Farm Sunday

Mimi and Ellie, two peas in a pod...

Today I went for a very short slap dash visit out to the farm. It was the equal opposite Fall day from yesterday; cool, dry, sunny with a nice light breeze.

The girls got out Sugar Boy for a quick spin. Usually they jockey for position in taking turns riding Sugar, but today to the Victor went the spoils and that Victor was Ellie! You go girl!
She took a couple of spills a while back and cooled off on her horse riding. Her interests veered off into pellet gun shooting and various other kid weapons, which is good and "a part of this complete childhood". But we are all pleased to see her back in the correct unsaddled bareback position! Hooray! You know "Those ol' Sorry Pearson's" eschew saddles and other frivolous horse accoutrements. You don't need none of that.
Both girls are confident competent horsewomen, as one would expect. Ellie is in many ways more like me; gentle, quiet (sometimes) and patient while Cassie is just like Brandi...but more so(if it can be imagined); fearless, busy, restless, forceful. To say that Brandi bends things to her will is a bit of an understatement.
Once while watching her "persuade" her steed one uncle said of the uncooperative horse (I think it was Charger) "uh oh, that's his ass". Boy how!
We did not "learn" how to ride but took the same approach as with all our other talents, we did it "intuitively". You pretty much just stay on and when you learn horse body language it all comes together. It was easy.
Here is Ellie with her badge of honor; Ring Around the Butt. It's proof of one's saddle free coolness, showing off your horsewoman chops. It's also a sure sign that you've done at least one truly joyful thing today.

Dad tolerates me bringing Roxi out to the Farm even though she disrupts his cats. Thanks Dad! It seems cruel to go out there and leave a dog here in town, she loves it out there and is always so tired when we get home that I have to drag her out of the car she's so whooped.

When she and her Brother Angus get together, their intelligence drops off a bit. They're just having fun! I call them Dumb and Dumber.

When they are ten will they still carry on like this?

While the girls were with Sugar, the grown ups were on the porch and the dogs were frolicking I wandered around hunting for pictures.

Here is the first pump house of three on the Farm. It's cinder block with a deteriorating roof which you can see out of here...

When I was little I liked going inside to bask in the unusual sensation of being in a tiny building that was just my size. It's so cute!

It reminded me of the feeling I got whenever I visited the Grandparent Pearsons in Columbus and walked into the 1950s playhouse my granddad built for my Aunt Charme. He is an engineer and an architect and he built her the cutest miniature playhouse complete with tiny staircase leading up to a sort of attic/loft! Going in was a time warp for all the senses. If I ever smell that aroma again it will probably make me cry, the way remembered smells can do.

There was an old tiny piano that sounded as high pitched as it was undersized; I can still remember tickling the ivories whenever I entered! If there is anything at all that makes noise kids have to bang on it, it's a law of nature. There were mini dishes and even a real sink, a wee stainless steel thing. Everything you needed to play house was there. Oh and I just remembered one of the best parts-a porch light by the front door that really worked! That reminds me there was also an attic light that came on with a tug of the pull string. Those details made it very special; those were the kinds of things most people would have left out, but Wilbur Buckner Pearson knows what's good!

Oh how I wish I had a picture of it. If I could go anywhere in the Universe right now, it would be then and there, just for a minute. Just to smell that musty smell, hear the way sounds echoed in those close walls and look out the dusty kitchen window. I would turn on the porch light, play a quick "Mary Had A Little Lamb" on the piano and climb up those diminutive stairs to pull the light cord on and off, on and off while Granddad whistled a tune outside watering his palms.

I could always go back inside if it got too hot and marvel at all the cool tiny kitchen gadgets in a kitchen drawer or sit at Grandmother Pearson's vanity and clip her vintage costume jewelry to my ears and anywhere else on my clothes or hair.

Another favorite of visits there had to be enjoyed during the quiet privacy of grown up Nap time. I loved to tip toe into the living room and carefully, slowly pull open the door on the replica of Napoleon's carriage Granddad made. It was forbidden, but I could not resist my compulsion to open that doorway into the enchanted miniature environment he had created. Inside were richly upholstered button tucked velvet seats! The whole thing was no more than perhaps 10" high.

