social distancing

Day One Hundred Eighteen

July 9, 2020 at 9:45 am by Claudia

Glory be! We got a lot of rain yesterday. So, so happy about that. Today there’s a heat advisory so we have to stay indoors, but tomorrow should be much better. I have a lot of work to do outside and haven’t been able to do anything.

I got almost half of stonework done on the remaining wall of the dollhouse yesterday afternoon. I’m going to do more today. Then I’ll move on to the interior. There’s only so much I can do without buying supplies and we’re on a very, very strict budget right now as we can’t work, and won’t be able to work for many more months, and Don is unable to take pictures at the Farmer’s Market this year. It’s running, but it’s in a very, very narrow street with no social distancing possible – frankly, I can’t imagine why they opened at all. Don can’t take pictures without positioning people and he can’t maintain a distance of 6 feet. So: no go this year. This is our reality right now. We realize, of course, that we are blessed in countless ways so I’m not complaining. I’m just acknowledging that some of my dollhouse renovation options are limited and have to be stretched out over time.

If I have to stop work on Dove Cottage, I’ll get back to my efforts to assemble the half-scale dollhouse I started a few years back. And I’ll assemble more kits.

I need projects! This jigsaw puzzle is the hardest one yet and I have to be in a certain kind of mood to even think of tackling it.

Yesterday afternoon found me upstairs in the office working on the dollhouse and Don downstairs in the living room working on a piece of music he is writing. Creativity in the Hill-Sparks household always makes me happy.

I am loving Faith Fox, the book by Jane Gardam that I am currently reading. She is a brilliant writer. I can’t say enough about her. I’m so looking forward to reading more of her work someday, especially her trilogy.

We’ve now watched Rachel Maddow for three nights running. We haven’t done that in a long, long time. We are in that kind of mood.

Okay. Have to go water plants.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Day One Hundred Seventeen

July 8, 2020 at 9:37 am by Claudia

Both Don and I were in dark moods yesterday. Funny how that happens – sort of retreating from each other and the world, yet obsessed by the news. That’s where we were. We talked about it later in the day and gave ourselves permission to feel down, to feel rage, to feel worried. (We should always be kind to ourselves, especially during such tumultuous times.)

We’re better for talking it through because we helped each other put into words what we were wrestling with during the course of the day and there’s comfort in knowing you’re not alone. We’re much better today.

Though it is gray and oppressive out there and if the weather forecast (and this time, the radar) are to believed we may get some severe storms this morning and afternoon. Even though it’s only supposed to reach the low eighties, there’s a heat advisory because there’s so much humidity out there. So I’d better stay in. I’d planned on doing a little garden cleanup but that can wait a couple of days.

In the middle of the day yesterday, I went upstairs to the office and finished my furniture kit. It’s a little too big for the Folk Art Dollhouse, though I could probably make it work. But it’s perfect for the bedroom of Dove Cottage.

There’s hardware included, but I don’t particularly like it so I will probably order something else.

These kits are fun to put together – sometimes frustrating as well! But I’m happy with this one. I think I’ll finish it in some sort of pine stain. I don’t want layers of paint because the drawers will be hard to close. A thin layer of stain will do the trick. Of course, I don’t have that on hand and money is tight, so this will go on my ‘wish list.’ I’m going to re-glue and clamp the upper left edge. I think the inserts are causing it to lift. I did that with the opposite edge and it worked.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Day One Hundred Sixteen

July 7, 2020 at 9:54 am by Claudia

Yesterday: Big warning for a severe thunderstorm with the usual: take cover, large hail, wind damage. Normally not a fan of severe storms, I was nonetheless excited because we would get some desperately needed rain. Thunder in the distance. Skies very dark. More thunder. Lots of humidity.

Nothing.

This is the way it has been for two weeks now. Forecast for rain, sometimes a warning, and then, crickets. Today it is very gray, not as hot but very humid, and what is the forecast? Scattered thunderstorms this afternoon.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

In the meantime, I’ll have to water everything because I can no longer trust the weather forecast.

We watched Maddow last night because we wanted to get up-to-date on the state of the pandemic. It was not good news. As a former Trump official said, “We are in trouble.”

And we are. Normally, we do everything we can to avoid this sort of thing before bedtime, but we really felt compelled to watch last night. I’m glad we did. But it’s utterly heartbreaking and it didn’t have to be this bad.

Let’s see, what else? I started putting together a little kit from the long-defunct House of Miniatures. It’s a desk. The main reason for assembling it is to see how it looks in the Folk Art Dollhouse. Is it too big? Or could I make it work? I’m not sure, but I’ll have a nice piece of furniture either way. I meant to start in on the stonework for the third and final side of the dollhouse but I got to it too late, hence the fiddling with the kit instead.

The garden is beginning to look overgrown and I need to fix that, but it’s been so hot and humid that I’ve been staying inside.

Though I’m usually pretty positive, today is one of those days where I feel depressed and angry and worried and despairing. I’m sure we’re all having those days during this crisis. I want my life to go back to normal but that isn’t going to happen for a long time. If anything, we’re going to be doubling down on our social distancing and self-isolating. It would be far too easy to let down our guard and we can’t do that. We need to have our kitchen door fixed by a carpenter, for example, but that would involve someone coming here and working in our house for a prolonged stretch of time. That’s not going to happen. So we use the front door instead. Every decision is now made with social distancing in mind.

The truth is, as you know, I’m an introvert and a nester, so much of this isn’t any different than my normal everyday life. But the fact that I can’t just pick up and go somewhere in the course of a day is different. I’d like to drop in at a local antique shop. I’d like to browse in a bookstore. Some of those shops are open now and Oblong Books is opening (with social distancing in place) next week. But my immediate reaction to these bits of news is: Nope. I’m not letting down my guard. We’re still in the middle of the first wave of this virus, extended and prolonged because of selfish fools. So, I won’t go to the antique shops or bookshops. I’ll order online. I have enough to read here. I really don’t need to buy anything decorative for the cottage. Those are just activities that bring me joy. And that’s why I miss them.

My thoughts today.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

claudiahillsparks

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