Well it's coming on spring and we know what that brings. Sorting out things, cleaning, purging and the like. I tend to not join the throngs doing it at this time of year. 10 months volunteering at a thrift store teaches you a few things about how to treat your discards; and the people who have to handle them on the receiving end—with consideration and an eye to timing. Small incremental loads—bagged or boxed with like things together, and delivered at off-peak periods are SO appreciated by the staff and volunteers sorting the incoming. It's truly disheartening to work through a wall of sagging garbage bags filled with mystery detrius; some of it smelly and much of it damp.
The two little painting of posies were spotted at the home of a lady I used to meet on my way to the nursing home. She lived right across the street, in the tidiest little california cottage in what I imagined to be the
Usonian style. Board and batten on the outside, vaulted ceiling inside… flooding the tiny 1400 square foot 2 bed 1 bath home with light. She had a front entry porch enclosed; its window choked with the palest of coral pink geraniums.
We talked briefly a few times, I liked her geraniums, her house, her tidy garden, her sweet little pictures. Turns out she was in her 90s, one of those persevering just-getting-things-done seniors we have so many of here in little old Sidney, British Columbia. Anyway, she fell, and was moved into care. The sale sign went up and the house sold 5 days later. Soon after the reno evidence piled up in the driveway. Cedar tongue and groove on the ceilings—ripped out. A mountain of smashed drywall indicates "Good-bye Rooms and Hello Open Concept". Dated fixtures trashed. Fully functioning but Not Stainless appliances turfed to the dump. Geraniums chucked into the compost heap.
I found her pictures at the thrift store recently. It may take me a while to track her down, find out which nursing home she's in; but when I do these little pictures are going back on her wall. It may take a while.
