Q is for quandary. Where to next? How do I get there? The signs are not clear. What to do?
Things have been a bit unsettled in nancyland of late. Not in a bad way, but in a way that hasn’t necessarily been conducive to working on the Sea Rise pavilion project, or the miniature protea kit, or posting … anything. So it goes. (Thank you Kurt Vonnegut, for that all-expressive phrase.)
Slow progress — and regress — on the studio reorg, but the end *is* in sight.
Got the bookcases installed along the half-wall upstairs, and the reference library culled and organized. There’s happy Scarlett in her old-cashmere-sweater lined new-location fleece bed.
One of my favorite places on Earth is Harley Farms Goat Dairy in Pescadero, perfectly located halfway between Santa Cruz and Pacifica. On a meandering birthday drive home, we of course stopped there to check in with the mamas and babies. These are some of the very pregnant mamas in the loafing barn, waiting to give birth.
K-2SO is fully functional — with articulated thumbs! — and has begun work at Modern Miniature Succulents + Sundries.
Spent a recent morning painting and drawing with Maddie, who just turned five years old. If you’re looking for artistic inspiration and to question and push your boundaries, I highly recommend the company of a child.
Or you could just go to the hardware store.
nancyland.com 
Lovely post! I’ve been thinking that you are quiet of late. Could lack of physical activity mean that we are busy growing shoots on a spiritual level? Maybe we are incubating something new, like the goat mamas!
Megan, what lovely and evocative thoughts! I really don’t know what’s going on, other than deep cleaning, and am letting that be my default state. (Well, except at my job. Then I am competent and productive :)
Which is more important, the destination or the journey? (4 a.m. during a snowstorm seems a good time to have an ice cream bar and contemplate life.)
Yum, ice cream bars! For me, and for better and for worse, the journey takes precedence. Although having goals is good. And I don’t really understand the “fake it ’til you make it” counsel. I suspect it’s said because it rhymes and seems clever.
Four am awake is a bitch.
I too am in stasis so know its good and bad sides. Love K (his short name) and happy he has found worthwhile employment. His thumbs will come in useful for all that pricking out. Looks like he needs feeding up.
A toast to stasis! Here we are (again).
K really is a good fellow, kind of like Eeyore, and I look forward to hearing what he has to say.
Better than quagmire, which doesn’t have as many options. I’m wondering what you found in the hardware store, that magical cache of ‘aha!’. I find myself becoming a magpie in hardware stores attracted to all the tiny shiny bits. Just keep busy enjoying life as you have been and thanks for thinking of us with this update.
Gulp (Qulp?) I’m glad I didn’t think of quagmire! Really not in the mood to struggle or get sucked down. Plus, “Smells bad!”
I, too, love a good hardware store! We have one at the bottom of the hill, well-stocked and adequately staffed, that I frequent and much prefer to the larger big-boxes.
It’s a challenge to assume the best rather than the worst, yeah?
Sometimes we need a break from the usual. Glad to know that what’s going on is nothing ‘bad’ just different.
Different can be just what we need.
Totally agree, C’lady! All these states — quandary, gestation, quagmire, stasis — … well, I don’t even have a pithy conclusion. Better than “not waving, drowning” but not quite “walking on sunshine”.
:)
I love the photo of Scarlett. Hey, we all need to take breaks from time to time. And the preggo goats are cute to see. My local museum and nature center should be announcing their goats and sheep and maybe a few other animals multiplying soon too. It’s fun to see the babies every spring.
Conceptual me considered making all white and cream-colored slipcovers for all the books, but I’m not that dedicated (or crazy). Yet :)
Baby goats are pretty much the best thing ever. Kitten soft and randomly boinging, I could watch them for hours.
White and cream slipcovers on the books! Beautiful and calming, except when you want the tall narrow blue book and the short fat red one and you can’t find them without getting an extra light so that you can read all the elegant barely visible titles (you will put titles on the spines, right? I mean you aren’t crazy, just conceptual, right?). Yes, beautiful and calming but potentially maddening. Oh, wait! Maddie could colour them for you. You could recover every one of them with her art.
“kitten soft and randomly boinging”
What an excellent visual!
I’m not feeling particularly insightful of late, so I’ll just say thank you for checking in.
You are welcome, Keli. Insight is another side of … oh, I don’t know :)
I hope you can take the time to just enjoy the scenery. Scarlett looks happy and relaxed and you’re making progress. We all have those times that feel like doldrums, no wind, no direction, just sitting in water and nothing on the horizon. But sometimes it’s good to sit still.
Personally I’m envious of your bookshelves!
Thanks, Sheila. Building blocks, right?
The bookshelves are basic IKEA, quite sturdy and affordable (especially with the $9 shipping!)
All this reorg stuff is actually the other side of long introspection, not to say that it’s easy going. More like hunker down and do the work. New bookshelves help!