![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I can't seem to motivate myself to do much of anything today for longer than 20 minutes. I have so much I need to do around the house. All of yesterday was dedicated to the hurry up and wait of software deployment. In other words, work was the excuse I had for not getting much done around the house. Today, no such excuse exists. Well it could if I choose to. I did bring some work home. But still my little cottage is crying out for some attention and TLC.
Winter is here to stay and so in fits and spurts today I have cleaned my wardrobe of all spring and summer clothes. Now I actually have room to hang my winter wear. December may seem a bit late to swap out my clothing, but remember we had 3 weeks of summer in November. Now, I have less worry of that happening again any time before March or April and so, I staggered upstairs loaded with clothes to hide in the canvas zip closure I hide up there for clothes that don't fit anywhere else. The one bad thing about this cottage is lack of closets as in NONE. None you say?! Well, the downstairs flat I have in here was the living room, dining room and kitchen. the upstairs, where Kay resides had the sleeping rooms and bath. I kept the bath, she re-did the rest of the upstairs so she got sleeping room AND closets. Fortunately I'm not really much of a clothes whore. And I can control those urges I do have towards buying clothes by considering just where I'm going to be able to hang it or fold it.
Holiday decorations. I am not a traditional Christmas type person. My first Christmas in San Francisco was spent hiking in Point Reyes national park. About 3pm on Christmas day, I sat in a hilltop meadow gazing out over the Pacific ocean on a brisk, clear day. I drank hot tea out of a flask, ate a tangerine and some pita with hummus. All I could smell was sun and dry grass, redwoods and salt water. It was the most uplifting and peaceful Christmas I'd spent in 25 years. No family battles, no stress, no whining, no slights, no feeling inadequate, insignificant, or intrusive. No screaming, no crying, no snapping, no punishing silence. In fifteen years, I've gone "home" for Christmas only once. It was enough to remind myself why I don't do that.
And so, the question for me has often been, do I dress up my abode for a holiday I watch slide by in a somewhat passive manner. As I was saying to Kay today though. I may be indifferent to the holiday in a parochial manner, but I love this time of year. I love the smell of evergreens, the twinkling of light, the warmth and scent of candles. And so, this year, I'm going to tot up the upper part of my fireplace. I won't have a traditional tree but I will have a mantle filled with pine and bay, candles and other living things. It'll be just the right touch of festivity, I think, without adding more clutter to an already cozy and overly cluttered cottage by the bay.
And...now that I've managed to spin away another fifteen or twenty minutes at the keyboard, it's time to go refill the wardrobe and consider doing the dishes. Who knows, I might even vacuum, if for no other reason than to terrorize the beasts!
Winter is here to stay and so in fits and spurts today I have cleaned my wardrobe of all spring and summer clothes. Now I actually have room to hang my winter wear. December may seem a bit late to swap out my clothing, but remember we had 3 weeks of summer in November. Now, I have less worry of that happening again any time before March or April and so, I staggered upstairs loaded with clothes to hide in the canvas zip closure I hide up there for clothes that don't fit anywhere else. The one bad thing about this cottage is lack of closets as in NONE. None you say?! Well, the downstairs flat I have in here was the living room, dining room and kitchen. the upstairs, where Kay resides had the sleeping rooms and bath. I kept the bath, she re-did the rest of the upstairs so she got sleeping room AND closets. Fortunately I'm not really much of a clothes whore. And I can control those urges I do have towards buying clothes by considering just where I'm going to be able to hang it or fold it.
Holiday decorations. I am not a traditional Christmas type person. My first Christmas in San Francisco was spent hiking in Point Reyes national park. About 3pm on Christmas day, I sat in a hilltop meadow gazing out over the Pacific ocean on a brisk, clear day. I drank hot tea out of a flask, ate a tangerine and some pita with hummus. All I could smell was sun and dry grass, redwoods and salt water. It was the most uplifting and peaceful Christmas I'd spent in 25 years. No family battles, no stress, no whining, no slights, no feeling inadequate, insignificant, or intrusive. No screaming, no crying, no snapping, no punishing silence. In fifteen years, I've gone "home" for Christmas only once. It was enough to remind myself why I don't do that.
And so, the question for me has often been, do I dress up my abode for a holiday I watch slide by in a somewhat passive manner. As I was saying to Kay today though. I may be indifferent to the holiday in a parochial manner, but I love this time of year. I love the smell of evergreens, the twinkling of light, the warmth and scent of candles. And so, this year, I'm going to tot up the upper part of my fireplace. I won't have a traditional tree but I will have a mantle filled with pine and bay, candles and other living things. It'll be just the right touch of festivity, I think, without adding more clutter to an already cozy and overly cluttered cottage by the bay.
And...now that I've managed to spin away another fifteen or twenty minutes at the keyboard, it's time to go refill the wardrobe and consider doing the dishes. Who knows, I might even vacuum, if for no other reason than to terrorize the beasts!
