Zen Cat Art

Lobster...

I was pretty sick last week.  Strike that, it was NOT pretty.  I was either loosing fluids or sleeping for 2 days and mostly horizontal for the rest of the week.  It was actually scary on Monday and Phil stayed home from teaching to look after me for two days.  Just staying hydrated was a chore (thank heaven for Ginger Ale).  However, by Saturday I thought I would go a little stir crazy with the inactivity and we kept our original plans to go to our friends house by the shore.  After a bit of lunch and two hour nap to recover from the trip I was ready for the evening's activity.  Lobster...

What a feast!  Thanks, Robin & Rick!!

Mother's Day...

Aren't these beautiful flowers?  A gift from Phil.  I had never seen them before and the photo doesn't really do them justice.  When the light is behind them in the morning they glow a magnificent orange.

From my kids.  Chocolate covered strawberries.  Yum!  Each strawberry is the size of a golf ball and there has to be a small chocolate bar's worth of chocolate on each one.  Since I love dark chocolate they were my favorite.  We shared them with Phil's parents and they were a big hit.

Phil and his parents, Helen and Bob.  It was a good visit.  They had a singer, guitar player and his son playing some of the old songs.  He was pretty good - although his comments that it was such a nice day that he might go down to the beach later seemed a bit unkind to me since for the most part beach days were a thing of the past for the residents in the nursing home.

A little smoked salmon for breakfast, a call from my kids and a visit from friends...

Rick, our favorite Reverend.  That spectacular hat is a bag that I made with my hand painted fabric.  Who knew it would look so good as a hat.  It also makes a lovely Egyptian breast plate.  There were a few other uses contemplated but ah...maybe we won't mention them here.

It was a fun day.  Now I just have to figure out how to spend that Amazon qift certificate I got from the kitties. 

Oil Burners and the mystery of mechanics

Way back in the 1950s when my parents bought a Levitt house on Long Island my father, who was a mechanic, took a course in fixing oil burners.  The first night of the class, the teacher told a joke.  He said that there was a guy who jumped out of an airplane and found out on the way down that his parachute didn't work.  Pretty soon he saw a guy coming up from the ground toward him.  As the guy got near he yelled out, "Know anything about parachutes?"  As the guy from the ground whizzed past him he yelled back, "No.  Know anything about oil burners?"  

So pretty much since then I have left oil burners to the experts.  Dad is not around now but I some mechanical guys in my life who and be consulted when needed.  Since some of them (Richard) have moved to Florida, I'm resorting to a blog consultation.  Here goes...

All this is attached to the oil burner as you probably know (she said hopefully).  Water is dripping out of the opening that is labeled #1.  I think it is is the overflow "vent."  The number 2 is pointing to a little handle that will toggle back and forth.  When I toggle it the right a bit of air comes out of the opening - #1.  I left it open for a bit until it seemed like the air had stopped and nothing was happening.  Number three has an arrow that points to the left and the handle (#2) as been left in that position.  Number 4 - for clarification has "j flow" written on it in black magic marker.  The pipe itself does not figure into the overflow (or whatever the stuff in the foreground is called). 

It has dripped periodically, but not a lot and I put a 5 gal bucket underneath and mostly it never had more than a half inch of water.  Today the bucket was full and some water was on the floor.
Got any ideas? 

Wednesday Update:  There is no water in the bucket.  Either moving the toggle did something, left some pressure off (would have been slight) or the Smith's (my Dad) Law of Mystery Mechanics is in operation.  Pop's Law states that if you don't know what is wrong with something, take it apart.  If you can't see what is wrong with any of the parts, just put them back together and see what happens.  Sometimes, for no obvious reason that fixes it and it works again.   Of course, he never said it was magic.  He just shrugged his shoulders and smiled.  But I know better. 

2011 - Year in Review

It was quite a year!  January was snow, snow and more snow!

In February I lost my Aunt Ruth who was like a second mother to me.  In other parts of the world so many were lost.  We watched the news as Egyptian President Mubarak resigned after wide spread public protests.  Richard Engel's broadcasts became part of our daily lives.  As they speculated about where Libya would follow, oil prices rose 20 percent and the price of gas became and issue.  It was the first time in my life that I considered how much it would cost to go anywhere. We still kept warm.

