Claudia — Page 799

And, He’s Back Home

July 9, 2018 at 10:38 am by Claudia

Well, we’re back home at the cottage after a lovely and, at the same time, exhausting weekend.

This morning we shared a cup of coffee in the Secret Garden, which, it turns out, Don loves. It’s quieter, more secluded, and slightly magical. He’s starting to let go and relax. He needs to rest and heal.

I drove into the city on Saturday morning. We had decided that Saturday was for pleasure; we would just have fun. Sunday would be for packing and all the emotional and physical stress that would bring.

First stop: Prince Street down in Soho. Don has been following a guy named Louis Mendes, who is famous around NYC for his Polaroid Portrait street photography. He is 78 years old now and he has taken more street portraits than you or I can imagine over the course of his career. He uses a vintage Crown Graphic Press Camera. He is usually stationed near B & H Photo (one of my favorite places). Anyway, Don has had several talks with him, and I have also met him and chatted with him. He has taken our portrait. We both follow (on Instagram) one of the many photographers he has mentored, Jean Andre Antoine, so we set off to try and meet him. He is usually stationed on Prince Street, near Broadway.

To our delight, he was there. What an amazing soul he is, gentle and kind.

We spent a lot of time talking to him; Don especially.

There’s the camera. A Polaroid back has been added to the camera. It’s the coolest camera – from the 40s.

Don has his Holga camera with him. We both have one of these inexpensive Japanese cameras – toys, really – that have a cult following. Each one is different, with distortions and vignetting that are never predictable and always amazing. There is a massive group of Holga followers and a lot of them post on IG under the #holga hashtag.

Anyway, we asked Jean Andre do a portrait of each of us. I cannot believe how amazing his work is, how extraordinary his eye.

A picture of the picture. Just by chatting with me and watching me, he knew to ask me to lean on the ledge, telling me to put all my hair to one side. I usually detest photos of myself, but I really love this one.

And Don:

Isn’t it amazing? Jean Andre’s street photography is extraordinary.

Don has really been taken by both Louis’ and Jean Andre’s work, and…he’s going to study with Louis. Don has a great eye, loves photography, and really wants to engage with people and take their portraits. It’s something he can do when he’s not acting. I’m really excited for him. He’s so passionate about it and I think the thought of studying with Louis is helping him through this transition. If you’re interested in doing so, google Louis Mendes and you’ll learn all about him. The whole idea – since the film is expensive – is that the photographer only has one shot at the portrait. So he has to know what he’s doing.

After this, we walked north to Greenwich Village and Washington Square.

This incredibly talented classical pianist somehow rolls a piano into the park (I have no idea how) and plays for hours. We sat down and listened to him and the music was lovely.

Also: I fell in love with the text on the piano, which Don tells me is a message that Woody Guthrie used to have on his guitar.

It wouldn’t be Washington Square without something like this.

The park was full of New Yorkers. It’s such a great place to people watch. If you look on the left side of the photo, you can see a dog who was having the best time playing in the water.

A rainbow was just what we needed to see, because Sunday was all about packing up the apartment, loading up the car and heading home, officially ending the six months that Don has lived in the city.

All packed and ready to go. Don wisely hired three guys who do bike deliveries for the restaurant next door to lug everything downstairs for us. Going back and forth, up and down four flights of stairs would have been exhausting for us.

The front of the apartment building, taken while I waited for Don to come back with the car. Thankfully, there’s a loading zone right next door, so I kept watch over everything and Don pulled in, put the hazard lights on, and we loaded up the CR-V. An hour and a half later, we were home. Then we unloaded everything.

We were really tired at the end of all of this.

Right now, Don is happy to be home. It’s a big adjustment. He’s also sad, of course, that the show has closed and he would jump right back in if he could. But we’re coming to terms with things as best we can.

I’m back to my particular reality, which is mowing the lawn. That’s on the docket for today.

Don needs to rest his legs and knees, so I’ve told him firmly that I will handle it this week.

Glad he’s home. Sad the show is over because I know how much he loved every minute of that experience. Now we begin to readjust to being back in the same house together. He’s had his routine in NYC. I’ve had mine here. Now, we try and mesh.

Happy Monday.

Books, Climate Change & Staying Sane

July 6, 2018 at 9:23 am by Claudia

I’m running out of photos. It’s so frigging hot and humid out there that the windows are permanently steamy and it’s too miserable to be outside. Plus, if I take my camera outside, the lens immediately steams up. We’re supposed to get storms today (we had one during the night) and the weather will break for about two days, then we’ll be back up in the nineties.

