sunday snippets

...in which our plucky heroine gets high - on a ladder that is...

Yesterdays task was dealing with the hidden gutter (the one between the workroom roof and the carport roof) Until this year it had no issues, but suddenly in the last rainstorms, there was water dripping from the join between the roofs, and not much from the downspout; obviously it was clogged. A borrowed extension ladder gave me the height needed, but how to remove the debris? The carport roof is nowhere near sturdy enough to carry the weight of a person, and the gutter is around twenty feet long.

My first attempt, with a swively mop head, was useless (too short and wobbly). The next idea was to acquire an extendible pole, and some kind of implements to attach to the end, but that would be both spendy, and take up a big chunk of the sunshiney day that made ladder work relatively safe. Then my eye noticed the can full of framework poles from the dayshade that broke (saved because metal poles are garden-useful)...

Since the dayshade poles fit together to form longer lengths, it was possible to kludge together an almost ten feet long span. What to attach to the end was more challenging, as the small diameter and somewhat flimsy jointing made using something like a garden fork (my first idea) too large and heavy. Finally, one of my two pairs of forked kitchen tongs gave their life for the cause; the sheet metal was thin enough to bend into a contorted shape that would serve.

A truly yucky task nonetheless, scooping cold partially composted leaf goo from the gutter, one handfull at a time, and dropping it to the ground below. Curses on the head of whichever former owner put up the carport without dealing with removing the gutter first, and creating a proper water overhang from the roof. Ah well, 'tis done for now...

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My creative self, always a wayward beast, has decided that rather than the drawing that I'd like to be doing, it will write poems instead. Four new written bits in the last two weeks, more than in the last several years...

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Two weeks 'till the next Artisan Crafternoon (February 6th), as that is quite near Chinese New Year, I'm thinking that would be a great theme to riff on. Asian snacks, red things maybe, and since it is the year of the rabbit that gives an additional option. I just noticed that New Seasons has Cheddar Bunnies crackers on sale, I'll pick up some in my next shopping trip, just to be prepared...

Was a naughty girl and skipped out on this afternoons chores to go see My Dog Tulip. It was definitely worth seeing. The animation was very well done, I loved the watercolor style, and found it fascinating that it was "the first animated feature to be entirely hand-drawn and painted utilizing paperless computer technology." An interesting blend of the old technology and the new. I'd not read anything by J.R. Ackerley, and it certainly is a quirky tale of the love between man and dog.