HOMEFREE

The E-generation

What a fascinating time.  The e-era.  Age of electronics/energy.

A time of exploration with a galloping technology that can now observe and measure extra-ordinary events of the body - physical, mental, spiritual, temporal.

That can make sense of what we know but did not realize that we knew - or how we knew it.  That can replicate the how.

It can be scary to become aware of how much we are in control, consciously or not.  But with the awareness comes confidence and the draw/need to expand along with the expanding universe.  Increased consciousness accelerates the adventure.

Playing with energy.  Using it as a tool.  Experimenting with our inner guidance,  connectedness,  S/source within.

Autumn coat and autumn hat

The weather has turned mild and wet and misty;  I got out the Puzzle Coat and it is perfect:  the  fleece is light and cosy, resists the rain and dries quickly for the drops that persist.  I made it from different pieces of fleece and know I blogged about the process but cannot find it.  

I did, however, find the details of the button.  It delights me now as much as when I first made it.

This Saori hat is perfect also - the colours and the way it 'tents' the head.  I did find the blog that outlines its origin.

Garage Sale: Quite the experience!

(re-post; originally August 2005) (This isn't the most interesting experience I have ever had at a garage sale - but it comes close)

Garage sale.  Sunday morning.  Posh neighborhood.  Books.  Collectibles.  Fabric.  NEB.  So said the advertisement in the Saturday newspaper (oh, okay I’ve editorialized the area) that had us enthusiast g.s.’ers making this one a priority.

Sunday sales:  fewer sales on a Sunday tend to tame the feeling of rush/rush/rush to overly abundant Saturday sales to get to as many as possible as early as possible………

Posh place: location, location, location influences attendance at garage sales, sometimes adversely: rich junk can be less worthwhile than poor junk.    

Books: With new paperbacks starting around $8. books at sales for 50 cents (soft) and $1. (hard) are in constant demand.  Bookies (dealers) supply stores who supply customers who don’t go to garage sales.  And, in whispered, rather chuckly tones, tell of the book they got for 75 cents and sold on e-bay for $350. US.

Collectibles:  Could mean the sellers have had the ‘expert’ in and now have priced the goods at auction house estimates.  Could be these are old and lovely.  Could be these are old and ugly.  Could be just what you’ve been looking for but didn’t know you were.

Fabric: maybe there’s something unusual to turn into a garment for self or home or garden.  Maybe there’s wool or cotton or hemp………

NEB:  No Early Birds hopefully means that the pesky, pushy people who turn up the day before the sale, or very early on the morning of the sale, with any number of reasons why they can’t come at the appointed time, from leaving on holiday to having to work to taking sons to soccer games, have not been allowed access beforehand.  It inspires a very cranky mood to ask, at the designated time on the designated day, if such and such is to be had to be told, “oh I had several of those but they sold………”

So, attracted by all the above features, twenty or more of us are spread out across the wide front lawn (pricey neighborhood, remember) behind the yellow plastic clothesline that has been strung in front of the goods (the clothesline must have been purchased specially for this event: clotheslines are not allowed in this municipality).

There is a lot of stuff out on the grass and I can appreciate the wish of the sellers to set it up before the public troops in.  It is all set up. Let the public troop.  We tell each other this.  It is still twenty minutes to nine.  Some people have been on site waiting for nearly an hour.  No, not me.  I ask.

More people arrive.  It begins to get crowded.  More and more shuffling feet.

None of us on this side of the yellow clothesline see the point in holding exactly to the nine o’clock time now that the sale is set up.

Someone pretends to cut the clothesline in a parody of a ribbon cutting ceremony.  A little kid ducks under the line and is hauled back by his father.  More shuffling.  Someone is peering out the front window at us.  “Open up!” someone calls out, quite hopefully in fact, as if it hadn’t occurred to the man in the window that he is ready and we are more than ready. The man in the window lifts up his wrist and points to his watch.  A few of us groan and enough eyes are rolled to flash white. 

Suddenly a woman appears from out the side door of the garage and aims a camera at us.  All conversation and shuffling ceases and we stare owlishly back at her.  She clicks two or three times along the crowd but the silence grows, as silence can, and she returns indoors more quickly than she came out.  I have since wondered at her behaviour.  And ours.

At exactly nine o’clock the man comes out the front door accompanied by a teenaged boy who looks awfully embarrassed and each untie an end of the clothesline which drops and is trampled as people rush forward, most now with an attitude.

