Yes, I know it has been over a week since the driveway has been poured. I am driving on it now, and pulling my car into the garage, for the first time in over a year. And yet it seems I have been busier than ever. Or perhaps just more panicked. And so, better late than never.
This photo was taken about 5:45 AM just before the first concrete flowed into the space. The crew had been on site, setting up, since before 5, and they were there, working until about 6::30 in the evening. This photo was also posted on Instagram. Apologies to those who follow me there.
Walking into the house after walking Tikka, just about dawn. The first time I saw the lights in the studio in the dark or near dark. The crew is busy on the other side of the house.
Even though the pour was a week ago, and even though most big things were unpacked, except in the studio, it seems like last week was the week of delayed panic, a kind of second-flush of unpacking and settling. The big piles of things you see here are still in the front yard, although the job is supposed to finish up the end of this week. I will believe that when I see it. But at least I am able to pull in and out and park.
This is the last week of summer, the last week of August, the last week before Labor Day weekend here in the US, In many ways it is an arbitrary transition. Schools have long since started in this part of the country. The art and social seasons are gearing up. But the air and the light have already shifted. The sun is different in the sky, the air smells more of autumn, of decay more than new growth. This all means that I need to get busy. What isn't put away and settled this week may remain on hold until winters settles in. Hence the push. This is made more imperative by the fact that I can actually get in and out of the house now without climbing through a construction site and walking to my car, parked somewhere up the street. I have no more excuses to hide behind. It was such a minor problem really, a privilege even, but during that phase all I really wanted to do was hunker down.
So the books are all organized, which means I can find things. My desk/office corner is organized. Perhaps I am just too deeply wedded to a sense of order. But, despite the fact that when life grows too calm something in my psyche needs to create a small storm of chaos -- a disruption which leads to creative discovery -- a constant sense of chaos and disorder creates an atmosphere of unending low level stress that seems to magnify over time.
CDs and LPs have been unpacked, sorted and put away, although the CD player has developed a glitch and may need to be sent out for repair or replaced, much to my annoyance. An upgrade to the stereo system is not a possibility at the moment. But much as I am annoyed, life goes on, and the turntable is working beautifully.
I still have a lot of unpacking in the studio, and this will be my focus this week. Ideally, I had hoped to be sewing all summer, learning to warp the loom, and generally playing with fiber. Despite initial promises that the studio would be done 2 weeks after I moved it, it was closer to two months. There was an initial flush of unpacking, only to be followed by a period of moving the things that had been unpacked, or repacking, when it was decided that some more work needed to be done. My frustration increased, but luckily in many ways I was also distracted by questions and other tasks, the ongoing hardscaping, the "punch" list and various interruptions.
But all in all it is good, and I am happy. It is far from done. Well, a garden is never done anyway, and aside from a flush of larger plantings to take place sometime in the fall, much of this garden will evolve slowly. I make mistakes when I do too much too fast. I remain a bit overwhelmed, and slow to find focus. The fact that we are moving into fall, that winter is coming, and that next spring is far away is probably a good thing for me and my garden. It gives us time to get to know each other a bit before taking the next step.
