Cottage Chatter…

I was always told I was an impatient kid.  I suppose I was for many reasons.  Even when I started painting at 11, I chose acrylic, since it dried quicker.  I would paint huge canvases with quick strokes like a mad woman.  Completing one right after the other.  And yes, I did go bonkers waiting for after school microwave treats.  3 minutes felt like so much longer.  And, I did go insane in classes, waiting for the hour to be up.  Doodling anywhere I could, for sanity’s sake.

But then, we have today.

I save gifts for opening at the perfect moment, even if it is days later.  I put something in the microwave, and 4 hours later remember I forgot my nuked edible.

I sit silently.

Waiting.

Pondering.

Thinking.

I paint slowly.

So slowly sometimes.

Focusing on little details for months.

And then, there is the cottage…

One year after the outside was built and the inside was insulated and dry walled, I patiently await its move in ready moment.

Happily waiting, as Mister Lovee works his magic on the inside.

Taping, texturing, painting.

Building out the inside plans he drew up before the cottage was even built.

He isn’t a carpenter by trade, but he makes great things.

Things like, all of my work benches in the studio and office, my bed frame in my room, and my counter/cabinet in the office kitchenette – to name a few.

He is a perfectionist.

He takes a long time, but it is always worth it.

I watch him.

Days, weeks, months – a year.

He works.

I bring him cold lemonade, water, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches (his fave), the seasons change…

There is homemade pizza, hot chocolate, pie, cake and then we are back to popsicles and cold treats…

A year of any free moment in the cottage, is where he has been.

I have taken over lots of other chores, to give him more cottage time.

Tree trimming, all the gardening, cleaning house, laundry, lawn mowing, raking, picking up brush with my wheel barrow, making meals, dishes…

Wait, I already did a lot of those.

Maybe when the cottage is done….

Tee hee…

🙂

On his days off of work, or when he can work from home, he is covered in saw dust.

I stay patient.

I forget about the cottage.

I wait, but I don’t even know I am waiting, because I have put it out of my mind.

Lovee spends hours doing little tasks that make all the difference.

Rounded edges and corners on wood, with sand paper.

Thinking, planning.

Building things on his own.

Inventing ways to do it.

Sanding corners some more.

Then, all of a sudden, we get so much closer to being done.

Time and waiting becomes closer to over.

I start to make cottage plans again.

I get real real real butterfly roller coaster waves in belly excited.

(I had kept myself from getting excited to keep sane)

I take visitors 🙂

I listen to the drill and the hammer and the electric saw (hate that sound, makes me nervous).

I roam around the garden.

I watch those miraculous lilies open up again below.

You know, an old boyfriend gave me a grocery store bunch of these in orange 13 years ago or so (I shared this tale before).  When they dried in the vase in the house, I plunked the dry stems into this pot outside, for no certain reason.  I intended to throw them away, but just wanted to get them out of the house at the time.

They ended up shriveling and disappearing into the pot.

I have since moved the pot to the country, and gently work fresh soil in every year, along with other seeds…

But wouldn’t you know, every year since then, those lilies bloom in red in that very pot.

It always amazes me.

Can they root from store bought stems like that???

I can’t get over it.

Then, the Oriental poppy seeds I planted three years ago (from the OneStopPoppyShoppe), shot up a couple stems.

I watered the little plants that wouldn’t bloom, and kept them safe for 3 years.

They grew bigger and stronger this spring…

And then all of a sudden last week, blooms.

Yay!

Am I patient and I didn’t even know it?

Are you patient?

Maybe we are all patient and impatient about certain things?

All I know is, I don’t know how I became so calm?

Is it the whole older and wiser thing?

Or, is it a gift from the garden?

Does growing things make you a more peaceful and calm person?

I ponder these things as I collect tid-bits for dinner…

I think about cabbage patch kids everytime I look at those cabbages.

I take some to my neighbor down the road.

I sing, Cabbage Patch Kids, growing in the garden…

Cabbage Patch Kids growing in the sun.

I don’t know where I got that song?

Is it the proper Cabbage Patch Kids song?

I remember going to the cabbage patch store in California – the hospital nursery store – and adopting a Cabbage Patch Kid.  I wonder where my Cabbage Patch kids are?

And my stuffed smurfs?

And my barbies and barbie doll house and cars and pool?

Wishing I had kept all of that.

(Weren’t there scary Cabbage Patch Kids too?  Garbage Pail Kids?)

As I am pondering all this nonsense…

Mister Lovee calls me over….

We talk.

Me sitting in the cottage for the first time today.

He working on this and that.

My heart squeals with delightment.

I undo the forgetting about the cottage.

I tumble back in.

I wonder to myself, how did I stay so calm, waiting?

I dunno?

The time drifted by like a quick moving stream.

1 Year…

And now, I need to plan!!

I don’t have any proper ideas or anything.

Do you??

What ever shall we do in there?

So much to think about.

But first, I have to inch my foot out from underneath Miles’ sleeping and snoring head under my desk.  Then I will run out there and see what else Mister Lovee is up to.

I almost thought I should give him the cottage, since he’s worked so hard on it.

Then I thought, nah 🙂

 

Love, V

 

 

ps:  I made the rose oil (per previous post).  I also put in some lavender. It is out in the sun for a few days.  I will make sure to let you know how it turns out…