Climbing the shelves

When we had our bookshelves put in I could reach most of the books, now, twenty years later its much more complicated to reach the higher shelves. I can’t stand on the footstool because in not very balanced anymore. There are folding stepladders, but I need to turn them sideways and balance issues and holding on to them is the problem. My left arm shakes which makes it hard to hold on. Hubby makes it worse by not putting them back! Sometimes I can squeeze books on the lower shelves, but often they end up stacked on the floor and are then a trip hazard. There is also stuff in front of the bookcases because I can’t move it upstairs or to my studio. Life can be difficult. But I’m too attached to them to get rid of them!

An art and book shop

Where would you go on a shopping spree?

Down to the Arts and Book shop. I’d buy lots of acrylic paints, some watercolours, gouache, oil paints, felt pens, pastels, charcoal, conte crayons, pencils. Then I’d get canvases, large and small in white and black. Cartridge paper, watercolour paper, sketch pads. Glitter, metallic paper, ink, lino to cut for printing.

Science and technology books, sci-fi books, novels, biographies, autobiographical books, historic books, books about galleries, about the renaissance, about astronomy.

Then I would donate half of it to a local school or college, because I would not have space for it all, or time to use it.

Paper

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was paper. I realised I’m surrounded by the stuff. Sketchbooks, newspapers, cards, envelopes, etters, books, novels, paperbacks, calendars, magazines, print outs. I’ve tried to represent them in a sketch. The image is imagined, but my house is a mess at the moment so it is littered with paper things.

Declutter in summer?

Just got rid of twenty books to the local charity shop.

Relocating ‘stuff’ is hard work in the Summer. Especially since its forecast 29 to 30°C over the next couple of days. We found a damp patch so now there a tray of absorbent crystals under this space, I think it’s just condensation because it was stuffed with books!

That’s the main problem, books, more than one thousand when I gave up counting. The trouble is that especially with hubby, every book has to be checked to see if he still wants it, there is a lot of emotional attachment, a lot of connections and memories. I’m proud of him. So this spring cleaning in the summer is hard and tedious work, but it needs doing.

Ill

On the day I’m ill with a sore throat and aches, my hubby has decided to have a clear out of some books and this glass chess set (bought years ago). We don’t use it as we have a small wooden set. This has sat in its box for years. Time to give it a new lease of life. The box was very dusty which as I wiped it over made me cough from the dust! We have over a thousand books and it’s hard to say goodbye to old friends. X

I’m bored

Fed up with being ill. Not Covid, but a cold/ chest infection. But I’m getting bored. I feel trapped but that might be a good thing. Perhaps I’m getting better?

Sundays used to be boring when I was a child. Nowhere was open, shops shut, nothing really to visit. If you ran out of milk you could not buy any. Memory of a different world. Time changes things. Then I was waiting for fruit salad with evaporated milk with bread and butter for tea. Watching my mom and dad doing the washing in a boiler in the kitchen that had a mangle on the top and an old spin dryer to get most of the water out. While they did that we played in the garden. Unless the weather was bad. Then I would read a book, or draw. Maybe it wasn’t all that boring?

Books in the post

Books for college. A great many words arrived in the post over the last couple of days. A book called visual methodologies by Gillian Rose, illustration research methods by Rachel Gannon and Mireille Fauchon. Beginning Theory by Peter Barry and Picture This by Molly Bang. I hope the information in them will sink into my brain. Such a lot to look at and try and understand. It’s hard to take in so much, and this is just a small piece of the puzzle. I must improve my knowledge of crytical analysis. To go from descriptive to forensic. That’s hard. Generating new ideas and opinions without being opinionated. I want to try not to be cruel or condescending. To be honest and to use understandable language because some of it just feels selfish and snobbish. Hmmm.

Jack of all trades

I looked at all my book cases and realised how eclectic my reading must be. I’m not sure exactly how many booked I have but I gave up counting after I reached over 1000.

Sci-fi, science (biology, chemistry, physics) novels, biography, art, graphics, illustration, history, old books, new books, even magic Eye books from a couple of decades ago.

Can your reading be too chaotic? I’ve got a book about chaos theory… There are a few cookery books and travel books. There are books that were Christmas presents, birthday presents, and ones I bought for my college course. Too many? I don’t know….