LAW127: The End of an Era, and Other Events

Thursday afternoon at approximately 12:25 the Floating Empire left her home pier at Middle River Landing, bound for a new home and new adventures. It was a very bittersweet moment. Don was scheduled to work, so could not be here to say goodbye to our beloved barrel barge shanty boat. Likely just as well, as he is the more sentimental one about stuff like this.

With a little help from friends

Still, i will miss her as well. After all, she was our home for just over three years. We designed and built her in our backyard, arguing over every square inch. She went through a major renovation last winter/spring. And now, she will provide shelter to some one else. Lucky for her new owner, he did not have to tow her very far.

Hard work, getting her out of the slip

We learned a lot building and living in her. We will definitely put all that experience to good use. Soon too, i think. We are currently living in, and rehabbing at the same time a 29' 1976, Cal sailboat; Tesla's Revenge. Soon she will lose her mast, as soon as we can find a boat yard with a working crane in reasonable proximity to us. Then we we can build the wheel house, install the solar panels(on top of the wheel house) and of course the motor. Then we will be ready to motor off, very quietly to new adventures.

Yes, there were plenty of witness'

Magellan, our beloved ship's cat is adapting nicely to the new space. He has lots of new, little nooks and crannies to explore. He loves walking the fore deck. It is quite startling to see him stroll by the galley windows. He does however, walk the dock, stopping at the empty slip where Empire was moored. I'm sure he knows that something is missing.

Magellan loves playing with his water bowl.

Boats, particularly sail boats have a tremendous amount of storage, unfortunately, almost all of it is 'dead' storage, underneath, or behind something else. It is a challenge to remember where i have stowed everything. I don't even want to talk about 'my' quarter berth. I had to seriously down size my studio space, and i do have to move at least two things to get to anything other than my current needlepoint piece, or the altered book i am working on.

Speaking of the most current textile piece, i made a design decision about two weeks ago, which has altered the ultimate over all form of the Firebird. I chose to do away with the hanging 'dags' on either side of the bottom. I felt that they were competing with the central flame and tail feathers. I also have added one more tongue of flame to the lower edge. I just finished the one on the left, next will be the new flame on the right hand side.  Of course i feel the design is stronger for these changes.

One more flame, the rest of the sky......and

We plumbed our little cooktop this morning! Yes, no more small, expensive bottles of propane cluttering my counter top.

I made a lovely soup last night, sort of a homage to one of my favorites from Anna Thomas. Her's, a vegetarian potato and corn chowder from one of her first cookbooks. Mine had sweet potatoes and fresh corn, but it had a very definite Malaysian twist. I made a sweet/savory flavoring paste(cumin, fennel, cardamon, ginger, garlic, tumeric and fenugreek), coconut milk, a little shredded cabbage and shrimp. Absolutely delish!

Really, i wanted to eat it all, but i saved some for Don.

It has stopped raining, the cat has left the boat, and it is time for me to go to my studio and make stuff.

Oh yes, Happy Earth Day! Every day should be earth day, she is after all the only one we got.

More later,
gail