Painting project & Watts Pots

Good afternoon Folks ~ Here we are in our last week of October.  Our weather down here in s.e. FL has cooled off a tad and it sure is invigorating.

As many of you know, these last 22 1/2 months since losing my dear husband have been quite an adjustment in my life. I’ve more or less hibernated inside, on the computer hours on end, blogging, reading, watching movies, shows, etc. all to help fill up the void and the quiet here in our little Plum Cottage. The missing him never abates, the grieving is just lessened. I’ve been so ready for cooler weather this year, and it is finally starting to happen. I am thankful. The cooler temps make me feel more alive and wanting to do things. It has been hard getting used to doing things by myself, trying to figure out how to do things, and just getting the gumption up to do them.

But each day is new, a gift, and I want to be thankful and be creative.

I’ve got an old half-filled 5 gal. bucket of plum colored paint, that needs to be used up. Yesterday I got the urge to get out the paint, to paint the picket fencing section on the west side of the caravan. I enjoy painting, there is something therapeutic about it.  Once I did the west side, I decided to paint the fencing on the east that we’ve had up for a good while now. It was a creamy/white color. Our old plum paint looks different in different light depending on what time of day it is.  Sometimes it looks more plumy, others brown, and even gray. 

29th ~ I only did errands yesterday morning, no painting happened.  I did paint again today, still more to do. Another coat on the east fencing from the gate over, then the whole backside.

Before:

Here it is painted.  You can see that the pickets on the left side of the gate need a second coat.  I love this color.  We had it made up especially for us, but the company has gone out of business, like so many businesses in the past 6 years or so. Really sad, as they were an old painting company.

 

While I was painting, I got the idea to see if the light fixture, that we found several years ago thrown out in the neighborhood, would fit the wonky fence post. I was excited. We were going to put on the roof of the caravan, but alas, that’s not going to happen now. So, I put the paint brush down and got the light fixture to see if it would fit, and sure enough it did.  I just had to put some shims between lamp material and the post.  I laughed right out loud, and am pretty sure DH would get a kick out of what I did. I’m going to paint the metal, did two sections to see if I’d like it, and I did.

The sunlight is hitting it from the west. I thought of putting one of those LED candles on the inside that has a timer. Wouldn’t that be neat for night time?

Penelope roses.

My friends Nanci and John gave me this neat old Watt’s Pot. Watts was a company that made cement flower pots here in the area for years and years.  The pots are highly collectible.  This is a shortie, 8 inches high x 13 inches across. I’ve not seen one like it before. 

I thought to myself, do I have any of these in my gardens. I just looked at my pots, as pots. Well, lo and behold I have 12 of them, that we either found curbside, or bought cheap. I don’t even remember where we got any of them. Some are in better shape than others.

Nanci also gave me a nice piece of linen that is old and I plan to do embroidery on it of course.

The other night I was watching a ribbon embroidery tutorial on you-tube. 

Miss Tork was watching from my lap.

I learned a new word from Terry Hershey’s newsletter the other day. It is called Sabbath Moments and comes in the mail each Monday.

The word is numinosity.

“ Numinosity is the potential for unexpected mystery and insight where one comes into the unshakable presence of the divine; a sacred transformative space that integrates and heals the mind, body, soul, and spirit.”

***

Also from the newsletter this lovely piece.

***

O Taste and See 
The world is
not with us enough.
O taste and see
the subway Bible poster said,
meaning The Lord, meaning
if anything all that lives
to the imagination's tongue,
grief, mercy, language,
tangerine, weather, to
breathe them, bite,
savor, chew, swallow, transform
into our flesh our
deaths, crossing the street, plum, quince,
living in the orchard and being
hungry, and plucking
the fruit.
Denise Levertov

***

That’s is for now from Plum Cottage

FlowerLady