Planting mixed bulbs can yield some surprises when spring comes. I wasn’t expecting mini iris, but that is what was in the mix. Which is how life often is, a surprise when you were expecting something else.
It is those rainy cold April days that get me down. Everything looks muddy and bland, the garden still bare and the lawn lackluster. When in addition to the weather the daily flow seems to be blocked it can make for many tasks that go wrong, redos if things thought done and a general sense of malaise. I need sunny spring days to get my energy level back up.
I have been wanting to get back to this old building since I took this image back in December, and somehow it is now nearly April. I will have to make the time, that is all there is to it. Between work, weather, colds and packing the available free time has been slim. It isn’t that I’m not using my time well, it is more that there is just too much to do in the time available. I miss getting out with my camera, but life has required attention elsewhere. With all my studio supplies packed up it has been a creative drought these passed few months, which I am feeling sorely. I look forward to being able to dabble and hike and make a mess again, getting out in the world to see things and wander hither and yon. You can’t be wandering hither and yon to freshen up your soul.
I wonder about the life of the occupant whose laundry is drying on the top floor of this building. It was such an unexpected sight to see on an otherwise mainly uninhabited stretch of an old downtown. Had the laundry been hung up the night before, or was it just freshly done? Did the occupant lug it home wet from a nearby laundromat, or a washer in the basement? There is much that can’t be known from this tiny glimpse of a life through a window, but it was good to see this small sign of life.
The water still spills over the edge of the dam at this pumphouse though it doesn’t power the industry it once did. I doubt many people give it a second glance as the drive by. What are the echoes caught in the walls of this small building? I expect the same human concerns were felt by the workers throughout the years. Bills, kids, wars, aging parents, politics, illnesses, nothing new there. Humanity is much the same, only the technology has changed. Parents have grown old, kids have acted up, illness has struck, wars have raged and politics have riled up the people. The same blues just different times.
As this month draws to a close and we enter the final month of the year, I am taking stock of the last 11 months and what they held. The highs and lows. I have a couple assignments to wrap up in December, and some early 2019 bookings, so will have to make the best of the pause in between to sketch out some plans and timelines. It feels as if I just did this for 2018, the year went by so quickly. I am thinking a bonfire will be a good way to celebrate the quiet time just before Christmas, to clear out all the accumulated papers and brush we cut back in the summer. It will be a fitting end to the year and a good way to start fresh for 2019.
