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Monday, September 28, 2015

Sparrows and snapdragons

This little sparrow doesn't venture from the front yard.
We think its eyesight is limited. Its feathers have never filled in or assumed adult markings.
It lands like a hovercraft, up and down until it senses somthing to land on.
It only uses the biggest feeder, where it seems to know it can be bumped along and still have footing.
When there is seed scattered on the porch, it cleans it up, taking seed from within inches of a human foot.
Here it is on the bird bath, contemplating.
(Less than adequate phone picture.)
I wonder if we'll see it in spring.



Earlier this summer the road super pointed out snapdragons in the lime bin.
White and purple.


They're really congregating now.


The tar kettle doesn't scare them.



Have I mentioned the road super is retiring at year's end.
My heart may break.

Sunday, September 27, 2015

I should have taken more pictures

Thursday was move in day for River Light Gallery artists and artisans.
In case you wondered, there is no magic.
Russ, one of the three owners of the gallery.


Just emptyness.


Look hard, you'll see a bit of glass on display.


My corner.
Diane, another gallery owner, helping hang.


Lisa, the end of the triumvirate.
And Diane, checking a shirt.


My friend Pam, who helped me lug it all in,
dressing Helyn in a style Pam could pull off.


And, admiring.


I spent Friday and Saturday making lime green and sapphire blue dresses,
which I delivered today.


Helyn, before Laura added a scarf.


Three sixty, around the gallery:
Lotions and soaps.


Glass.


Pottery.


More glass, more pottery.


Art, standing off the sandstone wall.
A hard earned lesson for all the occupants of the gallery.


More.


More.


There is jewelry in the center cases; I'm sorry I overlooked that.
And, as Laura said outside the building, "This is reallly cool!"
But I didn't take pictures of the coolness of all the windows of glass and pottery.

Another day.

Saturday, September 26, 2015

For want of a descriptor, untitled

Emily wanted more blue in her hair, for senior pictures.
As we drove to the beauty salon she told me she was through with "high school" haircuts.
I did not reallize this was out of focus, but no mind.


Except to say Anna, the stylist, did walk over once to ask me if it was OK with me.
Then the number one clippers removed all the hair not twisted up on top.
And, Anna applied the blue.
And began styling the remainder.


The mirror at the station behind Emily.


 I agree, it's no high school hair cut.



Wednesday, September 23, 2015

The Wood building, reclaimed




June 9


June 9


June 9
Note the lack of foundation on the additon to the second story.
Revealed at last.


June 9


June 9
Nice detail.


June 9
The sandstone around the building was crumbling from the first time I was familiar with the building, in 1990.


July 1


July 1


July 6
Extensive renovation to another problem area, the crumbling retaining wall.
This was not crumbling in 1990, and there was the small patio below, outlined in timbers, here.


July 21
Brick and pavers in the patio area.


August 4
The renovation reached this point, and then everything halted for installation of a new HVAC system.
The refinished floors were ruined in the process and had to be redone.
As I said, it might as well have been a government job.


September 15


Septeber 15


September 23


September 23
Look closely over the truck bed and see a back side bending over, cleanng windows.
The second floor is no longer a private residence, but renovated (or will be) as a bed and breakfast.


A current golfer tidbit. This is the course I pass twice daily.
All the sand traps seem to be under renovation; I've watched them dug out and refilled.
In case you don't know, those puppies are very deep; four or five feet, filled with sand.
But the sand trap above is being filled with sod.
The sand trap from hell?


Another sand sand trap.
I don't know if the boulder was excavated and will be carried away,
or imported, for golf balls to  ping off of.

Monday, September 21, 2015

It might as well be government work


The Wood store was built about 1820, in typical Western Reserve Greek Revival style. It was the first permanent structure in Peninsula and is one of the oldest buildings in the Western Reserve. It was restored in the sixties by Robert Hunker, an architect who liked Peninsula so much he purchased the majority of downtown buildings. He liked Peninsula so much he locked out development with restrictive zoning and by having much of the town designated historical and inviolable. No water and sewer meant no fast food restaurants in his town.

Bob Hunker did draw up his own plans for sewer and water, but could never convince any regulatory agency they were viable. The current renovation has turned up many of his shortcuts, such as laying the gas line to the store 4” under the sandstone sidewalk. His cost cutting methods installed by his contractors, for full price, are legion in the village.

The man passed from this earth several years ago, and put his buildings in the custody of the Hunker Foundation, wisely renamed the Peninsula Foundation. The Wood store passed through several tenants; galleries in the art heyday of the town, dwindling away to a “collectables” store as the last tenant. When that shop departed, the Foundation began an extensive renovation, last May. I see in looking at the Foundation’s web site, much of the work is funded by donations. That ‘splains a lot, Lucy.

A friend who owns another gallery in town signed a lease with the Foundation, to take occupancy on June 1st. Diane intended to have her “Riverlight Gallery” open by the last weekend in June, to coincide with the big draw to town, the Boston Mills ArtFest. The work wasn’t done. In fact, the work was not done in time for any of the summer tourist trade, for the 4th of July, for Labor Day. Not for the first week of September, or the second, or the third.

Diane has a tentative move in date of Thursday, but I’m not holding my breath. The work I’ll have on consignment has been packed since June, and another tub has accumulated since then. I had granddaughters to carry it up the stairs back then; now I’ll probably commandeer a last minute worker for the job, this coming Thursday.


This picture is of the Wood store at the last time I was associated with it as a gallery, probably around 2004 or 2005. My friend Kathleen had her Crooked River Herb Farm shop there, and sold artensinal jellies, vinegars, soaps from her farm as well as the work of many local craftsmen. My brother Walt made the panels between the windows that listed all the unique items to be found in the shop.


The next time I visited the shop was Christmas, a couple of years ago. I did a blog posting decrying the Italinate pergola installed by some shop renter, and especially the sign hanging from a bracket bolted into the tree.


I took some pictures of the interior of the shop, and its then tennant's wares, a pop-up "fair trade" shop. I pointed out to the shopkeeper the cruelty of bolting a sign into a tree and left.



I'll post some pictures of the current renovation this week, and take some pictures of what I anticipate to be a beautiful new interior when I move in my inventory on Thursday.


September 15, 2015

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Two posts in one day, but what's a grandma to do?

Tonight is homecoming. 
Emily's dress is pretty cool.
I asked to see her shoes.
3" heels.


The theme is masquerade.
She has a mask from Aunt Beth's stash.
A friend made the duct tape boutineer.


Her expert hair braider.


Her very nice guy.
For the first time in four years Scott is driving her to the dance.
His mother is so happy.


And she rocks those three inch heels.