quiet weekend
I once again decamped to my parents’ house in Southern Manitoba for the weekend. It was just me and my dad as my mom is still in Vancouver spending time with my Oma. My dad had been there with her earlier in the week but came back early. He’s on vacation, but he was anxious to get back to work on finishing the basement of the house he and my mom have been living in since the end of ‘08.
There he is, hard at work putting in a door. My dad has some serious construction skills, as you can see — before he got to it, the basement was just a bare, unfinished cementland. But he can transform it into a beautiful, livable space. I have always been proud of him for having this ability. This room he’s working on will be an additional guest bedroom — useful, because the upstairs of the house only has two bedrooms and this way my brother won’t have to sleep in the floor of the family room in the basement when he and I sleep over at the same time (as clearly I get the office/bedroom on the main floor, no brainer).
Every time my parents come back from visiting my Oma they bring some objects. Amazing that there are still objects to bring, as they’ve been bringing things back for over 15 years. Anyhow, there are a few special items that I have always had my eye on for inheritance, and the time has finally come for me to take possession of a lovely one:
I have to ask Oma for the exact details of this statuette’s origins, but for me, it’s not so much the thing’s provenance as it is the childhood memories I have of admiring it in my grandparents’ home. It’s solid, made of some kind of stone, and about 20 inches tall. Its curvy lines and milky colour were pleasing to my eye even when I was five, and I remember putting my little finger tips in the rounded depressions of her cup and pitcher. It’s still a satisfying sensation! In this photo you see the statuette sitting on my parents’ hearth, and there it will stay for the time being. My apartment needs a serious spring cleaning before it is worthy of such an objet; even then, it might look better beside my mom’s fireplace. We’ll see!
One final shot: the view from the back of the house. I like the contrast of the dark prairie mud and the stark, leafless trees. But the snow is melting and spring is on its way!
Tags: art