And had Valentine's Day.

In March everyone watched in horror as a 9.1 magnitude earthquake created a giant tsunami that swept the coast of Japan killing thousands and causing damage to a nuclear power plant - a nuclear disaster that is still being assessed and will reach far into the future.  Civil War in Libya was inevitable. Richard Engel broadcast from Libya and the news media tried to decide how it would spell Gudaffi. I was working on a new repair commission.  A cotton crazy style quilt from the 1900s - maybe as late as the 20's but I think not.

And, March 20th, (today my grief still papable) I lost my Katie.  The best cat in the whole world.

In April the whole world watched the Royal Wedding of Katherine and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. We were welded to the set, we needed some good news!  I got up at 4 am to see the pre-show, served tea & Champagne to Natalie who joined me and just in case there were no newspaper pictures - I took some off the TV set.


In May they captured Osama Bin Laden.  People cheered but cheering for a death felt funny to me.  So I was just quietly glad it was over.

In May Maggie and Breezy were friends.  And then Ruby happened.

Breezy went nuts when she couldn't get to Ruby and she attacked Maggie instead and has been attacking Maggie ever since.  Our happy kitty home has been a bit of kitty hell ever since!  We don't really know what to do except separate them.  Breezy is mostly in the basement (her favorite place anyway) and the den.  And Maggie stays on the main floor of the house.  It requires a lot of opening and closing doors to keep them separated but we have tried everything else we know.
Also in May, some kittens were born.Louise, my long time friend (46 years) and Jimmy's god mother needed back surgery.  She also needed to have her upstairs bedroom moved downstairs to the ground floor of her Levitt house. I knew I couldn't do it by myself so I called the in the calvary.  Not all calvary wear hats but...

Richard, I said, you have to come now!  I need help!  And Richard arrived the next morning from North Carolina.  Yea, for the Calvary!  Richard as you can see, besides being game for cleaning up and moving furniture, was pretty cheerful about doing it. 

Robin road in from Madison, CT!  Louise's mom, Pauline, had passed away a few years ago leaving an extensive book collection in the first floor bedroom.  We donated over a thousand books to the Island Trees library - who were very happy to have them.  Dispite working not stop for a total of almost five days, we had a pretty good time together and felt good about giving Louise a place she could recover more comfortably.
Also in May...

Sammy arrived!
And on the almost last day of May, while we were grilling our Memorial Day dinner, a tree branch fell and tore off the wires and electrical box from the side of our house.

No lights, no power, no water, no cable... fortunately we have good friends and we could continue to party.

Phil in Lake Waramaug.

Chuck at the grill.

Deb and me.

Susie, Phil & Chuck.  A good time was had by all...

In June, my grand daughter, Hannah, had her Bat Mitzvah.

The grown up Hannah.

The real Hannah and her brother Michael, reading one of my favorite books.
Also growing up...

Sammy and her big sister Maggie.  Maggie took to her right away.
Also in June, more tree fell and took out our electric and cable a second time.  We tried to get paid by the town but after a month of pictures and explanations and letters and emails...well, what were the odds anyway.

But there was a concert at Wisdom House.

Walks in the White Memorial Nature Preserve.

Yellow Iris.
And...

Lobster, literature and Sammy.  We saw one of two of our favorite movies of the 2011 - Midnight in Paris - twice.  
And Phil finished his second year teaching English and Journalism at Hartford's Journalism and Media Academy.    

July saw the final mission of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.  And the long awaited final episode - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.  Phil took me the first night and then I went again with Holly.  Fabulous!  I will miss looking forward to the next one.

(internet photo - harry wiki.com) 

Harry how you have changed!  (imdb internet photo)

I was almost finished working on a cotton crazy quilt owned by Susan Cummings and starting to work in earnest on Maria Campbell's fabulous silk crazy quilt from the 1880's.

July was hot but knew how to ignore it.

Then there was the Vera Bradley remake.

