Treasure trove

I spent the morning helping some friends clean out a barn that was chock-a-block full of STUFF. You name it: bottles, window glass, paper, insulation, Christmas ornaments, tires, beds, mattresses, bed springs, tools, sleds, kites, and much, much more. We filled up the equivalent of a dumpster (I think it really was a hay trailer) and still had more to put more in if we could have.

I hadn't planned on returning with anything but I ended up with three prizes: two blocks (a single rope and a double rope pulley version), a dead picnic basket that is a super cat basket and a deck chair, the sort that one finds on a cruise ship.


Miss Agatha took over the basket within minutes of my putting down on the love seat. (She had to sniff it all over but beyond that, the basket was fine.)


The deck chair was covered with dust and cobwebs but clearly was a find. (There were two and a couple took the other one.) Once I got back here, I washed it off, then cleaned it some more with Pledge — not that I am advertising this; it's just that there are TEN cans of it in the sacristy. (Evidently, every time the altar guild has a cleaning party, people bring cans, they get shoved into the cabinet and people forget about them. I rounded them all up this winter and was somewhat horrified to see how many we had.) Then I went off and bought some Tung oil and oiled the whole thing. It is really quite lovely and I will get some good summer reading done in it this summer.


The lilacs here are just beginning to bloom so for the next two weeks, I will be enjoying their wonderful fragrance.

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This photo has absolutely nothing to do with the above. I took it late last night and it's so funny that I can't bear waiting until next Friday. I have non-working hot pepper lights draped over the three book cases in the study and La Doyenne likes to take an occasional swipe at them. Last night she got really into it, culminating with a good chomp on one of the peppers.