Spring time here is gorgeous. In the hedgerow adjacent to our house is an old apple tree with blossom, that, last week was splendid in the evening light. The bushes are alive with a flock of goldfinches, several pairs of red-winged blackbirds, wood thrushes, jays and other as yet to be identified birds.
We had a thunderstorm last night; the lightning scattered amongst the hills and rain poured down.
A pair of wood chuck have been feasting on dandelions in the grasses of the next door property; that is, until the grass was mowed and so the woodchucks had to venture further afield.
The house is a delight to live in; quiet, well ventilated and cool in warm sunshine... there is much to do, particularly arranging the paintings in the gallery for display.
Nicholas
These beautiful flowers arrived as a housewarming gift from our beloved friend from England, Scooter...they grace our new dining room, just as she graces our lives. Such gratitude in having them and her love with us this week. We have had so many people writing and celebrating with us, new friends, family, friends from years gone by...it is a gift to be in a new place, surrounded by the thoughts and energies of those we cherish.
As we unpacked, we tenderly held items from our grandparents, our parents, our siblings, our friends...at times it was almost overwhelming, for the smells of just-opened boxes brought back memories with an immediacy that was shocking. I know the olfactory nerves are the quickest pathway to the brain, but I have never had such vivid evidence to the link between smell and memory...
Here on the corner table, a totem pole given to Nicholas by his grandfather, Tommy. It was given to him after he became a blood brother of the Kwakiutl tribe of Native Canadians, who were grateful for Tommy's help with restoring the food production in Canada following World War 2. The sculptor was from a family of totem pole artists from Alert Bay in Vancouver Island. Alongside the flowers, a gift from our new neighbours, is a beautiful vase given to us by Mom and Dad on a trip to Vienna...and on it goes, rather like our histories coming together anew in little pieces we can see and touch.
Another little gasp of recognition and grief came when a piece of Paddington fluff was found attached to a duvet cover from our bedroom in England...my Mom and Dad gave us a sculpture of a Keeshond (Paddy's breed) as a housewarming gift; I gave it to them years ago in celebration of our Keeshonds, Domino and Echo...it is nice to have it here on Applewood Lane...
This is without a doubt a time of memory and dreams convergent, a time of unpacking and settling in, a time of deep reflection and emergent creativity...
Judy
Chapter 1 began last year when we scattered our beloved dog's ashes on Cotmandene in Dorking. Chapter 2 when we arrived in New York on June 17th and, now, we have moved into our a new home.
It has taken two years in the planning of it, from bare land, to concept, to drawings, to framing and now, today the landscape grading happens to complete the exterior garden scape.
Our builder hoisted the flag on April 30th!
And we've had perfect sunshine the last two days, greeting us in the morning like a golden splay across the fields.
There is a herd of white tail deer which graze in the early morning for a while.
And a flock of wild turkeys...
Nicholas
Well it has been a very busy week!
Our shipment from England cleared customs in record time and today everything will be delivered!
This meant things went into high gear with our incredible team in preparation for all our goods.
The mirrored backsplash was installed yesterday...
The grading of the earth around the house was completed in anticipation of the landscape designer beginning mid-May...
The mailbox is in place and the local post office knows we are living here now!
And, once the land had been softened with the heavy equipment, we installed the bird feeders...and, to our absolute delight, a pair of goldfinches found us within hours...followed by cardinals and red-winged blackbirds this morning...a dozy woodchuck cast a few glances towards the house as well, but he is shy and we have not been able to photograph him yet...
Later last evening, this was the extraordinary light glowing on the field and the distant hills, as seen from our living room...
We are so filled with joy and gratitude. There is a stillness, a quietude, a reflective quality to the landscape and to our home itself, and we both feel the desire to begin our creative work anew...
Judy
Yesterday, most of our furniture was delivered. There is still a shipment to come from the UK of course, all 250 boxes, but its a joy to see the dining room table in place and our bed installed!
And the concrete steps to the front porch, and the front porch itself, were laid too... well before the rain poured down last night.
Nicholas
If I am really honest, I am growing weary...it seems an almost indulgent thing to admit, for our home is absolutely beautiful, the light, the form, the creativity of combining our vision and creativity with that of our designer/contractor's...but, this moment is the culmination of nearly 2 years of solid planning, painful, heart-wrenching goodbyes, joyous hellos...the end of a career for Nicholas, the beginning of new careers for me, a new life in a new country for him, and a return to the country I thought I had left behind in 2000...
So, here we are, creating a soft landing for ourselves on a beautiful hill, above a beautiful village...I believe it will provide restoration and an opportunity for both of us to listen to our hearts and follow our imaginations...
Judy
In order to get the drains and water fully connected, our builders had to go on a little hunting expedition, which involved a big dig in the driveway followed by a patch and grade...
But as of yesterday morning, we are fully hooked up and have running water!
Tomorrow, we have living and bedroom carpet arriving... the fireplace has been placed and tile around it grouted.
There is still much to do, but some of the crew have been working this weekend.
We're counting the days.
Nicholas
Confirmation has come that all our belongings have been loaded onto a 40' container in Southampton, which set sail this morning. The shipment should arrive in NY Harbor one week from today. We are expecting we will be reunited with paintings and photographs, books and music before mid-May.
The lighting is going in beautifully and we are aware that we our home will have the illumination and warmth we cherish even when the sun sets.
Here is a photograph of the lights within the shelving unit in the living room...
Nicholas' stereo and turntable will occupy the centre section, the records on either side of it, and the speakers on each end. The lighted sections will be for art... sculptures, small paintings and larger books.
To the left is the fireplace pre-grouting, we are loving how it sits between the windows...
