A sense of place

I found these two books at the public library (libraries are wonder-filled!) and found them both to offer interesting things to say about living along a racing river.  Almost every day I walk along the Irvine River gurgling, whirling and dancing at the bottom of the Gorge and it's always beautiful, and somehow mind-quieting. In "A Living River by the Door", Sylvia Galbraith writes, "The act of looking at flowing water provokes instant revery and remove from one's day.  The river water in perpetual departure exerts a relentless tug on the spirit, and instills a constant, if veiled, awareness that over the horizon on all sides lie the vast freshwater lakes that define this countryside, and the imaginative landscape of all living here."  I only partial agree, but it started me thinking about my relationship to the River.  I think the constant arriving and departing of the water creates a very deep sense of "here" and "right now".  I'm not inspired to think about where the water has been or where it's going, or a need to dream about elsewhere, I feel my feet become very rooted to the spot, not letting the flow take me away from a strong attachment and awareness of where I am.

  

Living in such a natural area is easy on the senses and the soul.  I hope to cultivate this appreciation and never take it for granted!

My Christmas present

Perhaps you've experienced this:  when you move into a new home, you want to make it yours.  Especially in the spaces where you'll spend the most time you want to make it as cozy as possible, suiting your particular tastes.  So, for my Christmas present I wished for paint.  Yup, paint.  Since it was approaching Christmas and we hadn't yet set up our living room, I wanted to have it painted before we unpacked all the fragiles, hung pictures, etc... and Mom agreed.  Our living room (as opposed to the guests' living room/parlour) was painted a brown/green color, what I snarkily referred to as an army camouflage, which made the whole room seem darker and smaller than it actually was.  We picked something called "Touch of Midas" and hired a painter as we dreaded the ceiling and, like magic, went from this:  

varnish splattered on the baseboards

 and over-painted

and this dark color... to this:

stripes!

No, this was just after the first coats.  

What a change!  

 Eventually we had eternal sunshine:

The new color has just a little bit of orange in it that picks up the color in the pine floor and now it's a room where I look forward to sitting in my comfy chair, basking in the light and reading a good book... someday!  Maybe soon!

I have to say that our painter Ryley Wright did a lovely job, working around our B&B schedule and making the entire process pretty painless.  Thank you, Ryley!