Expect the unexpected

Like - spilling a mug of tea over your worktable. On a flat surface, water spreads fast! Fortunately there were quite a few things littering the worktable that caught the flood - like the lists made over the past month and more, which I was checking to see if everything had been done eventually -

Well, if it didn't get done, and it was important enough to need doing, someone will remind me.

The important thing is that these lists, to do with getting Tony's photos ready for the "American journey" exhibition, are no longer needed -

The private view of the show is this afternoon, and in 15 minutes I'll be gathering my bags and heading for the train.

Which leaves time for a little reflection on the state of our worktables. At the moment mine is remarkably clear, just a few pot plants needing either repotting or recycling, and a couple of lamps, and the clock and the box and my breakfast plate and coffee cup and the camera and the computer and mouse. Lots of bare "wood" (turns out it's veneer - the years have not been kind to it). 

Some of the previous contents of the tabletop are in the bin, but most are on the shelf beside the table, that shelf that always needs sorting. (Next time, the work table should have a drawer into which clutter can be swept.) 

The items we keep on the table, ready for use, are our tools and materials. I would like to suggest that one of these tools should be - space.

Keeping space to hand takes discipline, of course, and some people have useful routines or habits of clearing up at the end of the day, or the start of the day. Another useful habit in this regard is the habit of noticing when space is needed, and doing a tidy-up midstream. How long would that take? My unexpected desk clearance took all of five minutes - including the mop-up. It's taken much longer to write about it.

And I found this lovely card, which you can hardly see in the photo -

The image is Syaw (Fish Net) by Regina Pilawuk Wilson - see it here. The drawings inspired by it were made on some Sunday afternoon, probably in 2015. I thought I'd had enough of them, but have now rescued them from the bin and will, yes really will, use them as covers for little notebooks - the sort of notebook you put in a handbag and make lists in. 

It's on my list. A 2-hour project (find glue, find paper....).