No worthy fabric.  No fibre.  But I did get a cherry pitter that I had been looking for.  Somehow it reminds me of the sale when I use it and I feel a bit sad. I expect it will be replaced at a more cheerful sale.

Gabbing (and so on) about garage sales etc.

(Re-post from 2008)

There are two things I want to say about garage sales/thrift stores/ auctions/ free boxes - in fact, any place where you can get - and get rid of - used items:
- subjectively speaking;  they are great!
- objectively speaking; they are important!

Having gone to all of the above across more than forty years in Canada, the States, England, Europe, Belize;  going now, daily, to one or more of the above, I consider myself experienced - an interested, curious participant.

Why great and important?  Because they are fun.
A learning experience.  A social event.  A means of 'travelling' the world.  Recycling. A chronicle. Added income.  Nostalgia.  Community.  Worthwhile on many levels.

Going into detail about the above list would be interesting and I have, over the years, begun to document the adventure but stopped each time because it then became 'work' and I am 'playing'.

I hope someone is doing some serious research into the increasing phenomenon. 

The small bureau in the photo is one example of my enjoyment of having items in my home with meaning.  The things on top of the bureau are all to do with my immediate family but the bureau itself  'extended'  this family. 

I bought it at a garage sale many years ago from a woman who told me her father had been a traveling  salesman for a furniture company and this was an example of the style of dresser they made. She thought he might actually have made it.   Her kids had added 'character' to it with stickers, initials.  One knob was broken, one had been replaced.  I loved it on sight and continue to do so. 

I took off the stickers almost immediately but only later did I replace the broken knob and put a bit of stain (shoe polish) over the more obvious gouges.  It 'speaks volumes' of its past.  In much the same way that I like to sit and look at the rag bag patchwork quilt and imagine what the articles of clothing were that went into its creation by some long ago artist (this was from a church rummage sale but I could not discover who had donated it or get any history)  sometimes I take the time to look at the bureau and 'listen' to what it is 'saying.'

The drawers are slightly open to release the scent of the pot pourri that is also making fragrant the scarves and gloves and hats.

The old dresser underneath was purchased at a moving sale from a young couple who could not fit it into the trailer they had hired for the move and were so pleased that I was excited about it that they almost gave it to me.  It had been his grandmother's. 

What did I pay for these treasures?  Two dollars for the first bureau.  Five dollars for the second.    

HOMEFREE : GARAGE SALES

(I'm doing a re-post of garage sale pieces; this one is from 2004. Garage sales are endlessly fascinating!)

The theme at garage sales this weekend was pedestal sinks, Carly Simon records and men's ties. I find it uncanny, this fact of a theme. Is anyone 'studying' garage sales? They are worthy of being studied. So many facets to them; it isn't just about acquisition, not at all. But exploring these fascinating tangents is for another column, for observation. Today I am a full participant.

"Looking for anything in particular?" asked the seller as I sauntered happily through the offerings.

"Anything to do with home and garden," I replied.

"Should be somehing," he nodded at the goods and left me alone. Which suited me far more than the person who accompanies me around their sale pointing out that here is a frying pan, hardly used, and do I need some pink bobbled bathroom curains with matching rings for the shower curtain but no shower curtain and what size shoes do I wear......

The very shiny set of stainless steel bowls held my attention and the seller came back to my side. "They're in good condition," he said, a bit hesitantly, likely puzzled as to why I had lined them up upside down and was staring at their bottoms.

"I was considering their mirror qualities," I told him and, when he looked interested, I continued, "I've got two smooth hubcaps hanging on the fence in my garden and they reflect the plants in a curved way so I thought to repeat this in another area of my yard."

He didn't say anything and wandered away. The bowls weren't quite right so I turned them over and re-nested them. Then I picked up an old fashioned egg beater.

"Going to aerate a pond?" he called over to me and I laughed and said beating eggs was more what I had in mind. But he was obviously more receptive than rejective of this adventure of looking at things from a different perspective.

He pointed at two plastic lawn chairs, green originally, weathered wonderfully. "Guess you could paint those," he suggested.

"Could," I said, but I knew I wouldn't. Old plastic takes on its own 'patina' which I quite like. "What could be done with these is to put them like this - ", I put them together, one facing forward, one back; they weren't of the design that lends itself to this perfectly but close enough to show what I meant - "and tied together here and here and here with nautical rope, they become a conversation seat for two. I think the Victorians favoured them."

I sat in one and another woman at the garage sale came and sat in the other and we smiled at each other.

