birds overhead

The sky was busy this early morning as I ran along with my Corgis for our exercise. A gang of pigeons heading north, a group of blackbirds heading westerly, a gaggle of geese flying out of the desert to a more promising eating spot, probably a nearby park. But the hawk is the one that stopped me. I had to watch the grace of the flight.


I love it that I can spot hawks at least once a week. We have sparrow hawks, Coopers's hawks, Yakis, red-tail and more. Red-tail seem to like Spanish Springs. It has to much lighter then it was  for me this morning to figure out exactly what I'm looking at, but the pleasure isn't diminished. Flying - inspires the imagination. How to get myself to soar, this earth bound woman wishing to loosen the ties, free the imagination. The hawk may be hunting for food. I'm hunting for soul nourishment.

a Spanish Springs hawk - Red Tail

i'm dreamin' of…

Warm air. Flowers blooming. Kids having fun with the animals and swimming. Outdoor parties. It's just after 6 pm and malaise has set in. I'm going to bed. I have so many projects that I want to get to, but I'm hit with ennui. Frustrated that I can't get this blog to look good. Tired of winter - yes, oh poor me, like there is anything I can do about it. Been up since 5, did get some work done, cleaned the corrals, ran with the dogs and I'm done. What I really miss is fall and Christmas. I am full of energy October through December. Now I can't find a creative thought. Don't know where their hiding. Maybe I'll find something in my dreams.

Josh & Rodney giving rides

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a reason for believing

Two posts from blogs I love have inspired me to post tonight. It's about believing without being religious, believing in soul and creativity and inspiration. Both Into the Woode and Knitting into the Wind have sent my mind racing. I love tonight's posts, I am not religious - too much politics there. I don't think religion is in the DNA. I do think that belief in soul and connection and a greater power of good is there. I think it sparks creativity. Religion - when I was a child, I was told that my dog Susie couldn't go to heaven with me - animals don't have souls. So I decided I would just go wherever Susie was going. Still feel that way. I see spirit, something greater than mere human and that all the living have soul - the butterflies that stop by my Valerian, the hawks that hunt the quail, the coyotes that bound along beside me wondering if I'll give up one of my Corgis to her. Nature in her might - how lovely. May the week bring you all some joy, some peace, some excitement, some inspiration and some creativity.

winter morning in Spanish Springs

birds & color swatches - making a dollhouse

It's the end of the week and it feels like it.

I've not posted much.

Kind of stuck with the dollhouse theme. 

Was making my home the 'dollhouse' a good idea or not?

Not sure, but this is a problem I need to overcome - sticking with a creative idea.

I won't let myself back out this time. I will write about it.

Do stuff.

But I think I missed the point when the others are actually building dollhouses.

Let me see. I guess I think of my house as the dollhouse I never had.

The raw material is there. 

I just need to make it what makes me happy.

Which color to paint? Blue is my favorite color.

Most of the rooms in my house are blue.

There is a gray hall.

There is a pink breakfast room

Most of the furniture is painted - white - some blue.

Now I want to paint my bedroom

But what color of blue?

I've framed these swatches in some of the vine wreaths I've made.

Whenever I trim the vines, I can't bear to throw away those lovely threads.

I make them into wreaths.

They're all over the gardens.

Some in piles.

Some around fence posts.

Don't know what else to do with them.

And I do want to make them.

which color blue?

Ah, the doves.

These two are sitting on the tree outside my bedroom window.

We have nesting doves every spring. Some think they are just romanticized pigeons.

I don't.

I like to listen to their cooing, watch them build nests, look at their pretty eggs. They let you get close, sit still in their nest. Their soft colors of browns and grays sometimes match their nesting spot. Last year it was on a rails of the horse corrals. The year before, it was in the climbing rose at the top of the arbor. They don't seem to mind my coming and going and taking an occasional peek.

Will these two mate this spring?

I'll watch.

sweet doves

The Dollhouse Project continued

Once again I've been thinking about that project and if I'm taking the right approach. Also thinking about this blog and how I want it to look. Actually, designing the blog is the hardest. I'm used to using InDesign and just getting everything how I want it. This is much harder. 

