December always seems to fly past me, leaving me a bit stunned when I wake up on New Year’s Day.  But this year is a bit different.  My family has decided to only give homemade/handmade gifts this year.  This is wonderful in many ways, but particularly because there is no pressure to rush around from store to store desperately trying to find a perfect gift under less than perfect circumstances.  The financial relief is nice too, but mostly it’s the lack of pressure.  I am planning my gifts and I still have things left to make and do, but they are things I can do in my own home, sitting by the fire, enjoying the glow of Christmas lights and music (or watching episodes of Battlestar Galactica…).  And that’s the best way to do it.

For my birthday J took me to see Away We Go on Tuesday night.  It’s a fun, quirky, and sweet film and we really enjoyed it.  I definitely recommend seeing it if you have the chance.  It was great to see John Krasinski (who plays the character Jim in the TV show The Office) in a film setting with new co-stars.

And my parents drove down last night and took me to a lovely dinner.  The food and drinks were fabulous, as always, and the company superb.  Of course, sunshine would have really made my day but given our stretch of rainy, dreary weather I guess that was too much to ask.  And it’s raining again today…

I have been able to spend more time in the studio the last couple weeks (thanks to my part-time status in the summer) and it’s been invigorating.  J wanted some postcard sized business cards printed so I got down to business.  I chose Kabel for the typeface primarily because I had it in a variety of sizes and light and bold.  And I had a linoleum carving of a chicken that I did a few years ago that seemed to work well for his business — The Chicken Barn Recording Studio.  The text was all printed in black and then I mixed a bright red with brown to get a brick red for the chicken. 

He also wants some similar cards for another business so I drove up to Rock, Paper, Scissors in Wiscasset this afternoon and as always found exactly what I wanted.  The shop owner had lots of chipboard kicking around so I got a nice big stack that we’ll cut up to use for the rustic looking cards.

I also revamped my inspiration board.  The contents had been up for far too long.  Here’s the update:

Hopefully I’ll have lots more to share in the coming days and weeks.
Have a great weekend!

We watched Local Hero the other night.  I had watched most of it once before, but my eyelids betrayed me toward the end, so we gave it another shot.  It is one of J’s favorite films, and now I know why.  Bill Forsyth wrote and directed the film, released back in 1983.  Aside from the beauty of the Scottish shoreline, the film is full of real people — people who do not appear flawless in either appearance or in deed.  I will spare details, but if you haven’t already, rent Local Hero and enjoy.

I have also been making my way through season one of All Creatures Great and Small, the BBC television series based upon James Herriot’s book of the same name.  I suspect that I will read the book, and though I am generally of the opinion that a book ought to be read prior to watching a television or film adaptation, in this case I believe no harm will be done.  The characters are certainly endearing (not to mention the animals) and the setting reminds me that life without all of our modern conveniences was in certain respects superior. Communication was most often face to face and people gathered together down at the pub, or over a cup of tea and biscuits and conversed.  There is no denying the danger of romanticizing the country life and painting a pastoral but inaccurate picture of the reality of rural life.  However, it seems proper to praise true community and determination where it is found.  Community was meaningful because people truly needed each other and depended on both the skill and benevolence of their fellow human being.  And this of course brings to my mind a number of passages and ideas from one of my favorite authors, Wendell Berry.  In his essay “Conserving Communities,” published in Another Turn of the Crank (1993), Berry says this:

  In their dealings with the countryside and its people,
  the promoters of the so-called global economy are following
  a set of principles that can be stated as follows. They
  believe that a farm or a forest is or ought to be the same
  as a factory; that care is only minimally necessary in the
  use of the land; that affection is not necessary at all;
  that for all practical purposes a machine is as good as a
  human; that the industrial standards of production, effic-
  iency, and profitability are the only standards that are
  necessary; that the topsoil is lifeless and inert; that
  soil biology is safely replaceable by soil chemistry; that
  the nature or ecology of any given place is irrelevant to
  the use of it; that there is no value in human community or
  neighborhood; and that technological innovation will produce
  only benign results.

Berry’s mention of affection certainly seems relevant in a discussion of All Creatures, as it is both an affection for people and for the animals to whom they provide care, that is a crucial piece of their veterinary work.  It seems to be a vocation rather than a job, which seems an important distinction.  In many respects I think that we ought to reconsider the time-saving devices and gadgets that we only suppose make our life easier, though when I say this I realize that in this concept “being made easier” there is an inherent assumption that life is also improved, and this I believe is a mistake.
I have many thoughts bubbling on this greater subject, and hope to continue to flesh these out in this space.  And, of course, I welcome your thoughts and comments.