what is the dog doing on the table?

Fighting with the fighting fish?

 

my ed

 Even now, they are opening Ed's skull to take out a tumor on his brain. "I feel like a soft boiled egg," he said. The funny bone has obviously survived. I am assuming the surgery will be a long one. They are saying that if all goes well he could be home by Monday. He says he will be needing a hat. I said he may need a smaller size.

 

island life

 Edie Blane's memoir of life on Block Island back in the day before indoor plumbing has finally come out. Those of us who have heard her stories have been anticipating this book. And now it's here! You can acquire a copy of Bound By Blue at Island Bound Bookstore. Perhaps Edie's favorite reader is of the type below. When I sent it to her she said, "This pic is priceless to me.  The book is doing just what I wanted:  Young folks reading about old B.I. and old me too."

getting there

 Almost ready for prime time.  Hannah and Chris hauled ass at Hannah's Hideaway yesterday, and it looks great. First renters next week. Meanwhile many health worries among our friends. More on that later.

the ferry comes in

It has been a steady stream of family and friends here on the Isle of Misfits. Erin and Flip and Madison moved into their new house. Johnny and Pam moved back to their house next door. Douglas comes and goes. Hannah and fam are here. Donna and Fanny came out as did Hannah's high school friend Mira. Chris's mom is here for her birthday, and Debby arrives tomorrow for hers. And I'm about to wrap it up and head for New York. Just as the weather gets nice! First beach day yesterday. And first rental a week from tomorrow.

 

kids roomz

Isaack's Room
 

Milla's Room

My Truck in Their Back Yard

This is not from my most recent trip to Providence with my sister, but the one prior. I have always loved the way kids' rooms look. The colors, how proud they are, the whole scene. There's a photographer who has kids all over the world arrange their favorite toys and then makes a portrait. I like the mess.

a happy day video

setting

Yesterday. I know you are probably sick of views from my windows, but

Front page of the Block Island Times.

An aerial view of the compound. Note pond in the shape of BI, created on purpose by Johnny.

we will survive

 

by Isaac

by Camilla

I've survived

so far

by Claudia

edie stars

 

That's my knockout friend Edie in the middle. She grew up on Block Island, and some of her wonderful reminiscences are in this youtube video. She was the first warden (mayor) of Block Island for years. She performed the marriage of Chris and Hannah. And her video debut appeared on her 93rd birthday last month. She is an amazing person, one of the few Block Islanders who was welcoming to outsiders regardless of race, religion or sexual preference. A book of her stories, Bound By Blue,  will appear shortly. I will post wen that becomes available.

milla plays piano game

movement

 A lot has happened in the past week, so sorry not sorry for taking a posting vacation. After packing up the things that never made it from New York to Block Island last year, a swing through Providence for my first visit with the grands in over a year (and to pick up yet more stuff) I fetched up on Bleak Isle to more plumbing problems (washing machine, toilet, bathub, outdoor shower—and that's only in one house) with a lot to unpack. The seagull was interested in the process since there was food as well as furniture involved. Yes, another substandard chair. And yesterday, the fam came for a stay.

 

progress

The peeling wallpaper was removed. The plaster and primer were applied.

 

Zyambo will continue after my departure. Tomorrow. Taking my tiny karela vines and hoping they survive the trip.

pentimento

 

   As the bathroom is deconstructed (unpacked???), aged wallpaper has come into view. I almost want to to redo it. Almost. 

 In other apartment news, I know you are sick of my kitchen gallery, but fortunately I am not. And I have a new addition, thanks to my belle soeur, Lynn Osborne. I have been moving her picture around looking for the best spot. Here?

Or here? Or should it go someplace completely different like the Goose?

I have been over-aquisitioning, as is clear from my truck. I also scored a bolt of fabric my neighbor was throwing out. Don't know what I'm going to do with it, but it suits one of my motifs.

