Spring Clearing

We've had our annual inorganic collection this week. Every year around this time the local council collects the items that are too large to go out in the usual rubbish collection. A few days before we’re notified of the collection date, and over that weekend the neighbourhood turns into a gigantic jumble sale.  Everyone puts all their junk on the grass verges and the streets are full of vans and small trucks cruising along looking at the piles of stuff. As we put things out people were already picking through it to see if there was anything they wanted or could use. The weather has been lovely, and so it was conducive to a quick chat. 

As it’s Spring all this clearing out motivated me to sort through my bookshelves and cupboards, and the local Op shops have gained out of the exercise.  In England they’re called Charity shops. Here in New Zealand the shops also raise money for various charities, but they’re known as Opportunity Shops, shortened to Op shops. I like the name, it gives a feeling of extended life for books, clothes and other items. 

All this spring clearing – notice I said clearing not cleaning - reminded me of Spring when I was a child. My mother would change the curtains to lighter weight ones and clean all the windows. Very often this also coincided with a rearrangement of the furniture and my father would come home and do a double-take as he walked into a changed living room.

As I've mentioned before it still takes some getting used to having Spring at this time of year, but the urge to tidy out things and begin new projects is still strong. 

I think my mulling over of prospective book projects is beginning to look more like procrastination. Time to get moving!