Here and Busy

Chris and Margo May 2011..

Wow!!! take time and write something my head tells me, I need a lap top so I can type where ever I am instead of tethered in my closet computer room. It is a cozy spot in Winter and somewhat a cramped spot in fine weather. I have been dodging rain ,trying to work outside ,the house needs scraped and painted but we need at least 4 dry days before we tackle that job and I would rather not scrap and have it look so shabby while I wait on the dry weather.

So in between everyday work I have offered to help my friend gather props for an upcoming play during Privateer Days,"For Riches and Honor" here in Liverpool June 30 and July 1,2 .I just happen to have most of what was needed in props, having already played the real part as "Sutler's" in the Kings Orange Rangers in the past, we ,over the years have had so much fun dressing up so I hopped on board and offered my person as well as one of the back ground Men in the Tavern.. :-) we have been making cheese wheels ,daggers, Sexton etc. props and are having fun creating something other then product to sell. I supplied our Local gift shop with what I had ready for the consignment Season. My Home Gallery is somewhat empty, of smaller product.

I have a few bigger Boat piece paintings here at home and any canvases I have ,not wanting to put any canvas paintings hanging so close to the open Ocean at Fort Point, so anyone interested in dropping by my home Gallery just let me know, debchuck@eastlink.ca my hope this Summer is to get out more painting on site or away enjoying the great outdoors taking photos for Winter work. It has been a couple years since I have updated my painting photos and have new budding ideas floating around in my head, plans in the making.So if you drop by and I am not here I will leave a pad and pen, drop me a line and come by again if you can.

Our Dear friends from Vermont are on their way this Thurs. William and Patricia Long- Hays...The artists Loft Liverpool ..check him out if around this Summer .I always look forward to seeing them, Summer then has begun, once they land in Town, and other friend's are soon to arrive to their little pieces of Heaven here on and around our shores, I assume you all out there know just how wonderful our White Sand Beaches are? If not, by all means ,do yourselves a favor and come on by and take your shoes off and stroll along our fine sands. Today I had a new friend from last Summer drop by, I love how and when that happens, she came by last year by chance and ended up commissioning me to do a painting for her to give to her Husband, from our talking ,come to find out we are almost related in a way by the fact her Aunt by Marriage was a part of my life from a very small Child. A small World indeed, a very small World, we live in. The pictures here are of our friend's who ride and enjoy their Harley Motor Cycles, they dropped by for a spell the other evening ,while out riding in great weather which has finally come our way.

Something new for Liverpool area this Summer ,our friend Heather Kelly has a Fish and chip truck called "Chippy Chippy Bang Bang " English Chip wagon and even though I have not yet had my order,I have heard nothing but good about her new Adventure ,she offers a good Menu and good prices. I will be taking the camera with me when we visit her and will share pictures . Good Luck Heather on your new endeavors.

Rain and more rain..

The rain we have been having of late is relentless,try as hard as one might, the past four or five days of oh so many it has been hard to find a bright side . I rode my bike everyday but those torrential rain days or moments which there were many. But, on a lighter note the past two days have been just wonderful, being any dry day is a great day. I have been lucky compared to many,I only had sun flower seeds in the ground and could just poke them back into their holes and wish for the best after the rains. The flowers are looking good,and the grass is growing like wild fire. The mould on my feet is disappearing and my gills which have stopped growing at least for the next couple days ,may start growing again by Saturday.
Regular work has been done ,painting and getting Summer product ready for Fort Point as well as collecting up our Pirate and reenactment articles to lend to our local Theatre group for an up coming play which will be held this Privateer Days July 1 -4 2011 right here in Liverpool. Since the end of the days when there would be a Period wedding held Privateer Days ,being actual real couples marrying so clothing had to be made to suit etc. etc. this play offers to be a good idea and may make a few dollars for both the WOC and Privateer Days towards future festivities. Chuck and I have been collecting costumes since our Lunenburg days ,when we left Charleston I gave away or sold most of our costumes and had to let go of a 3 story barn full of stuff to build just about anything from. This home and property is small but I can still come up with everything I am looking for, amazing how that happens, I love it, so since I was given the list of what was needed for this particular play which is right up our ally because we were members of the Kings Orange Rangers and attempted to sleep in the encampment on our not stuffed enough straw mattress. Laughing the whole time because that is just about how we did really live once way back when we first got together, so now we dress up but sleeping on straw we will leave to Cattle and the rest of the troops. So a lot of the props needed I had right here.
This long weekend is an anniversary for Chuck and I , our first weekend date, we went camping at the Ovens Natural Park ,the weather was rain and fog ,we slept in a 2 man pup tent with a Great Dane, yes we did, I doubt it if I could fit by myself in a pup tent let alone with Chuck and Baron these days. We ended up living at the Ovens that Summer and in October we moved into an old abandoned house in Feltzen South, oh if I could only have the opportunity to tell the folks who live there now just what it was like back then.The stories ..oh the many stories. It was a tiny ,sleepy, fishing Port,back then and it is where we inshore fished and realized we did want electricity after all :-) comes in darn handy but nice to know the World will not end if without,and flush toilets...WOW!!!I really like them.But I am still a 17 th Century girl in so many ways.That's just me,what you see is what you get.
Remember ,I mentioned before, I have been working on this surprise painting for a certain retirement ,it is coming along fine, a few have seen it but I still can't share it here with you . My Children's Book ,I am thinking on the font, then my plan ,that is if I can make a few bucks within the next couple Months is to have a number of books made at our Local Vienots Print . It may not become a best seller, but I sure do hope it puts a smile on a few faces.Wish me luck.
Needle felting has been on the back burner and I need to get some done. Thing is this time of year I find myself even on nasty days wanting to get outside to work, so much to do and so little time with dodging showers, I catch myself sitting in my studio spinning in my chair ,day dreaming while looking out the deck door .Watching my little birds and Crows collecting twigs for their nests .Me,smelling the flowers you might say through the glass.
I forgot, during this bad rain I found enough dry time to get out and make a step for our new Bird's nest ,our neighbor gave us a huge cutting of tree trunk, we were thinking table top but never did get around to cutting it in two so I dug down in front of my Bird House covered the ground with garden tarp and placed this piece of wood in and filled in all around it. It works great and I will share a picture of it here hopefully tomorrow, it has been raining and I didn't have the opportunity to take a picture yet, again I saved money by using what I had here. Good for me :-)
Off I go ,tomorrow they say may be nice. Up date on our weather this morning, Friday 20th..looks like rain and Thunder showers...I am sad to say :-(

