Sunday, January 20, 2008

BRRRRRR


I must confess, I slept in this morning (my cold is still getting the best of me!) and when I finally dragged my lazy butt out of bed it was almost 8:00 AM and the temp was 18 F: Sheesh!!! As you can see below, the thermometer on the pool patio was reading a balmy 23.9 at 10:23! WooHoo!



I waddled on out to the studio midmorning and snapped a few pics. Here are our Hellebores, nestled in ice and snow along the front walkway:


Most people hate Nandina: I happen to love them, but only when pruned properly. Here's a lovely one along the front of the house:


The faucet near the pool has had a very slow leak for a few months now, and so C has attached a hose and keeps it dangling in the pool. This morning it was sporting a long icicle:


I puttered with Preserve and Protect most of the morning. I'm reading "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott, which is actually Lamott's advice to writers, but so many of her words apply to all of us who are struggling. She says that you must set aside a time everyday to write/do your craft. I am finding that I am most productive in the morning, be it mid to late morning, so I tackle my projects then, and exercise later in the day. This is my new approach, and it will probably change again when the weather is warmer and it is light earlier, and then I'll get up earlier and exercise at that time. Anyway, here is Preserve and Protect on the design wall this morning:



I'm still not enthralled with her, but I do feel that she has come a long way. Your silence spoke legions to me last week: you were too kind to tell me that P&P truly stank. Is this better? How would you make her even better?

This evening C and I attended the dedication of our church's new organ,

Casavant Freres Organ Opus 3865:



Isn't she a beauty!!! The service was billed as "Solemn Evensong with The Liturgy of Consecration" for the organ. It was a delightful sevice with the most incredible organ and choral music I have ever experienced. Dr. David Burton-Brown, our organist and choir director, certainly did us proud! Each organ selection was fabulous, but I was totally undone and brought to tears by Stanley's "Trumpet Voluntary in D Major". Well done David!! The Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta, preached, while our beloved Rector, Doug Dailey officiated. It was a lovely service and I was so pleased to be in attendance.

PEACE

4 comments:

Nellie's Needles said...

Judy, thanks for sharing your journey through the design process for "Preserve and Protect". The latest arrangement is pretty good in my judgement. The play of symmetry against off-set elements almost works. The placement of the two focus tree pieces feels a bit heavy. What would happen if they too were off-set from each other?

Eva Hagbjärn said...

What a freezing weather you have "over there"!
We have as warm as +5.1C - 41.18F, here in Skåne-Sweden. No snow or freezing degrees until you come upp to the middle parts of Sweden.
And now to your P&P. I haven't comment it because there are more competent people who can do that rather than me, but...I liked it when you had the stones on it too. Was it pebbles you called them?
xo

Joyce said...

Preserve and Protect is looking better and better. We have been having bitterly cold weather here and it sounds even colder in celsius (-24 as I write) but perfect quilting weather. I too am most productive in the morning but if I don't exercise in the morning it doesn't happen. I regret to say that lately, it hasn't been happening.

Gerrie said...

I am not going to complain about our Arctic freeze - it pales in comparison to your's! I like Nellie's idea of offsetting the trees. You are more or less doing an abstract landscape. I am not comfortable with the way those pieces line up across the top third. And perhaps the brown pieces shouldn't be the same size.

Hope you are feeling better. Remember how long it took me to get over the crud?

XXOO