Editing and writing are intensive, so I tend to space them out with none cerebral activities to make sure my concentration is at the maximum when I need it. My non-writerly projects? I am redecorating my office, something that is about ten years overdue. Unfortunately, this involves painting the ceiling, which is popcorn. Yes, I know. So retro, but I am not about to scrape it off. First, I don’t do heights well and scraping it off would involve a lot of ladder work. This is not going to happen. I have to steel myself to getting on a two-step. Second, I have no idea what messes it might be covering up. That is a can of worms best left unopened, so paint it is. I don’t have a problem with the walls as I have an extension stick for my roller and edger.

Project #2 is a picture of a Green Man made of leaves I collected and pressed from a vacation in the Rocky Mountains. I used the eyes I had drawn with chalk pastels as a teaching exercise for the kids way back when. I have them in digital format now, so printing them off was easy. The general shape of the head is there, but I now need to paint a background before I put on his beard. For this, I need elusive daylight. A blizzard today didn’t help in either project. Four hours of decent daylight? Stroll on. Still, both projects are going ahead in between work sessions. I shall wait until after xmas before I start ripping out nasty rug and underlay. Have box knife: will happen.