And Zyambo is coming to start tearing apart my bathroom more in order to fix. I can't leave town until that's done, so we'll see how far he gets today. But I'm ready to move on, even with everything looking beautiful.

  here is a link to Chien-Chi's Burma video from some years back. And a link to Hannah's new anxiety pin. And one to Isaac's interminable Ten Things You Need To Know About Minecraft video.

   And here is my beautiful lobby.

  

covid creativity

 

 Camilla Imogen has become a model. Well, not really: She has become a designer. She had a vision of a summer dress. She made a pattern out of newsprint. She found some fabric in the scrap box. (It looks familiar to me, but I can't remember where it came from.) She taught herself to sew and made a dress.  Oh, and matching pocketbook. In one day. 

   I'm not sure that Camilla, who I call Mimi or Mouse Leader, is really related to me. During this year of seclusion she has learned Spanish in an online class, continued her piano lessons virtually with her teacher and done home schooling with her parents. Doesn't that sound like enough? Never mind hobbies and posting her family tree on the wall. In Spanish, as if it's not difficult enough to understand already.

   Meanwhile, I have done nothing this year except clean out a couple closets and go to the dentist. The good news is, I am hoping to see Mouse Leader and Mouse Seven next week! Plumbing issues permitting.

 

the leak

 Have I mentioned thatI should have either become a plumber or married one? I have 9 toilets, 4  bathtubs, kitchen sinks and dishwashers, 3 hot water heaters, 2 washing machines. and endless repairs.

    So this happened. 

    I heard Toby running the bath upstairs and went into the bathroom to find a shower coming down through the hole Z had cut in my ceiling to see what was going on. I called Toby to stop running the bath, and ran for a pot to catch the water (and then my camera), and the water stopped. But she said she had flushed the toilet at the same time. 

    We did a test. First she let the water out of the bath. Then she ran more water in the bath. Then we waited. Then she flushed the toilet.

    Bingo! An inch of water in the pot. 

    So today Z replaced the seal on her toilet. Another test. Still with the rainshower down here. 

    Next up: A plumber and further destruction of my ceiling.

city life

 

    That's the new World Trade. That's Donna with her new blue and yellow hair. 

    That's Fanny with a crabapple tree. Her hair is as it ever was. As is mine, only longer and whiter.

    This is the springtime in New York City. 

    People are on the streets. Eating at Odeon in TriBeCa, where we were. Talking about their vaccinations and the outdoor summer shows coming up. Just walking and looking around. Yeah, mostly wearing masks. 

    The people who moved to New Jersey or their country houses are coming back. They are sick of the burbs. They want to see other people. They want to eat at any of the other outdoor cafes that have sprung up in every neighborhood, often in the street. They want to ride Citibikes and scooters and jog down by the river. They want to be together. Out on the street.

     This too is city life. We live in these little stacked boxes so we can go out on the streets and be together. And sometimes, often, when the building is as old as mine, the boxes leak.

    I didn't realize it until I took down the curtain in the bathroom to wash, but the window molding is destroyed, and the ceiling is about to fall in. The super thinks the steam pipe is leaking. He says they will come to tear down my ceiling today to see where before the heat goes off for the season. 

   Springtime in the city. 

belated st. patrick's

 

So yesterday I got this loaf of Irish soda bread in the mail. Doro baked it, I craved it, and she sent it posthaste. I posted up her recipe some years back. Here it is, if you need a refresher course. Yes, she's really Irish, unlike, it turns out, me. 

   So I celebrated a late St. Patrick's Day yesterday, after celebrating a late St. Patrick's Day earlier with Annie O'Malley's daughter (the one with blue, not green, hair for the occasion) and granddaughter. We kept it traditional.

redux on uws

 Out once again! Barb took the picture. Another nice day!

98

 

Still loving the spring look thanks to Kate Knapp. But more visitors at the table these days post shots.

Fanny and Ryan (and of course Donna). Ryan finished the puzzle.

Then they left and the next arrived. Yes, that's Donna in the blue-and-yellow hair.

Simon and his friend Ben came in from Providence on Spring break. Not much odf a Spring Break, but a break from their parents anyway!