Weathering the Storm

Three high tides down and two to go.

Last night’s high was by far the worst – about a foot above the first high
of the storm on Thursday morning – right up to the bottom shelf on the cat
climbing pole pictured below. This morning was high again but not as high
as last night. Tonight and tomorrow morning’s highs are not expected to be
nearly as bad. I have the heat pump off until the HVAC guy and the flood
adjuster can have a look at things on Monday. I kept all of the power off
during the highest tides but have turned it back on this afternoon. So,
I’ll just have a space heater for a few days but at least I’ll get a hot
shower!

The fellow in the boat is a neighbor who was taking advantage of this
afternoon’s LOW tide to go check on his house closer to the beach.
Thankfully he lifted that lovely old house about 9′ off the ground several
years ago so I’m sure he’ll find it high and dry. Today he parked in my
drive and put in at the side of my house. Note that he walks in the water
while his dog gets to ride!

Now, enough of all this gray! We need some blue skies ASAP! I’m hoping to
be back in the studio in a few days!

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Flood Interlude

Silly me for thinking I had a clear slate of several days for working on a
painting commission and various studio projects.

Our 2009 Nor’easter is upon me. I chose to stay because we’ve been through
this before. The pictures show this morning’s high tide. It has since
dropped about 4 inches and that may be all we get of low tide today.

By this evening I will need to turn off the heat pump and probably the power
 – if the power is even still on locally. There is wiring under my
house and so… best to shut it down. Kitties and I will just pile on the
blankets and wait for the final pass of tides Friday morning. By then I’m
sure I will be without air ducts and in search of repairs.

This is the price of living so close to my beloved marshes.

In the meantime, I have a long neglected stack of magazines and as long as
the power is on – hot teas 🙂

Keep your head above water!

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Plein Air Day

Our local plein air group met for the last time of the season today – or I
should say two of us turned out for it. It was chilly but sunny. As you can
see, the colors peaked about a week ago.

After several attempts at plein air I have decided this is not the way I
paint – certainly not with intent to actually finish, or even start a studio
painting. I’d always thought it would be the elements that would put me off
but it turns out to be more about approach and materials. Plus, coming at
this from years of painting stage scenery and murals, I realize that I
really do like to paint large. 24×36 inches feels small to me and that’s
just not an option for the old plein air/alla prima method. I will, in
future, join in these sessions because the camaraderie is great and there is
so much benefit in drawing and painting from life. But I will treat them
like sketchbook sessions rather than attempt to radically change my style in
order to partake in the current plein air craze. Know thyself. Right?

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Why the Golden Road?

Bukhara

So to start:

Why is this blog called “Lausanne’s Golden Road”? Well, partly because “The
Golden Road” at Posterous was taken – by someone who has since not done
anything with his blog other than take the name.

Why would I want “The Golden Road”?

Because it conjures three important threads in my psyche.

You may recognize the famous lines from the poem by James Flecker
(1884-1915)

We travel not for trafficking alone:
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known
We make the Golden Journey to Samarkand.

(My brother uses this as his email tag line – he and I have traveled
different paths and yet they intersect in interesting ways!)

Those of you who have known me long know of my fascination with Central Asia
and my very bad travel bug. So the blog title references both the urge to
travel and the particular draw towards the Silk Road. That’s two.

The third? “Golden” – what more glorious color is there?

Travel
Central Asia
Color

The Golden Road

Let’s go!

Wading Into the Pool

I have been back and forth about the idea of blogging for a few years.
What type of blog should it be? Personal or Professional? Will anyone read
it? Should I take the time for it?

I really should aim to spend LESS time on my computer and more time doing
the things that are worth blogging about. But I just ran across this new
blogging service that claims it will make it all very easy (quick!) to do.
So, I am going to give it a try.

This blog will be primarily about my work and my broad interest in the arts,
design and color. That’s my business tag line: Art, Design, Color. So
let’s see if we can get this thing going.