WEEKLY NEWSCAST

DESIGN TIP OF THE WEEK:
When I am working on window treatments, the most important thing is their function.  How much privacy is needed?  How much flexibility in the  light control?  What is the best style for the architecture?  What is the best style for the decor?  And then comes the beauty, the fabric color  for the draperies,   the  color  and material  of the blinds, vertical or horizontal,  and foremost the favorite look of my client.    Window treatments should provide all three:  privacy, light control and great looks!

STORY OF THE WEEK:

"TALES FROM TWIN CHIMNEYS  -  TALE PIPES"
Part Two
by:  Beverly Anderson

    I arrived on Thursday morning to find a small garage with a sign on the door "OPEN 8-2 DUE TO SCHOOL AND MY CHILDREN".  A young, pretty blonde woman with goggles on the top of her head said, "Hi, pull your car up on the ramp."  I negotiated it nervously, got out of my car, and she raised it up high into the air.  She didn't ask me to stand under it's belly and stare at it again.  She pulled down her goggles over her eyes and went right to work.  She lighted a big welding torch and began to cut away the rusty pipes.  She works alone.  She measures by sight, aligns the new pipes, welds them on and so on.  I watched fascinated.  She is a metal sculptor at work.  Very talented.  Very competent.  Very carefull.  Her blonde hair and feminine physique did not hinder her even a little bit.  A true craftswoman.
     I watched a while longer and said "I think I'll walk down to the crafts/antique shop/restaurant down the road".  "OK, she said, "I'll be a little while".
     The restaurant looked deserted.  I walked around the side where there was a small lawnmower repair shop.  A man called out to me, "You can come on in the restaurant from this end."  He and his wife have officially closed down, but he was cooking fried pies.  His specialty.  Peach.  Freshly made pie crust.  Hot grease.  Delicious smells.  I ordered one and he said, "Sit down, make yourself at home." His wife came over and sat with me.  "He does all the cooking now, " she said.  "I quit cooking when I got the girls raised".  Her husband said he would be glad to take a look at my ailing John Deere mower, too.  We visited and talked and discovered that I know some of their friends.  She said they made her so welcome when she went to their church.  We exchanged stories of these lovely people.  I finished my pie and got up to leave.  "Where do you work?", she asked.  I told her and we found out we had another friend in common.  More conversation.  More visiting.
     I finally left and walked back to the muffler shop.  She has just  selected a long silver pipe from the assorted oddly shaped pipes that line the walls. She has it braced in  place with long metal stands and she uses two small rocks to wedge it into the right spot while she is welding.  Goggles down.  Sparks flying.  Happily soldering and hammering.  She tells me the only worry she feels about this work is when she has to weld directly to the muffler.  "One backfired once."  "It was very loud, and I had to close the shop and go to the doctor." "Now I'm nervous when I get to that part".  More sparks fly.  She approaches the new muffler with the torch.  I go back outside.
     She finishes up.  I watch her carefully check every weld and pipe to be sure everything is secure.  She apologizes for taking so long.  I assure her it is just fine.  She says she likes to be careful.  She doesn't want her work to be brought back.  I appreciate that very much.  She washes up.  She figures up my bill and says, "$130 is enough for a muffler and tail pipe out here in the country".  I am very grateful.  I have saved a lot of money and spent a very interesting morning.
     I watched two artists at work.  I received a new muffler from a woman and a delicious fried pie from a man.  I met new friends and shared stories of old ones.  I learned a lot.  I have "tale-pipes" to tell.


PICTURE OF THE WEEK:
"Scene on the River", oil pastel
by Heide Browne
$450

WEEKLY NEWSCAST

DESIGN TIP OF THE WEEK:

This summer my front porch was beautiful with morning glory vines growing out of  a large decorative  pot. They climbed up and spiraled  around  the column.  As fall has progressed, their  blossoms began to lessen and their  leaves turned brown and they were no longer beautiful. So I pulled them up this  from the pot and  filled it with tall,  bare branches, cattails and grasses...then I filled the pot with  colorful fall gourds.   I sat a  bright orange pumpkin beside it and the porch is revitalized and beautiful again.