I love white! And blue.

And here is the first project I've started - painting the cupboards. When we first moved in, they were just an ugly pre-fab color. We sanded and painted, but they get dirty with hand prints and all because they aren't done professionally. By the end of the month, they will all be squeaky clean. Then I'm on to the baseboards, windowsills and casements. When it gets warm enough, I'll be touching up the outside. We have one wall that just gets blistered by the sun. The rest looks freshly done, but that southeast wall - not so much.

This is the book that will follow my progress and my ideas about the dollhouse - remember, I'm using my own house as my dollhouse and what will be in the book is all those things I want to do. I told my husband that I want my house to look like we are trying to sell it. Why shouldn't you have that for your everyday living?!?! The hardest part is keeping the painting up. But here is the book.

building a dollhouse

this is my dollhouse

our dollhouse

it's the house i dreamed of

oh, not at first - i thought i wanted city, condo, apartment

i had lived out, away, all my young life

so our first house was in a neighborhood

tree in middle of lawn

a place for flower beds

neighbors breathing on the other side of the fence

don't get me wrong - made wonderful friends there

and i finally had those sidewalks to skate on

the one thing i dreamed of as a child

but i found out that what gets under your skin as a child 
space 

comes back

i wanted my own horse, on my own property

so we bought a little 'ranch house' on some acreage

you know, the ranch house of the 60s, and i do mean little

as time passed, i had my horses and a goat to boot

and boots

and giant spaces to plant trees and vines and roses and a
 vege garden and a green house and a secret garden and garden swings 
and gazebos

and we added on to the house and put in many many windows

i can see the sierra nevada range out front and a smaller mountain range in back

i watch sunsets turn the entire property pink, outbuildings, ground, area, grass

i continue to build this dollhouse

i clean it i love it i walk the little property i tend gardens and horses

get a lot of weight bearing exercise shoveling manure and carrying bags of compost

for the doll house project

i'm starting a small journal

i'll add to it every week and take an

occasional photo

some writing, some - i don't know - i like to splash paint

but have no talent for it

can't draw

can use my stamps

can splash paint

my resolution

my hope

find creativity again

have to paint some cupboards now

our dollhouse

dollhouse project

looked at emma tree's blog and she and some others have started the dollhouse project. 

the three have asked others to play.

i decided i would. i'm figuring out what my blog is about.

i think now i know. it's about keeping a home.

no, i'm not martha. love to keep a home anyway.

my mom was a home keeper.

i'm a feminist. fought for the era. fought for rights. hold a couple of degrees.

i am a professional.

mostly, though, i'm a home keeper. i clean. i wash. i craft. i slipcover.

the job i will always treasure is mother and grandmother.

am i defined by this. don't know. have been through many explorations of that.

always come back to - i have to work - i love my home.

how grateful i am to work in a home office.

and i'm going to start writing again.

actually, that's what i do for a living, but anyone can do that kind of writing.

i'm trying my hand at the other kind. from the heart. very out of practice.

it will be part of my dollhouse.

go to emma tree's blog to see more about this project.

honoring my mother. miss her. am asking for some guidance.

do you believe in angels?

making a home

it's ice time

it's that ice time of year

it's days growing longer

it's brrr time

yesterday the girls (my corgis stella & frieda)

walked in the desert

we met a curious coyote who decided to see if it was meals on wheels

he or she? followed us

i was running and maybe she thought that was her cue

just to be safe, i stopped and ran toward her

she bounced away

so the three of us continued our run on home

so far my encounters with the local indigenous locals has been neutral

i love seeing them

i love them chattering at night like they are at the greatest party

though urbanites are closing in on us and complain about

the nature of it all

i still have the occasion to see the wild beauty

that once surrounded my home

it's that time of year

curious coyotes

hawks overhead

the girls oblivious waiting for their treats

me enjoying daily freedom

brrrr…ice in the driveway