Song of the day: “I’m like a bird” by Nelly Furtado, and yesterday morning: “Don’t worry, be happy” by…I don’t have a clue actually. I believe he’s a composer now, though. But anyway, both are quite accurate, ‘cause let’s face it, worries don’t get you anywhere and being a bird right now, would be, like, totally awesome! I’d be above the rainy clouds in a minute catching me some sun. Brrr. Cold and wet are not my favorite things to be. Ha.
So yeah, the last couple of days: There was writing, of course. Didn’t get much of it done the day before yesterday when we poured the concrete in the carport. It was a rather cold day, and though the pouring went well enough, it was sorta draining on the ol’ bod, if ya get my meaning. Hours of hauling, bending over to smoothen the stuff out took it’s toll, and by the end of the day it was all I could do to keep my eyes from falling shut.
It was kinda funny actually, I found myself sitting in front of the computer, the story tumbling through my head…images and everything, and my fingers still on the keys as I gazed blindly ahead. At one point big brother nudged me from beside, and asked me what was up, and I was like: “Huh. What, oh yeah, writing.” I wrote a paragraph and then ended up drifting along with the images again. Hah. Hysterical, I tell ya.
In total I did manage to add ten pages to the manuscript, which means that there are only a hundred and fifty or so more to go. Hah.
Luckily yesterday was a relatively quiet day. The wind was still cold, but since we went to the lower part of the yard to get a start on the future veggie garden. Considering we could hardly work in the carport, what with the concrete still drying, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to get warm with ploughing the first terrace over. And warm it was. Out of the wind, in the full sunlight, I could actually divest several layers until movement was no longer an impediment.
While big brother used the chainsaw on trees that regretfully didn’t make it through the past few hot summers, grandpa and I made nice headway. I went up front, using the heavy hoe to slash through the clay soil, and grandpa followed with the shovel to turn the whole mess over. Got a nice patch of three square yards ready for planting. Yay.
Little brother painted his new closet and it is looking grand, almost brand new even, and that’s marvellous. If you don’t know better you’d swear it was this way always. I love it when a project works out that way.
Yesterday, after the “ploughing” we made a slight change in plans and headed for town to get some building materials on sales, and then went the long way back, so we could have a nice stroll through a forestry area nearby. While walking there, we saw seedling of Eucalypti and Oleander…they never make it through the winter when the riverbeds flood over…and decided to take a few. Considering we’ve been looking for Eucalypti for months now, and the local nurseries are no longer selling them, we figured we might as well save these little ones. So, now grandpa has corralled off a section of his little yard (protected against the dogs, you understand) where we’ve put all the seedlings in pots. Now they’ll get several months to get a bit bigger and stronger and then we’ll put them throughout the property.
Oh boy is that gonna look good once they grow. Before you know it, we’ll be living in a forest again.
So there are some new plans in the making: First off, we’re finally forming some serious plans about a proper bathroom. Up until now we’ve been making due with a temporary shower stall in the corner of the patio (temporary being a whopping ten years, I kid you not). It’ll still be a shower, but this time a little more than just a stall. Yay.
Second: Considering we use so much water for hosing both courtyard and patio down every day, we’re going to build (at some point, naturally) an aqueduct that will run all the way down the property (zigzagging) and water our future veggie garden with all the left over water. It’ll be quite a project, but I think that the end result will be downright gorgeous. Can you imagine, terraces filled with plants and trees, flowers everywhere, with a low curling wall of natural rock where water runs through? I can hardly wait to see the end result. It’ll be a while yet, I know, but sometimes the anticipation is killing me. Then I always remind myself that the path of getting to a finish of something is a lot more fun than actually arriving there. *sigh*
Remember Lego? Having that castle, house, or whatever finished was just no fun at all. The searching through the massive pile of building blocks the design, that was the fun part. I would always built something, play with it for half an hour and then take it apart to start on something new. Building a real house, or in this case a garden, is much the same. The actual doing is what it is all about.
The same goes for writing, really. Developing a story, it’s characters, and discovering what makes them tick and what is going to happen next, that’s the most fun part about it any time. Sure, it is satisfying to have a story ready, and perfect for that occasional read, but in the end I’m always looking forward to the next one, where I can start all over again: Getting to know the protagonists and finding out how they will respond to the next hurdle my sometimes twisted mind throws at them. IT IS FUN!
But anyways…today started off with clouds all round. We are literally inside the clouds at the moment. Miserly rain is coming down occasionally and everything is sorta damp. I started off the day with the usual chores such as laundry…luckily I’ve been going through the piles like mad these past few days, so now there is only little…a little bit of cleaning, and then went up to our tenants for her exercises.
It went rather well, actually; we’ve finally reached that point where she does better leaning on her cane, rather than me, or her caretaker. I’m thinking that indecisiveness as to whether she needs to depend on our support, or depend more on her own body, is what is keeping her back. Her body wants to do it herself, so if we let her, it will. She barely needs support when she uses her cane, and that is a milestone to say the least. A definite bonus for me, when I go up there, is that in her bungalow it is always wonderfully warm, allowing me to “defrost” a little. Hah.
Like me, the dogs really do not like the cold, by the way. The lot of them, in particular the short haired ones, look rather miserable whenever we’re working outside, huddling close to the fire vat to keep warm, or else finding that one spot where there’s sunlight (not today, though, hah) and then shivering delicately when immobility brings the chill to unbearable levels. For all the heat Knight II produces, he’s always remarkably cold, the poor fellow. Same goes for little Dax and Mosha, who will literally run into my cabin whenever I take pity on them (meaning most days) and open the cabin door for them when I’m outside. They’ll huddle up on the couch and their baskets, only to come running outside every thirty minutes or so, to check if I’m still there.
Well, ‘tis time for me to get back to work now, so this is it for today, I guess. I still have power plug-ins to put up in the office, so I better get to it.
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