I read an article in the NY Times this morning about the abnormally high temperatures in the northern half of our country – and not only here, but in Europe, as well. This does not bode well. Global warming is a reality. Climate change is real. I’m glad Scott Pruitt resigned, but he resigned because of the backlash against his corruption, not because of his attempts to undo everything that was in place to try to save our planet. His successor has the same mindset. Big business, big oil, coal – all of that is more important to these despicable people than the future of our planet and the world that we are leaving to our children and grandchildren.

This is the first summer in which I’ve felt truly alarmed about the weather. We’ve had three long periods of abnormally high temperatures and it’s just the beginning of July. This is not normal.

The mystery plant is definitely Meadowsweet or Filipendula ulmaria. I assume it self-seeded several years ago. I’m so grateful it did. I really love this plant, and as it’s getting bigger every year, it’s become more beautiful.

I cannot tell you how many weeds there are here and it’s been too hot to pull them. I did mow the corral and the back forty yesterday. I also did some weed whacking. It needed to be done and I want the property to look nice for Don’s homecoming. But it really tired me out.

Last night, I found myself thinking that Don had a 7:00 curtain, before I remembered the show had closed. I suspect it was strange for him as well.

Today: recycling and getting things together here in the house for Don’s re-entry. Tomorrow, I head off to NYC, driving the old CR-V (wish me luck) into Manhattan.

Note the bee on the left.

I finished another book; John Connolly’s latest, The Woman in the Woods. As always with Connolly’s books, it was excellent. I’m officially reading again and that makes me so happy. Staying away from 24 hour news, taking a few minutes to catch up on the headlines, and reading fiction = my recipe for a modicum of peace of mind. I’m aware. I know what’s going on. I’m making phone calls, signing petitions, and am ready to march if needed. But the rest of the time, I need to chill.

Happy Friday.

Just One Big Sigh

July 5, 2018 at 8:41 am by Claudia

With last night’s performance, the fact that the show has closed will – has – hit the cast. Even though it closed on Sunday, they were on a train for DC the next morning and, for the next three days everything was about the performance. And the horrendous heat. Don said: “It’s all about the heat.” They are exhausted. Today, they’ll ride back to NYC and there will be no performance tonight. Or tomorrow night.

They are extraordinarily close.

I will drive into the city in our old CR-V on Saturday morning. I’ll help Don pack and clean the apartment, we’ll spend some time wandering around and on Sunday? We move Don back home.

With the humidity and high temperatures here, I’ve had to have the A/C on 24 hours a day. I haven’t been able to do anything outside, except water, water, water. It’s been brutal.

I’m over everything.

But this happened the other day. I spotted a monarch butterfly which landed on a black raspberry leaf. She stayed there a long time. It’s the first monarch I’ve seen and I’m convinced she had just emerged and was drying her wings. I was able to get very close to her, which is usually impossible.

The monarch stayed there for about ten minutes. Later, I spotted her flying around the big garden bed, even doing a little circling, playful dance with this Great Spangled Fritillary:

The advantage of having a lot of milkweed: you get to see the monarchs when they first emerge. Maybe I’ll actually see one as it emerges someday.

I took the day Tuesday to clean out our bedroom closet. It’s a small closet, shared by both of us. It’s tucked into the eaves, so it’s deep but not wide. It had become a depressing black hole. Except for cleaning the bathroom (which I also did yesterday) it’s my least favorite thing to do around here. I now have three bags of clothing to donate to the Salvation Army, two bags of crap to go to the dump, and countless cardboard boxes to recycle. Now Mr. Hawaiian Shirt with the Snazzy Shoes will have some room for his new clothing.

We won’t talk about the fact that very little of the clothing I had in the closet fits me anymore. That’s too depressing.

Also, I wrote about this last week on IG, but if you missed it, I was standing by my car with my iPhone in hand (I’d been taking pictures) when, for some reason, I glanced back over my shoulder and saw a full grown black bear walking across the grass on the back forty. I gasped. Couldn’t believe my eyes. For the three seconds or so it took the bear to walk across the grass and then into our woods, I was frozen. Completely forgot I had a phone which could take a picture in my hand.

Whoa Nellie. He or she was beautiful, by the way.

As Don said, “I won’t be taking out the trash at night anymore.”

Happy Thursday.

And, He’s Back Home

Books, Climate Change & Staying Sane

Just One Big Sigh

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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