Rainy Sunday. Mom is upstairs scraping off wallpaper, Josh is reviewing plans for the ell, I am secretly looking forward to the moment when I can crawl beneath the sheets, though it is only a little past six. All we really did work-wise today was dig holes, but apparently it wore me out. We are waiting til the rain stops to start on the roof, but there is plenty to work on.
It’s very quiet here now, with most of the summer people gone. For now, I like the ghostly feel, though I may be antsy in a few months. But fairly soon I should be both gainfully employed and working in my studio again and will thus be happily occupied for the winter. Speaking of ghostly, I’m told we get upwards of sixty trick-or-treaters in our tiny neighborhood. Our ‘hood in Portland was the kind that kids don’t trick or treat in. (In other words, there was plenty of tricking on Grant St., and not so much treating, and it was a more of a year-round thing.) It’s sort of silly that we had to move to an island to dole out Halloween candy, but here we are, actually excited about the prospect. For one thing, it’s the time of year when I can let my inner candy corn junkie out without shame. For another, I am going to make rice krispie squares – Halloween ones, that is – because it’s the kind of place where you could give out something homemade without people suspecting you of being some kind of weirdo. I still remember how devastated I was when I was around eight years old and my friend Meghan, visiting from the city, informed me with ghoulish delight that people hid razor blades in apples.
Later…I didn’t get around to actually posting the above, so now it is Saturday, at the end of a day that was so windy we saw the cat being blown about like a leaf outside the living room windows. We’re really making good time on the barn now, half the roof is done, including on the tricky dormer, which is finally shingled; got the ell deck all framed up and almost ready for insulation, which we will do tomorrow. Once the roof is on the ell we can finish the barn roof and move on to the inside. The roof: surprisingly hard on your feet, which want to grip desperately. But lovely to be eye-to-eye with little birds on the telephone wires, and to have a front row seat for a very dramatic mini-storm, complete with a two-minute double rainbow.
The apple fairy came by and gave us a bag of apples from a tree he’s been picking from for fifty-five years, and they are enormous – he said three will make a pie. Fall’s bounty is the best, perhaps because it is especially fleeting.
Andy Poe, the last picture is for you. Enjoy!
island haven 