Ah, shredding. I have a couple of over-ripe tax files that are more than ready to go.

Recently, I was reminded of a nasty right-wing agitator by the name of Grover Norquist, noted for saying he wanted to see the US government so small and weak that it could be drowned in a bathtub. That’s how I feel about the excess stuff in my house.

Tasks completed recently?

The horrible mouldy bathroom, an embarrassment from the day we moved in, is now sleekly beautiful, allergen-free, and fitted with an exhaust fan and enough towel rails.

The library is now manageable: seven loosely packed full-height bookcases. Another full-height bookcase, in the basement, is full of CDs, and one half-height bookcase in the study holds the household strategic reserve of stationery and computer-related doohickeys. This winter’s cull was the third phase of a process that began a few months after Edmund died; on 10 October 2020, this house contained seventeen full-height and four half-height bookcases, all of them crammed tight with books. Five excess bookcases were also successfully rehomed this spring.

Several large boxes of household gadgets, most related to cooking, went to the church rummage sale in April. My inventory of wooden spoons is down to the two I actually use. Edmund used to buy them at random, always choosing the ones with awkward handles, and I must have had more than a dozen. I no longer possess a roasting pan big enough for a twenty-pound turkey.

I defrosted and scrubbed out the freezer, a job that has needed doing for two years.

I think I have sold the set of VW Golf wheels that has been stacked in the garage since February 2022.

Next, I want to reduce that accumulation of CDs to music I actually listen to, and move them, and the bookcase in which they live, from the basement up two flights of stairs to the library. I’ll need help with that; a six-foot bookcase is way more than I can handle on my own.

I also want to rid the library windows of their heavy curtains and have them fitted with light-adjustable blinds. With the curtain tracks gone, I will finally be able to get that room painted.

That’s enough for now.