let the cleaning begin

So, I think I've mentioned before that there's going to be a wedding here in Maberga in September.  Yup, my cousin Bump is going to get hitched right here in my back yard.  Well, I'm speaking figuratively there because we don't really have a back yard.  Bump and Doug are getting married up at the Maberga church, which is, sort of my back yard.  And, well, if we are going to get technical here, they are just getting married NEAR the church since the church is catholic, the wedding is not, blah blah...

Anyway... wedding.  here.  boat loads (actually plane loads) of family members coming.  plane loads of family members seeing Maberga for the first and, not to be pessimistic but realistic, probably the ONLY time.

Time for David and I to put on the famous italian "bella figura" if there every was one.

Baby, get your spit on...we got some cleanin' up to do.

Here's the list posted to the fridge.

Yep.  One done already.  Nothing like having a clean shed.

I'm sure that Bump and Doug will want to have some portraits taken in there on their big day...phew, good thing that job is done already!

Also in anticipation of a bunch of big-car-big-roaded Americans coming, someone built a guard rail on one of curves coming to our house.  Look!

What?  You don't see it?  Here, look again..

Yep.  Those are some small ass baby trees that will, in about 100 years, stop a car from rolling off the side of the mountain.  'Course by then, people will just teleport up and down the mountain, but it was really a nice thought.

Snow Day 2013

Yeah, ok, really snow dayS, since I took two of 'em.  I mean, there has been snow here in Maberga for two days, I didn't decide that.  (for the record there was a lot more snow that is reflected in my photos here.)    What I did decide was to give them both the title "Snow Day".  For me a snow day is not a day in which there is snow. Well, there can be snow but it's not a requirement.  It actually has nothing to do with the weather (though, can frequently be induced by the weather).  A snow day is a state of mind. It's a day when you have to cancel everything you had planned and, well, do whatever you want. I love those days. In fact, I wrote a poem about them because I love them so much.

An ode to the Snow Day

I love you, Snow Day.
You are nothing but fun and play.
A whole free day.
Extra time.
So have another glass of wime.
And make another rhyme.
I love you, Snow Day.



Yeah, ok.  I'll stick to knitting and jewelry.

Oh, and papier mache. 

May I please present....Jalieia

 Jalieia stands about 2 feet tall and very proud.  She's named after a little girl I used to know who also stood quite tall.  Whilst her hair and dress do her namesake justice, her face doesn't yet.  David pointed out to me that she has a very tentative expression in her barely visible features which, naturally, is a direct result of my tentativeness in painting her barely visible features.  She's a bold girl and she'll get a bold face...just as soon as I find some bold courage to paint it.  It's an intimidating thing giving a child a face. 


And do stay tuned to meet her sisters one day soon...

 

PS.  I was actually sober when I wrote that poem.  Maybe I needn't have mentioned that.

PSS.  If you had wings and the ability to fly would WALK in this?

 

if it walks like a duck....

So I blew up this balloon the other day.  Balloons make nice starters for papier mache.  Anyway, I had this balloon and I thought, "damn if that isn't a blow fish.  I'm going to papier mache a nice blow fish from this balloon."

So I added layers and layers of paper and paste to the balloon until the point came when I had to decide what this fish was going to do when it grew up.  I mean, was it going to hang, or stand, or just kind of flop on its side on a table?  Hanging requires a hook, standing requires a stand, and flopping, well, doesn't require anything.  Given that this dude is probably going to be doing whatever it is he does in MY house, no hanging will be happening.  And flopping, well, I want more for him than flopping.  So stand he will do.  Also, I thought it would be fun to have a fish with legs.

So the little guy got some legs.  Damn if those legs weren't added directly in the center of my fish's belly.  Seemed a logical place to put the legs, that is if the person adding the legs didn't take into consideration the weight of the tail versus the weight of the nose, which I hadn't.  Little guy was going to be a perpetual sitter unless he grew some feet.

Still thinking that he was a lovely fish, I added some fish shaped feet.  I don't mean that they were feet the shape that fish have...that's stupid because fish don't have feet.  I mean, I made the feet in the shape of little fish.  Actually, relatively speaking, they are rather large fish since they need to hold up a heavy tail.

So now my fish looks like this.
 
He's actually a bird, isn't he? 

This reminds me of a little girl I once knew.  She just a slight waif of a thing but she was 10 feet tall on the inside.  She was a little bossy, rather opinionated and definitely had the gift for gab. Oh, and she was always right. This little gal's father was convinced that she would be a lawyer when she grew up.  I mean, if it walks like a duck...  But then the little girl did some living and, shall we say, grew some legs and a pair of big feet.  Damn if that little lawyer didn't grow up to be an artist.

You just never know....

Completely unrelated to anything thus written...this guy now sleeps with us every night.

Well, not WITH us but rather in the bathroom.  He comes in sometime after dark and is always gone by first moring pee.  Kind of makes one wonder how he gets in.  Also kind of makes one wonder how many other creatures spend the night indoors.

You just never know...