Daily Notes- February 6th

                                                     

I squared up the edges (sort of) and filled in the slope at the top (I found some 1.5 inch brown and lavender squares in the sewing room)- after deciding that was the top.  I added one button.  An eye to match up with the one across the cloth over on the right edge.  The blues are from the eco dying in undiluted grape juice from my grapes.  The white and black was my lucky find- beginner's luck- of Walmart black which bleaches to gray and then to white years ago- I though all black bleached to white- no. I only have scraps.  And I have actually taken older work apart to salvage the Walmart black.  The beige with marks is - string tied around a rusty tomato soup can plus iron water.

It's been snowing.  And we've been shoveling (I cleared the sidewalks three times already).  But we both ran out of energy and called a neighbor to ask if we could borrow his snowblower to do the apron in front of the double garage.  Big area and hard to manage the snow - you end up shoveling the same snow over and over until you reach an edge..  Being old like we are we just can't do it.  Still no news about the repair of our own snowblower.  Now they think it's a bearing.  I think I spelled that correctly. ( Steve called- they  are pretty sure the snowblower is dead and we'll need to buy a new one- we've all heard that before haven't we?). G will take the news hard but then perk up with the thought of a new machine.

It will be raining soon.  Then it will all freeze overnight. So, it's better for us to have the snow cleared before either of those two things happen. So we can have a large sheet of smooth ice in the morning. Perfect. Instead of an ice covered layer of lumpy snow.

The Painter says he'll be finished by Saturday. He hopes.  He wants to be finished by then.  The fireplace mantle and the two niches and cupboards under them are now primed.  Everything is white except for the Atrium door to my left.  It still has some of the beige/grey trim color. There is no yellow. Now the only untouched room is the kitchen/family room.

I read a book yesterday- Natalie Tan's Book of Luck & Fortune by Roselle Lim.  Chinese restaurant owners in Chinatown, San Francisco.  Present day.  I enjoyed it.  The author's first book.  I always try and read any book that is an author's first. There is magic, cooking, recipes and ghosts. And love.

My desk looks quite nice all cleaned up (ish) and my keyboard is clean.  And my drawer is full of white index cards ready for notes, recipes and book lists.  I have a small self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh here on the desktop---looking at me. Love the swirling blues in the background. I think from looking at the back- it's from an advertisement for Google, Kindle and Roku.

I have a nice cup of hot tea made and I never bring liquids to the computer desk so I am going to have to end this post.  Which is fine because I have 9 emails to read and delete.