Date: Sunday, May 25,
2014 Volume: 5
Greetings,
Everyone,
I hope everyone is
well and happy. My plans for writing monthly fell by the wayside, but now I
have a bit of breathing room and can give an update. March had extra work in
coverage for elections and town meetings. In April, we held a small memorial
service for my mother. It was time after two years. I couldn’t, emotionally, do
it before.
The story behind
how that came about was interesting. Both Ma and her twin, Margaret, when
nearing their perspective ends talked a lot of a favorite childhood place and
both expressed desire to “go home to Salisbury where they grew up.” I’d been
holding onto their ashes and those of my cat, Freyja, figuring that when I
found a “forever home,” one in which I planned to stay until my end, I would
put the ashes in the garden there to keep them with me. One day near the end of
February, as I was heading off to deliver some art work for a showing, it was
like I was hit in the head with a board. “They” demanded to go “home.”
Where did that come
from? Here I was, off to do something exciting and the tears started flowing. I
realized I was being selfish hanging onto them. This house where I live was
never “home” to them and when I finally move to my last home, that would definitely
not be home them. What right did I have to keep them from moving on? It was
time to let them go. I also knew that Freyja would want to go with them.
I contacted family
and it was arranged and on the day after what would have been Ma and Mags’ 85th
birthday, I (we) let them go. It was a beautiful day after a long cold winter.
We couldn’t have asked for one better. The sky was a brilliant blue and the sun
was shining although the wind was sharp and chilly. Eric did an awesome job on
the ceremony. Another funny thing… right after we finished the ceremony, the
wind lessened and it got noticeable warmer. We spent a few moments watching two
seals frolicking in the river.
They were home.
The month of May
was extremely busy as I worked on the InterTown
Record’s Summer Guide, a free insert provided every year. For three weeks,
I was making phone calls, checking websites, and updating information. I took
two trips to Ruggles Mine in Grafton to do interviews and get photos. There was
also my book to finish.
Enjoy and
Thank-YOU!
Theme: Making Decisions and Moving Forward
Every
so often it’s important to sit and reflect on life, to acknowledge where you’ve
been, take note of where you are, and consider the future. I often struggle
with decisions and the downside of living alone is not having anyone at hand to
share ideas and get feedback. I recognize that quick decisions are often not
wise choices. Things have to stew awhile and options considered.
One
of the topics on the burner for awhile was about staying here. The decision has
finally been made to sell the house. This is a wonderful house and a beautiful
piece of property with small greenhouse on the side and many flower gardens. I
gave the gardening a go and it’s just not me. This yard is too much for me to
handle.
I’m going to look for a condo and would still
like to stay west of Concord. This is creating the big dilemma about
downsizing. I am quite overwhelmed and another decision is to hire someone to
clean everything out. I just cannot do it. My mind turns to mush.
News:
The
end of April I signed a contract with AuthorHouse to publish my book, “Too Cold
for Alligators.” That was another big decision and changed how I was previously
working. I had just finished changing all the photos to grayscale because
printing in color would be too expensive. AuthorHouse wants the photos in color
for the e-books although the printed versions will be black and white. They
will grayscale the photos for the on-demand printing. That meant I had to
re-edit them again. The agreement only allowed for 50 photos. I had 95 which
meant I had to delete 45.
In
between my freelance work with the newspaper, I’ve been slowly working on it. All
my chapters were individual documents which meant I had to put them all into
one huge document with page breaks between chapters. I also had to type in
insert photo or map in the places where I want the images placed. I had to make
sure everything lined up correctly. Yesterday, I finally got the manuscript
finished and ready to submit.
The
next step is filling out the online Submission Information Form which is
numerous pages. This needs to be done before I can send the manuscript and
image files. So, there’s still more work.
Book
Excerpt
From
Day 13, February 2, Cypress Gardens, S.C.
It nears time for my boat ride and I head
back towards the dock. I am Margie’s only passenger. The boat is flat bottomed
and sits low in the water. For me, it’s quite a step down from the platform and takes
a couple seconds to maneuver the walking stick to help me balance and lower
myself into the boat. The seat is only a couple inches from the floor.
My knees
immediately begin to ache as I stretch them out in front of me. I haven’t sat
on anything this low in a long time. Margie takes a seat behind me and pushes
away from the dock. We move across the water without a sound as she dips her
paddle in the black water. There are many trees throughout the swamp and she
carefully maneuvers the boat around them, through pond lily fields, and past
tall clumps of saw grass. The cypress trees grow gray and tall out of the black
mirrored water. I am intrigued by the clumps of vegetation growing out of the
base at the water’s surface. I ask if the waters are still like this all the
time and she replies unless it’s real windy. She explains that the needles from
the cypress have a high content of tannin and the tannin turns the mud black.
The waters are actually very clear. She says that a good part of this land was
drained, dug deeper and refilled. The cypresses were planted by the owner.
I get mixed up on the actual time line. A
lot of the land here was chartered in the late 1600s and most of the
plantations built in the 1700s and then there was the Revolutionary War, the
War of 1812, the Civil War, the Great Earthquake, and lots of hurricanes. In
1989, Hurricane Hugo whipped through and did so much damage that Cypress
Gardens didn’t re-open until 1993.
It is so peaceful out in the swamp. The
boat quietly glides around the trees. The black mirrored surface of the water
makes for wonderful reflections and I am fascinated by them.
Current art work
exhibits:
I have five
pictures on display in Goffstown, two drawings and two photographs at Sunapee
Lake Massage, drawings and photos on display at Tall Pines Realty in Bradford, two
drawings at Z Pharmacy in Newport and photo notecards at Newfound Grocer in
Bridgewater and Ruggles Mine, Grafton.
More photos have
been posted to my online sites.
Upcoming shows:
There will be
photos and drawings on display at the Claremont River Savings Bank during June
and July. Saturday, July 5, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. at the Bradford Town Hall
Saturday, August 2,
9 a.m. - 3 p.m. at Goffstown Main Street
August 9 and 10, 10
a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Gallery at Wellsweep, Center Road, Hillsborough Center
See more of my work
at:
On Facebook at
Sasha Wolfe Fine Art & Photography
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