Monday, April 25

We had a large Easter dinner yesterday, with several Swedish friends and the Strayer’s. Everyone came over at two in the afternoon for a large midday smörgåsbord. At six in the evening we were still eating. Somehow when the Swedes break out the shot glasses and start singing, you know it will go on for some time. It was a good dinner with a lot of good friends, and something we need to do more often!

With another front moving in and gloomy skies overhead I worked a little on the stone wall in the painting this morning. The clouds make it dark in the studio, which of course makes it more difficult to judge values.

So when that happened I would just hop down to the basement to work on that. We have some of Karin’s relatives coming over from Sweden in June, so the basement needs to be all finished off so they have some place to stay. Before spring break I finished off the oak stairs down from the main floor; actually I just did the treads and risers, the balusters’ and handrails we contracted out. There is no way I would want to try that part. It’s just too damn expensive to screw up on an angle cut with a custom handrail. Usually that means buying the entire length over again, another words you’ve just thrown out several hundred dollars. Once it is done it will make a great entrance into the basement. I still have to patch the nail holes and put several coats of Urethane on to protect it all

Richard Boyer