Finally

I generally like to think of myself as the sort of person who finishes what I start, but I must admit so far my track record for this summer's projects has not been so great. The blinds, for instance, hit a number of big snags after I got the first one up. Mainly, all of my attempts to cut the second piece of music wire I bought to weight the bottom of the blind failed miserably and ended, eventually, in the temporary maiming of both my hands. So I gave up and put it off and put if off and then nearly two months later we still had mismatched blinds in the study.

I nursed my wounds, healed and returned to the music wire with new gusto and failed and failed and had my very strong husband try where I had failed and he also failed. Finally I decided to just hang the blind without the weight and revisit the weight issue later. So, yesterday I otherwise finished constructing the second blind, which took rather longer than it should have for two reasons. One, I'd completely forgotten much of what I did when building the first one and two, I sewed all the ribs to the wrong side of the blind the first time around.

Ah, home improvement projects are so wonderful.


But, they are up, anyway! They look fine raised. Now I just have to find a way to conquer the music wire and we'll be finished.

And in case you are wondering about my lack of posts here, do keep in mind I have two (yes, two!) other blogs. Steen's blog and my newly created, 100% professional BWS blog.

to the point

The Love of Place

Yesterday, I believe I fell in love with Iowa.

This was an interesting experience for me, because, until yesterday, I kind of thought of myself as a one-geographical-love kind of girl. I love the desert. Period. I always have, I always will. I told my sister years ago that if I die suddenly I want her to take her horse, Jak, out on my favorite trail, my ashes in some sort of recyclable container, and tell him to do his favorite thing - run. When he's running, take the lid off the container, and let me blow away in the wind.

I've lived in Iowa for years now, and though I have learned to like it quite a bit here, I've never exactly felt my heart would break if I had to leave, forever.

But yesterday I took Steen out for a light ride. We walked along, just the two of us, between a corn-field and a pasture dotted with horses. The leaves are just starting to change and the light was soft and warm on everything. Steen was relaxed, I was relaxed. The breeze was cool on my face but my core warm inside by dirty orange barn-vest. And then it hit me - the thought, "I love this."

It is hard to imagine two more disparate tableau's than Arizona and Iowa, but as I rode and took in the scene yesterday, I found my adoration for white sand, barbed thorns, and crinkly underbrush moving over to make room for rolling hills, the rustle of wind in corn, and the soft thud of horse-hooves on grass.