May 27, 2012
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…just checking in
Ventures into the xanga world have been mighty scarce for me lately. For any who might be curious, here are some reasons:
In order to take advantage of our city’s generous offer to haul away large brush and yard waste for free, the “jungle” growing in our back yard had to be cleared before the last week in March. That pile in the photo below to the left of the area with the rosemary growing out of the whiskey barrel is not a big shrub, but approximately half of the pile of brush that was eventually cleared from the back yard for the city to haul off.
Thankfully, the city will take yard trash in those biodegradable sacks that remind me of overgrown paper grocery sacks or a trash can every week, because I am fairly certain that before this photo below got taken, at least a dozen garbage can’s worth of weeds were also hauled off over the course of several weeks.
April turned out to be painting time. First, I had to complete a painting for the George Washington Carver Museum art education scholarship fundraiser by mid-April. I painted this from a photo that had gotten damaged when we had our water leaks a while back and while I am no Al_son, I thought it turned out pretty well.
The next painting project was our bedroom, so that it would be ready when the remainder of the flooring is installed. Son-in-law came over one day to help me move heavy furniture and reach the high spots. We also started hanging the wallpaper border I had picked out, but have not had a chance to finish that, so no picture has been taken yet.
After we we cleaned up the painting mess, I went to put away the supplies and had trouble even getting to the cabinet where we store them in the garage for all of the stuff that was piled in front of it. Getting it opened did not actually do much good, either, since it was also piled so high with all kinds of stuff and there was no place to store the paint we might actually need again someday. I started dumping everything out of it, decided that more shelves needed to be built to help keep everything readily accessible, some more pegboard on the inside of the doors for the paintbrushes would straighten out the warped doors that did not like to close very well and this would also make selecting brushes a lot easier, too. Cleared out a bunch of old stuff (found a couple of cans of paint from art school in the 1970′s in there) and got pretty much all of our paint supplies to fit in there again. The bottom still has a lot of the junk that was piled up in front of it, but it is SO much better now than it was!
The most recent project we finished was going through our VHS tapes and getting rid of stuff that had been taped off of the air and things we now had on DVD format. Daughter also helped out by taking home some family favorites that we were reluctant to part with, so that was nice, too.
I am trying to muster up the gumption to cull our book collection next, but not only do I have to have the stamina, I must be in a more ruthless state of mind than usual, or it will not do much good. You see, I have always considered books my friends, and how can you just kick your friends to the curb?
Comments (5)
There are some books that are first print and signed by the author and may be worth money. Other books have memories but aren’t even in demand for book stores.
There is no substitute for being ruthless and throwing things to other folks to hoard. Good luck in your mission.
@PPhilip - thanks!
I am very torn by going through stuff too. Like you, I am planning to get a little ruthless in getting rid of some junk. Might take awhile! Have a great holiday!
I think it is an amazing co-inkydink that you painted “Blue Swan” and I painted “Blue Sven”! I think your painting looks good too. You should paint more often, not rooms though but rather, canvases.
@mcbery - good luck with your organizing efforts and hope your holiday was awesome, too…
@Aloysius_son - thanks for nice comment about my painting. i am hoping that once our room has its new flooring and everything gets put back where it goes, there will be more time for painting of canvasses. i did manage to do one pencil sketch while we were on our hill country weekend. while donkey was taking a nap, i went to the riverbank to sketch, sitting next to a friend who was using her ipad. we chatted as we worked, then played “show & tell.” imagine our surprise and delight when we discovered that we had chosen almost the exact same region on the opposite bank of the river to sketch!