These are about the last of Ken’s clothes. There were a lot as Ken kept buying things on sale as three different local clothing stores closed. Only a couple blazers and a suit remain. As I headed into winter there were jackets and coats friends could wear. Seeing these things made me cry until very recently. I may still see them on friends. When I see farmers wearing Ken’s clothes it just feels right.
This pile of red oak was here before I arrived. It was cut on this property, and Ken helped mill and plane it; he worked at a local mill in exchange for getting wood sawed and planed so he could build. This pile was intended for the flooring on part of the main level. The other flooring is tiles he made. A divorced friend asked about it once. Ken explained that someday it would be …
Ken did yoga. I don’t. I hate yoga. I do the following: tai chi, lap swimming, classical stretch essentrics. I don’t need Ken’s yoga gear like his mat, nor the cover I sewed for him. I don’t need the small flax seed filled eye pillows and velveteen cases I sewed for Ken There was a small woven mat or bureau scarf and a bolster. I called around, and a friend who does do yoga said …
Here is what is left of photos from two apple boxes of photos and slides. There were so many because we took so many – photos of how we grew food and how Ken made pots – all for marketing. There were also photos from two trips. December 1990 to January 1991 early in our relationship. Ken and I went to Mexico. Looking at the photos made me remember the kindness of a man we …
I started a couple weeks ago when it was blistering hot. I decided that sitting near a fan and sorting photos would be a good project. I was right. Better to sort during those long cheerful summer days when it’s too hot to work outside than to sort in the long dark cold nights of winter when the darker Scandinavian side of my personality emerges. For the most part I felt deep gratitude for the …
A fan stopped working. It was frozen; it needed cleaning and oiling. It’s something Ken used to do each spring and I forgot about it. Until the fan didn’t work. So, I took off the plastic screens and cleaned them Then it was take off the fan blade and clean it. Put down newspaper, clean the frame and wipe dust off the motor Get some oil in that joint And on the other side Replace …
Today I finished sorting through old VHS and cassette tapes. It took emotional strength to handle and make decisions about things Ken and I watched and listened to together. Music tends to create a backdrop to my life – songs I listened to in high school, college, while dating Ken, while dancing with Ken. While doing this task I kept humming that song from Damn Yankees – You’ve Gotta Have Heart. “You’ve gotta have heartAll …
So often one sees before and after photos. Most of my life falls between those two in the “during.” Sometimes I label this progress; it’s rare that I arrive at after or done. This was how the west part of the drive looked after Friday’s storm. A younger friend came Tuesday and helped set me up with my new smaller chainsaw. He also cut with his larger gas powered saw. We got the Massey set …
Sunday marked one year since Ken’s memorial service. That service was my last commitment to all the people who were mourning Ken’s death – his family, friends, pottery and produce customers, acquaintances. It marked the end of what I thought of as a very public life. I had sold pots two weeks earlier, and now the pots were at two galleries. I no longer wanted people coming up my driveway at all hours (did I …
With a 16 x 20 foot sign at the end of our drive on a major highway, Ken and I led a very public life for decades. Even with posted hours people came up at odd times, and this led to some amusing anecdotes: the time I rounded the corner from the outdoor bath in a robe with a towel around my wet hair and there was the “chard guy!” We were also out in …
