Random Thoughts On Monday

I binge watched the PBS 2002 Forsythe Saga from Friday afternoon into the wee hours of Sunday morning.  Not all at once as I had meals to prepare and laundry to wash, dry and fold.  I also took a few hours to sort my 20 cent pants into containers marked with the pant size.  I plan to stack them in the upstairs "sewing room".  So named by the former owner.  We use it to store boxes we have never unpacked since moving back from Germany in 1988.

But, it's almost empty now.  Each fall I join my daughter in her charming neighborhood (I often wish we had purchased a small house in a charming neighborhood within walking distance of Town) for the annual yard sale.  I have, over three years, emptied the "sewing room".   We are down to bundles of silk flowers, puzzles and my son's large collection of Legos.  Vintage sets.  Hello, E-Bay.

I am thinking the wall opposite the door will be the ideal spot for stacks of plastic containers.  All labeled with contents.  Fabric.  Crewel Wool.  Quilt tops I thought I would hand quilt.  And now, out of season or size clothing.  But first I have to sort and wrap the silk flowers.

I have so many because I used to make up very large floral arrangements (in urns) for the circulation desk at the library.  Seasonal.  The library space was so large that ordinary sized things weren't even visible.  Things needed to be oversized and dramatic.  So, lots and lots of flowers.  I shopped everywhere.  Once buying over twenty bundles of fake yellow tulips at a salvage company warehouse.  What an eye popper that was in late March. Followed by fake branches of forsythia.   Then a bit later cherry blossoms.  Fall brought out the sunflowers, hydrangea and rudbeckia.

I bought the long stiff fake branches of forsythia and cherry and then bent and twisted them into natural, wild branches.  It took hours to "condition" them.  So many viewers refused to believe the branches were not real.

I still have all the urns (also fakes) that looked like cast iron (painted black) and cement.  I "fooled the eye" often with live things like a patrons gorgeous cymbidium orchids when they bloomed in February and a cascading arrangement of Chinese Lanterns from someone's yard.  I asked and they said "yes".  Everyone loved the library.  Happy to see their plants on display.

I think it's time to say goodbye to the flowers in the attic.  Sell them at the next yard sale. Or ask if they can be sold at work.

While writing this post, I am struck by how different my life is today from what it was when I worked at the library.  I thought my life was over when I lost that job.  It took 6 months before I was ready to try working somewhere else.  I think I had hoped they would ask me back.  But, now, at the greenhouse, I am happier than I have ever been.  The work is so different.  But I am happier than I ever was at the library.   You never know what life has in store.