I am half Finn. Finns are notorious for sitting around watching water. Which is good because the Finnish word for Finland is Suomi (literal translation-"swamp"). I think it is safe to say that as children, a favorite activity for me and my sibs was to sit around the dock in Northern Canada and read. My husband, likes to do things on the water. Our first trip up there, he spent frantically snorkeling, water skiing and other things. I was flabbergasted- all that good reading time wasted on caloric expenditure.

I also like to sit around and look at the various angles in my house. In this house, where we're living now, there is a delightful play of light and shadows created by the stairwell with a window. It is soothing to me.

In the house we're building, I was concerned that it was such a simple design, I would miss that. But now that Thom and the Brians have almost finished the great room with the plywood walls, I can see that there are plenty of angles with light and shadow for me to meditate on. Also, the wood grain in the plywood made me think of my time in Canada watching the water and the variations of the colors therein.

In the book, Sarah Plain and Tall, a woman from New England journeys to the plains to care for some children. She mentions that the plains are very like the sea. At first glance they don't look like much, but after much studying, she learns the colors of them and takes her paints out to capture them on paper.

Our plywood is like that. I think that wood, water and the plains hold a fascination for some people. And it's not just me. I was carrying in some boards for Pat to build an indoor trellis, and Young Brian, looked at it and asked reverently, "O, is that cherry?"