It Has Begun

The Purge. I finally started hauling things out of the north-east attic space in my studio. Eeee-yowww!!! What an amazing lot of junk! Now I know why I was so reluctant to start on this side — though I’m pretty sure the last (south-west) side is going to be the worst of all. I haven’t been able to get inside either of these spaces for quite some time so you know I haven’t been careful about what I threw in or how I chucked it. The area in front of the cute little metre-high door had bags and boxes and wrapping paper and tissue and ribbons galore. It seems that I can’t resist hanging on to every bit that comes my way because 90% of it was recycled. Crumpled. Torn. Stuck with tape and labels. I collected the nicest bits and was left with a huge bag of garbage plus several smaller bags of paper recycling. And then ran out of steam for now.

Further back in the space are boxes of fabric scraps, old patterns, old clothes and other items that I stupidly hung onto. I even found a box of old Golden Hands magazines from the early 1970’s. They covered a lot of different crafts and were quite stylish in their time. Too bad I can’t be bothered to put them up for sale on eBay or something. Hey, the Rusty Zipper has a few copies available for US$3.50 each and up! Wow! They’ve got patterns too for US$8.00 and up for something that originally cost like $1. I have lots of old patterns. Does anybody really pay this kind of money for these things? Plus postage? Are they nuts? Anybody want to buy this lot off me?

Ahem. Interesting how much of the popular styles these days are looking backwards instead of forwards. It’s kind of fun to see the new twists on old things. But it concerns me that the future may not seem as bright as the past does, especially to young people. We need to remember that every era has its pros and cons. I wouldn’t trade this computer and my high-speed Internet access for my old hippie love-beads and macramé owls, that’s for sure. And young women especially don’t realize how many options they have now that weren’t available to females even 30 years ago. Nobody should take that for granted because we could so easily lose what we’ve gained. There’s still lots of things that could be improved for everyone’s benefit of course. Learn from the past but move forward. Etc. OK, I’ll stop now.

Well thanks for posting your comments, Bad Liz! I’m glad you love moosies too. Sorry you haven’t seen one yet. However, in real life they are very large and very scary. I’d rather be in a nice solid vehicle when I come across them. Though even then. One time we got challenged by a mommy moose when she and her baby were crossing the road in front of our van. Baby didn’t follow close enough so mommy “rumphed” loudly at us and gave us a nasty look until baby caught up and they disappeared into the woods on the other side. It was a bit nerve-wracking even with metal and glass between us and her. Now Wilfred might be Wild but he’s definitely a very mellow moose. He’s also only 75% of the real size. But he is rather handsome, isn’t he?

I’ll leave you today with these handsome guys from a fence at Lac Le Jeune:


This area is just a bit west and south of Kamloops and is a ski area in winter and a fishing resort in summer. It’s been pretty decimated by the nasty pine bark beetle and much of the forest near (and in) the provincial park has been logged to prevent further spread. Luckily the bugs haven’t developed a taste for trembling aspens yet. The folks with cabins here have lots of pine wood to chop up for burning next winter now!