A Moving Experience

"Lucy" the Humanobile metal sculpture in front of some French limestone column shafts and clay pots from Morocco.

Slabs and palettes of stone and terra-cottas, in front of a 3 part bronze fountain (French circa 1910). The fountain has horses, lions, dolphins and a cherub. 18 ft tall over-all x 15 ft wide. This is a consignment piece. It belongs to a well known American Football player (name begins with M and is the name of a State with a large sky) who purchased it by phone-bid at a French auction and was never able to make it work into his landscape plan on his 600 acre estate.

The early stages of a bas-relief carving that will fit above the front door of a spec. house nearby. This is about 20 ft wide. There is a smaller section in the works to top the garage doors.

Our big table saw has cut miles and miles of stone since we first got it. It has been letting us down a bit this past few weeks. We can usually get advice from the people who custom made it for us. Unfortunately, it being August and them being at the beach, with every other self-respecting Frenchman, we have been waiting until work resumed. Today's advice was to put a fan in the electrical cabinet in case it was over-heating. My office in a corrugated metal building, mid afternoon on a 97 degree-in-the-shade day swiftly became unpleasant 'cos they took my fan!

A few days have zoomed by since I began this post. August has turned into September. The days are speeding up since we were told, earlier this week, that the property housing our business has been sold and we must vacate by the end of the month.

We've been working like demons to finish as many orders as possible. Once we start moving it will be at least a couple of weeks before we can gear up again. We've barely had time to look at a couple of alternative spaces. Tomorrow will be spent driving around different areas to see where we might find a part indoor, part outdoor, properly zoned and customer friendly spot that won't break the bank and is available right now. Of course, we will have to wait until Tuesday to contact anyone because of the holiday weekend.

So why are we not panicked and distraught? Because we've started from scratch before, I guess. We know we can get through this. Change almost always turns out to be good. In this case we are talking about structuring things differently to free up The Artistic One from supervision of all things work-shop. We'll have other people make some custom orders in France and ship them rather than doing it all ourselves. The designs and customers will still be ours. I might even get a cleaner, more presentable showroom-like environment. It must still be bohemian and interesting but the leaky roof and indoor pigeon-infestation were hard to spin into charming accessories. I've always had to watch that The Artistic One didn't run over any clients as he stormed around on his Formula One fork-lift.

We are not bored! We are no longer stuck in a rut! "Why the Heck Not?" is our watchword for now. (Of course any chance of time with a horse just galloped away into the distance for a while. "Equus-Interruptus" that's me. (Take that, spell-check!)

A Quiet House

I can't remember the last time my home did not include a cat, dog or multiples thereof. It took me a while to start walking again around the neighborhood. Every time I went out I was faced, not only with an emptiness where a leashed companion used to be, but many, many acquaintances giving me quizzical looks and the fresh tears never far from the surface as I explained one more time that Diva had been put to sleep. I perfected a technique of never really stopping; just keeping walking; never letting myself break down completely. There is something about putting one foot in front of the other that soothes and seems an acceptable escape from sympathetic looks and words, without appearing rude.
My foster-kitten Sparkles has been immersed in kittenly socialization with the other orphans for a week now. Her Mum-to-be visited her yesterday and said she is still even cuter in person than in photos. Sparkles fell asleep in her arms and those arms will be taking her home once she's a little older. I will check in on her next week myself.
I put my cotton robe/dressing gown in the washing machine this morning, after inhaling one last time from the innocent perfume of milky kitten that it had held onto.It seemed a bit final but endings turn into beginnings and change is good.
My goal is to find out who I am and what I want when I am not filling my life with duties and responsibilities to other living things, albeit much loved creatures.
I am going riding tomorrow at a new barn. (New to me). I was there years ago when Lovely Daughter rode there a few times with a friend. It had escaped my memory until I read a post from a blogger I've just started following. She mentioned a new barn she has recently begun attending. I could tell from her clues that this was the place. I liked what she had to say and as far as Karma is concerned, she's grieving her dog and struggling with her identity in life and marriage too. I thought she might freak out if I told her I know the place she has chosen not to name. I really like the sound of the trainer she described but it seemed stalker-like to ask for details so I'll infiltrate and see what I see for myself.