Wednesday, 10:30 a.m.
Believe it or not, yesterday was a down day. I have a summer cold, which began to show itself Sunday evening when I was sitting out on the back porch. I thought the cough, sore throat, and headache were from the citronella candle, made in China, but I haven’t been near that since, and the cough and sore throat persist. There is no fever, thank goodness, just this cough, sore throat, headache, and sneezing. It isn’t debilitating, just annoying.
Yesterday was a down day in another way, emotionally. It wasn’t that there was anything negative happening in my little world, quite the opposite. Attila and I have been amicably living together here at Mist Cottage, no changes there. I’ve been enjoying the open windows, the birdsong, the breezes whispering to me through the leaves outside the open windows, wonderful. But despite all of this good fortune, and good fortune it is, I was feeling a bit anxious. I don’t know what it was about, but this morning it has completely dissipated.
I plan on taking on a difficult project today. I want to apply a plastic film to the new big window in the basement, for privacy. It has a “curtain” at the moment, an old blue plastic shower curtain that I bought at the Dollar Store in 2010 for $1.00. But it does not do the new window justice. Last Friday I measured the window, cut the plastic film pieces to size, then set it all aside for another day. Today is the day. I am all thumbs when it comes to doing this kind of thing, so my patience cup has to be full.
The first part of the project involves cleaning the window. There are lots of bugs in the basement, so I’ll vacuum the bugs off the window, and from around the area around the window. Then I’ll use vinegar in a spray bottle to wash it clean. When it is dry the film will be applied. Two pieces of film needed to be cut for each window, as the glass surface is much larger than the width of the film.
But first, it is time to close the windows! The temperature outside, now, at 10:30 a.m., has risen to 23C. As much as I love the open windows, I enjoy physical comfort even more, so the windows will be closed, the curtains drawn, for the day.
OK, back to the project of the day. I did all the preparation of the windows, and applied the film. Well, what can I say, there are multiple bubbles that, no matter how many times I lifted the stuff and tried again, are still there. And there they will stay! Then I wanted to hang a light coloured curtain. White seemed like a good choice, as that window gets full sun during the day. A rummage through the fabric tote, nothing gets thrown out around here, revealed a beautiful wrap around skirt, that was a gift. It was worn about 35 pounds ago, and it is doubtful that this old body, as long as it remains healthy, will not be returning to that time and place and weight. It fit over the window beautifully, and is so cheerful in the dreary basement. There will be good memories of Joannie on every visit downstairs to retrieve or store cooking equipment, and it will be enjoyed when passing by that window, every time I leave or enter the house. Some solutions are just so very satisfying.
Wednesday, 12:25 p.m.
Hot! It is hot out there, too hot to run errands in town.
One of the two cheques that were “in the mail” has arrived. The grant for the attic insulation is exactly what we were promised. It is such a relief to see it, as I had overextended our financial situation quite a bit to take advantage of the grant program. It required an up front payment for the work done, and when all the paperwork was approved, a cheque would be sent in the mail. A trip to the bank to deposit the cheque will bring closure on the attic insulation project. One more cheque to come, for the new windows. It is a much more significant cheque, the windows were a lot more expensive than the attic insulation. I want to go to the bank, but after opening the door just now, I decided against it. Too hot!
Once the sun hits the back porch in the afternoons, it is too hot to sit out. Yesterday I hung a curtain rod across a portion of the porch and hung a white sheet on it. Shade. That is one section taken care of, there are two more. There are no more curtain rods here, so a purchase will be necessary. Luckily there are a few very old white sheets in the cupboard, as I said, very little gets thrown out around here. In the meantime, cotton sheets will be pinned across the porch clothesline, to provide partial shade. Yesterday afternoon, when two sheets were up on the porch, the temperature fell from 36C to 32C. The difference will be even more noticeable when the rods are in place, and sheets are hung on them, they will block all of the afternoon sun. The clothesline blocks only about 80% of the sunshine, it hangs lower than the curtain rod.
I know that they say don’t keep things just because someday you might need them… but hen’s teeth, we almost always end up using the old stuff… sometimes it takes 30 years to get around to it though. It is a calculated risk.
Posted this entry and forgot the picture I had taken of the Tamarack! It looses its needles for the winter, they are back again.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
23°C
Date: 10:00 AM EDT Wednesday 30 May 2018
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.7 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 22.9°C
Dew point: 10.5°C
Humidity: 45%
Wind: SSE 5 gust 28 km/h
Humidex: 24
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.”
George S. Patton
1885 – 1945
I laughed at your comment about saving stuff for use at some future date. It’s certainly not the advice the minimalists would give! But anyway, glad you found what your needed in your store of ‘stuff’! I envy you your warm weather. We have had a windy, cold spring…months and months of it! The weather people keep promising some hot weather soon. Bring it on!
Diane, we did get rid of a lot of our possessions when we moved from the Country House to Mist Cottage, with 1/3 the floor space, and no closets, things were piled to the ceiling when we moved in. It is much better now, and the things that were given away have not been missed. We still have a lot of stuff though, like very old bed sheets, some of them as old as Attila.
The warm weather just arrived this past week, and it is very welcome here. We too had a cold and seemingly endless spring, but it is suddenly summer. Wishing you a long run of hot sunny weather during the day, with adequate rainful for the green and living things during the night while you sleep!
Bed sheets make great curtains, just fold one in half and sew a hem at the top (folded) part, let the two pieces fall loose of each other and put on a rod. I did that upstairs in the bathroom with a white twin size sheet and have always loved it.
The old skirt solution sounds ingenious! I’m looking forward to seeing photos of it. The tamarack is lovely. I hope your weekend is a happy and healthy one!
Bex, bed sheets are wonderful! Right now I am using very, very old stained white sheets. They will wear out eventually, and then I will look for light coloured, bright coloured flat sheets for the back deck, for a real cabana feel. For now though, the old whites will work. All the $ in our budget are headed for the leaking garage roof fix, coming up soon!
Attila has restless leg syndrome, which means he wears holes in fitted sheets within a year. I save the sheets because the fabric can be used for other things, like curtains, potholders, all kinds of domestic items that can be made with fabric.
Thanks Joan, re the skirt on the window, lol. I was down in the basement this morning to see if I had any tomato juice for canning beans, I do not. But I did get a little buzz of pleasure looking over at the window skirt. 🙂 Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Try damping down the outside shade sheets – it should make that area noticeably cooler. You don’t have to take the sheets down and soak them just use a spray bottle. It works on the same principle as an evaporative cooler. Hot air cooled by water.
You are giving me hope that maybe all of my ‘just in case’ stuff will be used again lol
Cathy, damping down, what a terrific idea! Thanks for sharing that! The only spray bottle I could find had vinegar in it. I transferred the vinegar to another bottle, added water, and voila! Attila thinks the back porch smells like a chip wagon, vinegar. 🙂
All these old sheets are really coming in handy! I figure I can never go wrong saving fabrices, lol.