Greetings, Googlers,
What’s for lunch?, inquired Amy the Ant. (Or Aunt Amy, if you prefer…)
I was going to write my almost every Sunday morning post – you know, about something really serious and socially important – but am still staining my floors, which is taking a very long time. I’m being kept rather good company by a few buggy house friends who have come to visit. Rather they’ve come to live. Or, I should say, they’ve come to be stuck in the floor permanently. As in inlaid. Wood inlays to be exact. Although they are very much alive to me and I can fell their little spirits. This mahogany one, Amy the Ant, is making her way into the Living Room wondering what crumbs might have been dropped on the floor for lunch. I have not told her that she will make it no further than the peeking around the corner from the Hallway, so don’t you dare say a word.
For inlaid wood creatures don’t move, do they? Or do they?
At night, possibly, when I’m not there.
Or when I’ve turned my back for an instant.
Or when something has scared them. Like a big foot hovering overhead.
But then, wood inlaid creatures don’t feel anything either, do they?
Or do they?
Perhaps they have a hidden stash of ant bandaids (AntAids) somewhere, under the molding perhaps, for times of trouble.
Or perhaps they grouse to their friends about their cruel houselady who would have set them into the floor in the first place to be walked all over willy nilly.
But then again, perhaps they rather like being immortal. After all, Aunt Amy will be here long after I’m gone. And then she can go where she pleases and eat whatever she wants.
I’m eating blueberries and Amy is staring at me. Ants don’t eat blueberries.
Cheerio everyone,
Giselle
November 11, 2012 at 4:06 pm
How nice but what a curious pet….
November 11, 2012 at 4:11 pm
She’s very sweet Marie Hélène Visconti. You should see her in situ. What can I say, Matthew Graybosch…but it’s my big imagination….!
November 11, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Speaking of growing, when I see a floor that beautiful I have to ask myself, do trees ever die, or just stop growing. I hope every one knows that that is some serious work, both refinishing and inlaying hard wood !
November 11, 2012 at 4:24 pm
That looks wonderful 🙂 I know you’re hurrying to finish so things can go back to normal so I’m sending super woman energy down the line smiles.
November 11, 2012 at 4:25 pm
Love!!! 🙂
November 11, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Joe Kearns I have absolutely no idea. I swear this is the last time I will ever do this. I am a certifiable loon.
November 11, 2012 at 4:47 pm
george glavas…Sigh. They do die, which you can see driving through the Appalachian mountains here. In New Mexico we used red bricks, which are human made and extremely expensive. And set in sand. I don’t think they do that here. Too much rain. I cannot take credit for the inlays. There are the handiwork of a brilliantly talented artisan named Clifton Grant. Growing up I knew many people like him who were filled with passion for what they do. But I don’t meet many these days. He is an inspiring person who knows the power of a home environment.
November 11, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Hello Dee Solberg Super Woman I don’t know. Nuts? Absolutely. But I take your smiles and send them right back to you in spades!
Hello Anita Law!
November 11, 2012 at 5:45 pm
cant wait to see them – does the lady bug fly?
November 11, 2012 at 5:59 pm
I can’t see the Giants game over those ants.
November 11, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Brian Altman Lilly the Lady Bug and Amy the Ant are having a thing. What can I say, but anything goes around here.
November 11, 2012 at 6:03 pm
James Barraford you and Brian Altman both! Ha!
November 11, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Go Gi-ants
November 11, 2012 at 6:05 pm
James Barraford Brian Altman and I were to have gone to this very Giants game in Cincy this weekend. But Ants have clearly gotten the best of me. Go Giants! Go Giant Ants! Go Gia-Ants! Love that James Barraford.
November 11, 2012 at 6:09 pm
I’m going to be sick now.
November 11, 2012 at 6:49 pm
I was going to do a spider. I love spiders. But they weird most people out and I was worried bout that, Joe Kearns. Almost did a green caterpillar, which I thought was quite funny…but I couldn’t do them all!
November 11, 2012 at 7:22 pm
Did you do the ant yourself, Giselle Minoli? Very talented! I would have loved a spider on your floor, and it’s so you.
November 11, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Let’s put it this way Mara Rose…when we were relaying the floor and I had found this brilliant guy and his team to do it and he suggested maybe an inlay I blurted out (rather than, of course, the much more sophisticated and elegant possibility of, say, a hexagon, or a fleur de lis, or vines or scroll work or something like that, I said, “Ooh, how about a spider and a grasshopper and a lady bug and and bumblebee and an ant? Because our house is smack in the middle of the cornfields and crawling with critters in the summertime. This brilliant man then riffed on the idea and that’s the way I like to work with creative people…I like to suggest, then they do their thing, then I do mine on top of it. Sort of like a theatre production. I love creativity that feeds creativity. But, I couldn’t afford to do all of them and I wanted a lotus blossom and so I had to pick the group that worked together and I opted for the ant (because it’s funnier) than the spider (which is cute but more serious). Ya think I’ve overthunk this, or what?????
November 11, 2012 at 7:33 pm
Giselle Minoli I stand in awe :). I am a total hardwood floor person, and am now renting an apartment with gasp wall to wall carpets. Painful.
November 11, 2012 at 8:00 pm
Matthew Graybosch Self-doubt is such an interesting (and tortuous) thing. Every single time I embark on some creative endeavor…it never mattered, really, whether it was directing a play, designing a piece of jewelry, writing a story or designing something, initially my entire spirit, my entire being is “into it,” as though I were some sort of midwife to my own creativity (which I think is true of all of us). Then, somewhere along the way, when it gets difficult, or I get tired, or there is the predictable “bump in the road,” a doubt creeps in. Or several doubts. Or many doubts. And I wonder if I’ve gone ’round the bend. Don’t put an ant on the floor. If you do and have to move no one will buy the house because no one else will want an ant on their floor. Don’t stain some of the boards blue, because someone will come in and say What’s wrong with that board? And on and on it goes. And then it becomes a process of telling that nasty, bothersome, trouble-making voice TO SHUT UP and leave me alone. And somehow some way I work my way back to my original instinct and it’s all fine. But it can be Hell getting there. The real issue is that if I actually listen to any of those voices the end product is never any good.
