sovay: (Silver: against blue)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2020-04-19 06:58 pm

Got me sifting through the breeze

It was so beautifully sunny this afternoon, I was going to take a walk after rehearsal, but our street had turned into a maelstrom of equally sun-loving, not so much distance-remembering humans, so instead I took a kitchen chair out onto the back deck and read half of Dennis Lehane's Gone, Baby, Gone (1998). Neighbors of various levels were also on their back decks, including one third-floor neighbor setting up a grill with his dog. I waved and made eye contact and reminded myself we were all more than six feet apart by virtue of building specifications. It was actually quite nice.



Nothing about the weather is normal anymore, but I thought it was a nice callback to the meteorological traditions of New England that yesterday morning, for no reason that anyone requested in mid-April, it snowed. By the time I got out of the house in the late afternoon, it was mostly just damp and overcast. I could have done without the close encounter with the Trump-stickered pickup truck that gunned its engine repeatedly behind me, but I enjoyed the rest of my hour's walk through streets that were not a human maelstrom. I hope to be able to maintain these forays as the weather improves and communal prudence worsens.



One of the routes I walk—since the closure of the Medford Street Bridge, my shortest route to the library, although that's a moot point at the moment—involves cutting through the parking lot behind Pearl Street Studios, a local artists' collective located in another of the early twentieth century industrial buildings that still stud this neighborhood. It gives onto a magnificent corner of train tracks and the underside of the bridge and, these days, stacks and stacks of the new high school construction. There is also a small, low, concrete-blocked shed whose origins I have never been able to discern, although I assume it belonged at one time to either Kemp Nuts or the Boston & Lowell Railroad. I don't remember when I first noticed that the artists had populated the boarded-over windows and doors of both their studio building and the shed. For obvious reasons, I started thinking of them as ghost doors.



This one is both a ghost door and a ghost sign.



One of the denizens of the shed. I have not been able to decide if I should recognize him. He looks to me like a sort of chill version of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.



Another of the denizens. One might pair her with the previous, but I'm not at all sure they come from the same time.

The other notable thing about today was the very successful making of spur-of-the-moment drop biscuits. Hestia, despite her great biscuit-making skills where blankets are concerned, did not assist. Autolycus just tried to eat them off our plates.
sara: S (Default)

[personal profile] sara 2020-04-19 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
We also spent some time today clearing off the patio in back and making it less disgusting, and I'm now contemplating the purchase of a couple of adirondack chairs, since we expect we'll be spending a lot more of the summer in the yard than we normally do....
asakiyume: (feathers on the line)

[personal profile] asakiyume 2020-04-19 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Whoa, those ghosts. Wonderful--yes, maybe they're as staggered in time as you were from your neighbors in space, on your different-level balconies.

Your biscuit making sound *excellent*
asakiyume: (bluebird)

[personal profile] asakiyume 2020-04-19 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Also, superb listening material!!
alatefeline: Painting of a cat asleep on a book. (Default)

[personal profile] alatefeline 2020-04-20 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
So halpful, the cattens.
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (Default)

[personal profile] yhlee 2020-04-20 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
I love your photos.
pameladean: (Default)

[personal profile] pameladean 2020-04-20 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
I love seeing a bit of your balcony, and the view from it.

Those biscuits look fabulous. Drop ones have so many crunchy bits. I am unsurprised that Autolycus wanted them. And I guess you should feel flattered that Hestia thought her people were up to the task.

P.
selkie: (Default)

[personal profile] selkie 2020-04-20 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
I wonder what the ghost sign was. A kettle?
gwynnega: (Leslie Howard mswyrr)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2020-04-20 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
Those are great photos.

I'm glad you have a deck.
sara: S (Default)

[personal profile] sara 2020-04-20 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
Well, I tried to buy the chairs, but the order got cancelled by Costco, not sure what that was about. I'll try again next week or something.
alexxkay: (Default)

[personal profile] alexxkay 2020-04-20 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
Alan Moore's _Jerusalem_ prominently features a sort of ghost door. A local church has a large door high up on one of its exterior walls, with no discernable (mortal) function. As the book goes on, it is revealed to be one terminus of a highway for ghosts and angels (or, perhaps, angles).
sara: S (Default)

[personal profile] sara 2020-04-20 04:26 am (UTC)(link)
Aha: after some googling, it turns out the chair company is Canadian and is currently shut down because they can't figure out how to make the plant safe right now. So I will order some chairs from them hopefully later in the year, I think their values are in the right place and also the chairs are quite handsome (https://patioleisureline.com/product/adirondack-chair/).
asakiyume: created by the ninja girl (Default)

[personal profile] asakiyume 2020-04-20 04:28 am (UTC)(link)
I think so! (Unless transmission went the other way round--but I have a memory of discovering the band at random on Bandcamp, so I think it was me to you)
sara: S (Default)

[personal profile] sara 2020-04-20 05:01 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, I think that's the sort of behavior that should be rewarded.

I do note, however, that were I Canadian I could get green or yellow chairs as well. Here my choices are white, brown, gray, red, or blue (I am thinking red).
sara: S (Default)

[personal profile] sara 2020-04-20 05:14 am (UTC)(link)
Well, you know, the Canadians have more freedom than we do.
poliphilo: (Default)

[personal profile] poliphilo 2020-04-20 09:01 am (UTC)(link)
Those doors are beautiful!
shewhomust: (bibendum)

[personal profile] shewhomust 2020-04-20 09:45 am (UTC)(link)
Love the ghost windows!
cmcmck: (Default)

[personal profile] cmcmck 2020-04-20 11:14 am (UTC)(link)
I love these pics!
moon_custafer: neon cat mask (Default)

[personal profile] moon_custafer 2020-04-20 01:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Sh! Those are our secret camouflage chairs!