...and here it is, grouting finished, waiting for the copper doors to be fitted...
Much more will happen this coming week...kitchen appliances and countertops will be installed, carpeting will be fitted (as Nicholas mentioned) and the track lighting will go up.
And then, on Thursday, the furniture we purchased here in America will be delivered...hoping that decisions made months ago will be even more beautiful in reality than they have been as we held them in our unfolding imagination.
Each day, we look at one another in amazement, filled with gratitude and emergent delight.
Judy
The maple tree in front of the house is just showing buds!
And today, the preliminary grading takes place to level the earth...
We've found an antique exterior door at an amazing local salvage place. We are going use it as a garden gate and our garden contractor is going to fashion fencing to contain the back garden.
Our time at the rental is coming to an end... we'll miss the wildlife here. This morning the tiny red squirrel was the first to feed, beating the chipmunks by a long time!
Nicholas
With all the contemporary feel of the house, we do have a number of quirky antique pieces, a ladder from Indonesia, used by people to climb into houses built on stilts, an Indian trunk, carved from one tree trunk, a Buddha carved from the floorboards of a Thai Buddhist monastery....etc...these are, as I type these words, being loaded onto a 40' container and onto a ship that will set sail from Southampton this Sunday. It hardly seems possible.
The door to the garden will live happily alongside these other ancient things...while it is a full door, the window once in the top half is missing, creating an opportunity to peek into what lies beyond...so excited to create a garden, to care for plants and to create a haven for birds and wildlife and all who visit.
For those who come through the front door first, this will be their view...
We are loving the tiles and the sense of space they provide. This photograph was taken from the living room, looking towards the front of the house. There will ultimately be French doors, pocketed into the walls just past the floor register, to give a sense of division from my healing room and the rest of the house.
And much has been happening on the lower level as well...
The future cinema room has had its primer, two coats of Birchwood White will be added by the weekend to create a warm finish...
And back upstairs, the tiles we chose in our Master Bathroom are even more beautiful than the sample we first saw...
It seems hard to believe it will all come together in time for us to move in (at least partially) in 8 days. And it also seems difficult to believe that our books, our music, and, most importantly, Nicholas' paintings will join us here in America before summer arrives...
I have missed their elegant beauty, their depth of colour and reflective light, the interior places they take me when I gaze at them. I wonder what paintings will come when he enters his studio next month, having not held a brush or a palette knife for over a year. I wonder what colours he will explore, what inspirations, gently held in his imagination, waiting for the opportunity to come into form, will be emergent...
Judy
Kitchen, hall and sunroom tile have been grouted and the floors laid in the healing room and my studio (save a few strips).
This wall in the studio will be my painting surface.... it will be finished with a ten foot by eight stretch of masonite upon which I can use velcro to secure the painting boards.
There's been a slight delay with the quartz countertop in the kitchen, but we are still on target to move in by the end of April! (fingers crossed)
NIcholas
My healing room, as Nicholas said, now has a floor! Even on a very grey day, on the north side of the house, the light fills the space. I am so very excited to begin my private practice once more. It has been over a year now since doing this work and I miss the great privilege of the holding others on their journey.
A break in the clouds and the afternoon light floods our master bedroom. The ceiling fan is part of the ongoing work of our incredible electrician (who says he has never installed so many dimmers...) What can I say? I like control the atmosphere with the ambient light...all those years in theatre I am guessing...
And here is the finished tiling, looking from the end of the breakfast bar, across the hallway, and into the living room...again, we are delighted with the incredible light that, literally, fills the space. And, when we spend time in this home, we are amazed at our designer's architectural touches, the little angles and niches, all of which will give us such a wonderful daily experience of shadow and light.
As I wrote that last sentence I was reminded of how important that is to me. In Gabriella, I wrote, "the far side of shadow, is pure radiant light"...what a wondrous gift to have arrived at a moment in my life when one of my greatest life goals is to create opportunity for reflection, both outwardly and inwardly...
Judy
Tomorrow we meet our garden designer at Ithaca Quarry to look at options for the garden...
Visiting there last week we spotted some superb boulders that could form part of a rock garden behind the living room, a sort of sculptural garden. This one weighs two tons and might prove too big to place!
But the grooves and cracks make it very interesting...
Nicholas
Inspired by the limestone of this area and central Pennsylvania, the boulder above is one of them, Nicholas and I are reminded of our love of stones...the Lewissian Gneiss of Iona, the granite of the highlands, and now the limestone, called "bluestone" locally....and you can see why.
When we returned to the house after our visit, we felt the need to harvest our own larger stones that were unearthed in the early excavation on our land...we filled a wheelbarrow a number of times and then spent about an hour creating these...
We have come across cairns in Scotland, England and Ireland...and here in the USA...in Sedona, beneath Cathedral Rock. For us they are markers left by those have climbed mountains, inward or outward, and in that spirit...we created some on the drive leading to our nearly finished home.
I guess we have always chosen clay and earth, tiles on the floors have always been our choice in homes we have lived in...last Friday, the dining room was begun and Nicholas dropped by Saturday to find that the kitchen/dining room was nearly done, and the goal to complete those and the mudroom by Saturday evening. The intricate cuts on the angles required such patience and precision, and skill...it was incredible to watch them work!
The tiles will have 24 hours to set before being grouted on Monday...and then, the appliances are to be delivered on Tuesday, in anticipation of the quartz countertops...more stone...
The constancy of stone, of earth is a great joy to us both and with things moving with speed again, we are both focusing our attention on the landscaping, the trees, the plants, the structure...where we will feed the birds, where will find places for quiet reflection, how will we bring the beauty of the outdoors in, and vice versa...exciting times.
Judy
