The Other Side of Sixty
Random thoughts from an older perspective, writing, politics, spirituality, climate change, movies,knitting, writing, books, refinishing furniture, getting off the grid, writing, plotting and planning an organic garden, writing. I MUST STAY DRUNK ON WRITING SO REALITY DOES NOT DESTROY ME.
About Me

- Name: Wisewebwoman
- Location: Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada
Irish by birth, Newfoundlandler by avocation - I live here 80% of the time. The other 20% is spent where the wind blows me. I think random thoughts on an even more random universe. Elevated, exhilarated and exalted by the fact I am living in this day and age. I've come all the way from hand-cranked calculators in an endless room of clerical drones to a flat monitored multi-gigabyted home office where the work comes to me. How absolutely cool is that???
AH, G'WAN ~ EMAIL ME
Previous Posts
- Worry
- Wisewebwoman Woodstove Soup.
- A Day in the Life of a Solitary Woman
- A New Pair of Glasses
- Visionary
- MOMENTS
- Once upon a time, in a car dealership far, far, aw...
- BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS
- Nollaig Na Mban (again)
- A scent of laundry. Part 2.
ONLINE BLOGGER SINCE JULY 2005
Unique bide-a-whiles since January 29th 2008
HOME
A LINK TO MY MOVIE REVIEWS (SINCE 1999)
IMDB WWW REVIEWS
MY OTHER BLOGS
KNITORIS - My Knitting Blog
OFF THE ROCK - My Writing Blog
The Chameleon and the Owl - By Invitation Only
Books Read in 2012
Skin Room - Sara TilleyMajor Pettigrew's Last Stand (BC) - Helen Simonson***
The Other Hand - Chris Cleave*****
A World Elsewhere - Wayne Johnston**Not up to his usual standards
The Virgin Cure - Ami McKay*****
All He Ever Wanted - Anita Shreve*****
February - Lisa Moore(skimmed as re-read for BC-1/2)*****
Exit Lines - Joan Barfoot***
A Cold Day for Murder - Dana Stabenow**
Bay of Spirits - Farley Mowat*****Newfoundland, beautifully told
Springfield Place - S.A. McCormick (won't rate, she's a friend)
Afterimage - Helen Humphreys*****beautiful
The Weight of Water - Anita Shreve****
Light on Snow - Anita Shreve*****one of her best
At Home In France - Ann Barry*****oh I hated leaving this one
Sea Glass - Anita Shreve***
Pagan Babies - Elmore Leonard*
The Way We Were - Marcia Willett***
Galore - Michael Crummey
Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton*****Oh to write like this!
Memories of Peter's River - Bride Martin (a friend: not rating)
Swimmer in the Secret Sea - William Kotzwinkle*****short, powerful
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley(BC)****
The Best of Bernard MacLaverty - Bernard MacLaverty***
The Paris Wife - Paula McLain(BC)****
Heft - Liz Moore***** one of the best.ever.
The Transit of Venus - Shirley Hazzard*****
Grandmother's Footsteps - Carol Smith****excellent thriller, meaningless title
The Fault in our Stars - John Green*****One of the best
Sense of Wonder - Ann Patchett(BC)**
Thin Ice - Marsha Qualey***
Dressing Up for the Carnival - Carol Shields (again)***
Lies of Silence - Brian Moore*****Heart stopping, breathtaking
Because of Winn-Dixie - Kate Dicamillo*****beautiful
The Sleeping Beauty - Elizabeth Taylor *** A reissue, I love this writer
Mistaken - Neil Jordan**** (thanks Helen!)
