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Thursday, March 24, 2011

From Hand-to-Mouth


Four sold design/build jobs in the last three weeks, makes this economic quarter a huge success for Honey and me, but with success comes problems--like not speaking your mind when you should. Keeping your mouth shut at work when you should be talking results from living the last three years hand-to-mouth, (a favorite sculpture/title of mine cleverly and humorously made by Bruce Nauman in 1967 and cleverly bought by the humor loving Mr. & Mrs.Joseph Helman). Today, I'll set that right. Otherwise,it was a great week painting and working out,especially for my body parts.

First week in months I moved my butt and worked up a sweat every day. And I'm especially pleased with how my knee held up. What I learned in physical therapy really was good advice for avoiding living the rest of life as a Borg. If you're a Trekky, you know which aliens I mean--the ones on Star Trek who were half human/half machine. In the Golden Years, you can expect parts to wear out and docs to advise you to replace them with mechanical ones. Well not this girl. I intend to go out with the knees I came in with--and the hips too. Good form in the gym can make these gold plated years eighteen caret.

From the feed back I've been getting, I can't show you the painting I'm working on. You've seen it and seen it and seen it. The word is I've worn you out. But Fall Woods is still not right as a part of the Four Seasons quad-tyck. I'm thinking of finishing it up,finding another reference photo for Fall (with less depth of field) and ordering another canvas. It's an okay painting, just not right for the group. A couple more sessions over the weekend, I'll know how I want to proceed. --Well, maybe you can have just a 150 pixel peek.

My drawings of the day are the "as planted" and the "filled in" landscape plans for my front garden I gave my landscaper twelve years ago. Bill Cook's blog post,
The Dogwood Collection, reminded me of them. These drawings were not done, however, as illustrations for publication. They were done because I like doing such things and more importantly, I wanted my landscaper to know exactly what I wanted. I guarantee you, she did all she could to keep her mouth shut too the day I handed them to her. Too bad. She did me a disservice. She allowed me to over plant and spend more money than was necessary. My client won't have that problem. I've already placed the call.




5 comments:

  1. Your rendition reminds me of what my landscaper did to me.. 35 trees, so many shrubs.. Well I took out at least 12 or so trees, got rid of shrubs... Less is more... Always less trees, I learned too many trees can ruin foundation, sprinkler system, etc... landscaper planted a tree that was right in the path of my drainage.. need i tell u the mess it did to the pipes???

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  2. Exercise is indeed the key to keeping those body parts! (Of course, I know some people have conditions beyond the realm of exercise.) Like you, I don't want to be a Borg. Vulcan, yes, Borg no. (And now of course, I fully appreciate the comment you left on my blog.)
    Your art piece is beautiful, but I know it is the artist who must say "when".
    Jeff and I over planted our landscape years ago. It's taken years to rectify that. The good news is, we get our exercise.

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  3. Chrissy, My landscaping plan was a boom to my landscaper--they really profited from my stupidity--but they also lost my continued business by not telling me my error. I got a new landscaper who has no problem telling me "No" and I appreciate him for his honesty. --Nothing I specified in that plan was a hazard to foundation, sprinkler system etc. I did do the research and chose small. I just chose too much. For about three years, the garden really did look lush.

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  4. Pamo, I don't know about "beyond exercise?" My BF had MS and her doctor advised a trainer who came to the house three times a week to help her workout with weights and floor exercises. The effort she put in did energize her and her spirits were lifted. Our conversations got more two sided and she was more animated than before.

    Honey and I are rectifying my over planting on top of the builder's
    over planting the last three years and we'll do it again this year. What I over planted was no problem to rip out--small stuff. The builder, on the other hand, put in trees and bushes with no thought given to their full grown size. But this is typical house owner biz. Right now, I'd love to plant some universal pansies; I'm starved for color in the yard.

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  5. small and too much sometimes doesn't work either... u can plant a small tree and yet those tree roots always look for water believe me, i've seen small trees attack drain pipes. and yes your first landscaper did profit..if i knew then what i know now, i would of planned different.. i will never trust a male landscaper..

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