Rhonda Hetzel, author and long-time blogger decided to stop blogging for good this week. Over the years, her blog Down to Earth has been a source of great inspiration, archive of wholesome reading, gateway to more wholesome internet content, and a model on how to lead a satisfied and productive domestic life. The announcement made me very sad and it led to thinking about my own blog.
Back when I started in 2010, this blog was a way to make me stop procrastinating about writing. Over the years, it became a journal of sorts as I blogged about our travels, daily life, and special events. I still love reading over the early posts, especially those starring my kids and furry friends. But then real life and COVID intervened. Yes, I was still writing, but I found blogging to be a chore. I kept thinking, "What's the point?" and opened the blog only when I had something I really wanted to say. But the more I waited for such opportunities to come, the longer I had to wait, till I was blogging next to nothing.
But not any more! Hetzel's retirement and a dear friend's inquiry about why I am not blogging any more has made me rethink my 'waiting to be inspired' strategy. So here I go again...
Let me start with Karthi, our home. Over the years, her exterior had grown grungy and marred with cracks, fissures, and algae abstract art...
So we decided to get her painted again with new-fangled moisture-blocking undercoats and to freshen the damp proofing of the roof. The first step was pressure-washing the whole exterior, which took a whole day, around 3000-3500 litres of water, and presented us with a whopping electricity bill in February. It was good that we had decided to damp-proof Karthi's roof back in 2011, because it stood up wonderfully to the pressure washing. The contractor and the painter said that when they had done on the same on a house younger than Karthi, the plastering had broken up into cement chunks and sand and they had had to re-plaster the roof.
Within three weeks in January, Karthi was utterly transformed. The tired faux wood work of the porch gleamed again...
The front door took a well-deserved day off its hinges, got a sanding and a spray coat and was back at its post by the evening...
and the whole house got the look of a demure Malayali maiden decked out in a mundu and neryathu set with a tamarind-leaf green border. It makes me hum "Puliyilakkarayolum pudava chutti" whenever I return home from a jaunt and see Karthi peeking through the trees...
As you can see, the cats were actively involved in supervising the painting process, as in barging in on the painters at meal times and begging for food. The painters deemed Pirate and Akrami very well-mannered because they didn't grab and run like other feral cats, but made polite requests and waited patiently to be served!
Now that Karthi is looking spiffy on the outside, the interior looks dingy!!! We have plans, yes, we have plans. But some cannot be put into practice for six months because the exterior moisture barrier will drive the remaining moisture in the walls to the interiors in the coming months, and will be safe for painting only by June. Already we are seeing bubbling and flaking off in several ground floor rooms, likely to grow worse in the coming months.
That's it for today. The past one and a half months have been unusually hectic and discombobulating for a new year. More on that next week!
Hi, I just check in on your blog every several months and just now figured I must have found you through Rhonda's blog. I miss her blogging too. For about 15 years I have been interested in Kerala so have enjoyed your blog as to local insights. Hopefully I will actually get there this year for a visit. I am bit of an ancient/religious history buff but always enjoy tropical horticulture as well. Hope you keep up with the blog....it is so sad when they end.
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