all about dreaming 12 comments
This is a brief departure from the account of my autumn trip. As mentioned in my last post, the dogs and I rolled into Bisbee the afternoon before thanksgiving day. By luck, we managed to arrive at the house just before a major cold front swept through the southwest. Had we delayed our journey at any point, we might have been faced with camping in very frigid temperatures. We’ve actually managed to do so in the past, but it’s not exactly pleasant. Anyhow, we are safely settled down for the winter in the same house that I rented the past two winters following Don’s death. For me, it is actually helpful to be returning to a place that I have come to know very well – both the house and the town. The past two years of our lives (speaking for the dogs and me), have been quite unsettled due to selling the farm, packing up, putting things into storage for a year, buying the old place in Nova Scotia, moving stuff into it, and just working away on a place that is in need of major repairs. Spending the winter in a heated house with running water, a washer and dryer, a stove and a fridge, and a full bath, seems like quite a luxury after many months spent living out of the van, or in an old house without those amenities. Being here seems like a good way to rest up before tackling another season of camping and house renovations. The dogs love it here. The afternoon of our arrival, they both jumped from the van and ran to the garden gate waiting for me to swing it open so that they could tear through and race around checking everything out before running to the front door waiting for me to turn the key. Since our arrival, they have been taking advantage of the space to stretch out on their sides to sleep – a luxury they don’t really have when we’re camped in the van during our travels. Being able to take a warm shower brings back a very old memory of how miraculous it seemed the first time Don and I turned on the new hydrant in our barn after two winters of slogging across the yard from our house, struggling through deep snow while carrying buckets of water for our horses.
The first weekend back here in Bisbee, friends asked if I would like to take in the annual Bisbee home tour, and also the Bisbee art chair silent auction. Both are fundraising events for several local charities. Although I was feeling pretty tired from weeks of travel and camping, I decided to go on the walk about town. This year’s house tour theme was on the old miner’s houses – which actually describes most of the structures in this town. It was interesting to see what people have done with these old buildings. Some choose to keep them fairly true to their origins, while others modernize the interiors, or incorporate them into additions that are sometimes larger than the original cabin. At the art chair auction, I put in a bid on the All About Dreaming chair – signed by “Fox” – I’m not sure of the artist’s name, but if anyone reading this happens to know, please leave a note in the comments below. It is the chair in the first and second photos of this post. I love collages and altered books, text, etc…, so the chair spoke to me from the first moment I saw it. As it was early in the morning on the day of the auction, I had no real expectation of actually getting the chair, but thought it was nice to help get the bidding off to a good start. That evening, I received a message to come down and pay for the chair the next day and it was mine. This was a couple of days before my birthday, so I’ve decided to regard the chair as a birthday present to myself as I did not celebrate in any other way.
There were about forty chairs in the auction, as well as some smaller clay sculptures of chairs. Above and below are photos of a few of them. There are a lot of imaginative and artistic people in Bisbee, as reflected in the range of art chairs that were up for auction.
And so, I am settling into the winter season of life here in town. As always, I still live very quietly – just me and the two dogs. This winter, I’ve set up a small goal for myself – to try to spend a little more time around people. It remains to be seen whether or not that will happen as I’m such a hermit at heart. It was easy being a quasi-hermit when Don and I shared our lives as he was pretty much one too, but it is a rather odd existence now that it’s just me and the dogs. However, as the saying goes, can the leopard change its spots? I suspect that, once a hermit, always a hermit.
In other news, recently I decided to get some music back into my life. Since Don’s diagnosis in November 2007, I had not picked up my guitar or any other instrument. I have not listened to music, or hummed, or sang anything. I used to be a fairly musical person at one time, but have been silent for three full years. After arriving here, I decided to make playing music another winter project while I have some time to spare. I bought three instruments – online, of course – a new guitar as my old one, given to me by my parents, is at my mom’s house in Ontario. It has far too much sentimental value to risk bringing it along with us in the van where it might be either crushed or stolen. A very inexpensive mandolin, to replace my irreparably broken one that I’ve had since I was a teenager. And last of all, an inexpensive fiddle – just because it’s something I’ve always wanted to play, but especially after watching a wonderfully talented woman playing one at a gathering near Albuquerque last month. I spoke with her during a break in the music and discovered that she lost her husband around the same time that Don died. She told me that, for more than a year, she could not play or listen to music without it making her weep. She has also been doing a bit of traveling and camping with her dog, so there were more than a few parallels in our circumstances. Anyhow, that is the back story to why I have bought these instruments and have hopes to begin making some kind of music once again. So far, the fiddle produces mainly wailing cries that cause Sage to press up next to me, making sad eyes as she commiserates with my pain. The mandolin isn’t much better than the fiddle, but it has been many years since I had one to play. Meanwhile, after a couple of evenings of strumming and picking, the guitar is beginning to feel like an old friend. At least there is some hope on that count.
I have also made it my resolution to paint and draw again. When Don died, I packed my art supplies in a bag and dragged it along everywhere I’ve traveled over the past two years. I used to draw and paint all of the time – for myself, or creating illustrations to be used in the teaching manuals I once used to write. However, creating art has become yet another casualty of the upheaval in my life. Like the music, whether I paint anything this winter also remains to be seen, but with any luck, perhaps this will be the year that I pick up my pens and brushes.
Alright. Back to more photos and accounts of our travels in Utah and New Mexico. Those should be coming up quite soon.
12 Responses to 'all about dreaming'
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'all about dreaming'.
-
I should get Aleta to paint up some chairs like those — we’ve got about a million semi-remembered chairs around here.
-
Robin – Thanks, yes, I had a birthday about 2 weeks ago. I don’t acknowledge anymore as it is the anniversary of the day that we were given Don’s diagnosis (and prognosis) of cancer.
