Piddling, puttering, pondering and perusing

There are Four "P's"  that spend a great deal of time in my life: Piddling, Puttering, Pondering, and Perusing.  Each is quite an art form, in and of itself, and each has a special place in my life.

Let me explain.

Do you have unfinished projects that hang around for awhile?  I do.  I am, in fact, a member of the Royal House of Unfinished Projects.  Maybe you are, too!?

This is one of four iron breakfast room chairs I have been working on for
several years.  I think I painted them with their first coat of black paint 3
years ago ....  and they have been ready for the second coat ever since!

The Reason that I have so many Unfinished Projects, simply stated, is because I rather enjoy the Fine Art of the Four "P's", as described below:

PIDDLE - to spend one's time idly or inefficiently.

PUTTER - to occupy oneself in a pleasant manner, doing a number of small tasks or not concentrating on anything in particular.

PERUSE - to look at or read something in a relaxed, informal but careful way.

PONDER - to think about carefully, especially before making a decision or reaching a conclusion.

UNDER THE BANNER OF PIDDLING:

During the last few weeks, since my return from the Chix Packin Stix Retreat, I have been restless and full of unfulfilled energy.  I look around at the clutter in my den and dining room (This is Perusing), and I think:  I need to do something with this stuff!  (This is called Pondering.)

Mind you, some of this "stuff" has been piling up for years, not just months, the product of Perusing magazines and Internet sites of interest.  Oh, sure, I move the stuff around now and then, find something I forgot I had started or bought and never done anything with, and reorganize everything nice and neat.  (This is called Puttering.) But then Life will get in the way and I will put whatever it is down, and next thing you know, it will be stuck under a pile of this and that somewhere in the den, and I start Perusing a magazine or pattern book, or .... Piddling with nothing in particular.

The Four "P's" can be combined, and are usually intertwined in some way or another depending on the situation one finds oneself in at the moment.  I am not sure, however, if you can actually do all four at the same time.  If you happen to know if this is possible, please drop me a note as I would love to try it out at some point in the future.  Probably when I am retired (20.75 more months).  And maybe I already have and just don't realize it.

UNDER THE BANNER OF PIDDLING:

There are times, I go through stages, when I do an awful lot of Piddling.  These are times when I am feeling restless, distracted, anxious and I just do not have the energy to stay focused on any one thing. So, I Piddle with this and then that, and so on.  For instance, let us say that it is Saturday morning and I am having a hard time getting motivated to go grocery shopping.  I will turn on my Kindle Fire and check my email, then play a game or five of Sudoku, make any moves for Words With Friends, then read for 30 minutes.

I might then get up and grab a second cup of coffee and head out onto the back porch swing for a bit of Pondering, and while I am sitting there I see something worthy of a photograph.  So, into the house, put down the cup, find the camera, go out and take the photo, then see something else interesting.  Next I spy some things that need to be picked in the garden, so I go in, put down the camera, and grab my basket for the veggies.  Before I get back into the house, however, I stop and pull a number of pesky weeds in the backyard.  This makes me feel really good!  Not a fan of most weeds, and especially not stinging bull nettle which had decided that my yard is a good place to live. Utilizing the Art of Piddling, I have extracted most of these suckers from my back yard this summer, and my bare feet are SO EXCITED!

This my "new" and almost weed-free backyard.  I am letting the Bermuda grass go to seed right
now so that it will come back strong next Spring and choke out the rest of those pesky weeds.

Back inside, I sit down and read for a bit, play a game or two, and then look at the clock and say to myself:  "Well, Self, you have wasted most of the morning already, now get thee to the grocery!" That, my friends, is a morning of Piddling!


UNDER THE BANNER OF PUTTERING:

As you readers know, I have been Puttering around in the vegetable garden all spring and summer, but what you don't know is I have also been puttering inside my home!

I often Putter around in my kitchen on Sundays cooking for the week to come. This sometimes, but not always, involves a bit of Perusing in my cookbook collection, recipe box or one of those ragged bits of paper on the counter that I have torn out of a magazine and laid aside for future possibilities.

I enjoy the slicing, dicing, stirring, and pouring along with the aromas of what is cooking on the stove top and in the oven.  It satisfies the domestic goddess in me.  When I am retired, I plan to learn to bake homemade breads from scratch.  Making homemade yogurt is another goal of mine for my crone years.  I would love to have a milk goat for this so that I could also make cheese, but I haven't figured out what I would do about the daily milking if I wanted to take a road trip somewhere or was laid up with a knee replacement. That consideration has been put on my schedule of Things to Ponder.

