the weather and Hawaii...

I've been slowly moving into the Reef..aka Willison Cottage aka 'the little house'...which I find is an easier reference than 'the Reef' which makes people feel odd I guess..giving a house a name, this isn't England, after all..  The Vinyl Cafe is talking along this morning 'songs about love' because of it being Valentine's Day tomorrow.  I should probably 'tivo' the radio program because I find it hard to listen to the speaker speaking when I'm trying to think/write. 
There's been the addition of furniture to the Reef.  An old dresser so decrepit that it needs glue in every crevice, and I added a dresser knob because one had gone..  but I like its alligatored varnish and the stance of it - maybe six drawers, maybe five.  It's in the back bedroom where I put a queen mattress pad over a set of open shelves, also a new addition.  These will work for storage but I need another at the end and that would upset the paint arrangement in the studio room, where I'm working on drawings in preparation for painting a portrait for John as a Christmas present, since he didn't get to come home for the holidays. 
My paint supplies are in another open dresser so I'd have to empty that but I've got cupboards and shelves for those things only I think if I store them too efficiently, I won't use them.  The point of having a studio is to use it, which has always been a problem in this house.  I thought I'd paint in the upstairs bedroom but it was too shadowy although it was a possibility to leave things sit there because it was upstairs.  No, it's the house itself, right across the street from school, a pine tree in the front yard, lovely place but for being an artist, it took me a year to clean up to get back to a story I was writing...that's what I mean, so many things to do to this house, little chores that add up to days of effort...fun things, all of them, but not the creative things I was aiming for.  In fact, I should get back to that story, shouldn't I?  hehe...I was right on the verge of it, telling it..and then I was out the door to the neighbors' for supper..and then I was gardening and carpentrying and painting the house...I found a lovely set of louvers...speaking of hearts/Valentines' Day...the louvers are cut with hearts, three on each, so I painted them the pimento cream that accents the house itself, which is a military sort of brown, funny monkey I think it's called, with a green blue trim.  The pimento comes in at the concrete fence the Basque who used to own it made, with fleur de lis forms, along the church street (the Presbyterian is right across)..
So I'll have to rent this house I think...see if someone less creatively endeavored can find it as friendly as I have found it.  Several bedrooms, empty now because my children are grown and the foster kid army isn't on call just now (hence the furnishing of the studio house, in case I'm on active kid duty which I love)...a bath and a half, which I wanted to enhance with a second bath upstairs but the last set of foster kids so rowdy I could see broken plumbing and holes in the lower bath ceiling from their escapades..  I didn't do it for that reason but it could be done, the larger bedroom is three times the size of the smaller...most inefficient use of space.  I also though of skylights to lighten it up, especially on the stairs, which now that it's the pouring rain season, isn't probably a good time to install those but there it is.  There is to be a greenhouse off the backporch where my son built a deck.  I pruned back the apricot as far as I could because it takes over the 'ceiling' of the deck.  The new puppy has done quite an overhaul of the backyard generally but I don't know that he'll be a problem at the studio house.  It's yard is quite a blank canvas and his rotarian efforts might even be appreciated.
So now I'm wondering what that story was that I was writing and if I should look for it in my files of things.  Oops, here comes the Vinyl Cafe guy again.  He's on about Valentines' Day and everything is going to speak to the subject.  Stories of people that listen to the program...I couldn't stand it...I went into the bedroom and folded clothing to be taken to the new house...first was a story about a guy who brought his wife a rock for Valentines' Day and then there was the story of the woman who found a Cadbury wrapper behind the bed after her husband had passed.  Memorable stories and memorable music.  Just heard Martha Wainwright, whom I believe may be related somehow to Kate McGarrigle, sing Piaf..
On the with day, a lot of rain...thinking about working on the portrait, very dim light today, might be a challenge...mmm, breakfast is my cinnamon rolls and a fried egg, apple juice..entitled the post Hawaii but didn't speak on it...added a couple of items to my kit  for going over there (one of these days) when I was sorting clothing...