18/05:
They say that when, in spring, oak leaves are the size of squirrel ears its time to look for morels. If you are craving these tasty fungal delights and are not well acquainted with the anatomy of nut loving rodents you can watch the apple trees - Morels pop up when the apples are in bloom. In Oklahoma we used to watch for the red buds, Andy, Bob, Tory and I would make an annual pilgrimage to our hot spots where Morels could be found near the river bottoms on Joe's ranch. Where you find one you are apt to find dozens, and we would find them by the dozens near Weatherford. Prized locations were well guarded family secrets and, when I left, I passed on to Andy a map to a favorite spot of my own under some tall oaks along the banks of Horse creek. My thoughts flashed back to Weatherford when Zoe, showing her Oklhoma roots, found a morel under the dwarf crab-apples near the art department. She even consented to eat a slice, fried and slathered in butter.
15/05:
Yes, it seems skunks will eat chickens (and we have plenty), but so will fox, racoon, weasels, etc. The "eggs" Lizzie is offering up are actually some of the Maine beach rocks from ast summer's vacation. To answer a few questions of Maren's: Vera's Husband, the classicist Paola Vivante passed last fall. Born in Italy, he fled as a child during the time of Stalin, moved to England, and eventually to teaching at McGill in Montreal before living out the rest of his life in our hamlet of West Chazy, he was one of the kindest and most intelligent men I have had the pleasure of knowing. He was also the brother of the writer Arturo Vivante, this was clearly an incredible family, and makes me think that character truely blossom under adversity. This can also be said of Vera, who has lived through much, including london during the Blitz. In any case, none of the the difficulties were as hard on Vera as the loss of her love, Paolo. It seems that her heart is not in the studio anymore. She is closing down the shop, at least for the meantime, and has dedicated these last few months to publishing some of Paolo's last writings.
14/05:
A slow forward progression on the chicken coop. Lizzie seems to have adopted this structure as hers - selling eggs from the chicken doors. The chicks are due in by the end of the month (My five plymouth barred and Tory's six partridge and barred cochins), hopefull the coop will be finished by then, tough they will begin their life on the safer mud porch, far away from marauding skunks and other varmits. The clapboards came from a building they were pulling down at the Wesleyan Bible Camp up the road - and the "chicken doors'" are cabinet samples that I got last year when Chazy Hardware in the village sold out. Much of the framing came from Vera - part of it is what was left of her "chazy pottery" sign, a sad day to see it come down. she is closing the doors on her pottery studio shop, but the sign is being put to good "new" use - meanwhile she still rents out her own "chicken coop" to visitors, and has many paying guests lined up for this summer. All in all we have sunk $5.00 into the coop - the cost of the box of screws.
08/05:
Among the Brik-a-brack in the barn at the auction was a folding screen, the cloth which had covered it had long since beem stripped - revealing the paper underlining, which had been made from discarded paper. The script was both hand-written and wood-block printed, and included a drawing of chrysanthemums. I did not stay to see the screen sell - but I would have liked them - prefering these writings to the orginal intended screen.
07/05:
With warm weather return on-site auctions. This one in Loon Lake, up in the Adirondacks, about 35 miles from Plattsburgh. Auctions like these are getting harder to find. The star of the day was a limner like painting of a girl and her dog, the painting sold for 6,500 (or something thereabouts). The house was full of antiques, recently, and reluctantly left by the older woman who had lived there for some 60 years. She had never married, and did not have a car, which is a considerable statement considering she did not (and evidently never did) own a car. Far from any town, she had groceries, the New Yorker, and the New York Times delivered every week. This winter was hard on her, she took ill, and in this 20+ room 1830 house with only a coal kitchen stove for cooking, it could not have been easy. It is a starkly beautiful thing to see a long lived in house such as this emptied and layed bare - all cracks and stains and weathering become apparent. Without furniture in a room, the wall paper and remaining fixtures take prominence,the record the passage of time, with ghosts on the walls where paintings once hung. The house goes up for Auction later this week, but the contents were sold yesterday and today.
02/05:
This is Zoe perched on a branch on the edge of the pasture woods in Argyle. just over a month ago when the sap was just beginning to run Zoe and I walked throught these woods where just a few patches of ground were showing among the snow. Zoe and I hung, head back holding this branch, catching the drips of sap that came from snapped branches further up. We also stood under a broken branch that was dripping sap from some 15 feet above, trying to catch it on our tongues, sometimes they would fall in our mouths, but often they were buffeted by breezes, falling into our eyes and splashing on our chins and noses. This is a beautiful spot.