Sometimes I just like to go bravely towards the stacks of Stuff and find something that interests me at the moment and grab onto it.  Usually, this will be something that I worked on until it got to the point that I got frustrated with it and laid it aside.  Or, it might be something that I bought at a fiber event because I was drawn to it, but had no idea whatever what to do with it at the time.  The vast majority of the Stuff, however, is either hand spun yarns I have made but have no project in mind for them, or printed out directions for projects I think I might want to make .... one day .... maybe.  And there is way too much of it.  So many ideas, too little Time!

This is one wall of Stuff in my dining room that I am fond of Perusing to see what I want to Piddle
or Putter with at the moment.  In the center of the wall is a yarn-crafted "painting" I made while in
college over 40 years ago.  I still have not gotten around to painting the frame black, but I recently
purchased the pint of black paint to do so, someday ... hopefully soon.  It's about time!

It has become quite clear to me that I need to do something with this ever growing pile of papers and yarns.  Oh, yes, my Studio!  I want my Clutter Room (nice euphemism, that!) to be transformed into my working Studio so badly, but it has to wait until I finish the kitchen, I think.  Maybe not.  When my elder son comes for a visit at Thanksgiving, I am going to enlist his help with cleaning out that room and with moving the Stuff from the den and dining room in there. This is an great example of Puttering.  Puttering with a loved one or dear friend is lots of fun!

Meanwhile, since the garden is getting a face-lift with the hoe and trowel in order to plant my garlic bulbs before October has left us, I am once again Puttering in the garden.  Then it will be time to Putter in the barn a bit to ready it for winter.

I was busy Puttering in a section of the veggie garden this weekend.  I'm
getting a bed ready for planting garlic bulbs before October is over.

UNDER THE BANNER OF PERUSING:

At times I have been able to turn a morning of Puttering into a morning of Perusing, and even Piddling.  I am very talented.  Here is how it goes.  I will decide that my bedroom really needs dusting and re-ordering (and, believe me, it does!).  So the plan is to Putter in the bedroom, getting it all nicely re-organized, dusted and possibly rearranged just a bit.  I start with the bookcase.  Big mistake!  Next thing I know, I rediscover a favorite book of, let's just say, poetry from my college days.  I decide to peruse the pages and read a few poems.  Time passes and I have been Piddling.

These are two boxes full of the correspondence from Jo, my friend of
over twenty years, that perch on my dresser.

When I start removing the dust and cobwebs from my bedroom dresser, I inevitably stop and take the top off one of the two boxes of Jo's letters, sit down on my bed, and begin Perusing.  Time flies as I re-read her letters and cards and go back in time.  Jo and I prefer handwriting over email.  Always have, always will.

Lately, I have noticed that Godfrey often Peruses the distance from the bathroom vanity counter top to the top of the cabinet over the toilet,  and from the edge of the bathtub to the window ledge on the nearby wall.  He moves his head up, down, as he mentally measures the distance and matches it with his ability to jump.  So far, he is not convinced of his prowess, but he continues to Ponder it.

I, on the other hand, spend my Perusing time with seed catalogs, spinning, weaving and knitting books and magazines. Perusing involves a certain amount of dreaming.  It was while I was Perusing the Internet last Spring that I found the two greenhouse kits that I am now in the midst of Pondering. I constantly Peruse magazines, brochures and the aisles of Lowe's and Home Depot for ideas that would help me with the remodeling of my kitchen.  I then put those ideas and information in a folder for Pondering later on.  I have Perused and torn out articles on plants and trees and flowers I would love to have one day.  Another folder for future Pondering!

UNDER THE BANNER OF PONDERING:

This my back porch swing where I do a lot of my Pondering.  One day, I will make it a nice, plump
weatherproof cushion.  That has been on my list of things to do for over 12 years!

Pondering involves a lot of questioning:  what if, what is, who is, who should, how can, why not, etc. A lot of times, at least for me, Pondering comes after a bit of Perusing.  I might Peruse in order to find what I want and/or what is available, but then I might need to Ponder in order to make a choice or decision.  You know me and my decision-making skills.  But, a lot of times, Pondering is just that .... sitting around and thinking about things.  I have been told I think too much, but I do it instinctively.