Their house was enchanted and seemed to permanently exist in the 50s, which made it an even better treat.

Now hopefully I can drift off into the dreaming world, become the dreamer and walk around in that time and space that lives in my mind. I can feel all the textures, inhale all the aromas, hear all the hypnotic sounds (old ceiling fan in Dad and Wilbur's room) and become infused in all the sensory delights of Military Rd.

Saturday knockin' around

Saturday knockin' around.
I brought home my first two pumpkins today; I love when stores and corner lots start selling pumpkins, glorious pumpkins! I am so happy to be able to enjoy fall this years, I'm going to savor it...

It was drizzly, drippy and rainy all day Saturday and I enjoyed every minute of it. I took the dog out for a walk while it was still just misty and held the weeds back from this neighborhood marker to post a picture here. Nice huh? It is so gorgeous to me, reminds me of an old cemetery marker. The pictures of the old Cedars a few posts ago are only a few houses away from this sign. I figure they are between 40-50 years old so this marker predates them by about 20 or more years...I would absolutely love to see what this area looked like back then.

I had a Auto Body shop class teacher at CPCC who was a rare native Charlottean and he used to regale mer with tales of the Charlotte of his childhood. He told me about when Monroe Rd. (the main road my neighborhood is just off of) was just a dirt road. And not that long ago! It must have been beautiful. Back then Mr. Walker still had a huge farm with horses and rolling hills just 3 miles away. He might have thought "Damn people building houses right next to my farm!" Or at least that's what I would think! He was our neighbor accross the street on Emory Ln. where I grew up. Mom says that the land our house was built on changed hands this way: "we" bought it from the developer who bought it from Mr. Walker who's family got it from the Queen shit the Indians out of it! WOW! I always loved that story. Well she didn't word it that way, artistic license you know...

1936, let me tell you that is old by Charlotte standards. I bought a piece of furniture from the thrift store that had some old Charlotte post cards in it. When I figure out my scanner I'll post them on here...

It was a great day to start chicken chili in the crock pot. Another Fall pleasure! It was so yummy when I came home from the big 70s theme party.

I laughed with Tiffany about how we know we're getting older because at 1:30 A.M. all we want to do is come home, let the dog out, eat my chicken chili (or Tiffany's leftover sub), shower the smell of bar smoke off and go to sleep!

Sights

Above is one of my favorite views. Roxi is a great companion, plus she is easy on the eyes!
We headed off on one of our routes today and I finally started taking my camera along so I can bring home some of my favorite sights.
This big old Crepe Myrtle is so beautiful, the dappled sun makes it look like nymphs live in it. It's so sculptural and the trunks are so smooth like bones...


...and there's a hidden surprise when you get closer! I don't know why the same sight is always so striking to me. These little Willow Oak seedlings will put down roots anywhere, I guess that's why we have so many old ones everywhere. This Crepe Myrtle provides the perfect inviting little nook for an acorn to get started.
This used to be The Purple Picket, a cool furniture place that specialized in weird contemporary pieces bought from importers as "scratch & dent". A year or two ago it became the Kings International International Church and they kept the sign! I think they even still turn on the neon purple bulbs! If I wanted to go to a Church, this one would be number one on my list! If I go by on Sundays I see the flock milling about in their Sunday Best looking sharp, I'm probably not even snazzy enough to go there.

I just bought a dress pattern for Ellie's Halloween witch costume. I have to get started on it NOW or I run the risk of procrastination catching me! I also bought a pattern for a super cool 50s looking halter top a line dress for ME. I am going to make Mom teach me how to figure out this whole pattern situation. She showed me & helped me make one in high school but that was the only one I ever made. Then I saw on my friend Laura's blog where she made a gorgeous sundress and now I'm inspired.

thanks Laura!

makeup is expen$ive!

Mom was kind enough to take me to the Lancome place tonight to have my makeup done and it was fun. Mom looked gorgeous! The first woman was a bit patronizing when she asked me about what my skin care routine was, what makeup did I wear and what the Hell was I even there for? Well, she didn't say "Hell". She was off put by the fact that I do not wear nor do I plan to ever wear foundation or lipstick. I look like a clown in lipstick. I have full lips and I think they are plenty noticeable enough on their own. I made it through my tenage years and all of the 80s and 90s without picking up the habit. Plus all lipstick smells like whale blubber and it gets crusty within an hour. Yuck.
Still we stayed strong and did not get suckered into spending $120 on face wash & moisturizer. They have a damn vibrating mascara wand that they were pushing pretty hard. It left clumps in my eye lashes and I do a better job with the old fashioned "manual" mascara.
Note the clumps!

