered heart after the loss of my cats Ricky and Lucy. This shy kitty, who cowers at the mere sound of a man's voice a block away, took one look at Ken and said "Dad" (which I interpreted as "Mom, this guy's worth keeping". Franklin's our boy for sure.

Peter snuggling Franklin

Franklin snuggling Lillie

Franklin just being his sweet self

Franklin enjoying a moose nap

Canned Ham and Free Time

I had the day off from teaching today which means I got to work at one of my other jobs...

We're recovering nicely from a good week of online sales which means lots of packing and shipping but that's okay with me, I'm home where I'd rather be most any day. After morning errands and yet another visit to the doc to deal with a second round of pink eye (the adventure never ends!) we ambled home. On this particular trip we passed a delightful old crusty canned ham camper (wish I had a pic). We often drive this road home and every time (and I do mean every time) we pass this little beauty I say how much I'd like to have me one of my very own. Well today was no different, only that statement went straight into a monologue which somehow segued right into a lengthy list of all the other stuff I've been coveting lately...a better camera, winning the lottery and of course, more free time. That's when it hit me, all I really want is a canned ham and some time off. Sounds like the makings of a country western tune doesn't it?

Today's trip home also included roaming about Ithaca's old commercial industrial park to look at a few commercial properties (more on that at a later date). So we're driving around, windows down, taking in the sights and we see this wonder of wonders

You guessed it, this is a real live mini-golf "prop", Par 3. Ken's response was "Now that's bad". It sits in the front yard of a building named "The Widget Factory". Makes you wonder what a widget really is doesn't it?

We're gearing up to attend a big auction on Saturday that includes an array of delicious salvaged architectural pieces, lots of garden related items and two or three estates worth of goodies. I can hardly wait. I saw this item advertised at an estate auction a few days ago and thought it might look good in my studio. The colors are right and sadly on some days, so is the sentiment.
I suspect my students will fail to see the humor in this...

The Greening Continues

We made it through last night a few degrees shy of a hard frost. I think I just heard one collective sigh of relief from the apple growers down the road. On Monday I discovered one lone asparagus coming up in the garden. It's only three weeks early, but hey I'll take it (and I'll probably eat it too). Almost time to plant peas.

Forsythia is at peak now

Hyacinths are all up and the smell is divine

Daffodils have burst and lilacs are not far behind

Since the weather's turned sunnier and warm Franklin's taken a new, more aggressive approach to letting us know he'd rather be outside

He usually gets his way...

In in the middle a lesson yesterday morning I heard a sure sign of warmer weather

and yes, I waited until the end of the lesson to snap this pic!

Odyssey

It was another glorious early spring day - cloudless sky and almost warm (low 60's). Mid-April begins the "This-is-Why-We-Live-Here" season and today was one of those kinds of days.

Ken and I set out early this morning in search of treasures at one of our favorite auction houses in Marathon, NY. On the trip we drive through Ithaca and then head over hill and dale through the little hamlets of Homer and Virgil. If we'd been on the other side of the lake we'd have made our way through Ovid and Ulysses too.

Describing the trip as scenic is an understatement.

The grass is so green it's almost luminescent.

On the hilltops the trees are already starting to leaf out.

Some serious house envy was stirred up...

I wish...

I wore my poor paper paddle plumb out at the auction as you can see...

Fortunately we made it home in time to catch the best view of all - the sight of Ithaca up on the hill and the sunset on Cayuga Lake.