De-toxing

I am in the middle of a 'self-led' therapy and thoroughly enjoying it! Others would probably calling it turning out cupboards but the difference is I am
turning out the cupboards belonging to the ex, and his 'man drawers' [the wooden type, not the ones decorated with Homer Simpson, you understand.

Ex has removed most of the stuff that was easy to remove. This is the bottom-of-the-wardrobe/mostly-forgotten-about/hope-it-will-fade-away stuff. And it is interesting to see what it is there. Obviously quite a few unvalued things. I can't throw away stuff that is valuable to me - not in a money sense of course, but in a sentimental sense.

The wedding photo of his parents, which I wanted to put on the wall will be kept for my children. The painting of one of my favourite Somerset village will be reframed due to the smashed glass. I am sure that some of the family pictures that were there were there by mistake. But they are saved anyway.

The man drawers need to be thoroughly 'culled' but make me feel much better after all the years of being accused of being so untidy myself!

I had intended to head this with a funny picture of someone turning out cupboards. But on googling 'cupboards' this settle cum cupboard popped up, which I have seen and loved so many times. Painted by William Morris, details about it can be found here And I was reminded of Morris' dictum:

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful

And that applies to life and blog sites too. Always remembering that beauty is in the eye of the beholder or as Hume had it in his  Essays, Moral and Political, 1742:

Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them

which, in my case, is very fortunate......

Stirring the pot

No not tea-pot. I don't drink tea. I might be Welsh and old but I don't drink tea. That might lose me a few readers but I have made my confession. On the credit side, I do collect interesting tea pots and my pride is Great Aunt Mary Ann's tea pot which is large and must be at least 75 years old.

Having digressed in the first sentence I hope you are bearing with me! Many people seemed to enjoy my first blog so sadly that has encouraged me to keep on keeping on. When dumped - at any age - one has to undertake activities never previously 'enjoyed'. Having got to my grand old age without ever painting a wall is, I feel, perhaps a cause for celebrating. But part of the reason having being continuously told I wasn't good enough to try was a little confidence destroying.

Well having had a carpet laying ceremony booked for next week for quite a few months, and the walls looking decidedly 'mothy' paintwise, I thought I would give the process a try. Later in the year I will probably employ 'a man' to have a go at most of the house. But for now  I thought a lick and a promise might suffice.

My mother used to do all her own decorating. She was good at it but she was another who told me I was useless at anything like that. However she also used to say she could 'hear' her father [a professional painter and decorator] telling her off whenever she was decorating. Through study of family history I see that I descend from a very long line of builders and decorators but without any of the genes rubbing off on me!!

Determined to be independent, I set about removing shelves from walls and cleaning resulting dirty marks. So far so good. Lining up my tools, my first fail was being unable to open the paint pot. Having got help for that I carried on. I stirred the paint pot. Used a small brush and tried to do the even stroke bits until I got bored and then splashed it on.

So the first coat is drying. It is not quite as easy as I thought, but also quite rewarding! I am writing this before the final coat sets and the final disillusionment sets in. I can always add plants and ornaments to cover the rough bits, but it will be fresher and I feel some sense of achievement! 

Please don't expect any pictures of the finished effort. But I have enjoyed the morning and am moving onto my next challenge. Just hope it looks a little bit better than this one!

On being dumped after 50 years

One of the exciting things about life, I have always thought, is that however much one plans, one never knows what will actually happen next. So I have ‘embraced’ the uncertainty, and tried to work with it making the best of whatever life throws at me. Even horrendous, life changing events have to be treated as a stepping stone into another scene in life's rich tapestry - a terrible mixed metaphor but hopefully one with which others can concur.

As one gets older the not-so-good events often seem to outweigh the better events. Our pool of old friends and relatives seem to shrink as we lose them to ill health and worse, but then that should make us enjoy even more the lovely events like birth of new babies - and if they are our own grandchildren even better! But others' grandchildren can also be greatly enjoyed! - and celebrations. Weddings, anniversaries and birthdays can have heightened enjoyment as we age. Or is that just for me? Because I no longer worry that my outfit is the height of fashion or if anyone will be wearing the same one or colour. And as my daily meds do not allow drinking I know I won't get pissed and show myself up. And I don't have to dance so that my hosts don't think I am being anti social, now they just think the poor old girl is probably too arthritic. I'm not, I am being anti social but only I know that! And if I do dance and look daft, nobody is going to talk about me the next day. Or if they do it is of the 'Did you see Old Aunty B/Grandma, didn't she enjoy herself, bless her' sort of comment. Whilst I am still glowing at being able to kick my legs that high at my age!

However one event I didn't see coming was being dumped after a 50 year relationship, so in the spirit of making the best of it I decided to turn it into a blogging experience. For what purpose I am not quite sure. To share the new opportunities this now gives me? To rant and get my own back? To inspire others similarly afflicted? Maybe just because I can? Anyway whatever, watch this space. Or not. And laugh at the picture above because we don't have enough opportunities to laugh, especially when we really want to lay on the floor and have a tantrum. Something that really looks better on a little one than an old one.....