The daily face.
This time of year Cambridge looks different every time I venture out.
No possible way to choose a favourite.
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Waiting at the Post Office.
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As in most towns hereabouts, there are quite a few sad-looking houses.
This one may actually be occupied, but we never see anyone around and it has that empty sort of look about it.
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This poor house must once have been quite grand but it obviously fell on hard times.
Once or twice, people have tried to resuscitate it, only to abandon the project when money and/or enthusiasm ran out.
It is rather forlorn.
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Some friends of mine are skilled at fixing up rundown houses and I’ve always thought what great fun it must be, to have vision as well as the talent to create something lovely out of wreckage.
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It’s been some time since I even attempted salvaging the wreckage I see in my bathroom mirror.
There are plenty of other ways to waste time, after all.
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Approaching home.
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There are times too, when a scene is so lovely, I’d like to be able to erect an easel and paint it.
Way, way back, I did paint when I had the chance and if I didn’t have paints, I used coloured pencils.
In a much more recent time I created things, using old calendar pictures. Tissue-box or letter holders.
What to do with them?
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“Crochet!” I thought. I’d make blankets for cats. Shelters are always in need. There could never be too many.
Back then I watched television, though I’m not sure if I watched because I was crocheting or if I crocheted because I watched.
What I do know is that I must have made hundreds of square miles of blankets.
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A few cat beds got made too and we still use many of those items, so I suppose it was time well spent.
It was a compulsion, really, to keep my fingers busy. When I am on the phone I doodle constantly.
My travel buddy Tim always laughed at me when we flew because the moment I was in my seat I began fiddling with the seat belt. Give me a piece of string and I will tie and untie it over and over.
Crochet was satisfying but I realised too late that it was having a bad effect on my fingers, something that had never occurred to me.
…..
A phone call came yesterday afternoon:
There had been a cancellation. Would I like to come in tomorrow for my treatment?
Well sure. What time?
The clinic would call shortly with that.
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Define “shortly”….
An hour later, the same individual, not the clinic, called back: not only would I not be getting my treatment tomorrow, but my 31st October wasn’t going to happen either.
That treatment isn’t done in the clinic.
In other words, it was a screw up. Fortunate that they caught it when they did.
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My last appointment at this office was on a Monday and I had made a mental note to avoid Mondays in future because everyone seemed grumpy and disorganised.
Then as I waited for the receptionist to help me, I realised she was trying to juggle several problems at once. I could identify with that.
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In my day, we were encouraged to multi-task, to keep costs down. It was all about the bottom line, profits for the share-holders.
Now multi-tasking is compulsory.
Screw quality or accuracy.
The modern way.
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The morning of October 19th called for an expedition to the end of the property up by the wall.
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Breezy and beautiful
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Next morning, 20th October
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A bank of cloud soon blocked the Sun
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But the colours are hard to subdue.
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How many more times am I going to post a picture of the same tree?
But it keeps changing…
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It is better, I suppose, to remove the middle of a tree rather than fell it and this one is at least symmetrical.
Mostly we see trees that have had one side of their canopy removed leaving them totally out of balance.
It makes my back ache for them.
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Maples at Hannaford’s.
Scarlet sumac pods.
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Those lines are one day going to strangle us.
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In gray light, the world seemed bright orange.
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We reached home in tanking rain.
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It’s probably a bit mad, but this tree seemed to say:
“I’m orange, dammit!”
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Orange the prevailing colour that day.
Thank you, Carolyn, for the wonderful pictures of the sky, your musing and for being you!
Joanna
There aren’t enough colours in the paint pots to start to do justice to how nature paints. Stunning!
As I look at the photos where you mention that you are ‘approaching home’, I think that it must be a great feeling to drive to your home on such a beautiful road. For me, your post has a golden tone today (except for those intense red trees – wow)! And tell that last tree it’s golden-orange 🙂.
I like the Sumac trees, such a rich colour. Autumn seems to be in full swing in your part of the world.
Best wishes, Pete.