Saturday 28 July 2012

pretty sweet...finally!



I am so not complaining when I say it has been deliciously HOT here of late and the constant rains have finally stopped.  We are now getting those wonderful rolling summer thunderstorms that blow in seemingly suddenly and just pound us.   Brief and to the point and then we are left with a holy coolness.     Been making hibiscus sun tea everyday ( the summer drink of choice )while moving gravel and rocks.   Oh, my beautiful glass blocks are destined for  MO-bile greatness one day in the very distant future.  


Friday 20 July 2012

'GAVINANGELO'


In the beginning, there was the 'slope'...

...a few hours later....

...more work...

...another day....

...MORE work...

...almost done!

....bellissimo!


What is going on here you may wonder.    
Well, after the excavator left the job site, we were left with this slope of a runway from the parking area to the front walkway.   We happen to have a friend who is a master stone mason/artist  (I do not say this lightly) and he graciously offered to build some stone steps for us.  The day finally arrived and the transformation began.  As you can see the end result is a massive, monumental set of steps that lead down to the humble MO-bile...oh my...does this now mean we have to build a castle?  

Thank you Gavin for all your hard work and the lovely result which will outlive all of us.

Thursday 12 July 2012

Dogs Can be Dogs


It's time to write about PonyG and her amazing transformation.   Since moving to the country and becoming a 'country dog',  PonyG is a new girl.   Let me explain.
   She now lives her life  off-leash,  all the time.   She roams around her UN-FENCED property and does not wander.   She has figured out her terrritory and she patrols it carefully ( how did she do that ?).     She greets people who visit with a wagging tail and an over-enthusiastic jump up (can't stop it...I've tried).   She has a couple of vantage points that she favors where she can see all comings and goings.  She gets lots of other dogs coming to visit and play and as far as I can tell, she does not go to their places to visit,  unless I do.   She also does something that I absolutely love...she follows me everywhere I go when I am working outside...it is wonderful.   AND get this....she comes when called....Yup....comes when called!


She was a terrible  'city' dog.   She was skittish and wild.  She was a challenge all the time.  She was not my fantasy.   I admit,  I got close to giving up on her many times.  I was at my wit's end and I guess she was too.

Little did I know that within PonyG. there did indeed lurk
 my fantasy dog.   All she needed was an open door and some open space.  She has become a pretty darn good dog
living a real dog's life.





PonyG hunting for something hiding in the woodpile....a mouse?  a snake? a bug?







Monday 2 July 2012

What's the Point?

It's been a fun-filled few weeks here in the valley of the Crescent as it always is when a favorite 'relation' comes to visit and....STAYS to play.   Why the 'quotes' you may ask?     It is a long, long story with many liberties taken but here it goes.... A 'cousin' of sorts is here and staying in the MotorHovel campsite.  We (this 'cousin' of sorts and I) had  known of each other for a few years (an entire lifetime really)  when one day we realized that we really like eachother.   This being  due to sharing  a similar sense of the absurd and a genuine love of mescal.  Thus, we decided (sub-consciously, of course) to become good friends.   You know how those things go....you know someone casually for years and then something clicks and voila you ask yourself "where have you been all my life?"     
Well,   one day  we come to find out that we are actually somewhat related via a convoluted web,  of marriages  (and divorces).  This amazing information is gleaned from the wide world web.   This was not your usual ancestry.com  kind of discovery as the lines are much more blurred and need a bit of 'faith' to actually connect the dots.  It is a stretch,   but,  this 'eureka' moment was one we both chose to embrace wholeheartedly and have since declared ourselves 'cousins' from that day forward.    Now all the pressure is off and we are no longer required to be on best behaviour all the time.   Like all good relatives we now allow the occasional lapse into naughtiness without the fear of  a rift or a misunderstanding  turning into a 'disowning'  or  a 'growing apart' sort of situation.    We can humiliate and taunt without recrimination.  We can annoy and then re-group.  We can gossip about others and we can agree on what everyone else should be doing.    We are after all, 'related',  not by blood,  but by the internet,  which trumps scissors any way you play it.

Life is good.