The Help

It probably seems ridiculous that two people with very little to do would need help keeping a small house clean and tidy, but I have been wishing and hoping someone would come along to do just that, A few weeks ago, my aunt Margaret said her former cleaning lady was in need of some customers since she stopped working for Merry Maids. Great timing. I called Veronica and she was happy to get the work. Last week she stopped by to give me an estimate, and today she and a friend came to clean for the first time.

Remembering the maids my mother and I both had back in the old days, and how it all worked, I was hesitant. Back then, my mother cleaned before the highly valued maid came so the maid would have only the easiest work to do. In a seven to eight hour time span, she would dust and run the vacuum and do a lot of ironing. When I was a young housewife, I had a few maids. I am sure one in particular found great joy in pulling the wool over my eyes. Daisy told me she had no idea how to mop a floor and was perplexed at my simplest requests. She did not "help" me for very long!

What a difference between then and now.

The two young woman who arrived today brought with them tools of the trade: a stepladder, several metal poles with fluffy stuff at the ends, buckets, a hand cart of sprays and other supplies. They got to work quickly. I heard the rustle of blinds and smelled the scent of clean. They effortlessly worked in all the high and low corners of the house; they mopped my wood floors and dried them; they made the bathrooms sparkle! I was delighted.

More than delighted, I was thrilled! Connie was right. I do need a cleaning lady!

Lone Wader

Returning to my car after a nice lunch with a friend, I found a neon orange parking ticket on my windshield.  I first thought . . . whoops. My bad. But then I was mad at the ridiculousness of having to pay for parking at that particular place! Why? My mood changed, and my love of all things Wilmington started to recede.
To soothe my irritation, I stopped by Airlie on the way home. In spite of the heat, there was a nice breeze and enough shade from the old magnolias and live oaks to be comfortable. Down by the creek were a lot of herons in the distance, grooming themselves on the driftwood and in the trees. This fellow was wandering around in what I thought was an oyster bed, but after looking at this picture, I really don't know.
Mother Nature can always make me feel better.

Consequences

About six or seven weeks ago, an ugly red bump popped up on my right shin, and it has been hurting, burning and itching. Yesterday I finally saw a dermatologist. He said it looked like a squamous cell carcinoma, but to be sure he would need to send it to pathology. After injecting the area with lidocaine, he sliced it off in a flash and had it sent away.

I asked him what caused the skin cancer. "It's from the sun you got when you were fifteen."

"Fifteen? How did you know?" How could he look into my past like that?

I thought back to the summer I turned fifteen. I was gorgeous! I spent the hot lazy days lying on the webbed "chaise lounge" in the back yard until my smooth young skin was perfectly bronzed, helped only by a little bit of wonderful smelling, oily Coppertone. A compliment on my beautiful tan was the reward for my long hours of basting and roasting.

I don't remember getting any dire warnings about the evils of sun or how it caused cancers, and I certainly never considered that someday I would be a seventy-something year old with wrinkles and splotches and scary looking things on my skin. I just wanted to look good at that moment in time.

Am I sorry I didn't stay out of the sun? Looking back on it, I really enjoyed that fifteenth summer and my tan, but apparently I am now paying a delayed price. I hope I don't get any more, though. 

Mournful

An interesting thing happened in Charleston on Tuesday.

The hubby was nice enough to go with me to an art supply store on Calhoun Street. We didn't know exactly where it was and parked on the street a few blocks away. After I bought a few cool things, we headed back to the car. Since I walk faster, I told him I would go on ahead and make sure the parking meter had not run out and would also have the car cool for him when he got there.

As I was walking briskly along the sidewalk, I saw a youngish black guy stopped in front of a building taking a picture of a plaque on a wall. And there were also two white women taking pictures of it, a white church on a hill. It looked familiar. I asked the man, "Is this it? Is this the church?" He said, "Yes."

Suddenly I was overcome with grief. I could see a group of older black church people kindly welcoming a lost little white guy that evening a year ago, not knowing that his intention was evil. Being there in front of Emanuel AME Church made it all so real, so tragic and sad. I started bawling! The sweet young man put his arms around me to comfort me. Through my tears, I murmured, "That was so horrible." He said, "It's OK. We just have to love each other. We just have to love each other."

I tried to pull myself together. We let go and noticed the white women were taking our picture!
So tragedy turned to humor as the man and I automatically smiled for the camera. And then when the three of them started to talk, I stepped back and away, embarrassed. I am probably now on somebody's facebook page! Then I saw the hubby coming down the street. What was he thinking!

It really was an emotional experience, and I continued to feel very sad and shaky for a while.

quick trip to Charleston

I snapped a few photos around Queen and Church Streets.
Many thanks to Rob for sharing his place so we could go.

Still Life with Gardenias and Mango

A friend brought me a nice bouquet of sweet smelling gardenias. They were a bit wilted from the drive on this hot day but so appreciated and wonderfully Southern.

one thing today

A couple of months ago on a 4th Friday, I got into a conversation with a visitor to my studio, the head ranger at CB Park.  I think my bug photos drew him in. As we talked, he said he would really like some nice nature art to hang on some of the bare walls in the visitor's center. Finally, today one of the other artists and I made a trip there to see what kind of symbiotic relationship we can forge. I have noticed that most artists really like to have their work shown and also hope it sells. We will be able to gather plenty of pieces to make his walls come to life!
Before we left, we rode around to see if we could find those darned buntings. Not today, so all I have is this pretty cloud.

End of post-vacation break

Gee, it took a long time to come back to my Wilmington frame of mind after my fun week away.
It sort of reminded me of the last time I had flu and went back to work. For several days I was going through the motions, but I wasn't fully engaged. But the dissonance was all worth it.

Life went on around here without me just fine. The kitties were as good as when I left them, and the hubby did not install any unapproved thing in the house - like shower doors or a non-working printer - as he has been known to do.

Long June days are here. The nights slip by briefly and don't give me enough dark for sleeping, but I am not suffering because of it. In fact, I have made a few batik-ish pieces of art around midnight.

This evening I was singing along to some Pandora music, and I want to share these few lines to an Eagles song. Pretty good advice.

Take it easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
Don't even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand, and take it easy