~ Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass, 1867.
A noiseless patient spider,
I marked where on a promontory it stood isolated,
Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be formed, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
I marked where on a promontory it stood isolated,
Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be formed, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.
***
Well, we survived the school holidays at home. The rubbish skip is full of garden waste, a few old pieces of furniture have been sanded back and one side table and stool have been half-heartedly painted Dulux Magnolia to match the walls. I can't bring myself to distress them in order to achieve a 'shabby chic' look and I'm not sure what to do about the rest. I'm uncertain about following photo tutorials and the briefest of blogger instructions about the use of diluted French Grey paint, walnut stains, polyurethane, sealers and Danish Oil. How do they know which to choose and what effect will work best? Ah well, I'll go by trial and error, I s'ppose. Some other time though. I've been tentatively rooting about in the Strong Silent One's shed and it's in a diabolical state. I can't find a thing I need (like fine-grade sandpaper for example) but there is no shortage of the most extraordinary pieces of hardware, tools and tins of dangerous-looking fluids and pastes.
I'm also staring at old dining chairs which need recovering and am resisting the temptation to attempt amateur upholstery. There are some very clever people in Canberra who could do it more professionally than I, armed as I am with only with the old fabric as a pattern and no experience with a staple gun at all. It would surely end in tears if I tried. We moved our sticks of furniture around over the Easter break and dragged the hired digital piano upstairs again so lessons could be better supervised. We are still procrasinating over a decision about buying a piano for the children to learn on. But the more alarming development was that I seriously considered buying a cowhide rug to put in the sitting room where a piano might reside. Apparently PROIN leathers in the US is the place to go via Ebay and with the Aussie dollar rising high against the greenback, I was tempted until good sense prevailed. The children were terrified at the prospect of a dead cow on the floor, and some of the hides were a tad confronting, legs and all. It would have been a brave decorating decision.
While the children have gone back to school for Term Two, I've been at home these past few days with laryngitis and bronchitis curled up watching Pride and Predjudice and Mansfield Park, like a noiseless patient spider. I recently purchased the DVDs of Persuasian and Sense and Sensibility from a heavily tatoo-ed salesman at JB Hi-Fi which made us both smile. An early Mothers' Day gift to myself. Bring on Sunday.
Illustration: IM Lowry, Flickr