STORY OF THE WEEK:

TALES FROM TWIN CHIMNEYS  -  "TALE PIPES"   PART ONE
By:  Beverly Anderson

     While visiting a friend in town, I noticed my car's muffler was about to fall off.  I carefully drove to a well known big-chain muffler repair shop and asked for an estimate.  $350.00.  Wow!  I was shocked.  My car was up on their rack and they asked me to come and stand under it and look at the problem:  rusty tailpipes, plus a muffler hanging by a thread.  I understood, but was still shocked by the cost.
     I drove home to Twin Chimneys to think about it and talk it over with Gayle and Doug.  Gayle says she is having muffler trouble, too.  Thus began these tales:  "Ask and Ye Shall Receive", and "It's a Small World, Isn't It?"
     I called my friend, Mary Carroll.  She called her friend, Ed.  He said, "Boy, that is a high estimate, but then muffler shops are notorious for eating women alive".  He recommended Gorilla Muffler.  He even volunteered to go with me.  GORILLA  Muffler!  Maybe I will need his company.
     I called Gayle at her office in town and of all things, she had just passed by Gorilla Muffler on her lunch  hour and thought it would be a good possibility, but she  was afraid to go inside.  A great big gorilla stands outside the shop holding a huge tailpipe.  Not her usual shopping experience.
     She gathered her courage and called them on the phone.  The lady who answered was very nice and  the combination of Ed's recommendation and this kind voice, I gathered up my courage and drove to Gorilla Muffler.
     Sure enough, the lady was very friendly.  We visited while my car was taken away for inspection.  It turns out that she passes our house, Twin Chimneys,  each day on her way to work.  In fact she says she always wishes we would get some ducks on our pond.  She says we need some.  We had a delightful conversation and I quit worrying about my muffler and about the big gorilla outside.  The mechanic asked me to come and stand under my raised car.  Again.  This is twice this week I have stood underneath my dirty, strange looking car belly.  It is not fun, but they showed me the same problems and said, "it will be about $130-150 to fix it".  I breathed a sigh of relief.  "Can you do it today?" I asked.  "No, it takes several hours.  "How about tomorrow?" they asked.  "I live out in Ashland City and I can't come into town tomorrow".  A man came out from the back of the shop.  "I think you are closer to our Pleasantview Shop".  I thought to myself "you mean Gorilla Muffler has a branch office?!!!"  I was amazed.  "Yes, I said, that would be more convenient for me".  "OK", he said.  "I'll call my wife and tell her you can come on Thursday."  "She has a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and so she can't fix it that day".  I wondered if she would actually be the one to do the work.  I'm not used to women mechanics, but I am looking forward to meeting her.

...to be continued

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:

"Daughter of the Autumn Wind"
by Heide Browne
Acrylic, 15 x 18,  $250

 

WEEKLY NEWSCAST

DESIGN TIP OF THE WEEK:

AS THE OUTSIDE WORLD CHANGES TO THE  FALL SEASON, AND WE  SEEK CHANGES IN OUR INTERIOR WORLDS,    A SUMMER "ALL WHITE" BEDROOM CAN BE TRANSFORMED INSTANTLY BY ADDING A BURNT ORANGE COMFORTER AND  THROW PILLOWS IN GOLDS, BROWNS AND ORANGES.

STORY OF THE WEEK:

I am posting  these stories that I wrote in the 90's  when I moved to the country to a two hundred year old farmhouse named "Twin Chimneys" 

TALES FROM TWIN CHIMNEYS (tm)  - "BETWEEN SEASONS"
by: Beverly Anderson

     As I walked to the mailbox this morning, a soft wind caught my attention.  It is different today.  It is dry.  It feels good on my skin and sounds good to my ears.  These are new sounds. The leaves on the trees are drying up and they rustle.  Some fall to the ground and make soft sounds as they land.  I hear a rhythmic chorus of grasshoppers joined by a mockingbird singing his solo.
     The trees on the hillside are beginning to turn yellow.  It is not a grand show yet.  It is a signal of things to come. The green summer grass is  mostly brown and is beginning to be covered with yellow and brown leaves.  The hackberry and mulberry trees shed their leaves early with no splendor.  The autumn asters are blooming pink and purple, beautiful, alone among the dried up stalks of the daylilies and coneflowers.
     It is not an exeptional day, but it is a quiet time between seasons.  A time to notice the changes.
     The cows are sitting and standing lazily beside the pond.  One is in the water.  There are six of them, four reddish brown and two black and white.  They have grown.  They are much bigger than when Johnny brought them here in the spring as "teenage calves".    I always enjoy having them here, but today I am particularly grateful. They bring joy and peace to the land.  They don't require much from a day.  They are content.  I like to watch them as they walk around the pasture.  In the early morning they graze near the barn.  In the hot afternoons they go way down by the far pond.  In the evening they come close to the house.  I can pet them through the fence.  Their noses are big and spongy.    Their heads are hard as rocks, but with fur.  Their eyes are huge glass balls rolling around as they study me.
     I will try to enjoy them more each day now  because they will soon leave.   Johnny picks them up each fall and I remember how it is when they are gone.  Lonely.  The farm feels more complete when they are here.
    Things change.  There is sadness.  And quiet reflection.  Time to more fully enjoy what has been here before it leaves.  Time to think about what is coming.  That is the way it is between seasons.

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:

"Camels" , oil pastel
by Heide Browne
$300