Wildfires

The smoke from the wildfires in BC and California (the Pacific ocean) has spread across Canada to our island of Newfoundland (the Atlantic ocean), affecting our weather.

Here's a map of the BC fires.

Here's a map of Canada

We are over 7,000 km away from these fires (see distance from Vancouver on our west coast to St. John's on the east coast).

That's over 4,350 miles.

We have entered the zone of the 4 Cs = Constant Chaos of Climate Change.

Chaos

And yes, that lovely old window you see overlooks the ocean.

It's all very well to cruise around and plot colours and pick out lovely paints, make decisions on matte or semi or gloss but HELL. My painter is wonderful, one of those self-deprecating geniuses. And so far 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1 upper inner hallway are completed. By completed I mean: primer, ceilings, wainscoting and trim have all been meticulously applied, but to do all that he had to move stuff around. And hereby the chaos. He had a personal commitment for the weekend so wrapped up here Friday afternoon. He'll be back again on Monday morning first thing, to correct any small defects I might spot (none that I see) and then he'll tackle the upper outer hall and the lower main hall ceilings, on down to the living room and my office and back hall.

You might think I have a vast mansion of a place with all these halls but you'd be mistaken. The reason for the halls was to conserve heating in the winter in the good old days (and even now the freezing new days). So my little rabbit warren of a house has 4 halls and 5 tiny bedrooms with NO closets.

I sometimes wondered why I invested time and money into this place. And then I see the freshly painted rooms and I think - this is lovely, so badly needed and maybe, just maybe, these freshly decorated walls will extend beyond my lifespan and I won't have to do them again.

Meanwhile, I will trudge upstairs once again and survey the enormous amount of bits and pieces, scattered everywhere and question my own sanity: do I truly need all this stuff? And get ruthless, absolutely ruthless. Hear me, universe?

And this coming from a woman who discarded/recycled/donated 10 items per day for the last 50 odd days?

And felt so effing virtuous.

Old Dog + New Tricks

I spent a day tidying up my office last week, as there were far too many work projects in, completed projects needing to be filed away in archives, and also a couple of columns due.

I am a classically chaotic person by nature; I thrive under deadlines, stress and procrastination.

But these traits have not been serving me well lately. And I ponder on the causes of such behaviours such as mine (as if knowing the underlying reason for anything will automatically cure it, ha!) whilst I endeavour to change how I do things.

For the first time in my life, I put back to its place everything I move in the office, whether file, pencil, reference book or pen before I leave it. I know where every piece of blank stock, equipment (yeah even unto the battery charger) is.

And I find, as I work, and work hard, that it is all just a little more peaceful and OMG, organized.

Is it possible to change the deeply ingrained traits of a lifetime?

We shall see.

Picture above is the view I am having today from my desk of a very stormy sea while the fire behind me warms the room.

PS And I just found out I am BLOG OF THE WEEK at the Newfoundland Blog Roll. Thank you, Stephen!