Sometimes, I look at something a creature does and think...I wish I could do that!  Now, I am not talking about really having the ability to do a certain thing all of the time, just being able to experience doing it once is all I am about. Here are some of what I have Pondered being able to do:

• Snake - slither here and there
• Monkey - swing from trees and hang by a tail
• Cat - purr  
• Vulture - circle on air currents high above the earth
• Whale - blow sea water out my blow hole
• Dog  -  wag my tail
• Elephant - spray water out of my trunk
• Wolf or Coyote - howl at the moon

On the other hand:

I HAVE felt as joyous as a ferret doing a "happy dance" at times.
I HAVE felt just as contented as a llama chewing its cud on a late Spring day.
I HAVE felt the power of natural childbirth, shared with so many of the Earth's creatures.
and
I HAVE been inside of a real cloud at Franconia Notch, NH. (And, I am not talking about dense fog!)

More recently, my Pondering has taken me back to the Little Greenhouse website, where, after much Perusing, I am Pondering whether to go with the wooden "Sunshine" kit or the metal "Aspen" kit.  I have a legal pad with pros and cons for each on one page, and on another, a comparison of various features.  This is my usual method of decision-making on big purchases.  (And sometimes on not so big purchases!)

8 x 12 "SUNSHINE" model, redwood, recycled plastic base that requires no foundation, a bit more
expensive, smaller, but with more headroom, easy to assemble.

The 9 x 14 "ASPEN" model, slightly larger, but with less headroom, less expensive, easy to
assemble, metal, requires a foundation.

Can you appreciate my dilemma?!

My sons and I like to collectively Ponder the absurdities of life, politics and the world we live in.  We have suggestions to change a few things ... if anyone is interested!

Recently, I have actually finished something I started Piddling with, and I did it without too much time passing from start to finish. Here it is:

This is the Autumn Wreath I made for Melissa, Matt's girlfriend, who lives in California.  

I started the wreath at the Chix Packin Stix Retreat in August, and then added the floral and leaf embellishments once I got home.  To make it, a commercial brand of loopy yarn is hand crocheted completely around a metal frame and then sort of fluffed out a bit.  Then you just add whatever other decorations that you want to finish it off.  I think that this particular yarn looks very organic, and reminds me of lichens and fungi and other woodsy stuff.  She liked it! I was pleased!

And so, in light of my obsession and utilization of the 4 "P's," some folks might say that I have Attention Deficit Disorder, but I am not convinced.  I simply am truly interested in way too many things, without enough time to devote to being involved in all of them.  It is like my mother used to say:  "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach!"  Funny thing is that I have already put aside quite a number of interests, like fishing, quilting and stained glass making.  All of those that are left now are non-negotiable!  I still would love to explore pottery. Maybe in my next life ....  or, I am sure there will be a pottery wheel in Heaven, next to a loom and spinning wheel, in a room full of books and a lovely chaise lounge .....

As for the Four "P's," you might say that if I spent less time with them, I would have much more time to spend finishing projects and accomplishing a lot more around the farm and home, inside and out. There is some truth to that assumption.  However, the Four "P's" are as much a part of me as my hands and feet.  I cannot imagine life without their company.  They are as necessary as food and water to me.

When I retire (20.75 more months!), I will have the time I need to play with them AND work on and finish the other things.  There is a Time and Place for Everything.  Sometimes we need to not only "choose our battles," but choose how we spend our time in order bring us the most happiness.  Some things are just more important than others, and I have made my choices.  Besides, I am a dreamer.

So, do you have unfinished projects (also known as UFOs - UnFinished Objects) lying around waiting to be picked back up and loved into completion?  Do you catch yourself Piddling, Puttering, Perusing and Pondering?  Well, you are in good company and you don't have to attend any 12 Step Programs.  It probably just means that you are Creative and/or a Dreamer, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!

If I hadn't been Piddling after Puttering this afternoon, I might not have had
my camera with me when I caught this little fella on my back porch door!

BTW, this is my 41st blog post and it has been a fun first twelve months.  Thanks for going on my journey with me.


Even if it doesn't look like it, something is always happening here on HeartSong Farm!

Godfrey puts in his 2 cents!

Lately, Godfrey has been expressing his need to put in his two cents in a blog post, but first I must share what is going on in his young life at the moment!

