Autumn colours in the swim zone. The swim zone has been very kind this week. The weather and tides are almost perfect too for a swim to start the day. Great conversations while keeping afloat have added to the charm of the early dip. Which has so far set the days up well for other tasks this week.
Chores just seem more tolerable when something good starts the day and sunshine seems constantly available even if the temperatures are a bit lower.
Wouldn’t it be fabulous to chase a beautiful autumn through the world. I sense my productivity and satisfaction with my chores would be great but my creativity has stalled. I really need to put a paintbrush to paper sometime soon.
The early distractions of yesterday, a misplaced work i.d and fob, a jumper delivered to a friend and the purchase of some dull, but essential art stuff all fitted quite easily into the early part of the day while the domestic goddesses, Madams Dishwasher and Washing machine did the hard graft.
All should have been set for late morning artiness but fate had other plans.
Yesterday was planned to be an art day with a side serving of domestica turned out to be quite a different type of day. Starting with a scene of domestic bliss, pale linens blowing in sunlight.
Our Springtime Yard
Moments later the springtime yard was draped in pale linens as the high (20 foot) washing line broke.
My Dad (born 1931) and my grandad ( born 1888) were very practical men and regularly mended high washing lines so I knew it wasn’t a job beyond me. I had even bought a spare washing line, when we moved into this house, for just such a moment. Planned , preventative maintenance was my thought at the time but I procrastinated and found myself in an ‘ emergency’ situation.
Nothing in my recall of stringing a high washing line involved the macrame nightmare that I created yesterday. Two hours later the washing was once again drying in the sun. All the colours of a domestic victory dancing in my mind, projected onto the twice washed linens.
Linens in the style of Tamara de Lempicka
Would I have been better off using YouTube for instruction rather than relying on intergenerational knowledge?
I don’t think so, and I am a big user of YouTube to fix things. But those ‘How to’ videos are so slick.
Learning from my dad and grandad taught me the art and tolerance of non-slick but effective repairing. My Grandad dealt with washing-line macrame by deep puffing on his pipe and a quiet walk around his garden with his arms held behind his back. My dad would retreat into his shed emerging with the macrame tamed into calm coils of new washing line ready to be strung up.
I have neither a shed or a pipe habit but I have tolerance and tenacity which in my own way beat the macrame.
Unknown, unwanted and uninvited a small rodent has moved into the space between the stone walls and the plasterboard in our kitchen. In an even more audacious move he has eaten through the cooling pipes of our built in fridge freezer. Without us noticing the fridge was slowly warming up as it struggled to run on no gas and the freezer quietly defrosted while it filled up with gas. Berries and red cabbage make quite a purple mess when they cascade out of the freezer as the door is opened. The fridge part meanwhile created a variety of cultures that rendered most things unsalvageable. Cleaning glass bottles to rid them of nasty bugs required an old-fashioned bottle brush. And that is how domestic diamonds are created…
Yesterday we were on top of the chores. There was only a mental list so no exquisite pleasure of ticking items off a paper list, and then the ultimate climactic scrumple of paper with an exaggerated toss into the rubbish bin.
The penultimate chore was some plant buying and a summer treat of two garden chairs to sit in our yard.
This was the inspiration.
I’m not sure when I first fell in Love with Adirondack chairs. They were invented and patented as The Westport Plank Chair in 1904. Our Canadian relations call them the Muskoka Chair. Read the link below for the full history and more names.
My first ‘ bum on seat’ experience was at the age of 3 or 4. My entrepreneurial Nana had them in the small orchard of Walnut trees behind her rural pub. These would almost certainly have come from one of the local American Air Force bases that she ran a limousine taxi service for. Her 17th century home was an eclectic mix of antiques and pub stuff with Contemporary Mid- Century North American furniture. Lucille Ball *meets The Leaky Cauldron**
* American Comedian with family themed comedy in the 60’s
** Pub in Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter novels.
My Nana always rocked the Lucille Ball look. Once turning up wearing Chuck Taylor Converse and jeans to a school sports day with brilliant red lips. Her pub was absolutely the country version of the Leaky Cauldron. Customers included.
Anyway when USAF staff and their families returned to the U.S or were redeployed elsewhere in Europe they would often leave a fair bit of domestic stuff behind. Often gifting it to local people with whom they had built up relationships. My Nan was a happy and stylish recipient.
In complete contrast on the other side of my family there were many men who were talented amateur woodworkers. My other grandparents were the proud owners or Steamer versions of the Adirondack. All painstakingly crafted from the instructions provided by Woodworker magazine by my Uncle who was really very clever and ultimately did cabinet making in Number 10 Downing Street. A fact I only discovered when I read his obituary.
Contemporary version of a Steamer Chair
A day of chores glossed over with natter about chairs. We were very busy bees though.
Early mornings have a special quality in October. Not so early as summer early mornings and not as late as winter mornings. Obvious really. Polls suggest that most people in the Northern hemisphere love May the best; for me, October comes a close second as my favourite month of the year. It is something about the quality of light, the sharper shadows formed by a more steeply angled sun. There is also a sense of preparing for a hibernation of sorts. Warmer clothes that have been hiding away in cupboards and drawers start sneaking out. Boots replace sandals.
Soup becomes a food choice and coffee cups start to be hugged.
In a habit formed during the Covid years our herb and spice collection got a freshen up yesterday and was relocated. Not a ‘Spring’ clean, obviously but maybe an ‘ ‘Autumnal’ Den prep. Prior to Covid lockdowns our spice cupboard was a mausoleum of out-of-date products cleared out only during house moves and always containing something long dead. The tedium of living through lockdowns made us much better curators of all things domestic.
After nearly three weeks from home there was another more urgent sort-out. The indoor plants have suffered from neglect. There have been casualties, two fatalities and some remarkable tales of plants that survived near-death experiences.
Everyone in the plant family has had 24 hours of proper care and been moved about a bit to show them the love they so visibly need.
If it is true that plants talk to each other I suspect there is nothing good being said about us currently.
If the sun doesnt put in appearance then the time is right to get on with the jobs that have been on the back burner. Todays jobs were dull but a rare shaft of sunlight on this glass collection brightened up the journey to the tool box. A Chrysanthemum also lit up the kitchen, an imitation sun.
Todays jobs really were too dull to mention but they were achieved by lunchtime and my reward was a good long dog walk before returning home to do other dull stuff like going to the Post Office and the Hermes drop off. The post office trip was to send properly kitch shoes to our grandaughter. Crocodile Crocs and sandals with motion activated LED’s . Gloriously silly and just what a two year old needs to make life even more wonderful. The nights are getting darker so we need to chose our evening dog walk with some consideration of good lighting. Tonight we more than achieved that by finding Fibreglass cows ruminating under a twinkling tree.
Lola found this location very much to her liking and as soon as she had sorted herself out we headed for home. A dull day completed succesfully is quite an achievement.
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