Breasthooks, Hatches and Cockpits

South, framing done

 

(to start of project)

Another great weekend, and the first full day of Spring. Bonus!

Really got a lot done in two days. Ordered my sails Friday from Dabbler Sails, and spent half Saturday writing out all the specs and measurements to send to Stuart Hopkins, sole proprietor. Dabbler makes some of the best traditional sails anywhere. His shop is also on the Northern Neck, just up the road from where I spent summers and learned to sail at my grandparents’ house on Windmill Point. So, besides the quality of his work, for sentimental reasons I really wanted to get my sails there. Continue reading “Breasthooks, Hatches and Cockpits”

The Antipode of Autumn

Listening to Peepers, outside in the yard.

 

(to start of project)

I hope you can hear this. The vagaries of computers and the web makes some things uncertain. But if you can, this is what it sounds like here, right now, tonight. Driving home from work late, just after dark, I rolled down the windows just to listen when passing a wet place in the woods, or a farm pond overgrown.

Nothing sounds more like Spring to me than peepers on the first warm night of the year, the same way calls of geese coursing southward overhead on moonlit nights, plaintive and cacophonous, sound like fall. Minstrels announcing the entrance and exit of a very hard season, with a harmonic flourish.

Continue reading “The Antipode of Autumn”

Mast Partners

Finished Mast Partner, plug below 

 

(to start of project)

Back in the saddle.

Finally had a good weekend. The cedars still wear dirty white socks of snow on their feet, but just beyond their shadows the crocus are blooming. At least there was no new snow. The humidity problem hasn’t improved much, but with warm days ahead, and rain coming, that should change soon. Until then there’s plenty to do. Continue reading “Mast Partners”

50th

Brunch at the Blue Moon Diner

 

The girls drove back from school to have brunch with their old dad on his 50th Birthday.
T treated us all to great eats in a funky place we’re fond of. Nice.

Later, there was home made apple pie. Short vid: Continue reading “50th”

Nothing

50 cents a ride.

 

(to start of project)

I got nothin. In five days I’ll be 50. I won’t be done by then. I was hoping to have a Boat Birthing/50th Birthday Party by February 28, but it ain’t gonna happen. Weather and Life have conspired against me. I’m two months behind. I’m flooding the basement, trying to bring up the humidity so my wood won’t warp. (No metaphors, please.) The power goes out, then comes back on. There’s still six inches of snow in the yard, with more on the way tomorrow, though flowers are coming up through the frozen ground.

 

How do they know?

 

I need more sunlight.

 

 

Weather

Lighting the lantern, power out again.
(photo by T)

 

(to start of project)

I admit I’ve said a few small prayers to the weather gods to bring more moisture, something to help with my humidity problem. Obviously, I should have been more specific. At least about the form that moisture should take. Continue reading “Weather”

The Road Ends in Water

Brickyard Point Landing, photo by T

 

(to start of project)

The week following New Year’s was cold – record breaking cold – so it wasn’t the best time to visit the seashore; but that made it a good time to visit family. My folks now live on an island  outside Beaufort, South Carolina, which is about halfway between Savannah and Charleston. When I was growing up we took vacations here every summer, back when the place was still a little wild, so we have a lot of memories scattered around the island. When the last of my siblings left home, my parents sold everything in the suburbs and bought a house there before real estate got crazy. Now my own kids have grown up spending summers there, too, and on lucky occasions like this one our visits overlap with my sister or brother and the girls get to see their cousins. Continue reading “The Road Ends in Water”