Sunday, May 31, 2009

Kites

I used to love flying kites! We sometimes made them from scratch when I was a kid. Over above Lumpini Park they would fight them. Elaborately decorated and fringed with sharp points, with bits of glass glued onto the strings, they would swoop and dodge until there was a victor. Loved that!
So, with 100 acres, great breezes, and not a tree around to get stuck in, I'm getting myself a cool kite...maybe one of those two-stringed jobs that swoop and accelerate and move so brilliantly. Imagine that...getting to fly kites and old enough to drink beer, too.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Hectic & Fun

The red font is a homage to the diablito I had at jimgermanbar on Saturday night. Man...that was good! Sue flew over to meet me on Friday night, her first trip on Horizon Air. She loved it...one two three and here she was in Walla Walla.
Beautiful sights all week and no photos worth putting up. A lone coyote loping across the fallow fields. 31 hot air balloons all at once showing to our south...tying the old record. A bright orange full harvest moon over the ridgeline just before dawn.
On Wednesday, I set the drain line for the future outside shower. What with the winds and winter freezes, I'll be building it stout, but I want it to be funky and minimal at the one time. Thinking to hide knee-braces as shelf-supports and cross braces as a low bench. It has to be revealing enough to be a little teasing for excitement, just in a "Petticoat Junction" innocent way. (Jeez...I AM dating myself...that was in reruns when I was little...)
Sue is thrilled that we completed the new windows in the living room and in the upstairs. I still need to order the real blinds for the upstairs and fast get rid of the temporary mini-blind. The light is amazing...you can lie in bed upstairs and just take it all in. Of course, that light will get mighty hot come August, so good shading is a must-have item.
My cave is gone...lair of the bear giving way to a more up-market openness in the living room. The view is beautiful...I'll need to get over it.
We had nice meals at Whitehouse-Crawford and Brasserie Four. Sue didn't want to cook and I can't blame her...too much has been going on and coming to Grape Hill was about peace. Between just loving the morning light and working hard to get the windows in, get the siding back in place, get the taper out to finish the sheetrock, priming and painting and getting up the curtains, I was up at dawn every day for the week.
Sue chatted up a couple eating with us at the bar at jimgermanbar and they joined us for coffee and balloons on Sunday morning. I lit my first-ever fake firelog in the firepit. Man, was that quick, clean, and easy. I love burning real wood, but this fake thing was perfect for an easy fire. From now on, no more real wood except on special occasions. That fake log is so much more safe for burning out there in the fields...no more worrying about flying embers or burning starter paper lifting off ringed with red and floating away...