Tag / Photos

by clumpaday

Tickled Pink

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Clump #190:  Recycle shredder, CD’s and cord.  Reframe old photo.

Today I took a break from the clumps in our son’s bedroom.  With all the paper purging I’ve been doing, we’ve had a casualty.  Our shredder went kaput and couldn’t be revived.  May I have a moment of silence for this fallen soldier in our battle against clutter?  The drops on its top are rain, not tears.

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I also deposited some unwanted CDs and a cord.  This was a big day for Best Buy.  I actually bought something there: a new shredder.

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Then I took the picture below to another shop to get a new frame.  It’s a lovely old photo of two dear family members.  My husband was the photographer many years ago.

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The cheap, plastic frame had a cardboard backing that obviously had suffered some water damage. Disgraceful!  It was in the box I recently decluttered.  Now to take care of it … honor it, or let it go.

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I found a relatively inexpensive ready-made frame that did the trick. Wow!  How much clearer it is through glass instead of ancient plastic!   The “after” picture was difficult to photograph without my reflection looking like a guardian angel hovering over the scene.  Trust me, it looks even better in person.

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Ah, the man in the photo was our wonderful, late brother-in-law.  He was fond of simple jokes that would be groaners if not for his excellent presentation and gravitas.  One was: “What did the snail say while riding on the turtle’s back?   … Wheeee!”  He always pronounced the “h” in Wheee.

Thinking of him while doing errands on a day when it was raining cats and dogs, a similar joke came to mind: “How do you know it’s raining cats and dogs?  … When you step in a poodle!”

The sidewalk to the shop was carpeted in confetti-like pink petals from the tree pictured above.

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There is something so wonderful about pink in the natural world.  It’s the color of cotton candy, tutus … Barbie’s favorite color … it’s an almost frivolous hue …

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But it’s also magical.  Like a silly joke.  It brought delight to hum-drum errands on a dreary day.

 

by clumpaday

Goodbye to Dust Mites and Monochrome

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Clump #189:  Decide what to do with bedding from son’s bedroom.

Today’s clump was big and bulky, but easy to dispense with.  Our son said he didn’t need his college back-cushion … so to the Goodwill it will go.  I will launder the bedspread set.  The pillows were as old as Methuselah (do people still say that?), so I threw them out.  Heaven only knows the dust mite colony that likely thrived within.

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In keeping with this color scheme, I thought I’d pay tribute to the tans, grays and browns that are quickly vanishing from the landscape.  We’ll miss you? … Maybe just a teeny, tiny little bit.
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by clumpaday

Tranquili-Tea

Clump #187:  Clear out wire basket of assorted junk that had migrated into son’s bedroom.

There I go, anthropomorphizing the clutter again.  Ahem.  I shoved this stuff together when clearing out our kitchen desk.  And it was before Christmas this year, when I was frantically readying for a party.  No need for carbon dating.

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Oh, my poor heart strings!  Today is our son’s birthday, and when I turned over the picture frame on top I was overwhelmed.  It was a photo compilation my younger sister had made for another birthday years ago. Here’s a portion of it, a little blurry, like my eyes right now:

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My memory of driving our son home from the hospital is of all the trees in bloom.  It was as if the whole world was celebrating.  Today was a gem of a day, and I was fortunate enough to go with some friends to a Japanese tea ceremony at the Shofuso Japanese House and Garden in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.

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We learned about the four elements to strive toward in the tea ceremony: purity, harmony, respect, and tranquility.  They were all present.

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We were served a sweet wrapped in a young cherry tree leaf that had been fermenting for a year …

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and a lovely bowl of bright green macha tea.

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The beauty of the setting was exquisite.

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Even without many leaves.

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One tree was perfectly pink against a perfect blue sky.

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We were all struck by the elegant simplicity of the place and of the ceremony.  No extraneous movements or things.  I include this photo of a musical instrument in honor of our musician son:

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Everything had a place and a purpose.  I will try my best to remember.

by clumpaday

Lighten Up, Clean Up and Head Out

Clump #186:  Find the one Billboard magazine our son wants to keep.  Day eleven of the 30-day, 30-post Bedroom Blast Challenge.

This afternoon I was not liking my 30-day challenge.  It’s Friday.  I’m tired.  I want to cut loose.  My editing daughter needs my words earlier so that she can do the same.  Then I received a text message from our son saying there was just one Billboard magazine he’s interested in keeping: “one on DIY topics.”  And I’m off and running, not able to resist the pull of ridding ourselves of a big clump.  I spent a good amount of time looking through all the tables of contents, until — Woo-Hoo — I spotted this one:

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The rest could be stripped of their address labels for shredding and tossed into bags for recycling.  I hope the men who pick up the recycling will be impressed that they’re in order by date (yesterday’s clump).  Big weight out of the room!  Not to mention our son’s life.