Godfrey has become, literally, CATatonic in the past few weeks!  He has fallen in love, of all things!  And fallen hard, sweet fellow.  Apparently, he got online one day while I was in town.  I had left the computer on, and he discovered that one of my friends knows a tortoiseshell kitty name Gumdrop who is quite the looker!  In fact, she has won numerous beauty pageants and has her very own Facebook page.  My, my!  I came home and found drool all over my keyboard ........

Well, all I can say is that it has gotten a bit silly what with Godfrey going around all lovesick and moon-eyed.  He is now practicing the art of writing sonnets, and he hasn't eaten in hours or taken more than 20 catnaps per day since she let him know that she returned his love!  I am afraid that he is totally inCATuated, poor dear!  The "X" & "O" keys on my keyboard are just about worn out!

So now he is insisting that I let him email her back and forth IN PRIVATE, and he says he needs his own computer and credit card so he can send her catnip, toys and treats.  Actually, he also wants his own Amazon Prime account, but I said "No!" to that immediately!  I don't care if it does include free shipping!  This is all happening just way too fast if you ask me.

This is Gumdrop, the object of Godfrey's affection (and obsession!). She really is quite lovely and I can see why Godfrey has fallen under her spell! You can just fall into those eyes and lose yourself! 

Life as a pin-up and show girl can really be quite nice, apparently!

He must be having some trouble with the sonnet writing, what with all the rules and regulations for their composition and form, because I have yet to see any finished poems.  There HAS been A LOT of wadded up bits of paper in the wastebasket of late, however, along with 3 chewed up ballpoint pens.  He is giving it a good go, at least!  I have tactfully suggested he try haiku, but so far he has not bought into that idea.

Another attempt at a sonnet hits the waste basket!  This is hard work!

Fortunately, Godfrey has forgotten that I forgot about sharing his very first birthday party photos in the middle of June because of the dog attack on me and my llama, Jagger.  Truth be told, he was pretty devastated about the whole thing, too, as not only had his Person been injured, but one of his outside buddies had been brutally attacked and killed.  So, to make it up to him, I am allowing him to post now, and I hope he will say:  "Well, better late than never!"

Godfrey & Jagger spent a lot of time communicating through the dining room window this past spring. Two beautiful friends.  This photo really makes me start to tear up .... 

Here he is to tell you all about the Big Day.

GREETINGS!  SALUTATIONS!  HELLO, EVEN!

Godfrey, here, with some photos to amuse you, as well as some advice from my heart to yours.  First of all, I wanted to share my first birthday with you as it was quite a blast, if you ask me!  Of course, it's being the very first celebration of my gracing this world, I was not sure what to expect.  But, there were snacks and plenty of catnip, and my big pal, Axl, participated in all of the shenanigans!  Jessy, on the other hand, just watched from her nearby perch on the arm of the den sofa.  She can really be an old stick in the mud sometimes, bless her heart!

My favorite birthday present!  I still spend hours trying to get that danged ball out of this circular
contraption.  Once I actually succeeded, but according to my Person, that wasn't supposed to
happen!

Axl found where the catnip was hiding ....  right there in that light blue thing in the center.  He sure has a nose for catnip, my big buddy, Axl!  

Axl was a good sport and let me have the first turn with my new toy, even though it was laced with
catnip, and then I let him have a spin with it!

Soon we were feeling real good!

After a bit of a snooze, we played (and sniffed) some more ....

I really do think that Axl is affected by the Good Stuff more than I am.

But soon, we were both completely "under the influence!"   Best party EVER!

And then there was THIS:

This was my other gift from my Person.  I have to admit, I have no 
clue why I need this for sharpening my claws. 

I much prefer sharpening my claws on the door facing of the hall bathroom!
I don't see myself making any changes anytime soon.

During these warm, lazy days of Summer 2014, I have been reading a good bit.

I absolutely adore my Kindle Fire HD!  I can easily turn the pages with one paw and I can read at night in the dark.  Awesome!

Two of my current favorites are pictured below.  I thoroughly enjoyed these when I was looking for something a bit on the lighter side after finishing A Tale of Two Cities earlier in the spring.  At first, I just wanted to see if that was my sister, Bella, on the covers. She has not written since the day I left home and who knows what she has gotten into in the meantime.  It looks quite a bit like her, although I cannot get a glimpse of her white paws in either cover photo. Both books are available for your Kindle, etc., and SHE has a Facebook page of her own, too!  I want MY own Facebook page!