As the saying goes…you only get an instinct once. If you don’t listen you will be in trouble big time.
So…who said we shouldn’t HEAR voices…and LISTEN to them?
November 11, 2012 at 8:07 pm
Brian Altman likes wall-to-wall and, if it’s beautiful I can’t say that I blame him. It is warm and cozy and there are some truly stunning carpets being made. But…I insisted on hardwood because it lasts forever, gets more beautiful with age, is of the Earth and is so very much easier to clean. Plus, it’s very healing. Think of all the things Mara Rose that one can do on a hard wood floor:
Play Jacks
Dance
Do Yoga
Do Pilates
Do a crossword puzzle
Sit in the Lotus Position (thus the Lotus Blossoms)
Have a picnic
Do a picture puzzle
Lie down on your back with the sun on your face.
Dream
Sleep…
November 11, 2012 at 8:09 pm
Giselle Minoli Mara Rose but there’s nothing like a tightly piled wall to wall carpet to practice one’s putting
November 11, 2012 at 8:11 pm
See what I mean Mara Rose? Until now, I had NO idea it was all about golf. Of course!
November 11, 2012 at 8:35 pm
Oh Noes…..Golf! I would have never thunk it, lol! I love the patina of old wood floors. I love antique rugs laid on them. I find them easier to keep clean, especially with German Sheperd hair….. Nice wall to wall carpet is fine, but apt grade is totally meh. I like the character of things, especially old things, and when I worked on my home many years ago, perseverated (is that really a word?) over every detail, down to repairing the glass door knobs and finding restored antique lighting fixtures from the same period, the 1930’s.
I’m around the bend with you :).
November 11, 2012 at 8:37 pm
Good. Then I have company Mara Rose. I will do a post of the finished floors, which are truly divine. You would approve.
November 11, 2012 at 8:46 pm
Somehow this post resonates. My mind is filled today with life and death and memory: First of all Remembrance Day/Veterans Day which encompasses not a few in my family. Second, my daughter and her needs. Third, myself–somehow I must find a way to refinish my floors so to speak too. Lastly, HOPE. I’m so happy that the US election went as it did though so much politics to come as you Giselle Minoli know and have said so well. Your floor, Giselle, being refinished comes just when the US is making changes too–not just the presidential but all the other elections as well that are monumental. What will last well enough thru wear and tear–floors or politics and laws? I’m optimistic enough.
November 11, 2012 at 8:57 pm
Kena Herod optimism is good but Giselle Minoli floors are spectacular. bright, sunny, reflects natural light and I just learned good for picnics and yoga, but putting – not so good- wood floors Mara Rose are much more easily cleaned when someone drops a pizza.
November 11, 2012 at 8:59 pm
Mara Rose Giselle Minoli Kena Herod and murphy’s law dictates that when one drops a pizza on a carpeted floor, 9/10 times it falls with the cheese side down
November 11, 2012 at 8:59 pm
I look forward to seeing the finished work of art!
November 11, 2012 at 9:04 pm
Brian Altman Multiply that with 75# of dog, lol, and she’s quite good inside for as big and athletic as she is.
November 11, 2012 at 9:13 pm
Brian Altman I keep think of Giselle’s ants on a day I sincerely think of Vets from my father and so many others (I posted my Remembrance Day/Veterans Day this morning). And weirdly, today, I have to do a 12 hour blood sugar curve on my elderly, diabetic cats. They are lucky to have lived so long but with age, they are dependent especially now on my care. A “curve” means pricking their little veins in their ears every hour for 12. Cats. Veterans. Ants. How we all so live together on this planet.
November 11, 2012 at 9:24 pm
Ah Kena Herod you always make me smile. Brian Altman you know that Mara Rose is a horse woman…I’m not sure you know but now you do that Matthew Graybosch is a ferociously good and wildly imaginative writer…of some uber weird genre that I’m not even sure what to call it but I’m sure there’s a name…and that Kena Herod was a dancer and is a dance critic and also a wonderful writer. If only she would do more of that! I’m tellin’ ya!
November 11, 2012 at 9:38 pm
Completely OT threadjack… Tonight is Leonard Cohen in concert, so I bid you all good afternoon, am off to check my mare and then get ready for a once in a lifetime evening. Have a lovely Sunday everyone, Peace and Love, <3.
November 11, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Mara Rose have a good time. famous blue raincoat is one of my favorite songs. and of course Halaluah – i took care of leoard’s grandfather at the royal victoria hospital in Montreal when I was an intern.
November 11, 2012 at 9:54 pm
And may I just say GREETINGS all you sneaky Ant-Loving, Ant-like people who have +1’d this post…thinking I don’t see you, like an ant would…but I do!
November 11, 2012 at 10:11 pm
I just kill the spider in room of my son. It was like more them 5cm big, ugly and scary … I can’t write so nice, as you Giselle Minoli but I will write about my mixed feelings of guilty and satisfieding, because he or she is gone…
November 13, 2012 at 4:20 am
Hello Jelena Milosevic Oh, My, that’s very distressing. Some of them can be big and scary and if you have a son who is scared, well, then, one thing can lead to another. I know exactly that feeling of guilt and satisfaction. It’s an odd thing, isn’t it?
November 13, 2012 at 4:21 am
Okay Matthew Graybosch, Science Fantasy it is…