Together Once Again

The current pandemic has caused many people to defer the funerals and burials of their loved ones. We waited five months and three days to have The Colonel's mother's cremains lovingly placed, by The Colonel's hand, between those of her beloved husband and mother.

The Colonel phoned the cemetery and asked if we could finally bury his mother. He let them know it would be a very small, private affair (no tent or chairs required) and that he wanted to be the one to bury her. I think they were taken aback a bit but said yes to his request.

On June 22, 2020, The Colonel, Yam and I (Spud was not able to join us, as he was in Pensacola for his naval training) drove the hour north to the cemetery. We had Jane's cremains in what we now call "The Family Urn". We had used this same urn to transport The Colonel's father's cremains about a year earlier and used it to transport the cremains of his sister before we had her interred in the Key West cemetery in 2016.

The Colonel and Yam transferred Jane's cremains from the urn to a plastic bag, which in turn was placed within a cloth bag made from one of Jane's favorite t-shirts (I had cut it and sewn it into a drawstring bag for this purpose per The Colonel's wishes). We then placed a family photo inside the cloth bag.

The cemetery workers had the grave ready for us. It may seem odd to say this, but it was good to "see" My-Favorite-Father-In-Law again. His little blue vault was visible as we peered into the grave. The Colonel got down on his knees and placed his mother's cremains inside her vault and then replaced the lid before he began to lower the dirt back into the open grave with the shovel he brought from home (the cemetery workers had shovels available but The Colonel wanted to use his own to bury his mother).

 

Yam and I also helped to bury Jane but The Colonel did most of the work.

The cemetery workers had to bring over a couple more loads of dirt for The Colonel to continue burying his mother (and reburying his father).

Once The Colonel had the open grave filled, the cemetery workers took over and replaced the granite stone that covers the grave site.

Finally, Jane is laid to rest. She is nestled between her husband and her mother. They are together once again. Once Jane's bronze plaque is placed below her husband's on the granite slab, we will make another trip to the cemetery to take a picture of it.

Scarlett O'Harvey

A few weeks ago, The Colonel and I went shopping for a tree. We wanted to plant it in our empty lot next to The Pinery (our house in town). We have always loved the look of Royal Poinciana trees. The first time we saw one was when we visited Key West, Florida in 1984. In May 2018, Key West adopted the Royal Poinciana as its official tree.

The Royal Poinciana was named for Phillippe de Longvilliers de Poincy, the 17th century governor of Saint Christopher (Saint Kitts) in the Caribbean. 

In North America, the tree grows in South Florida, Central Florida and in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas (and now my side lot...13 years ago, we planted a Royal Poinciana tree in the yard of our house in the country but a cold snap destroyed it).

When The Colonel and I purchased the tree we were told the blooms would be red. Some trees can be a reddish-orange color or even a rare yellow color. We wanted the red colored blooms.

We have named our new tree Scarlett O'Harvey...Scarlett due to the color of her future blooms and O'Harvey because she now resides on Harvey street (gee-whiz, hope no Millennial gets their panties in a bunch because of the similarity of my new tree's name and that of a certain character from a classic book/movie that shall remain nameless...or maybe...I can say it this way..."Absent with the Zephyr"). 

Two men from the nursery arrived with Scarlett O'Harvey in tow.

We watched as they dug a hole in the ground and planted our new tree.

Nearly done...

                                                      

Scarlett O'Harvey looks beautiful in her new home. We are watering her every day and we are seeing new growth on her limbs already. No blooms yet, hopefully by next season. She should grow out to have a nice canopy and be a gorgeous shade tree.

There are many Royal Poinciana trees around our town, but one of our favorites resides in a park alongside the river.

Fiddle Dee Dee, What a Beautiful Tree!

Even A Whispering Giant Needs Protection

The town I live in is also home to one of Peter Wolf Toth's Whispering Giants.

Hungarian-born Toth began creating his Whispering Giants in 1972. His Trail of the Whispering Giants spans to at least one statue in every American state and two in Canada. Toth has carved 74 statues as of the writing of this post.

Toth uses wood that is native to the area he is working in and fashions his statues after the indigenous peoples of that area. He always donates his work and never charges for it. He does require that the log, living and lodging expenses be covered while he is working on the statue. It can take up to three months to complete a statue. His Whispering Giants have been appraised for as much as one quarter of a million dollars.

Toth mainly uses a hammer and chisel to create his giants. He will sometimes use a mallet and axe but he rarely ever uses any power tools. His giants can range from fifteen to forty feet tall.

The Whispering Giant in my town is twenty feet tall and is made from the wood of a Enterolobium Cyclocarpum or "Ear" tree. Toth claimed the wood was much like mahogany.

