Simplify

 

I should have taken a before picture of that messy window. Yesterday I threw out some struggling plants that no longer "sparked joy." Then I transplanted and drenched the cactus in those bright yellow pots. They had not been watered for months, and sucked it up like a sponge. Now the window is about as carefree as it gets with houseplants. 

And not my favorite job, crawling up in there to clean out all the dead flies and poor lost bees from the neighbor's hives across the street. 

We are chipping away at the summer projects. John primed the peeling and chipped front steps, which need to be touched up with paint every single year. The joy and charm of old houses. Always something to clean or fix. 

 “How does dirt find its way into old houses like it does? Sometimes I think it's the house itself, old and disintegrating by degrees, breathing out sighs of itself, sighs longing for a little bit of notice.”
 

Lisa Samson, A Thing of Beauty