"I'll take them if you don't," she said. "I have a place outdoors where there are two views and I can never decide which way to face. This will solve that."

"How much?" she asked the man and for a moment he looked as if this new use for the chairs had just escalated the price but thought better of it as we both stared at him and he sold them for a reasonable amount. Couple of dollars.

That was on Saturday. Artists seem to hold their sales on Sunday. Fabric billowing out of the FREE BOX (almost de rigueur at sales nowadays)had my immediate attention. It was a flowing white evening dress with a rainbow of paint circles cascading down the front. There had to be a story. There was.....

"I was hosting an art show several years ago where the paintings were to be destroyed as part of the event," the woman holding the sale told me. "I think it was called The Eve of Destruction. The public could donate money for a piece not to be destroyed." She looked thoughtful and then smiled at a memory. "I made a fair amount of money over my paintings that night."

"Wearing that dress?" I asked.

"Wearing that dress." she replied.

No, I didn't take the dress. I 'took' her story instead.

Church sale .... mystery item

What would you say this was if you came across it at a sale?

The image on the side suggested something in the kitchen.  It pumps up and down and I thought it might be something to do with separating oil from ...?  

So I googled Images.

It's a cream maker!  Milk and butter turn into cream when pumped.  I don't know how.

Different sites give dates of 195o's and 1970's.

Made in Bournemouth, UK. by Hamilton Dale.

It was 50 cents and well worth satisying my curiosity. 

Refreshing, nourishing smoothie.

After a wild, windy night  the morning bubbles dashed here, there and everywhere and some made it eastward further than I have ever seen them travel before.  I would have had to photograph the journey of a single bubble to give a sense of the adventure.  Bubbles, of course, do not respond to "hold still, please ...."

So I took a pix of the smoothie.  With a handful of mixed nuts or some cheese or an egg - it is a complete meal.

Pineapple juice about 1/3 up in blender,  handful of coleslaw,  1 cup frozen blueberries (thawed),  1 cup frozen mixed vegetables (thawed),  about 1/2 cup raw oats,  1/2 cup raisins.  Start on chop and then liquify in blender.  1/2 tsp of cinnamon added is also nice.

Kale chips : simple, simple, simple.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Put two tbsp olive oil into bowl.  Add salt.  For this batch I added spicing:  1/2 tsp each of cumin, coriander and garam masala to see what the flavour of India would be like.  Mix with oil and salt.

Tear chip-size pieces from stems of kale:  I used half the bunch here - seven stems.

Put the pieces in spiced oil in bowl and toss well.

 

 

Place in single layer on baking sheet.

Bake for about 25 - 30 min.  until crisp.

They make great snacks.

 

 

 

I am experimenting to see how long they retain their crispness in jar and bag.

 

Walking .... virtually ....

I wonder who has done this already, and with what results:

Gone for a walk, for ten minutes or so, and recorded it, verbally,  thusly:  "Leaving the house now ... out the front door ... one-two-three steps out onto the porch ....  ah - fresh air feels good ... down the steps - right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, left ..... across the walkway - one...two....three....four to the sidewalk .... nod and hello to man passing by with a dog .... turn  along the sidewalk ..... left foot , right, left, right .....  patch of gravel where the city is doing some work .... feels different underfoot ..... right, left, right, left .... hard cemeent again .... breathe in .... out  ...... in ...... out ..... in ......out..... left, right, left, right,  wonder if anyone is waiting at the bus stop right now .... nope .... left, right, left right ....."

Etc.  With more or less detail, whatever feels suitable to the individual's actual walk.

Then -  listening to this recording later, at a time and in a place where the walk can be 'experienced'.  Listening to the recording at least once a day for a week.  Maybe three times for three weeks.  Seeing what happens. Would actual walks increase?  Would the awareness change the structure and effect(s) of simply walking?  Walking upstairs with the thought of getting upstairs is/can be quite different from walking upstairs with the thought that "this is exercise".

Thoughts are known to cause changes in the body on the physical and mental level.  Exercise ... movement ... is worthwhile and beneficial to wellbeing on all levels.

I am wondering .....

(It might be interesting to record a walk like this while on holiday. Or maybe revisit where we grew up as a child using Google Maps and record walking through old neighbourhoods, past previous houses,  along 'forgotten' streets.  Replay these when home again.)

 

 

Victoria BC : Weather!

Days and days and days and days of sun, sun, sun, sun, sun.  Octuly.  Octgust.  Octember.  After a summer of mostly brrrrrumbling we are shining.  Enjoying.  Giving thanks.