LAW 47: Summer is slipping away

Yikes! The last day of September, it is a gray, rainy, windy day, thank you Joaquin. Here at the marina, the weather is a more frequent topic of conversation than normal, which way this storm tracks makes a major difference in what we will plan for and experience. So we will wait and look obsessively at radar maps and weather pundit predictions and continue to enjoy our lives here hurricanes or no.

I can't believe that this is the last day of September! Summer is for all extents and purposes over. Yes, we will continue to have remarkably beautiful weather. Yes we will continue to spend much of our days out of doors, but the signs of change are in the air. People that i have never seen dressed in anything but shorts and tank tops are now sporting jeans and sweatshirts. It is dark enough at suppertime that once more lit candles grace the dinner table. There is talk of bonfires, stone soup and s'mores instead of swimming expeditions.

Dinners ready! Good food, candlelight and candles

Last night's storm took down the rest of our sun chokes, damm! They had really just come into full bloom, almost a month and a half later than predicted. We really did not intend to harvest them until after the first frost, but i think if they don't have any leaves left that we should harvest them early. I guess this is what i get for planting what is a forest verge plant in the middle of an unprotected sunny river bank. I already had planned to move them to the fence line behind the boat yard as they had grown much taller and bushier than anticipated.

Blown down by wind and rain, they were almost to the roof!

Our good friends Chris and Shannon adopted a boat kitty this past weekend, Chuck, a beautiful, three month old ball of solid black fur, energy and boundless curiosity. He and Magellan are learning to be friends.

curiosity doesn't kill...

hmm, who are you?

 Almost with out our notice the local tomatoes, sweet corn and peaches have disappeared from the markets. I'm never really ready to see them go, lucky for us our stalwart Mexico Midget in a pot is still putting out incredibly delicious tomatoes.

There is so much more that i wanted to do this summer. How did i let it slip away?

More later,
Morgainne

LAW 46: More tales of the cat

I'm actually considering the possibility of allowing Magellan his own blog, that way i could write more about art. Sadly, he is not  as yet adept with a keyboard as Cocoa Cat was. Perhaps with more remedial training….

Magellan doing yoga while guarding the electronics

Actually the thrust of this entry is about some of the rather weird, and frankly almost, dare i say, psychotic quirks that Magellan has developed over the last couple of months.
the absolute weirdest of these is the Girl on a String Game that he insists we play every day, at least twice a day. Actually more like every time i sit down to work in my studio. Luckily so far this only occurs when i am siting on my rocker, doing embroidery.

I AM paying attention! 

No, i am not making this up, here is video proof.

More later,
Morgainne

LAW 45: Some of us are makers

Recently i discovered/rediscovered yet another way that we humans divide ourselves. I am sure that you are all quite familiar with many of the 'standard' divisions that we have come up with, all of which are designed to separate us. You know, black and white, rich and poor, have and have not. Historically we have used race, income, education, talent, birth, shape, age and many other potentially divisive markers to make ourselves special and others, well, not so.

Mungo and i spent the last week, one of the hottest of this summer, building a wooden sailing dingy. Building our PuddleDuck Racer was a lot of fun, and of course, work. It was through the course of this build that i realized that people, at least people of a certain level of affluence in  this country also divide themselves in a very significant fashion into makers and consumers. Numerous times in the past week we were asked, what are you doing? Why are you making this? Are you going to……. with many variations of the basic query that indicated most, if not all of our interlocutors thought that we were likely, well, crazy.

moraine starting the name

The bottom line appears to be why would you want to build(MAKE) something if you could buy it?!? My first, admittedly flippant response, why would i want to buy something that i could make, flip or not holds significant truth.

yes, you really can find anything on the internet

If i think about it i can come up with at least three reasons that a majority of people would prefer to buy rather than build. The first and likely most compelling reason would be instant gratification. Making takes time, buying generally does not. Making does take specific skill sets. Learning how to do something takes time and practice, time that many of us are unwilling to commit to.  Making takes a level of self confidence, a willingness to fail, to play the fool. Somehow in the past fifty years it has become more chic, more in, more, well more, to be a consumer. Somehow the possession of commercially made objects has become a symbol; a status symbol, a symbol of worth, a symbol of success.

sail's up, away we go!

I just don't buy this. I have been a maker pretty much all my  life. I love making things; beautiful things, functional things. I love the feelings of pride, of accomplishment, success. I love the rush, the high, the feeling of completion that comes from finishing a project. Whatever that project is. Be it finishing and launching the Dharma Duck, which Mungo and i did yesterday;  or placing the last stitch in my newest embroidery piece; or eating a new, experimental  dinner with friends(yes, the grilled octopus was delicious), making something and experiencing the thrill of its completion, its use is ever so fulfilling.

detail summer sun banner

oh my! Ever so yummy

I have been a maker all my life. Are you?



More later,
Morgainne