A Day in the Life
Stepping out my door to the quiet of the morning, dog beside me, I'm headed for the board walk. The sun is just coming up. It's amazing how that grant worked out, and the city gave us the Pecan Grove Trailer park. Got rid of the trailer riff raff and built our beloved multi-purpose Green Man Coffee House, along with ten smallish homes. We get a lot of business during the morning, local writers come to indulge in our excellent simple coffee offerings and the quiet atmosphere. Later the joggers stop by. It's been a good business for our group, offering a few jobs to our residents. The big multi-purpose room attached is great for our work shops. We had a writing workshop there last week and this week we are getting ready for Hugh Dunford Wood, coming from England to give a wall paper making workshop. Wow, we had an overwhelming response from the printmaking community! Class is full! Hugh will be staying in one of our tiny airb&b homes on the property while he is here. It's a busy week for me as I am the coordinator for the workshop. Life is exciting!
The dog and I walk a mile or so up the board walk and then back. The morning is fresh and we see herons and turtles; even some Kingfishers this morning. We get back and go hang out in the coffee shop for a while. Howie is there for his breakfast bowl, so I join him. Excellent coffee, the dog gets her drink from the dog station and then curls at my feet. We eat our breakfast and chat for a bit, catching up on our plans for the day and then off he goes to his wonderful, fulfilling job at the Capitol on our local public transportation. I take my journal from my backpack and spend half an hour or so writing and drinking coffee. Sven is playing some Chopin on the piano between customers, and then the local writers start coming. Sven is a Hoofer from Sweden. He’s been here six months now and helps Denise with the gardens and works in the cafe as a cook and managing the other workers. He coordinates with me for the workshops as we offer meals. He in trade gets free room and board. I take the dog home, feed both the dog and the cat in our 500 sq. Foot home, designed so well there is a place for everything. I have my studio in a corner of the community multi-purpose classroom, just off the coffee house. That's my job with our community, to keep up the art studio, check out art tools, create workshops and keep the space organized. All my art books are there, as well as others making a nice library and reading room in another corner. Most of the time I have the place to myself, but sometimes our folks come in to do a project or to use the library. I love helping them create. And we have workshops which bring in some cash to the community.
Howie has created an office workspace at the other end of the cafe. All our people have a spot, though I keep my little home office at home. Howie is having such fun organizing concerts and meetings and presentations for the coffee shop. We have gallery space as well. This month we have displayed Hugh's Collinos. All Howie's groups now meet here or in a nearby cafe. Ishmael, Tour Guides...Michael has his Science Night once a month and Karen hosts a couple book clubs.
All our land is in common and thank goodness there are others who like to garden! We have a CSA going and Denise takes care of that. She works part time now as the CSA gives her a bit of income. We all help under her direction. There are fruit trees everywhere and small raised gardens throughout the space. The cafe uses much of the herbs and salad greens.
Dale is in charge of the "garage" as we call it...the big metal building back off Toomey road. There’s a wood working space, welding, all things building. Good space for working on household projects, building raised garden beds, fixing the shared car, ...
I finish my 2nd coffee and head to the house. I write for an hour, working on my novel. I have a bit of tea, then get online to work out some logistics for Hugh's workshop. I'll need to use the car today to pick up some supplies I forgot to order. We're all ready for him! We have three residents taking the class and ten others from the printmaking community. Two others are coming in from Houston and will be renting from our airb&b, run by Michael. I've got the workshop ready and will pick up Hugh at the airport tomorrow.
By the time I finish my errands, it's 3:00, and time to swim with Irene. She is our personal trainer, specializing in keeping us older folks fit and flexible. We do our exercises and stretches beside the pool (Barton Springs). We have the goal to be able to squat like an aboriginal and to be able to get up and down off the ground without using our hands. So there are many strength building movements and stretches to do. After that, we swim two laps in the pool. I feel invigorated and the comradery makes this task a fun one. We have about 7 folks from our community and an added 3. Irene gives us a discount.
After the swim I'm ready for lunch. And then I read for an hour or so. Howie is home just a bit after 5pm. We touch base and talk a little about the trip we are planning next month. We'll be flying to Iceland for 10 days. It's research for me, for the illustrated novel I'm working on. He ordered our tickets today and I said I'd talked to Denise at the pool and she'll do our animal sitting. It's all so easy with her and Dale right next door. He winds down in the café on his computer with a beer after that, and I get three hours in my studio working on the lino cuts for my book. We meet at the cafe about 8:30, which is now closed to the public, for a potluck meal with the other residents. Tonight I didn't have to contribute as I did the fruit cobbler last night. A night off from cooking! But it is my turn to help with dishes afterwards. A big salad from the gardens, veggie and regular burgers off the grill, and grilled apricots from our tree for dessert. We all like to eat a light supper together.
I work in my studio for another hour (maybe more) after that, then the short walk home, my little dog friend always at my feet. Howie is home soon after and we sit on the porch with a night-cap, enjoying the evening. Sven drops by on his way home from the cafe and brings us a sampling of the muffins he made for tomorrow. Bravo we say! Denise is just putting out the compost and stops to talk a bit before heading off to her house. We wave to Ginger just home from her evening swim.Michael stops by for a chat about his new ideas for a bit. We offer him some refreshment and he ends up doing his imitation of his Jewish uncle. We laugh and Irene comes by to join us. We all say goodnight and are off to bed by 11:00 or so...