Yet another link in the chain of events

My Deck project is coming along very well. I found oil based paint today at Sherwin and Williams. They bought out Parker Paint of Tacoma, where we had purchased paint for decades. I had used Parker Paint's Marathon Black for my railings and posts; now I have changed horses, as when SW bought out PP they stopped production about 3 years ago. The weather this week is suppose to be great, so I hope to get a lot of painting done! Wish I could clone myself and get more done, but alas...
one of me will have to be enough.

Photo updates....

I got the roof on the last section over the garage.

Then I got the 8' section on the side deck done. So I only have one super small section on that side to finish.

I was working on cutting my tall post on the west side of the garage so I can put a decorative cap across all of them. I plan to put hanger in the 

This is our apple tree in bloom. We get large crops of apples each year for this ole tree. below is our pear tree. It, too, bears bountiful fruit, but only every other year.

If you look closely you'll see much paint is peeling. So in my future posts on this project I'll have it freshly painted.

Another link in the Chain of Events

Well, it's been 10 years since I wrote the blog "Chain of Events". Yeah. You guessed it. I'm STILL not done with the railings and posts on our huge deck. How big is it? Well, it's three different areas. One is the length of our house on the west side. It runs 8' x 65'; then there is the lower deck at 15' x 25 and lastly is the deck over the garage at 25 x 25. The work I did over 10 years ago was called into question when several posts rotted. They were not pressure treated and I shouldn't have reused them, but at the time it seemed like a good idea. This past month Todd and I worked on replacing all the rotten posts— there were seven. That is out of 32 posts.

This is looking from the lower deck towards the deck over the garage. The two posts at the top of the stair will sport a torii when I'm done.

The landing for the back stairs that started the rebuild. Now it has been totally rebuilt and has all new support posts.

This is the view down the west side of the house. This is the 8' x 65' walkway, ipe wood deck. I still need to make several more "roofs" for some of the rails. And of course, paint all the new wood when the rains quit.

This is a better view of the posts at the top of the stairs, which when finished will be a torii. A torii is a Japanese Shinto shrine gate that marks the transition between earth and the spiritual. Our upper deck is a spiritual, refreshing space where we entertain friends, read and grown flowers, tomatoes, peppers and other plants.

This is a panoramic view of the upper deck, lower deck, side deck and the shoji screen off the kitchen to block the view from the lower deck of the hoarder neighbor's yard.

What do you do? I don't mean the laundry, or balance the checkbook, or take the kids to school... I mean when you can do what you want to do, what do you choose to do? Is it because you love doing it? Is it an obligation? A duty? Chances are you are younger than I. It took me years, no decades, to allow myself to have time for me. When I was a young mother I would occasionally attend an international calligraphy conference, but by and large I did the day in, day out, stuff I mentioned above. I thought time for myself was drinking wine with the girls, but I was wrong. It was fun, but it wasn't feeding my soul... that part of me that needed nurturing to give me confidence, the pleasure of making something, and time to be with myself.

I have learned that I love being social with friends. They are fun. Interaction is fun. Going out to dine or to a sporting event, movie or a dance is fun. What I needed to replenish my creative reservoirs was self understanding then feeding it. Sometimes Life is so noisy we can't hear ourselves think.

Whatever rocks your boat is what will feed your creative reservoir. Because you love doing it, time will pass quickly, the outside world will disappear for awhile. You'll be in your 'zone'. It takes time for us to learn how to turn on that 'zone'. How to use it and enjoy what we reap. It does take dedication for the 'zone' to happen. Ask yourself questions... then answer them truthfully. Then grow. We all change some of us change because things around us and out of our control change; sometimes it is us who is changing from within. Embrace change and use it.