I had to move a lot of partially full paint cans in the cupboard to find the white enamel Mr. rags needed for the deck railings. As I couldn't remember buying any of them and the last time I did any major interior painting was 20 years ago, while they were all spread out on the floor, I put them into my car instead of back into the cupboard. http://www.flickr.com/photos/diffuse/7801422356/ They had a lovely ride to the paint disposal/recycling depot. When I came home, I used the empty space to store tile left over from my recent shower project, decluttering my work bench in the process.

Thursday evening, just as I was ready to leave to join other nature club members for a walk, a noise in the back yard caught my attention. A trunk of a Mountain Ash beside my house had bent so far under the weight of this year's bumper crop of berries, that it decluttered itself. It cracked about 15 feet from the top and toppled onto my clothesline and bird feeders, still attached to the tree by a three inch long strip of bark. http://www.flickr.com/photos/diffuse/7799931690/ I skipped the walk to liberate the clothesline and bird feeders by cutting off as much of the dangling treetop as I could reach from an eight foot tall step ladder. Today I summoned the courage to climb the 20 foot long extension ladder and cut the remaining seven feet of trunk loose. http://www.flickr.com/photos/diffuse/7813134580/ I'd planned to saw the ragged top of the broken trunk straight across after the cutting the hanging piece free, but decided to climb down from the ladder while I was still in one piece, instead.

rags