As I sit in my sewing room,
sipping on luke-warm coffee, listening to the birds and glancing out the window now and then to watch the two squirrels in the oaks...
Who've managed, over the last couple of weeks to strip all the peaches off the two peach trees out front, I'm pondering my new doll...
I have a friend in New Zealand, her name is Chris and from the moment we met, as 'first-timers' outside the home of a woman holding a quilt club meeting, something just 'clicked' between us. We quickly became inseparable after discovering a mutual 'fetish' for fabric and it's manipulation and could be found, more often than not, with heads down and bums up, working on a quilt or two or three... We pursued the hunt for more fabrics to add to our growing stashes with fervent enthusiasm and would relax after the chase, whether fruitful or not, usually by enjoying a nosh up at one of our favorite cafes or restaurants. We both love good food too, especially the exotic flavours of Thai and Indian, although a barbecue and our families along to share the ambiance, always went down a treat. Thankfully our men folk liked each other and discovered they both enjoyed fishing, even better -they were good at it and invariably came home with fresh snapper. So there were many a pleasant afternoon or evening, spent relaxing and sharing a few drinks, good food, time and mellow conversation with Andy and Chris.
I miss that too. It's practically a lost art form these days as people find they have less time and inclination to spend with 'strangers'. To compromise and converse and waste their valuable time and energies, developing friendships past the acquaintance stage. Sad really. A reminder of the speed with which technology is constantly changing the world around us and our place in it. It really is possible to glimpse a future where relationships, friendships and encounters, even sexual ones over the world wide net may become an everyday reality.
Hang on a minute... -that's already a reality...
Chris was born and raised in England, she's a few years older than I, -yet younger in her attitude to life and definitely in music! It's one of the few areas where we have differing opinions. I like old music (although there are exceptions, -I love Lady Gaga and Zero7), she likes new, I also have a penchant for antiques, she's prefers something functional and modern.
She's lived an interesting and diverse life and has four children and lots of grandchildren. She's married to a wonderful man, who adores her and together they've made a life for themselves in New Zealand and we miss them both terribly.
Chris and I shared secrets, our hopes and dreams and our past traumas and achievements. She was one of the first real BFF's I ever had, as my previous experiences and attempted friendships with other women over the years, haven't always been as successful as I would have liked. Blame it on being raised by a man I guess...
But I can count on one hand, the ones I treasure, and my friendship with her is simply unique.
I know it will be a lasting one, whatever the years and distance between.
I'm a lousy friend when it comes to writing or staying in touch. I'm not one for subtleties in relationships and much prefer a shove to a gentle nudge to get my ass moving on some such or other. She is subtle. Able to say with a few words that I 'hear' in her Pomme lilt and tra-la-lahs on Facebook or an email, that it's high time we conversed and shared a little of our daily lives and dreams. She's an 'ethereal sort'. She reminds me of a woodland fairy Fae, with an old soul that has seen a thousand life times, yet still has high hopes that the rest of us will eventually get our shit together and figure it out. She's not perfect. Far from it! Her life and the paths she chose and the choices she made, haven't always panned out as she hoped they would, so as well as the laughter that shines out from within, there's also the sorrows. She's a tiny little thing, an enviable ball of energy when focused, yet as calm and calming as a lazy summer afternoon when the need arises. She could've easily made me feel awkward, clumsy and huge beside her, but such things wouldn't even have registered within her 'hemisphere', as her perceptions of people and their place in her world, are based on so much more than mere physical attributes, or lack of them. She's instinctive, nurturing, pensive, spiritual, wise yet wonderfully 'daft' too and able to laugh at herself. She's easily the most incredibly generous woman I've ever met, -she gives of herself so completely. And she's also bit of an onion. It's been interesting peeling away her 'layers' a little at a time over the years and I doubt I'll get to see them all! But I do so enjoy her stories of times gone by and of engaging moments and interesting people she met along the way.
We've given each other 'challenges' now and then. My last challenge to her was sending her a large box of goodies to make an artistic fabric doll with. Did I mention courage? In no time at all, she turned out a doll, using as a foundation, a Patti Culea pattern and created a Medusa, in all her feminine and wily glory, complete with a head of hissing green snakes! Just incredible!! I was so blown away and proud of her, that when she sent me the photos of the doll, I promptly sent a couple off to Patti!
This time, the challenge is to make a doll of each other. Should be a hoot! But apart from choosing some fabrics in her favorite colors, I've yet to make a firm decision on the rest...
Me and my BIG mouth! -How the hell does one capture the meaning of friendship and convey in my medium of choice; fabric and wire, stuffing and paints, just how much she and her friendship means to me? Could it possibly show the love I feel for this woman? She's more than a sister; it's almost as if we knew each from another time and place, and just 'reconnected' again in this life. It's a funny thing trying to define the love one can feel for a friend. One day on Facebook, we'd been chatting and ended with our usual 'love you forever' and 'miss you' endearments, when someone she and Andy knew, piped in saying that our 'love-in' was turning him on and could he join in. I cracked up laughing when I read it, thought, "what a wally" and dismissed it as a joke. Later though, after receiving multiple messages from Facebook saying that so & so had commented, I realized that he'd continued with the quips until Andy commented, telling him to 'pull his head in'. Andy is 'quietly macho'. He doesn't need to 'throw his weight around' to get a point across and is very clever with words. It's very Hot! Anyway, so & so made it sound dirty somehow and it saddened me that his small-mindedness, whether a joke or not, belittled something pure and wonderful. She is beautiful to me, inside and out and though I love her dearly, the thought of sex with her, just doesn't 'do it' for me. I'd say she has the 'wrong equipment', but as I adore Andy too, I might get accused of wanting to shag him instead!
LMAO!! And now I'm getting off this subject, as I'm liable to have DDGH (my, drop-dead-gorgeous-husband)spill me over his lap for a spanking!
As I said, -love and it's many forms... not easy to define.
Our husbands though, have never felt the least bit threatened by it, -which in my mind, says more about them.
So back to the doll... Do I 'keep it light' and go for flattery and pick a time in her life when her youthful beauty was fresh faced and innocent? But I never knew her then and who's to say we'd have actually liked one another? LOL! So perhaps, better to endeavor to capture the true beauty of the woman in my minds eye; definitely exaggerated, just a little of course!
Contented and curled up in a chair with one of her moggies on her lap, or sewing away at her machine, or with her eyes alight with love and laughter and her arms about her Andy or Spring... hmmmmm.... choices...
Best get at it and see what develops...
