Rocks, wool, plants and tools

by Name Undisclosed
(Australia)

Rocks certainly do rock! I have personally built more than 35m of drystone wall about 1m high out of uncut basalt rock. Blistered hands, callouses, aching arms-back-legs? You bet! And worth every bit. Finding just the right rock takes all your mental energy and spatial reasoning - never let it be said that women can't do spatial reasoning as well as men.

I also bought a rundown old house with a very overgrown garden that I have started to restore. I started by pulling out all the weeds and uncovering the structure of the old garden. It is a thrill to see the plants come up once the weeds have been cleared away and they have sunshine and room to breathe.

The house is also in need of a lot of love and care and I am slowly (very slowly) rebuilding and repairing. It has seen the damage of time and some rather poor decisions from previous owners, but I am taking up the tools and putting back to how it should be. I love my growing collection of power tools, hand tools and some wild design-your-own tools that I have purposely built.

In between times, (and I have to say this keeps me fairly well occupied in my down time), I knit! Knit knit knit. Bunnies, bears, mice, cars, sheep, scarves, beanies, blankets, anything. Then I give it away before I am overrun with woolen objects.

I think all of these things have the benefit that you can see the results of your hard work. That always leaves you feeling like you have achieved something.

Darlene's comments to The Lighter Side contribution titled "Rocks, wool, plants and tools" can be found below.