Renovation and reclamation (and a teeny tiny rant)

A few days ago my carpenter son announced that he'd be starting to clear his things out of the (former) studio and take down the plastic walls that had made it into a carpentry workshop for the past ... how long ... few months -

He has now set up the workshop in the spare bedroom of his own flat "over the hill", ready for renovations there, but even so some bits of board arrived, a subtle and inspirational geometry -

This morning, what to my wondering eyes should appear but ... no, not the jolly fellow with the sleigh and reindeer but - even better - two men and a rental van. Wood and paint were moved to the garden and packed into the van -

 leaving a studio, ready for reclaiming ... and sorting.

Despite the plastic walls, dust did settle here and there. Or perhaps that was just the passage of time. But it means that the dusting and sorting can be carried out at the same time - I'm thinking along the lines of Slow Dusting (cf. Slow Food and Slow Stitch), where the aim is to dust the item - ie, hold individual items in your hands - and at the same time decide whether it's something to keep, and where to keep it, or something to "thank" (a la japanese tidying) and discard/recycle/give away. That is my fantasy and as it's a Slow thing, I'm in no hurry to start.

I'm far too busy enjoying the wood-free hall, thinking about filling its walls, at last, with some of the framed art that's accumulated over the years -

My fantasy there is that all that lovely art will, with the help of the mirrors, make a delightfully dizzying dazzle. Extra mirrors might be needed? six doesn't seem quite enough.

Now, about mirrors: how often do you hear (older) people/women say, "Oh I don't like mirrors, I don't like to catch sight of myself." To which there is no answer, or is there. Well, there's no nice polite answer that I can think of. 

I think they should be brave, and practise smiling at themselves in the mirror: hands on hips, elbows back, big smile. Maybe the people who say they don't like looking in mirrors are the people who never smile anyway.

End of rant about mirrors.