Image from the Internet

The name of the statue is  "Calostimucu". It represents the Calusa and Timucuan Indians that used to live in this area. It was the 10th statue that Toth created in his Trail of Whispering Giants. The statue has the face of a woman on one side and that of a man on the other. On top of the statue is a dying bison and an eagle with a broken wing.

"The statue is not just to honor Native Americans; its to represent all people who have suffered injustices"-Peter Wolf Toth

The Colonel and I were driving in town not long ago and saw the statue. Someone had put a mask on the faces of the statue.

 Woman's face

Man's face

I love it! We all could use a little laugh during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Wordless Wednesday

A Study in Sea Grape Foliage

I have been creating more art since the COVID-19 pandemic has caused me to become increasingly housebound. I am re-reading the book entitled, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards and have been doing the exercises. I am realistic in knowing I will never become a Degas or a Wyeth (nor do I want to), but at least I can improve upon my drawing ability and my personal style.

I recently worked on a study of sea grape leaves. Sea grape trees grow around here and The Colonel have made jelly from the fruit.

My first sea grape leaves study was done en plein air. I used acrylic paints on a Gessoed board.

My next study was done with felt-tip markers on white drawing paper. I used one of my favorite artistic styles called Pointillism (painting or drawing with small, distinct, dots of color to form an image).

In 1978, I won a 4-H Reserve Grand Champion ribbon at the Indiana State Fair for a Pointillism piece I created while in high school. It was this picture of red and green peppers.

My final sea grape leaves study was a watercolor. I have not done much watercolor work in the past and I would like to do more.

Working on this blog post makes me want to get back to my drawing and painting...with this pandemic still raging on, looks like I will have plenty of time to do so.

New Sign for a "New" House

The Colonel and I now own the house that once was his mother and father's. Upon his mother's death, the house became ours.

We have been making a few changes around the "new" homestead. We had one wall in the family room covered in ship lap. We will eventually have it painted white (I know it is white now but that is just the primer). We have also repainted the front bedroom and hallway bathroom (both in the gray family). I painted the formally brown front door a pretty, mossy blue-green called "Dragonfly".

Furniture-wise, we changed the top of the dinning room table. We bought a butcher block counter top piece from The Home Depot and stained it a grayish color that looks a bit like driftwood and sealed it in a satin finish. The legs, apron and chairs of the table were a bright white. We left them white but touched up the worn areas. We replaced two of the chairs with a bench seat that we stained and painted to match the table. We put a little, tabletop lamp on the table. It is a shiny, golden pineapple.

I bought some new throw pillows for the couch and love seat. They have colorful pineapples on them. We replaced the twin sized, wicker bed in the front bedroom with an old-fashioned looking metal bed (see previous photo) in a double size. We kept the same headboard in the master bedroom that The Colonel's parents used...The Colonel made the headboard for them several years ago...we just got a new queen sized mattress.

I almost forgot...we also, with the help of Yam, my sister Jennifer and her husband Jim, put some low-profile picture shelves on two of the walls (family room and hallway).

The only room left to "work on" is the office/den. We will get to that eventually. The Colonel wants to put a large bookcase along one wall.

You may have noticed the word "pineapple" was mentioned a few times thus far. Well, that is because The Colonel and I have decided to name the house The Pinery.

You may remember that The Colonel and I have named our primary house Tradewinds.

We wanted to keep that tradition up and name the new house too. Why The Pinery? Well, the area we live in was once the pineapple capital of the country. They once grew smooth-skinned, cayenne pineapples. This type of pineapple could grow up to 20 pounds each. Pineapples were grown here starting around 1881 and ending in 1917, when a disastrous freeze happened and killed the crops. It became cheaper to grow pineapples in Cuba and eventually in Hawaii.

Image from the Internet

Now that we had a name for our secondary house, we had to have a sign for it. The Colonel and I made the sign for Tradewinds, so we wanted to make one for The Pinery.

The Colonel cut and sanded the oaken board and then painted it gray with a black edge. We both designed the pineapple and chose to use an older looking font for the house's name on the sign. It was my job to draw the pineapple and title onto the board. The Colonel had created a PowerPoint slide of our sign's design and we set up a projector and my laptop to throw the slide's image onto the painted board. I traced the design onto the board. Now it was time to go up to my art studio and paint the sign.

I began with the lettering first. I used acrylic paints for the sign. Little by little the sign was taking shape.

Now onto the pineapple itself.

Greenery done, now time for the body of the pineapple.

Finally, to give definition, I outlined the greenery and body of the pineapple with a black Sharpie.

With the painting done, the sign would next have several coats of a satin-finish sealant applied.

Finally, the sign was good and dry and The Colonel and I hung it on the "new" house. We also changed the outside light fixtures to a more coastal/cottage-like appearance.

The Colonel and I think that his parents would have liked and approved of the little changes we have been making to The Pinery.