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Day One Hundred Nineteen

July 10, 2020 at 8:24 am by Claudia

I’m writing this early in the morning as I want to get outside and do some work before it rains later in the afternoon. Happy about the rain, of course, but this is the first morning where the temperature has been bearable and I want to take advantage of it.

You are dear to me – all of you.

When I wrote of being on a tight budget yesterday, it was not my intention to paint a dire picture, just to state the facts. We are not special. So many without work are struggling and have children and bills and mouths to feed. I have noticed a larger sense of worry among my actor friends as this goes on and on. No one knew that theaters would be closed for what will be nearly a year. It could be longer. We couldn’t grasp that back in March, when everything suddenly shut down. On one hand, we’re freelancers and have always had to deal with periods where we weren’t working. On the other, we’ve never had to deal with absolutely no possibility of work for months and months. Anyway, I thank you for caring and for reaching out.

I don’t think either of us is comfortable selling prints of our photos. I take pictures because I like to do that and I like to share them with you. I see others marketing their photos, but that’s not really me. And Don’s camera is meant for portraits – Polaroid portraits. It’s not meant for landscapes. Neither of us has ever been comfortable with marketing our extra-career skills. I sold scarves for a while on Etsy, Don has sold his CDs, but it isn’t a place where we exist with ease.

Anyway. Today I’ll do some weed whacking, a little mowing, some pruning and cleaning up. I’m not going to let Don do anything as his back is really bothering him and he is not doing any lifting or pushing for a week. It’s slowly getting better, but it’s my turn to take over for a bit, just as he has done when my back was bothering me.

I’m about 2/3 done with the stonework on the dollhouse. It’s looking good.

R. – I’ve been thinking about you lately. We haven’t heard from you for a while. When you have a chance, would you let us know how you’re doing?

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

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 Nineteen

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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