A Lake County Point Of View

A Portrait of a House

 John Singer Sargent, the most successful portrait painter of his era, once said:

"A portrait is a painting with something a little wrong with the mouth."

I like his take on things.¹

 As I wrap up the week and the year, I'm thinking about what lies ahead.  I'm thinking of a winter move and a new "old" house.  And I'm thinking about the photographs I've taken of the 1940's structure.  See, this place is a little strange.  There is something a little wrong with the mouth. 

It is, what architect / gardener El Parcels (fast grow the weeds) calls, "moderne-meets-colonial."²   

I think the important part of her description was "meets."  Moderne-meets-colonial.  Ha!  This house is a mongrel.  And while I like purebreeds, I like mongrels too… but for different reasons.  Mongrels are usually better creatures.

A Gardening Neighbor

I was looking around the new neighborhood - to - be.  It appears that the people directly behind the new house have the gardening bug.  Looks nice considering this is Christmastime.

The "ugly" stuff here is on the property I'm buying.  That's good.  I can clean this up ASAP.  I'll pull the chainlink fence down and build one to mirror theirs.  If I put in a gate, maybe they'll let me walk in their garden sometime... or at least they may come over so we can trade cuttings.

I can't wait to see this midsummer.

Anyway, I've done some sketching...

House Plan Dreams I

Here is a google maps aerial view of my intended new pad.  It looks (here) grander than it is.  Just a 1940's ranch.  It is not the wetland I wrote about some months back.  That place was just too remote for what I need to do wth this part of my life.  I had to change directions, which is not so easy for me.  Oddly, this "new" place costs more than that Garden of Eden.  The world is messed up.  I still have a good relationship with the owner of Eden.  We'll see what a couple of years hold.

click to enlarge.

As one can see, it is what it is: A big hipped roof with two wings.  It is what architect El Parcels calls "moderne-meets-colonial." 

I have a preliminary plan.

Grass Pavement

  Finished Sod Couch 
  FROM FLICKR:
  "So Here is my outside living room.
  I supported and mounted the sod with chop
  sticks and shish-kabob skewers. I'll water it
  and let it root for a few weeks and then all I
  should need to do is mow occasionally. 
  Next up, the sod-ttoman...
  Sign reads "Yard Sweet Yard"."
  This cracks me up.
  Flickr photo
  Originally uploaded by joshpelman.

I like gardens.  I like grass.

I like BOTH.

I like grasses.  And I like turf.

In fact, I love grass.  In summer, I dream about grass.  In winter I long for it.  You should see me cut it.  It isn't a chore.  It is a reward for living another week.  You cut it this way, then that.  Then you look at it.  Maybe you have a beer.  Maybe a lemonade.  But you keep your eyes on the grass.

Then, if you no longer live in Texas and discover that you have something fine and delicate (something other than Saint Augustine), you get out the roller.  Yep.  I roll my lawns.  (Actually, I hook a roller to the tractor these days but I've done it by hand many, many times.)  You gently lay that grass down in opposing stripes.  And then you just watch it some more.

5 (or 6) thoughts on ridiculous "meme's"

Ho! Ho! Ho!  It is holiday time and so I think I will give the blogosphere a little gift: 5 (or 6) thoughts on ridiculous "meme's."   (The gift is, admittedly, not worth too much.)   Ho! Ho! Ho!

Maybe this is just the beginning of some thought about what makes them ridiculous?  How can we avoid ridiculousness? 

In my experience, most everyone who invests the time and energy to write in this forum does so with the best intentions.  THAT'S GOOD. 

I was just tagged with "meme" and that's good too.  Except, this particular meme seems a little flawed. 

So I though that rather than curse the darkness, I would light a (holiday) candle. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Happy holidays!

I think the term (noun/verb?) "meme" - to describe these linked chains of personal data - is ridiculous.  I do not enjoy reading it.  I enjoy typing it even less.  The entire thing makes me feel like a four year old.  Ho! Ho! Ho!

I am not opposed to the idea of these things.  I am simply opposed to poorly considered such initiatives.

I will not participate in these in the future unless a criteria is met.  In this way I am helping the next person down the line.

I am not upset about being tagged.  I like that I've been tagged.  I think it is good to link chains of related missives together.  I'm just putting my thoughts down here: 

The best one of these THINGS (they need a better name) I've ever seen (and I have not seen too many that are good) was in October.  I'll use that as my archetype.

The particular chain about which I am thinking was regarding "listing 5 things I think everyone should eat before they die."  It originated at The Traveler's Lunchbox (a beautiful blog) and went around the world.  See, Lunchbox is a food blog.  It makes sense.  And everyone reported back to the source.  And the good people at Lunchbox did the legwork - which must have been plenty - and archived the results.  So now, today, you can survey a comprehensive global list of "top 5" choices.  There are hideaway restaurant suggestions, regional food insights and international variety.  It is, in short, a fascination.  (They even made a graphic!)  The people at Lunchbox should be congratulated.  You can see my response here.  You can view the Lunchbox list here.