It has possibilities.  I'll have to make a few more before I know if it's worthwhile.  In the meantime it was fun and I got to use some of my hand painted fabric.

In August the refrigerator died.  It took $89.95 to pronounce it dead and $900 and 24 hours to replace it.

Ice, food, August... we lost all the freezer stuff but ate a lot of expensive grilled steak.

Then we went to the Lowell Quilt show and the Jack Kerouac museum/park with Louise & Mimi.  We had a blast.  I didn't really get a chance to write about it and some who went to the show and blogged about it did not put up pictures of the quilts they had taken without the persons permission.  Sigh...  I wish I could be that good but I really want to remember them here.

Deb Lacative

My favorite (after Deb's).

Marvelous hand quilting!

This is part of a quilt - just the bottomo corner.  Michael would love this!

This is a box of indigo chunks.  The packet from Pro-Chem Dyes, is much easier to use.

Jack Kerouac's Typewriter.  How cool is that?!
Speaking of being on the road...

Sammy would prefer that we not leave home without her!

Summer vegetables are lush and abundant.  The local corn is sweet as sugar.

Summer soup!  Gravlox and cream cheese on baguette.

Lazy summer evenings on the lake; putting our feet up and dreaming a an endless summer.  Not a lot better than that.  There were rumors of a hurricane that might come up the east coast.  There would be time to think about it tomorrow.

Tomorrow came on a Thursday when I drove to the True Value Rental store at 6 am and waited for them to open.  I was their first customer.  I asked several questions and then pointed to the generator that I wanted, paid the bill for a weeks use, and had them put it in the trunk.

We took all the furniture off the deck and tied the rest down.  And then it started to rain.

It came down in buckets!  Cat's and dogs!  Maybe elephants!  But the basement stayed dry!  YEA!!

The frogs dried out.

And I clipped the rest of the basil for pesto.  It was September and Phil was going back to school for his third year of teaching.


Marie (a good friend of my friend Louise) was visiting so we took the opportunity for a short girl trip.   Louise, Marie, Mimi and I headed north and visited "The Mount" Edith Wharton's Estate.  If you haven't read The Age of Innocence its a timeless read.  It won the Pulitzer in 1921.  The saying "Keeping up with the Joneses" is said to refer to her father's family.

We were lucky to be inside a wonderful little coffee shop later that afternoon when a wild squall came though.    
Our next destination was the Hancock Shaker Village.  It was a fascinating place.

This was one of the stones on the pathway into the village.  There were many of them with different quotes on them but this was my favorite.  But who was Theodore Roosevelt Chickenhouse?

The Shaker Village kitchen.  One hundred people; three meals a day.  Other than the head cook everyone rotated with a turn at everything including the kitchen.  I would have been lobbying for the head cook position as soon as I got there.  You are only seeing about a quarter of the kitchen.  It was a warm place in the winter and you could almost smell the soup.  The gentlemen that did our tour, John was very personable as well as knowledgable and patiently answered hundreds (yes, at least that) of questions as we kept him talking close to an hour after the tour had ended. 

This is their famous "round" barn.  Built in 1836, it could house 70 cows that could eat while being milked.  Wagons could also enter and leave without having to back up.
And who was Theodore Roosevelt Chickenhouse who liked to drink cream out of a saucer?

Why a cat, of course!  Mimi found out because she bought the postcard with image of a Anita Potter and her cat Theodore Roosevelt Chickenhouse.

Some of my favorite relatives came to visit, Don all the way from Alaska.

Donny, Phil and Drew.  Donny lives in Anchorage and Don & Drew are brothers, son's of my father's sister, my favorite Aunt Mary.  Mary taught me some valuable life lessons, including how to appreciate a good bottle of Champagne.  She and my Dad died 6 weeks apart in the year 2000.  I'm sorry Phil didn't get the chance to meet them.

Drew, his daughter Laura and his "significant other" Trudy.  Trudy and Drew have been birding together for probably more than 30 years (feel free to correct me) and she's a gem.  Trudy is a math teacher and helped Phil pass the math part of his Praxis test so that he could teach in CT.  Laura lives in Chicago and went to University of Chicago for Paleontology.  I love it when they visit - there is enough curiosity and brain power to share among ten people and our conversations always range far and wide, there is always more to say and when they leave I can't wait till they come back! 

