A Plan can seem restrictive. It's so trendy these days to say you don't have one. You know, the free and easy carefree you and some how things magically work out. But really, there is always a loose plan. An idea. Not necessarily a vision of how it will be but just a vision of how it could be. If you are not brain dead, there is always an idea.
For the first time in a long time, I have a plan and I am in no rush to see. Let's just call it Life Storming. Suddenly the fact that I'm old and there might not be enough time doesn't matter. I expected things to be a certain way when I moved here and that did not happen. Now I simply decided to live in how it might happen. We have more than enough to work with for that, including time.
So I am beginning to feel organized as my ambitions have simplified. We have more than enough wood and have not installed a decent wood stove. But it might just be ok. No fence yet but I am concentrating on simply what might grow and that might be ok.
And the Grow Cloth is on the round glass table on the lower level near the fireplace which has been retired for the season. Now it's the cool room and I image some sewing tomorrow.
I have closed the Spirit Cloth Shop, there will be a Spirit Cloth Shop category over at Threadcrumbs beginning June 1. I will share this shop with my brother and share the cost and work involved to maintain it as well.
I will be closing the SpiritClothShop feed on Instagram as well. And Flickr has to go. Too many places, too many places. None of them like home.
I still imagine painting this house barn red.
I remember when you first moved there and mentioned painting your house red – it will be fabulous! Having moved to a very vanilla looking house a few months ago, I keep trying to figure out how to “help” it but the gardens and studio have taken precedence for now. We also made garden beds like yours and some are growing great and some not – kind of mysterious! I have always wanted a green house combined with rock. This house has just okay brick but I don’t think I can bring myself to paint the brick which is very popular thing to do right now.
this house is awfully ugly, especially inside and we have not done much to change that yet. We will try the red on one side first, maybe next weekend. I have really been concentrating on the outside too. yeah, and somethings don’t grow. Learning.
red would be great in your woods, we* are considering Danish yellow for the walls, it’s a mustardy kind of colour, Red and Yellow, both gorgeous backdrops for the greens
*i.e. me, as the husband claims to be colourblind;-)
so many “blah beige” houses around here. I think red will be grand also when all the color drains from the landscape, and in the snow!
we had a barn red house once upon a time … your current house would look good in red, methinks
and compost … I miss making compost and look forward to the day I can convince Don that we can make room for one on our current postage stamp of a property … meantime, I will look forward to seeing your aerial drop zone compost … ha!
I’m sure there is room! Such a funny thing, we were laughing but then we said, hey! that can work!
Love your gardens and house. it inspires an ohm moment.
the house is not ohm inside, it’s awful, but I am imagining….
My green house is in the woods. But I painted the ceilings sky blue so I am forever- outdoors.
My friend in a nyc apartment did that… with clouds.
I am loving the idea of a red house! It would match so well with Soul-O!
You teach and inspire me each day…growing my confidence , my ideas and trusting the feel of my hands on cloth….and possibly most importantly…you help quieten my own anxiety about learning , despite such a late start .
Thank you for the Light you shine…
I’m thinking a start is never too late.
ha!
NOO! I love your flickr! I mean I understand but I’m protesting, still. Spring cleaning social media is a great feeling sometimes.
About being old: My great grandmother would say she didn’t have much time left but she still travelled across Canada in her 90’s in an rv and kept picking all her own strawberries. I get anxious when I think about age, and relaxed when I think about how time stands still when I’m outside.
oh, isn’t that true about being outside!
love what you’ve written, there seems to be a kind of peace. i will say something because, well, love. you must have a good wood stove and chimney. it needs to heat your house and be safe. no chimney fires, no breakage. i’ve had fires, dealt with them. you’re all worth keeping safe.
The chimney is ok, inspected, repaired and the fireplace insert that is there heats the house because of how the house os structured. It’s not pretty tho.
pretty is as pretty does…as long as you’re safe. so many fires (and deaths) in my ‘circle’, mostly from unknowing and carelessness.
Yes… got a good chimney guy….learned a lot…
Things I’ve learned from you- Just the going can be enough. Changing your mind/plan is ok.
Sometimes just making a plan is enough to get going (which is the thing that really matters) & even if it’s in another direction, that’s ok.
Last night I fell asleep imagining stitching.
Yeah today I asked myself (again) what is just going? And I answered (again) it’s really not just going.
The best laid plans…hey your plans ARE laid – right out on the grass! lol I would not have seen Soul-O had you not said and I kept trying for the secret message on the bottom pic, but did not see that either 😉
I could see Barn Red there, but OY those steps would do me in.
I have aggressive arthritis, it has become clear. I am “planning” around it.
I gave up on plans years ago. They only made me feel guilty.
And I love your house and the setting. I’m with Victoria, I’d do a silvery green, but then my last house which was in the high desert in Southern California I painted a terra cotta, but the trim was silvery green, like eucalyptus leaves. Now I live in western Oregon and eventually everything turns green, even your toes if you don’t scrub them good enough.
I almost considered white. But I think red will look great in the snow. And it is so complimentary to green. And I love barns.
I love the words of the poet David Whyte:
“What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.”
Hey! …this is so beautiful, the scale of these words.
I would paint it red. 🙂 It would look fabulous with the surrounding greens. That’s a good plan for the garden. I did a similar thing here because the soil here is really rocky. I’m pretty sure at least some of the neighbors thought I was nuts when I had 6 yards of topsoil delivered. For the vegetable beds I used cement block to make temporary raised beds and in the front I just spread the dirt around in a mound and planted. Eighteen years later things are looking pretty good if slightly overgrown.
P.S. I think of a plan as problem solving…
I love this, and I suddenly know you better. Yes, most folks see a plan as the problem. This is so good.
yeah, I thought of topsoil but mowing the greens here, not grass really, generates so much compost material combined with mulching leaves in fall, I decided to let it build by itself. Good soil is so satisfying isn’t it?
There is a surety within uncertainty expressed here that I can really relate to. I always appreciate your honesty and focus. I’ve been feeling a bit like a snake needing to shed it’s old skin lately.
Yes to that.
I think, sometimes, we evolve into realizing that yes, we have learned, and we have shared….and that it is now ok to share on our terms—-and sometimes that means sharing more of ourselves, with our selves . More creative what-iffing, just because we can.
Yeas this was patched together in a pleasing and useful way, thank you.
yep, some things have to go and others can just be…for now, a wait ‘n see. I’m a little surprised by what I can let be in the ‘wait ‘n see’. It’s all good. Barn red is a great colour.
Everything becomes habit over the years, trying to step back from that…
it’s odd how we place periods, assign endings ‘n permanence to our ongoing experiences. yes, to how it could be! x
Everthing seems odd doesn’t it…when you consider it.
Red would be good, but I favor green——a pale silvery green. The house does seem very dark and that can weigh a person down without them even realizing.
Yes I do feel that now.
Looks like your gardening is coming along nicely 👍🏻💚
It’s good enough!
(((Jude))) love watching your garden & cloths growing out of your wild cabin in the woods!
A tree fell in the woods, a big one, and the hole filled up with water, I wonder if we could make a pond?
sounds like a plan, hehe!
I do have a shovel…😎
Better soil….something so fundamental about that. Important both metaphorically and literally.
Barn red is most appealing ❤
Yes, I hopeI make good compost
We will paint it ourselves so maybe one side at a time
Oh barn red would be fabulous. I envy you being able to say let it go ..do what works. I needed that message today. Thank you.
At this Point I’m not sure there’s anything to let go of, ha!
Perfect Soul-O looking over the work !
I would paint everything green to match the environment!
I had a green house once. Maybe I need a way to find my way home 😀