The Collected Stories - John McGahern
TOTAL TO DATE: 36
{BC=Book Club}
Ratings: *(poor)**(fair)***(good)****(very good)*****(excellent)
GREAT BLOOMIN' BLOGS
Annie
BayGirl
Betty Bishop
Blackwatertown
Catalog
Conortje
Cranky Crone
Dooce
East Belfast Diary
Freeway Blogger
Friko
Government Funded Blogger
Grannymar
Green Stone Woman
Humanist-UK
I Blame the Patriarchy
Jo
Laurie
MarciaMay
Modern Times
My Dark Cove Pantry
Nick
Out of the Cube
Pants
Ramana
River Daughter
Sentence First
Shakesville
Sparrowchat
The Poet Laura-eate
Time Goes By
Twentieth Century Woman
Twilight
Viewpoint2010
NEWFOUNDLAND BLOG ROLLWednesday, January 20, 2010
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20 Comments:
How right you are. I keep trying to change from being a space filler and become a minimalist. Alas, I have failed, so perhaps I should just go with the flow. It's scary to think of what the result might be.
In this big move and reduction of mine in the past few years, 20CW, I did try but I can't even walk by a bloody window without tossing a crystal or stone on it. Or hanging things from curtain rods....arghhhh!
XO
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I'm definitely a space filler! (I'm trying to cut down from being a hoarder... ;-) ) And we have so many more window shelves in our new house... :-D
Jo:
Yeah, much as I try to keep all ledges free of stuff, I feel panicky faced with emptiness.
Freud would have a ball, I'm sure!
XO
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I'm from the school of less is more and am always putting things away. Only in my bedroom do I allow clutter in an organized sort of way. In the living room I don't like lots of little things standing around, gathering dust and taking up precious space. It all has to be functional or out it goes.
We're somewhere in between. We try to avoid clutter and regularly offload stuff to the local charity shops, but Jenny is partial to beautiful knick-knacks and ornaments of one kind or another so spaces do tend to fill up!
My father was a vast spacer, I'm a can't abider. There were four of us kids, we used to post a lookout at the front window for when he got home, then we'd scramble to turn the livingroom back into a vast empty space again. Invariably he found Something That Didn't Belong There.
Hard to tell where the knick knacks end and the mess begins, knick knacks do serve a useful purpose.
My ideal is minimalism, but in common with most ideals, it's neither easy nor always sensible to try to live up to it. I do my best, but still end up with too much "stuff", too many pictures, sculptures etc. etc. etc.
I had two opportunities to start again - once after a big fire destroyed everything we owned, then, again, when I emigrated.
Both times the "stuff" built up again. I must be incorrigible.
GSW:
Now I'm the opposite, apart from books my bedroom is pristine. I hate stuff on floors but install far too many shelves. There are books and DVDs on them interspersed with pics and candles just about all over the house. I've just measured another long wall, for you guessed, more book shelves.....
XO
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Annie:
I do use all the knickknacks, I love lighting the candles and displaying my owl collection (guess what my spirit animal is?!)
I love the story of your dad, control freak much? (so was mine).
XO
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yes, so is mine, T, and I honestly thought this move would result in pale golden floors receding in the minimist style to the horizon with one single white chair for contemplating eternity.
Ha!
As if!
XO
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Nick:
Yes I do offload on a regular basis, a lot of stuff that have been purchased at - tada! - the very same charity shop.
One woman recycler.
I love cushions and baskets and books - and favourite films and docs.
XO
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you missed us middle-of-the-roaders who vacillate between too much and too little and are constantly moving things from storage to shelf to storage ;)
I like empty spaces, but generate clutter.
Pauline:
Welcome!
Storage gear as art form. I've tried to perfect that myself!!
XO
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Duchess:
I know whereof you speak. I feel I shed clutter whenever I walk into the house, even though I divest when I walk out of it. It manages to pile up though...
XO
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oh i am you. and doug is not.
Laurie:
That must make for some interesting territorial disputes. How are the boys doing - are they opposites too?
XO
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Although I love empty space, I am an inveterate hoarder; reconciling these tendencies takes some untangling! A winter purge left me with several boxes and bags full of stuff to bring to the local charity shops. The trouble is that even though I no longer pick up knick-knacks on impulse, the stuff I already have seems to have become self-regenerating.
Stan:
I know whereof you speak. Someone should do a study on the breeding habits of knick-knacks.
XO
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