Another good, constructive day in terms of sorting and cataloguing objects. Eight more sorted and repacked boxes are now ready to go back into the garden shed, the plan being that in the long run, I can put my hand to just about every single item I own. Today’s task has freed up three 35 litre boxes – mainly paperwork – notebooks & exhibition catalogues, plus newspaper cuttings. It’s a good feeling to have spare boxes – space is precious, as I’ve yet to sort out the stuff I dumped in the outside garden room when I moved out of my studio – the ongoing, juggling continues!
Up until the recent leak, I’ve never worried about leaving stuff in an outside shed in my garden and as it happened, the water damage turned out okay as far as the objects were concerned, adding another kind of dimension to the needlework basket lids, for example. But irreparable damage was done to the contents of one box – numerous pieces of paper I’d gathered and collected together over many years. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I wept when I found them, sodden & saturated and totally unusable. I’m not taking that risk again and am keeping papers, books, etc that are important to me indoors for safekeeping. The pamphlet about The Cherrypickers Football Club of Glenbuck, a small mining village just three miles from Muirkirk, my Dad’s birthplace, is an example – an irreplaceable pamphlet, outling the incredible story of the Cherrypickers who had fifty players make it to senior level in football. Many of them played for famous clubs and seven of them gained international honours. It’s a record unequalled by any other place of similar size in the whole of Scotland, a record of which Glenbuck is justifiably proud. Bill Shankly was born and raised there too, though The Cherrypickers FC apparently folded before he was old enough to play for them.
I have a couple of other things to fit into tomorrow but my plan is to be back at the sorting at some points throughout the day. I need to be disciplined if I’m going to be able to create more space for the stuff I brought back from my studio. I thought about that space today, wondering how it’s looking and what’s happening there …