This is a really good read.  And it turns
out that is not Bella on the cover, after
all.

I am only halfway through this one, but
it is a good read, also.  I really DO want
to learn how to purr ....  don't you?!

I, for one, believe wholeheartedly that it is the daily practicing of mindfulness and the principles of Zen that have brought me to my place in Life with my devoted Person, as well as milady love, Gumdrop, and I challenge you to try it for yourself.  You may be very pleasantly surprised by the results!  One word of caution, however.  Do not rush the Process!!!  It takes Time as well as Mindfulness to discover and achieve what it is that we Need.

Here is a little something I found while perusing the Internet recently.  I really liked it and think it is full of Great Wisdom.  I have noticed that my Person has already been practicing these for some time but she has a bit of trouble with #1, #3 and #5, if you ask me!

I also stumbled upon this popular little bit of wisdom online, also, and have decided to share it with you, my friends! At first, it may seem strange to be coming from a feline, but the Wisdom is there in the idea that we should push our boundaries, and try something new, something different now and then!   ENJOY!

Be More Dog

And last, but certainly not least, it is that time of year again ... Football Season!  YES!  I just love lying around on the coffee table or lazing about on the ottoman, watching my Steelers play their game.  Oh, I watch other teams, too, but the Steelers make my heart sing!  I have my very own Terrible Towel that I drape over my shoulders or cuddle up with during the games, but my Person has not gotten me my very own t-shirt as of yet.  Maybe for Christmas?!  Hint, hint!!!!!

Troy Polamalu will be back on the field and throwing his body through 

the air just like a circus performer. Pure awesomeness!  He has just got 

to be part cat!

And with that, I turn this blog post back over to my wonderful Person.

I remain your devoted feline friend,

GODFREY.

Okay, it me, Sara.  I am back!  While he was pounding out his thoughts on the keyboard, I went to the store and had some prints made for him of his sweet and lovely Gumdrop.  I put them in some nice little frames so that he doesn't have to be online in order to gaze into her liquid eyes.  I am just that kind of Person.  Also, I was getting tired of wiping up the drool on my keyboard!  But he really is such a sweetheart, and I do tend to spoil him, along with Jessy and Axl, because they do bring such joy into my life.

He was thrilled, of course, and is now in the process of hanging them near one of his favorite chill-laxing spots.

As for me, I have been looking at my veggie garden, which is just about played out now, with only peppers, eggplant, okra and some tomatoes left.  I am trying to decide if I want to continue my experimentation with gardening during the fall and winter months as I did last year.  It is a Big Question for me, but I think that I have made big strides in gardening over the last 12 months or so, and can now be confident enough to know that I can grow my own favorite vegetables year round as I have dreamed of doing for sustainability.

My harvest this weekend.  Just look at the lovely colors!

With just the two days of my precious weekends available to me each week for doing any project until I retire, I want (need) to be doing something else for a change of pace right now.  I am getting restless, and experimentation is time consuming!  Being self-sustaining is also time consuming!  I will probably still plant a few things (there will definitely be garlic), but I am switching my concentration towards working more with my fiber and knitting, as well as some more of the interior remodeling on my home.

I have had to forgo construction of my greenhouse this year due to circumstances of finances and practicality.  I do not view this as a failure, however, just a change in timing.  I will have it, just not this year.  We really do need to be flexible in our lives or we run the risk of being broken, snapped like a twig, and disappointed in Life itself.  Things happen.  Go with the Flow!  Find your Zen!

I have been able to narrow down my choices of greenhouse kits to two from ACF Greenhouses, so I have made some progress.  Deciding on a kit instead of building it from scratch made sense to me as I really do not have the help I would need for the latter route.  The kits are supposedly easy to construct with the help of just one other person and without much experience other than reading and following directions.  That means that Ben will help me, and I will be the supervisor of the job site!  My only concern is that I will have to supply a foundation for it, and foundations are very important.  So, I will be figuring that part out over the next few months before I commit to a kit by ordering it.

My retreat with the Chix Packin Stix gals two weekends ago was just AWESOME!  It has me picking up my knitting needles once again, and I am busy finishing up abandoned projects as well as those I started at the retreat.  The next post will fill you in on just how much fun we had, and I will say that I cannot wait until the next retreat at the end of January, 2015!

So, it is time for me to do something different here on HeartSong Farm!