It’s beginning to look a lot like.

Happy Christmas everyone! No tree here this first Christmas in New Harmony. We’re both headed south to see families. But there were several strings of lights and a garland here and there to add a festive air to the work-in-progress house. xo.

Roofless church.

Philip Johnson’s Roofless Church and I came into the world in the same year, 1960.

From the University of Southern Indiana website: “The architect’s concept was that only one roof, the sky, could embrace all worshipping humanity.”

Walking into it at night with my buddy Mickey Grimm is one of my best first memories of New Harmony. You think you’re walking into a regular building and all of sudden there's nothing but sky and stars and peacefulness.

Then the first time Lexie and I walked into it one night, hoping for a repeat performance, there was a mother skunk who had birthed some babies in the little stand of trees inside. She was having none of us. I wondered why this sweet little black kitty was rushing at us rather menacingly...

921 Granary Street

Some of you pushy lot have said, “OK, fine...but what does your new HOUSE look like?”

Well, I’ve been getting to that. So much of the inside is still in progress, I was waiting to put house pix up. But realised that waiting for the perfection of the inside might take a while, so here’s a nice shot of the outside for now. More to come. Bonus pix of the Owen-Rapp Granary for which our street is named (and a little kitty friend I made there). There’s a little new moon peeking above the granary in the second image, but it was prettier in person.

My favorite thing right now is watching the excitement at the bird feeder. Would take some pictures, but they tend not to hold too still. Lots of varieties of finches, and titmouses, chickadees, sparrows, cardinals, and the occasional woodpecker...

Andy’s ghost.

Last weekend there was a gallery stroll with the highlight being the Contemporary Gallery’s opening of Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds. Enjoyed by children young and old alike. There was some specualation amongst the younger crowd as to whether Andy would actually make an appearance. I think he was there. And I think he smiled.

Mind yer own knittin’!

So Lexie’s recently taught me to knit, and I’ve gotten rather obsessed with it. Not sure I’ll ever be good enough, or dedicated enough to knit anybody a sweater, but I’m working on my third scarf, and Lexie just made herself a fine hat.

If you are a knitter and ever find yourself in Evansville, we really love our local knitting shop KnitWitts. They are lovely helpful people, have all kinds of beautiful stuff, and as a bonus have two adopted dogs (a Beggar and a Napper) and a sweet little Boston terrier that I enjoy visiting with.

My first satisfied client (other than myself of course) is Ms. Shecky Green Clayton, pictured at bottom, enjoying her new scarf. Being an old-ish bear with quite a thin neck, Shecky is quite happy with the fine craftmanship of the new scarf.

Public transport.

Mostly biking and walking. Mickey has this great old beater that’s kind of space age-y (photo of its fine space-age rack below). I got a beautiful black cruiser from East Side Cycles before i left Nashville, modeled after the standard-issue Dutch bike. I love it. It’s shown here parked outside one of its favorite destinations, Laura’s coffehouse.

There’s no home delivery of mail here, so the post office is another daily destination. Always nice to run into neighbors and have a chat with Cece, the post office lady. Never the old Acklen Station lines out the door to pick something up. Although, by golly, I do miss Hillsboro Village and all my old crew at Fido...

Oh, I almost forgot...the golf carts. Several hundred of them in town. Why crank up a car to go somewhere that’sonly 5 blocks away?

Buildings.

Of course there’s Richard Meier’s Atheneum, one of the AIA’s top 150 buildings, there’s Philip Johnson’s Roofless Church, but one of the most vital buildings in town, the place where life is lived, decisions get made, and coffee gets drunk, is Laura Hudgins’ Church Street Coffee House. Then there are the historic buildings and the lovely Victorian downtown. The brick building with the clock tower is the old Ribeyre Gymnasium, which was in the film A League of Their Own, which was shot here and in Evansville. The old German clapboard church is a block away from us, and someone lives in it. The building with the arched window has the Maxmilian-Bodmer collection on the ground floors and our friend architect Ben Nicholson’s office upstairs. And wandering around always brings pleasant surprises. Of course it didn’t occur to me—until after I originally posted this—that the cute little building about 9 down (out back of the historic Fauntleroy House) was actually a 3-hole privy.

Trees and leaves.