Rock Shop

Part of the fun of building the terrace is a trip to the quarry. Yay! The piles of sand, gravel, rock, slag and slurry are staggeringly high and it's like visiting the moon or Mars. The first time I went to this quarry with Bob (maybe when we were constructing the chimney? my studio?) I was intimidated by the vast barren heaps and the gigantic equipment that barrels by at what seems like a million miles an hour. Everyone is on an important mission, dwarfed by their humongous Tonka toys.

They're so purposeful and all lined up to be filled with mammoth amounts of pre-mixed concrete. Our project seems so puny in comparison. (And here's a fun fact: the gravel we're buying is absurdly cheap. An entire ton of that crushed stone we got to start the terrace was only $15. The stuff we bought today was only $25 a ton. But to get it delivered was $305! Thank goodness we have the trusty red pick up truck.) The clouds of dust are evidence of just how fast they're going.

Here's a shot of the mountain of rock that they're busily reducing to the 1/2 inch gravel like the stuff we're buying. It looks like the Grand Canyon (or again, the moon) and there are monster trucks racing up and down this very steep access road. It all seems somewhat precarious.

Here's Bob bravely facing down the giant bucket loader that is a big as our truck. These guys are pretty masterful about loading in just the amount you want. I guess they could really crush the truck beneath a pile of rubble if they wanted to. But loaded up, we safely departed and began the other fun- of shoveling off all that gravel back home...


 

Can't Stop Diggin' It

Here's an action shot from my exciting "Digging Cam". Yup! We're at it again... expanding that outdoor seating area. You will remember that as a quick fix for the garden tour, we demolished our sadly rotting "deck" and put down gravel. It looked lovely, but it was but a temporary stop along the way to true, full house-width terrace...

So I spent a pleasant afternoon carting away wheel barrows and wheelbarrows worth of dirt. (And yes, there was only one of me but three wheelbarrows. I was anticipating some friendly gnomes or dwarves to come along and help me out.) Some of the soil went to fill in a sizeable hole that Robin (who was VERY helpful during the Big Dig) had excavated beneath the picnic table. Some went to a mighty depression along side the shady area. And some simply became a pile of dirt. You never know when you'll need extra dirt! (Like when Robin re-excavates that hole...)

(The beginning of the pile of dirt, out past the horse barn.) And there's always plenty of rocks! These will probably go behind Bob's studio. Of course, none of them are flat and usable for the actual terrace; most are just handy potato sized stones, good for not much of anything.

Another live action digging photo! Isn't this exciting? I know I've mentioned before than I really like to dig in the dirt. It's truly one of my favorite mindless exercises. I guess that makes me pretty luck today as I dug away to my heart's content. By the late afternoon, it was well underway.

It needs to be deeper but I got a good start and all the sod is removed. We need more gravel and concrete, but we have the rocks for the edge and all kinds of ideas for the central pattern. I did this preparation so that Bob and I can do the construction this weekend.

And all day long, I had this bit of doggerel looping through my head. I believe it is from Vonnegut's "Slaughter House Five" (Could be re-attributing...)

 "Me and Yuri work in mine-
Holy shit! We have good time!
Every Friday we get paid-
Holy shit! No work next day!"

That just about sums it up.

Our Little Bit of Scotland

The above dramatization occurred at work one day while describing to a co-worker how I will never retire. I maintain I will simply be found collapsed and deceased on the job. He captured the moment for posterity*.
A month or so ago, Bob and I began toying with the notion of visiting Scotland, as the ticket prices advertised by Norwegian Airlines from our local airport were very enticing. We haven't been on a significant trip- or even out of the country- in a very long time and our passports are up to date and why not Scotland? We looked at videos of perky travelers exploring the offerings of Edinburgh and the Scottish countryside, sampling haggis and whisky. We viewed hotel accommodations...
But wait! It came to me at work (perhaps while demonstrating "dying in my traces" like Boxer in "Animal Farm") that we should spend our money and time concentrating on that which would have a lasting, life-long effect. We should spend our time and money traveling to New York as we both truly wish to make a mark, leave our stamp upon the Art World!
So, newly reinvigorated and inspired, we sped off to NYC on Saturday and spent the day perusing galleries and the requisite ten million faces. (I mean, New York is nothing if not full of faces.) We saw the good, the bad and (dare I say it?) the less than sublime. But we went! And we saw! And it was (as always) oddly transfixing and transformative and exhausting. We're tired today.
However, the Lower East Side is (and has been for a few years) the new-er area to see art. It smells a bit like fish (occasionally) as this is Chinatown before Art Land, but who cares when culture (Kulture!) calls?
We had several "on trend" moments when it became apparent that scumbled, pealed back paper eroded "archeological" pieces were favored. And painting. Yes, painting is still "having a (big) moment". And space men? It's a decent season for the artist that pixel-ates or likes space alien/robot heads. (A few were actually okay.) What else... drawings that were very detailed and had a fantasy element seemed worth looking at. Some want to call this "outsider" but hell: what's an insider artist? And then we met a woman running a gallery that (I swear) was like eight feet square, featuring an obsessive artist coloring in plywood carved anal sculptures. Heavens help us...
And then we celebrated Bob's birthday ( five months late) at an Indian restaurant. Not just any one! It is a restaurant that we've been going to for years. I swear they save us a front row table, under the most amazing strobe-lit disco ball, with ever-lower red hot pepper themed Xmas lights- what a treat! The food was wonderful, the company exclusive and charming... we had a really good time.
And now we're tired but happy. I feel really good about our decision to "stay put" and go to NYC more frequently. We need to get that art career train rolling...

photo credit: Antony Corso

Legs 'n' Leaves Etc.

I've been digging out my heavier tights and stockings because (bloody hell!) it's getting colder. I keep reflecting on how big this (crazy) country is, as there's lovely (albeit chilly) weather here and a huge hurricane ripping a tropical path of destruction there. Thank goodness that everyone I know that has some association with Florida is somewhere else, safe. I guess people like the idea of living in warm, sunny, beautiful sunset laden beach-y areas but Climate Change has mangled that equation.
For one reason or another- including becoming somewhat weary of the company of my fellow human beings, I haven't even felt like blogging recently. We were so busy with the garden tour, parties, work, cleaning up Mommy's house that I needed a break and to get into my studio and rest. (And I need to resolve my dilemma of the death of my digital camera. I really don't want to use a phone...)But I'm back! No more shirking my blog-a-tory responsibilites!

And speaking of tropicality, take a look at what we grew. Those leaves are truly gigantic. This is the first time I grew this particular variety of elephant ears and they are pretty amazing. Here's a shot to give a sense of scale:

I got these bulbs (marked down and really cheap) at Home Depot. They sat for weeks in this container and I was feared they had rotted and died. But as soon as the weather got really warm, a little green nose appeared and then they sprouted extravagantly. I will attempt to winter the bulbs over; some varieties have been easy (cannas, dahlias, a couple of elephant ears) some trickier (the elephant ears that require even moisture, striped cannas etc.).

See? We're enjoying the last of the summer! We were picking blueberries this morning- yes! we're still picking "Elliot" a remarkable variety- and our fingers were freezing. I told Bob I'd help him finish up after I take my walk and get warm. And peaches! We've had a bumper crop of delicious spicy sweet peaches. And beans, and tomatoes and peppers. It's been a great gardening year and I hate to see it go. But at least we're not awaiting a Category 4 or 5 storm... just snow.