In progress

Thanks Ladies...

A lovely lunch happened at my house!  Just when I needed it most!

Everyone is busy with family holiday plans and my family is mostly in North Carolina with some in Chicago and some in Alaska...far away.  I used to have a big party on Christmas Eve when I lived on Long Island but times change and I love Connecticut but sometime I miss family.  So in the midst of feeling a bit sorry for myself (just a touch - silly me) lots of lovely friends came to tea. 
How lucky am I?!

The pictures are not my best but the smiles are heart-warming and the ladies are top-notch!

Sammy has been so excited about Christmas!  She thinks we put up this tree with all the "toys" on it just for her.  And then Nan & Jo came down to her level, so to speak, to help her catch that elusive red dot she was beyond herself with joy!

But once the party was over...it was kitty crash time. I cleaned up the kitchen and went in to the living room to sit down - it was no more than ten minutes.
I'm stuffed with good food!  Nan, the tabouli salad was delicious and Natalie, half the cranberry bread is now gone!  Trish, I haven't opened the orange crackers yet but they look fabulous!  And Karen, the rest of the salmon...well, let's just say it's apt to be breakfast.
Thanks Ladies!   

Pinks from Deb

Pinks from Deb!  Whoopee! 
(That's cranberry juice in the glass.)
And if you think I was excited...
 
Sammy claimed them for her own the minute I opened the package!


A feather for Jude's  Magic Feather Project. 

Lake Waramug

Thanks to some lovely friends we were able to de-stress on the banks of Lake Waramug yesterday.  Cricket was there to meet us when we pulled into the drive.

We unloaded the picnic basket and cooler chests and set up at the beach house.

Greek salad, potato salad, grilled veggies, grilled chicken with "Soy Vay" (if you haven't tried it you should!) and Chuck says - brats, & rats & elle-fants... Good beer & peach iced tea.  Yum!

The sun going down, leaving a golden shimmer on the water.  The lone seagull seems to be enjoying the view as much as we are.

It was much prettier than this picture...

Deb & I lit some candles and the boys headed out in the canoe for an unobstructed view of the stars.

I like the reflection of the flash off of the leaves and insect wings.

Chuck has all the necessities for a nighttime trip - paddle, life preserver & a beer.  Priorities...

Deb with her strobe flashlight guiding the guys back.  They didn't see it.  But they made it back safe and sound.

Brownies were served.  And we waxed philosophical on summers past and present.  We decided that this one was pretty good.   

Happy Valentine's Day 2011

 My husband and I had our first conversation on Feb 13th 2001.  He was in CT and I was on Long Island getting ready for my annual "People I Love Best" dinner.  A multiple course sit down affair for twelve with lots of wine and champagne, conversation and laughter.  Little did I realize at the time that Phil was going to be the person I loved best.

I didn't know that some of the people at dinner would pass out of my life.

Or that some of them would be just as much a part of it even though many things were about to change.
And that the harbinger of change would be a puppet show...

A fancier time?  Maybe.

This year was somewhat different.  Simpler.  More intimate.  With the guy on the phone. 

We never know where life is going to take us.  Enjoy every moment. 

Happy Valentine's Day!  

Three Curvy Friends - not what you think...

 
Karen wrote the book on layered curves, Holly (I made the story telling stool for her) made them go in both directions and framed them with more curves, and I'm going to teach the class at Common Threads.  The center is made from a fat quarter of Ricky Tims fabric and I used a second fat quarter for the backing and rolled it around to the front for a self binding.  I'm thinking everything from wall hanging to tea mat.  There will be more...  

Holly's Storytelling Stool...

My girlfriend Holly has a graduate degree in storytelling.  I love it!  She asked me to paint a stool for her that she could use as a prop when she speaks.  So here it is!

It needs a few finishing touches but you get the idea.
Here is one of  my favorite Holly stories: The Memory of Being Vertical.  It's a parable about helping others, a story about friendship.  I made the photoquilts in the story for her.