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I’ll leave you with a series of photos I snapped while getting my car washed.  Fun and a certain surreal beauty in a commonplace setting.

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And … I’m I out of here.  Have a wonderful weekend, wherever you are!

by clumpaday

Food for the Body and Soul

Clump #184:  Throw out old Easter candy and give away basket.  Day nine of the 30-day, 30-post Bedroom Blast Challenge: clearing out our son’s room one clump at a time.

I really can’t remember what year I sent this Easter “basket” to our son at college.  The bunny pasta has an expiration date of 5/08/14, so one of us should eat it up soon.

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So much uneaten-candy … how can it be that I am genetically linked to this guy?  Sadly, at this point, out to the trash it goes.

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In other food news, I made 48 of my turkey, lettuce, cranberry sauce, and mayo sandwiches for an interfaith Lenten service and luncheon held today at our Quaker Meeting.

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If my husband had been around at the time, I knew he would have been singing, “Sandwiches! Sandwiches!”  I chuckled at the thought.  You know you’ve been married a long time when you know each other’s favorite jokes.  And I guess you’re lucky when you enjoy them.  The origin of “Sandwiches!  Sandwiches!” is a play on the song “Savages” from Disney’s Pocahontas.  The movie came out when our kids were young, so we all enjoyed multiple viewings … it was one of the soundtracks of their childhoods.  In the song, both the Native Americans and the English view each other as savages.

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Somehow this theme seemed appropriate for a day when people of many different churches worshiped together.  Too often religions alienate rather than unite us, which has always seemed convoluted.

More than 100 people came together today, worshiped and broke bread.

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This was all the food that was left.  More Sandwiches! next year.

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Time, Patience, and Compounding Clumps

Clump #183:  Clear four items from son’s bedroom.  Day eight of the 30-day, 30-post Bedroom Blast Challenge.

An easy clump, as clumps go.  I had to tell myself that the goal is not always quantity, but consistency — keeping the momentum going. The windshield protector went into a car, the weights into the basement with similar exercise equipment, and the toolbox with other things to save for our son’s collection … it will join the bag ‘o office supplies from yesterday’s clump.

Note to self: get in shape!  Those weights made my arms feel like rubber.

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Each clump seems so small individually …

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but joined with many more, they might really amount to something! (Taking another shot of the ribbon of crocuses today before it disappears.)

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We expect quick results in this super-charged world.  I opened a box of stationery to write an overdue note to a friend, and this quote was on the inside of the box.  It was just what I needed.

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by clumpaday

Follow Your Heart and Plant Pansies

 

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Clump #182:  Sort through two bags in son’s bedroom.

I enjoyed a Skype session with all three of our kids yesterday.  Toward the end of the conversation, when it was just our overseas son and younger daughter, I said, “I don’t have a clump for you to look through right now.”  Our younger daughter said, “There are two small bags near the door [of son’s room] that would be easy.”

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by clumpaday

Take Out the Papers and the Trash

Clump #181: Remove trash from son’s bedroom.

So this was obviously an easy and straightforward clump … call it a mini vacation in my 30-day, 30-post Bedroom Blast Challenge.  Our younger daughter kindly — and willingly — devoted some of her college break to shoveling through the accumulated rubble in her brother’s room while he’s studying in Norway for a year.  She left labels on the sorted-out piles. This one made me smile:

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The trash basket on the left, above, was from our son’s college days. The one on the right stayed in his bedroom at home … fascinating, right?  The truth is, that one does have its fascinating aspects.  It was a relic from my husband’s youth.  He says he might have gotten it in middle school, or junior high, as we called it way back then. Little did he know that it would turn out to be a time capsule. Remember the old computer punch cards that couldn’t be folded, spindled, or mutilated?

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When this trash can was made, the war in “Make Love Not War” was the Vietnam war.  And I guess everyone in every time period thinks they are living through “nervous times,” but …

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the phrase: “Draft The White Knight But NOT Me” (below) makes clear that those truly were nervous times for young people.

“Chairman Mao Is A Fink” is so dated in terms of history and linguistics. When did the word “fink” go out of fashion?

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It was the 60’s, man, even the trash cans were radical!

by clumpaday

Weighty Books and Horsey Looks

Clump #179:  Send son list of book titles.  Day four of the 30-day, 30-post Bedroom Blast Challenge. Mission: clear out our son’s bedroom before he returns home and deposits more stuff in there.

I sent our son an email listing all 44 titles from the box below so that he can decide what to keep and what to give away.  I added that I would not mind a bit if he wanted to let go of any I had given him.

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