Hanging on for the ride

These few days are a whirlwind of stuff needing doing and I feel that if I am lucky I can hang on for the ride.

Yesterday I had a somewhat unexpected day off from the store (this constantly shifting work schedule can be fun to deal with! LOL). Of course there are always tons of projects to fill unexpected time slots...

One of the newer ones -- the deal I made to claim the red painted and faded siding from an old (historical) building here in Corinth that has been left to fall down and is currently being dismantled -- was out of the question due to serious rain. So I went with a plan B... visiting a friend to discuss our cooperative Ebay project.

In the past she has made a "good living" selling stuff through this online venue and offered to collaborate with me as a way to get back into doing this to add to both our incomes. So off I went to her home and computer. This was much more of a blessing than I ever thought it would be, as I was once again reminded how much I need a periodic "driving meditation" over familiar roads, to allow me to ground and open to the possible.

I watched the rain fall -- a serious, pretty much day long rain -- that felt like spring to me. Even though it was cold I could sense it as the "first spring rain" as it washed the earth and helped melt remaining snow banks. And I remembered a year ago, seeing the landscape emerge from under the snowy cover that had greeted us on our arrival in Maine. I enjoy being able to look through the trees -- bare now like they are not in the late fall, all but the beech, which retains its beige leaves to the bitter end -- and see fields and falling buildings that in a month or two will once again be hidden by leaves. And being reminded that I NEED to take the camera out and shoot some of these scenes and compose them into a book "All Fall Down" ... a photographic visit to the forgotten buildings of central Maine. Yes, it's now on the list..

My friend walked me through some of the thought processes that had succeeded for her in the past. We discussed what to sell, listing strategies, and eventually took a wander off to Bangor (as I had other errands there) researching inexpensive things in second hand stores that we will look for as the yard sale season opens, to resell.

I am also revisiting adding my hex work back on Etsy and possibly other online venues, and including other things -- such as my version of "Give us this day..." as a printed and hand-illuminated small poster.

But today is the day for agriculture... I will shortly be off to spend the day joining other friends at a series of mini-classes in a day long Vegetable and Fruit School offered by the Cooperative Extension Service, to be followed by Master Gardener Class this afternoon. Sandwiched in between, hopefully, will be a visit to the Post Office and a quick stop at Sams club to see if Olive oil and shortening are less expensive there for our soapmaking project next week. Which reminds me, before I head out the door, I need to write down the prices the I am to compare with.

Tomorrow, thankfully, is a "short day" at work, as it will give me time to prepare material for two hour-long classes in hex sign drawing and painting that I am giving to middle schoolers nearby as part of their "Spring into Art" program. I am still not sure where/how the school found me to solicit my participation and I am a little uncertain about the class, as this is not an age I am terribly comfortable with teaching... but be that as it may, I will do it and have fun I am sure. Won't get to stay and lunch with the other visiting artists, though, as K's follow up with the kidney doc is early afternoon. I will just have time to pack up my visual aids (I am taking a bunch of art to share), slide by home to pick him up and get him to the doc after classes are over.

After that I AM NOT PLANNING!