Saturday morning update...the rain stopped and Friday was wonderful ,I played music and sang on my deck then when the fog started to come in,I moved to the Bird house to hang out and here is a picture of my favorite Little girl in all this big World. Miss Indigo Mariposa my Great Niece ,daughter of my niece Kim and granddaughter of my Sister Linda. Here we are with our Diva Laura, everyone Loves the Birdhouse, it is simply just too cozy.The other photo is of the step I put in, a very interesting chunk of tree trunk.

A busy Spring Bee

Here is an update on the "Birds nest in the Birdhouse"

the top pictures are of the finished nest and just built.

You can see in one of the shots how I wall papered with maps and the floor is done with the cushion floor samples .So far this project has cost me nothing,but my time.Tomorrow I do have to buy a hook or two and a couple handles ,the old handles on the door are so old the screws are stripped, they should be raised a bit ,so I will leave the old on and add two new. I said come hell or high water and with all the rain we had this past five or so days it was a bit of high water, I was determined to finish this little building so I could then get into the empty old Bunkhouse and make some sense of the exercise equipment in there and somehow put my workshop as well as Chuck's shop back into working condition,you can barley walk in them for the Winter mess.

I have finished just about all I can do inside, ready for slumber ,very cozy indeed ,even during these past couple days when the wind and air feel like snow .

I hung the door this morning and had to be creative because it was a bit too small, Chuck was in the house ,he knew I was up to something and when he saw the finished result, well,he was proud ,he taught me well over the years, as well I have done a lot of talking to myself and figuring things out on my own many times.Sometimes working,sometimes ,not! My gardens are crying for attention,bulbs to plant but I am holding out for warmer weather on those projects. I need to build a step of some kind just outside the door, I am thinking of patio stones, I have a mould to make my own ,but ,yes I would have to mix cement...Hmmmm,am I up to that? Maybe...in the somewhat near future,I will see.

I have been ,as the saying goes"As busy as a Bee" I need more arms, it lately feels like I have a paint brush in one hand ,working on a painting I just simply want to do ,not for sale but for fun, more on that later, a surprise for someone and some other's,and in the other hand a hammer. In these photos you can see the day bed in the Gallery that was just finished ,it serves two purposes as does a lot of things here in our cozy ,small home. This serves as a bench in the Gallery or can be pulled out to make a 3/4 bed for company.In front of it you can see one of my mats I painted, this mat has been walked on all Winter, they work well. The other shots are of our bike shed "Bird House" which I am turning into a Summer "Bird house " cottage, for us as well as company. We plan to turn our old Bunkhouse into a gym room, exercise we need and the price we pay and will be paying at the new Gym ,we may be forced to work out at home. I will keep saving my bucks to hopefully join again when I can because of the social part of it, we laugh and time flies when you share a few giggles with great people,who I might add are trying to stay alive as well. I have been much better for the exercise. But today I am oh ,so sore after building this bed in the Bird House yesterday, I made it this high so that I could use the underneath for much needed storage,which as I have said a million times before,we need double duty for everything around here. Chuck put the window in the back for me, this window was taken from our old porch here in the house. As always I have built this bed from recycled materials, I insulated the walls with wine box cardboard and am covering them with a roll of wall paper I found and National Geographic maps ,the floor is covered with cushion floor samples I was given,they make a great floor for what I need and cover up any drafts .This little place I plan to make very cozy ,of course it would be raining today so my plans to go out and work in my new space is totally out of the question on this dreary Sunday. My plan was to build two steps on either ends of the bed today and again with double duty,steps to get up to the bed and blanket storage inside.I tried going out to work and my fingers got way too cold this morning. So I am taking a moment to type down a few words as to what I have been up to ,this past while.

This painting I am talking about that I am working on and should be adding some paint to it again today later ,while watching a movie ,is special in the way I really am doing it more for fun then anything else. I don't want a certain person to see it before it is finished so I can't share it with you here yet,but will later on . I was given many tree fungi's lately .Growths on the sides of Trees, I have painted on a few in the past and they are hard to find. My friend's bought an old property way back a dirt road ,this place was used as a hunting camp for years and they found all of these fungi's in the house ,they are all written on regarding who and how many Deer over the years folk's shot while using this place. They must have gotten these from some pretty big old trees over the years for some are a very good size ,bigger then I have ever seen before. They gave them to me in exchange for me painting on one for them . I hope to get at least a couple done soon for the Summer Season . There is a lot of prep work to be done to get them ready for painting ,I have to seal the fronts and cover up the writing on them,then they will be ready to dive into then to be varnished when finished.

On a sad note before I leave you today. This past two weeks this Town has been mourning ,at first searching for a missing Woman to just recently find her murdered. Everyone is in an uproar as well as heart broken at this news. we wish her family and friend's all the strength we can give them at this very sad and scary time. Our wish for a better World,where people respect one another, where ,like when we were Children a person could walk alone at night, when an argument was just that ,an argument not like what we see these days on the news,violence with deadly outcomes.