is something I am leaving to Brother Cat and his partner unless they find things that need my attention.
"Cat, there are two boxes there. Can you take a look please? It's stuff that looks as if it might belong to you."
Now I know that there are some things in the shed which belong to me. I thought they were in the small blue trunk. It is always possible of course that things have been shifted around without my knowledge.
I went out to look a little later. No, these things don't belong to me. They belonged to my mother. Why they were out in the shed is a mystery which will never be solved. It means they have been there more than twenty years.
I sort it. A tiny English-French dictionary my mother took on their trip to Europe. Her schoolgirl French was barely up to the task even with the dictionary but the Senior Cat knew none at all. The friends they travelled with believed everyone would speak English.
A couple of handbags - no, not good enough to be passed on. An old set of school pencils, a "rolling ruler", some cloth only fit for throwing out, a small carved box, and a t-shirt still in the packet all come to light. I don't know who the t-shirt was intended for. It might have fit a child in the junior school. It's fine. The charity shop can have that.
In the other box I come across no less than eleven printed tapestry canvases. Where on earth did my mother get those? Tapestry would never have been her "thing". It would have been much too slow for her. There is some embroidery fabric too...the expensive Irish even weave sort of linen. It's another mystery. My mother was never an embroiderer, or at least not by hand. She tried some machine embroidery for a while but she was too impatient to really enjoy it.
At the bottom of it all is some knitting yarn.
I had just found that when a friend called in to see the Senior Cat and wish him Happy Birthday. (He turned 97 yesterday.) J....belongs to the same group I belong to. I show her the yarn.
"Looks as if it might be okay," she said inspecting one lot closely.
"Might make a prayer shawl. Do you want me to wash it?"
"You can have it," I tell her.
I pass it over in the sure knowledge it will get used and pull the rest out.
"This looks okay too. It just needs washing."
It's another job I need to do. I'll skein it up and wash it carefully. If it is all right then it will survive washing. Then I can put it back into balls again and.... well, someone will use it.
I just hope they don't find any more yarn out there or, if they do, it doesn't need washing before I can give it to someone for the Replanting Australia project.
I suppose that at some point today or tomorrow a box of books will be found in the shed...and they will get the blue trunk down from where it sits on top of the old cabinet-dryer that ceased working forty years ago.
Sheds contain unexpected rubbish - and treasures.
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5 comments:
Happy birthday and good health to your father.
LMcC
He has asked me to say "thank you".
Happy Birthday to the Dear Fellow!
A year or so ago I would have offered you "p&p" to send the embroidery stuff to me - especially old linen. But since they put that IV cannula in my elbow crook, and did the nerve damage to my hand, I can no longer cope with that kind of sewing. I hope you can find the right place to bestow it though - some folks would regard it as pretty valuable.
that must be so frustrating Jean. I would have happily paid "p&p" if I thought you were going to use it! I am taking it to a church craft group tomorrow. They will use it - make it - sell it for charity I hope.
I wonder why your mother would have kept tapestry cloth and the embroidery linen if they weren't her things. Could they have belonged to her own mother or other relative or friend dear to her? Can you date the printed tapestry designs to give you a clue?
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