It was very nice seeing the hall filled with art chairs. In a way, it is a shame to see them going off to separate locations.
I do hope that I will become more interested in music and art once again. I have to admit that most of what I do through force of will and not generally due to any desire or love these days. For an artist, having to force yourself to be creative is kind of like a jail sentence. Well, maybe things will change in time — how much more time, I don’t know, but perhaps eventually. I’m not getting any younger, so I guess I’d better step things up a bit.
–
fred – Well, maybe a silent auction of art chairs is in order. -
I bought a fiddle a few years ago, mostly to play backup with matt’s guitar. I never took lessons, and only messed around with it for a month or two. Neither of us had touched it in over a year. After he died, someone told me that he talked a lot about me learning to play it – apparently, he was very excited about it. So last winter, I took lessons. It was brutal. I bought it to play With Him. I took lessons for 6 or so months, and then stopped. Just this week, I have taken it down again and started playing. Pretty amazing I still know the songs after months of nothing. I miss his voice and his guitar so much.
I haven’t done any art since, either. Well, not true. I did a collage piece for dan, but that is all I’ve done. No music, really. No collage or art. I can’t listen to his cds, or music from our usual life – I just can’t withstand it right now.Once a hermit, always a hermit… amen.
-
Bev, I like the chair…and the other pieces, too! I’m glad to hear you’re getting back into music. While I’ve never played, listening to music often is my way of coping with the world and allowing my emotions to come to the surface (as if they needed help). [Years ago, I bought a hammered dulcimer (that I still own), thanks to my enchantment at listening to a guy who, it turned out, makes them. I keep intending to try to sell it because I know I’ll never play it.] Anyway, I’m glad you’re into making your own music! And I hope you’ll return to art. That’s another talent I lack, but deeply appreciate in others. Occasionally, I paint or draw, at which point I become painfully aware that I don’t do it often for a good reason! Another suggestion (recall I suggested you record audios of your voice?): record audios of your music!
-
You bought a powerful dreamtime chair. I really like Bisbee and have enjoyed anytime I have been able to spend there. I envy you having a whole season there as it’s a place of much energy and very artistic in inspiration. Have you been out to Ramsay Canyon? It is a nature preserve with a lot of birding possible. I was able to stay there when the old buildings still enabled overnight guests. Now I think it’s just a B&B if you stay over and unfortunately they do not allow any pets but it’s like many of the desert islands for its energy.
-
megan – I’m often amazed by how many parallels there are in our lives and our experiences. Wanting to learn the fiddle is yet another. Oh, and being a hermit. Yes. (-:
–
John – Funny, but I debated whether to buy another mandolin, or to get a dulcimer instead. Last year, there was a musician with a dulcimer who used to come to the farmer’s market and I started thinking that might be an instrument that I would like to learn to play. However, for now, it’s the mandolin and fiddle. Maybe a year or so from now, I’ll check back to see what you ever did with the dulcimer. Maybe you should learn to play it (don’t say you’ll “never” do anything). I hope I return to art too. It has been a very large part of my life, so it is kind of sad that the desire to be creative seemed to die with Don. He was my muse and I am finding it hard to feel much interest without him. Just another of those things that people probably don’t get unless they have been through this.
–
Rain – Bisbee is a wonderful place. I have very much enjoyed spending winters here. There are just so many things to say about the place. I have been to Ramsay Canyon several times with birding friends and once with Don when we first began coming to Arizona. I have been to many of the main birding sites and also hiking into interesting Canyons, and to places that, for me, are of great interest — Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoons, and Echo Canyon at Chiricahua National Monument. There is so much to see and so many trails to be hiked throughout the Sky Islands, that I will never get to all of them – but that doesn’t mean I can’t try. (-: -
Hi Bev,
I have been enjoying your adventures right along with you since I discovered your blog a few months ago and want to thank you for sharing them. While researching, I discovered the Bay of Fundy web cams and check them everyday. As a fellow recluse, I understand the appeal of Nova Scotia. We share so many interests: I majored in biology, prefer the company of my dogs, actually made a dulcimer from a kit many years ago and learned to play it. I think we might even share a birthday – mine was exactly two weeks ago! Thanks again for the virtual tour of parts of the continent unfamiliar to me. Your photos are stunning! -
Hi Judy – Nice to “meet” you and to hear that you’ve been enjoying reading the blog. I love those Bay of Fundy web cams. I should probably post links to them from my blog as others might enjoy seeing them. Nova Scotia is a great place for people who like their solitude. Please keep in touch. You’re right. It does sound like we share many common interests. Take care, bev.
-
I didn’t recognize the chair for a chair in the first picture, so when i saw what it was, it was a really neat surprise.
-
That’s an awesome chair — I hope you get to meet the artist at some point. Do you actually sit in it, e.g. to paint or saw on the fiddle?
Fiddle music is O.K., but if you really want to plumb the depths of human emotion, you need a banjo. 🙂
-
Mark – Now that you mention it, the first photo doesn’t really give all that much away, does it? I love the eyes.
–
Dave – I think it’s an awesome chair too. I was drawn right to it and found it riveting as soon as I walked into the hall where the chairs were on display. Yes, I do sit on it – so far, not to create music, but just to sit in the room. I can see it being a good chair for making music. Hey, I do have a banjo and used to play it quite a bit. It’s back at my place in Nova Scotia. I should have mentioned that I also recently bought a nice blues harp. My brother (an excellent musician), says I am now well stocked with gear to put a small squadron of musicians to work making music!
Beautiful artwork, bev. I really like the chair art so much. So glad to read that you are settling in for the winter and enjoying all those amenities. It is an amazing pleasure to have hot water when you want it. Also love knowing that you are getting back into music.
You had a birthday? Belated birthday wishes to you. Hope it was a very good day.