Still, not too shabby....

It was another beautiful day, although still a little too hot & humid but I'll quit complaining.

I made some headway on my Halloween hot air balloon, it's coming together nicely! Especially the basket. I have 3 black skeletons in various positions around a battery operated tea light that has hand painted vellum flames around it so it looks like a little fire! And the basket is a half a pumpkin! How cool is that? I'm tempted to put in a sneak preview but I'll show some restraint and wait until it's finished.

Well, I guess I better get to some dreaded work related email composing:( But tomorrow I can spend the day working on my balloon and doing some touch ups at Trade Winds. It's a good life.

Fall Equinox & Tuesday

First day of Fall and Tuesday at the same time! What more could I ask for?

Yay!!! I enjoyed it so much, I couldn't even take out time to write in my blog.
I enjoyed it so much that even discovering that the "new" washing machine I lugged in here has a leak is not enough to dampen my enthusiasm. I did have a very low energy situation in the afternoon, but it was made up for by the company of Vanessa & Tiffany later.
I do need to get to sleep soon as it is way past my bedtime...

But not quite yet...

So many visual delights today, I see these 3 old Cedars nearly every day on my walk and they always command all my attention while in sight. They have been kept pruned high up their trunks for years, they are probably 18"-20" in diameter. They always remind me of those cactus skeletons the New Mexico plains are filled with. We had one when I was 5 in the long snake shaped plexi glass box Dad made and we had as a cage for our King Snake Elvis. I've gotta scan that picture to post! I loved that snake, loved the feel of his cool smooth scales gracefully gliding over my arms and tiny hands...but I digress!

I love the Cedars and I think they look meaningful all lined up like they are. Makes me wonder who planted them and when? Trees are heirlooms in my family and I don't like to think of a day when the lineage of the saplings Dad and I planted is unknown. Don't they need someone to tell their story? Won't people look at them and wonder about their family?

At least these in my neighborhood in the city are still standing. Whoever planted themyears ago is not forgotten, only unknown; unknown is not gone.

Kitchen Window

The kitchen window is probably the most "looked out" window in the house. Isn't it always? This is one of the two over my sink. I have shoved it full of things I love to look at.
My friend Dee made me the Day of the Dead skeletons in boxes. I'll have to add a better picture of them because they are just so cute. She made them for me as a Christmas gift a few years ago because she had a few on her tree before and I always told her how much I love them. You know how a person's art always "looks like them"? You can recognise a person's hand in anything if you're familiar with any of their work. I could make the same thing (and I plan to!) but mine would look like me and hers like her no matter what.




I have quite the collection of rosaries strung up for a non-Catholic. I just love them; they are so pretty and feel good in your hands. The old ones that people have actually used to pray are especially cool because so much human emotion and faith have passed through them. My favorite one is the third from the left; it was used enough that it broke at one point and the previous owner patched it up with thread. I removed the thread and repaired it with jewelry wire. Fixing something up is one of life's best simple pleasures for me.

My sister reminded me of the time she went to Catholic Church with a neighbor she was friends with and broght home a rosarie. I think she was around the age of ten. Our family went to Babtist church. I'm sure Brandi figured "hey, Jesus is Jesus" and excitedly showed it to Dad...she remembers him saying"No! We're not Catholic!" or something to that effect; she got the idea that that was a different kind of Christian than we were supposed to be. Well what the Hell you know? What is a kid supposed to think? It's not like she brought home a pentagram.

Like I said, I'm not Catholic but I appreciate them as a beautiful reminder of spirituality. Plus they're a cool substitute for a curtain.
I "eschew" curtains, but I love using the word eschew! I did not inherit the curtain gene from my Mom.
Today I am feeling satiated, for no particular reason at all. What if all I needed was to write about my kitchen window? Well I'll be damned!