Thinking About the Past

Sketch Along Route 17

     The black storage hassock isn’t as useful to me for the stack of stuff on it as it is for the stuff inside it.

It has been months since I open the lid to get anything in there. My down sizing push put a bead on donating the hassock because I do not use it other than to out stuff on. Put stuff on aka clutter station. 

The other day I went through the notebooks and such stored in the black vinyl box (also serving as my knitting needle stash). A rush of memories bloomed in my heart thinking of what part of my past what I found there means to me. Sketches and watercolors I barely remember doing. And the best part is that I like them. That stuff was put there because it was my current (then) focus, handy to access. 

But something happened. The current became buried like soil on dinosaur bones. 

As I remember the little robin puffed up against a chilly wind, I think about my project to sketch more often. I even found the plastic envelope with my sketchbook and supplies. 

Why does that happen to us? Be enthusiastic about a goal and have it end up fading under the weight of whatever? Depression can’t be blamed for everything. 

Hmmm?

A watercolor sketch dated 2017.

I know I’ve opened the storage hassock plenty of times in the last 7 years. That is proof there has been a change of stuff put in there.

 Okay, discovery made, now what to do about it? 

Get back to the good things that were once important. That is the benefit of thinking about the past.

Recycling Old Thinking Trash

 Here I go again with the thinking...

Walden Pond Cove Woods 2004

The photo above that I took in 2004 is a favorite. It was the image on my calling cards back in the day when I hoped to sell my artwork. Alas, health issues took me on another path.

Is there a lot of change from early 2000 to 2024? I'm still old and dealing with depression and other issues. Then I realized, something has changed. I'm not as dumb as I use to be (with any reliable consistency). Even my phone and computer are smarter.

Why not look again at old ideas that went by the wayside for one reason or another. Our thinking trash can be recycled.

 

An issue that has grabbed my attention is all the (estimated) hundreds of cloud pictures I've taken. In one bin sorted by date and type, my cloud atlas will be finished. 

Do you have old ideas you can recycle?

Random Saturday Thoughts

Transported 

Memory is interesting.

I can remember half a dozen or more long unique passwords, but struggle remembering what I did yesterday. Why? Well, I don't relive yesterday over and over again. I do use a password multiple times every day.

I remember my high school boyfriend's birthday, but have to stop and think of my own. Getting old is easy to put out of mind.

The oldest memories I have are being in a crib, drinking from a bottle, and sleeping on two plush arm chairs pushed together in my grandmother's living room because our attic apartment had no heat. 

Today, if I have appointments, I put them on my no service old Samsung cell phone (ringer on my iphone13 doesn't always sound), write it down in a planner book, set an alarm, and sometimes tape up a note.

I admire folks with good memories that in a conversation, can recall just about anything without hesisitation. As I age, every little thing I forget can become cause to worry I'm losing my mind. Being elderly means being on constant surveilance of those signs of dementia or alzheimer's disease. 

When you think about it, there isn't a time in life when one isn't vigilent about one harmful thing or another. Age only changes what we think about.

P.S. Some of this week's posts feel like reruns. 

It Is Another Tuesday

Circles 2023
Digital photo

The memory of creating the digital photograph on the left is stored so deep that I can't reach it.

As we get older, feeling worried when we don't remember something can feel very unsettling. Taking the date created, I can go to that folder to see what else I was up to in 2023.

As for today, the sun is shinning. It is cold. Spring is a mere 28 days away. The carnations I bought two weeks ago are just fading. None of the buds opened though. My spider plant looks like it just got home from an all night rave that it wasn't ready to leave. Blogging, again, is on the when to stop radar, blip yes, blip no, blippity blip as it goes. 

Time to read a book.

Places In Your Mind

Dandelions in a Field

Green Mountains
 from Addison County

You ride out certain of where you are going because the place you remember has been in your mind for years.

After an unsuccessful short look-see from memory the day before, I search the county map to find the road at the intersection where I am sure the field in question is. (Well, maybe not.) 

The field is still there, on the road I drove on the day before (photo previous post). I didn't realize that until I saw the site, sloped with tall trees and shrubs, not the flat land I remember. 

A beautiful day, I keep going on the dirt road. At one spot, blinker on, I pull over. 

There in a grassy field are thousands of dandelions! Across the road I see the Green Mountains. Lincoln Gap, I believe, is in the center of the photo.

What's more, I discover spots to plein air paint, and, more places for my mind to keep. Not a wasted day. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Really?

Is driving around just to take photos of wildflowers worth increasing my carbon footprint? Not really. There is a guilt thing going on about that.

Out in Nature, clear views, clean air farmland with a polluting combustion gas fueled vehicle threading along the roads. What image does that make?

Solutions:

(Electric from solar power)

Electric vehicle

Electric bike

*Pedal bike

*Walk

*Best