Therefore, my criteria for these THINGS is as follows

1.  It cannot be called a "meme" - that's just stupid.  Sorry.  That's how I feel.  Ho! Ho! Ho!

2.  It must be relevant... somehow... to something.  That shouldn't be too difficult to satisfy!

3.  The origin must be easily "findable" - as in, within one click.

4.  It must be compilable.  Rather, the cumulative list ought to have some kind of interest... (to me, if I'm participating).

5.  It must be compiled at the origin.

6.  Finally, just because I'm being a crank anyway - sorry - it must have a graphic.  OK... maybe this is a dumb criterion.  (OK, it doesn't have to have a graphic. Ho! Ho! Ho!)

Below the fold here, I'll answer the "meme" (the last time I'll ever type that again, on purpose.)   I'll not link it back to the person who "tagged" me as he's a good guy and I don't want to imply that this is aimed at him.  See, this guy is a thinker.  I'm glad he's thinking of me!  Ho! Ho! Ho!

Garden Borders and Life

Border with statue
Flickr Photo
Originally uploaded by Cee.

It is a holiday time so here's another quick one.   I wanted to get it posted before the relevant links became buried too deeply for me to find again.

Kim of the Black Swamp put up a delightful post about edging, which is really a brief exploration of how we view life... or at least it was to me.  Borders.  Barriers.  Definitions of space.  Or merely guidelines.  Do we allow things to spill over or no?  If yes, when?  And when not? 

To me, it is an issue of how we think of barriers.  And so I remind myself of a quip I regularly, uh, quip about my German clients (Gott bühüte sie).

For them, everything is either forbidden (verboten) or required (erfordert)!   It is a mindset!

(I'm not even sure this is TRUE, but given a cocktail and the subject of "Germans" I'll say it with conviction.)  (It IS true by the way.)

Dogs in Sunshine

The Sun Goddess and her minions
Originally uploaded by klocean.

Short one

I don't know how many of you follow the Trawler Blog, but I do.  It involves a ship and dogs, so I'm sold.  It also involves the Pacific Northwest, so I'm in deep.  It is a ship's log - blog.

They posted a nice snapshot that set me pondering.

-

I think, maybe, that of all the pursuits in life there are few more worthwhile than finding a sunbeam in which to nap... with a friend.

100th Post

  Villa D'Este One Hundred Fountains 
  Tivoli, Italy
  The path of "One Hundred Fountains."
  This is the second level terrace of the garden.
  Originally uploaded by corsi photo.

Villa D'Este
One Hundred Fountains
Villa D'Este One Hundred Fountains

This is my 100^th posting.  I started on 8/1/06.  That is 100 posts in 143 days.  (4 months, 21 days.)

It appears that I've been slacking... that's 43 days off... hmmmnnn. Of course, some took 43 days to read.

I thought I'd take a moment of my "normal blog time" to look back and see what and how I've done.  My intention was to write an informative thing and not a diary.  My hope was to gather information, process it in my admittedly strange way, and "put it out there."  I would never - NEVER - have intentionally shared a dairy.  But that is, I fear, what I've done here.  Maybe it is unavoidable.

My intended topics are Birds, Dogs, Gardens, Horses, Water and Wood.  I threw in "Life" just to be safe.  In the last 100 posts, I managed to stay on topic most of the time, with some rather serious overlap and some even more serious vagaries - as though an essay on Linnæus' Systema Naturæ actually counts as a "bird essay" or "garden essay."  Please pardon me.

12 Birds

12 Dogs

37 Gardens

7 Horses

14 Water

12 Wood

That's 94 Total.  Mostly gardening I see.  (Of course, that was the season.)  And then there was plenty of drivel about ties and such.  Wow.  What was I thinking?  And over ten percent of the posts ranted on about my main man, Carolus Linnæus.  

There have benn 232 Comments, 29 of them my own.  Again, Wow.  People have ACTUALLY looked at this!  I am stunned and flattered.  I remember when I got my first comment.  It was my friend Bruce Moore.  I was tickled pink.  As you know, I still am!  Bruce is the guy who encouraged me to strat this thing.  (So, really, this is all HIS fault.)

I suppose what I'm trying to say is "Thank you for showing up!

Birds, Dogs, Gardens, Horses, Water, Wood, Life

I'll be here.

It is what it is

It is what it is.

Photo by Bruce C Moore (see acknowledgments).

Quick thought.

Melissa at * A Variety of Fine Pickles * posted a humorous little ditty questioning what the phrase "it is what it is" really means... and why only men use it.

It's perfect.  Melissa: it is what it is.

There is an amusing little essay at Flak Magazine called "It is what it is" versus "It's all good."

Greenhouse Thoughts I

Out in the country we don't care so much for Hot-House aesthetics.  Space and functionality are king.  But there's room out here; if it is ugly, it can be put out of sight.  (Some people do this better than others... I am often STUNNED to see what gets stacked where out here.  There are two kinds of people in the country... I'll leave it at that...

Sorry for that... I think that's been pent up for some time!  "We" usually try to look on the bright side out here!

The image above is a variant of the "American Classic" greenhouse from the Texas Greenhouse Company.  I like it... though the styling details aren't really appropriate for my intended 50's pad.  Luckily, they are customizable.