A Light Blub Goes Off

It is hard to believe that in a few short weeks we'll be saying good bye to summer and entering my favorite time of year, Fall. This morning was another crisp cool start to the day, and as Goober Beagle and I took our long early am walk that crispness seemed to jog brain cells. I got to thinking what I would have done way back when- let's say as an eight or nine year old (or older?) when asked on that first day back to school to write the yearly "what I did on my summer vacation" essay. Somehow I think that Mrs. Cantor or any of my other elementary school teachers would not have been happy with a blank piece of paper.  That is a bit how I've felt about this blog- it has become a big white blank space. Nothing. No thoughts, no photos, no "musings". Exactly what is a musing??  According to the American Heritage Dictionary "musing" is defined as:


mus·ing  (myzng)
adj.
Deep in thought; contemplative.
n.
1. Contemplation; meditation.
2. A product of contemplation; a thought. "an elegant tapestry of quotations, musings, aphorisms, and autobiographical reflections" (James Atlas).


So, what? I have no thoughts, no contemplations, no reflections?? That is so far from true. I have plenty.
What I think is that I felt if I wasn't writing about what I was quilting, planning to quilt, or just hoping to quilt I had nothing to say. No quilting. No quilt photos. Nothing to muse about. So let's remedy that right now! For those of you loyal enough to stay with me this is not a musing about quilting. I haven't really done any of that in weeks. I've thought about it, but it just isn't getting done. I felt stuck. More so I just didn't feel like "me".  Now that isn't all bad, but it sure got boring after awhile.

I will still "bore you to tears" with my quilting adventures when they happen (I intend to pick up my Civil War Baskets and finish the hand quilting soon), but I think I may also muse more- since those of you who keep coming back to read my "essays" fall in the realm of friends, and as such don't really care what we talk about! Friend just talk. Lesson learned. Light bulb went off. Just blog for heaven's sake! I'm not nearly as brain dead as I tend to think some days :-)

So here we go: a story-
yesterday I attended a birthday party for a house. Yes, you read that correctly! A house. Not just any house of course, but the home of a neighbor I've been wanting to meet for some time. She seemed never to be outside as I cruised the next block be it heading up to the grocery store, or for the AM cup of coffee or strutting my stuff with "the beagle". Akum's home celebrates it's 100th birthday this year. It is a lovely home on a block whose homes were built just before my block came to be. Her block was originally land that farmed potatoes (who knew!!) while my block was a farm owned by a gentleman with an odd name (which I don't remember just now). Akum has spent the past two years researching and writing about her house and its inhabitants, on a blog for our local newspaper. I'm addicted to it, and became fascinated by the stories she uncovered. Yesterday I got to see "the face in the attic", was read an inscription sketched into a bedroom floor by the young boy who had to move many a year ago and wanted to be remembered; I was shown the patched holes in the parlor floor- patched with {of all things} round cuts from baseball bats! The house had been chopped into two living quarters at one time and the parlor became a second kitchen. When the house was restored, the holes were lovingly filled so not to lose the original boards. I saw the staircase to nowhere (literally!) and history boards Akum and her daughters made up with snippets of history, old photos etc. She even pulled a survey photograph of my block from the 1940's where my neighbors house could be seen in all its prominence, and lo and behold- there was my front yard, walk and the large (then healthy) Maple tree that stood at the curb until several years ago when it's health suffered badly and the city cut it down.  I got to meet other families that live a block away- which up to yesterday could just as well have been miles. We all talked about how isolated we felt we were in our own little conclaves. It is nice to know that I can now truly call these families neighbors.
I'm glad I went to celebrate 100 steadfast years. I am also more determined than ever to begin investigating my own home. I've been told stories in the past, but would like to separate truth from fiction! Akum mentioned there is an unsubstantiated rumor in the history journals that two madams occupied my home once! She promised to look into that and let me know. Until then, I think I may pull my deed which goes back to the very early years of the 20th century and start taking notes.  Who knows, I may have some pretty interesting musings to relate myself! I may not have a face in the attic (see Akum's post here) but I bet there are some interesting stories to be told in these walls!  Akum hopes to put her research into book form and is looking for an agent. I do hope this comes to pass. I will be one of the first in line to get a copy- maybe even knock on her door and have it signed :-)
Wouldn't that be a treasure!