Little Good Things

We have been plugging away at installing a new kitchen counter top. The handmade tiles are blue, shiny, lovely, and a little difficult to work with, since they are not perfectly square, all the same size, or even all the same shape, really. They are different colors, even slightly different thicknesses. A little infuriating when compared to those sterile, uniform slices of factory-made porcelain. But all that is forgiven when the counter top is almost done and it looks absolutely delicious. I was a little reluctant to use a dark color in this kitchen since it's already really dark in here. But the brilliant blue and the shine of the tiles make up for the dark chroma. I still wish there was a skylight.

In these dark short days there are some things to be thankful for. I do have some quibbles with the way our house was put together. But I must say that the siting and orientation of it are very well considered. The south side of the house has a long covered porch which perfectly blocks the sun on summer afternoons but admits it in the wintertime. We get sun almost every morning, before a cloud cover rolls in. I don't know why, but I guess that's the usual weather pattern here. I like waking up to the morning sun coming into the room in the wintertime. It's at a civilized hour. In the summer, it would be too early.

The west side of the house sports an ungainly lean-to. At first I hated it, but I have grown to appreciate that it hides the view of the cemetery from the bedroom. Who really wants to wake up, roll over in bed, and see their final resting place?? The lean-to also protects the bedroom window from the intense summer afternoon sun, but in other seasons it allows the evening sun to light up the bedroom, and the light reflects nicely into this cave of a kitchen. The remaining view from the bedroom window isn't all that great, but you can see the garden, and in the wintertime and early spring you can just see the mill pond.

The basement almost-cave that is my studio also has a window on the south side of the house. In the summer not much light comes in, but in the winter there's actually some sunlight that penetrates into the room. There's nothing better than dragging the pottery wheel into the sunlight and doing a little work in its light and warmth. I don't know if these solar effects were carefully planned or if they are happy accidents. Either way, I am grateful for them. They add something almost intangible to daily life.

I like the way our house sits on its lot. Maybe someone put a lot of thought into it, or maybe it was another happy accident. We are set back from the street, but not entirely removed from the town. The house is at the top of a little rolling hill, well above the river, but shielded from the winds by a stand of majestic old elm trees. We have a little parking lot in front of the house, with room for as many guests as we could imagine.

Our living room has a spot-on view of the front of the country store. We can sit with our coffee and leisurely observe the comings and goings of the townies and tourists. We call it "Monument TV." Our favorite show is the one where the tourist shows up with an empty gas tank, after the store has closed. That one's on several times a week...

The far end of our property abuts a field that sometimes has cattle and sometimes has sheep grazing in it. That field is adjacent to the river and the semi-wilderness beyond. It feels like the front of our house is in the center of town and the back is at the edge of the wilderness. There's nothing better than that! I think our property is used as a corridor by deer who want to come into town and snack on the gardens and lawns. We see deer out here almost every night. We've even seen a coyote. We get quail and pheasants too. The cats love that. Recently they've gotten a couple birds whose showy orange feathers were scattered all over the porch in the morning. Terribly uncivilized, but that's what cats do. I don't know what kind of bird they must have been, but the feathers are neat and the cats look well fed.

The new counter top is so pretty that it makes the rest of the kitchen look awful. But there's other things that are higher on the priority list. Time to make more tiles!