Slut Wool in Everyday Ramblings

This, we discovered is what we call dust bunnies used to be called. Those lazy slatterns not keeping up with the housework. Kes and I have made a commitment to do a half hour of cleaning every day that is not just the ordinary sweeping the kitchen floor and cleaning the bathroom day to day stuff. This also can be organizing and letting go of “stuff”.

Mrs. Sherlock and her husband and real estate lawyer have decided to sell the properties they have owned and lived in for 45 years next month. They have two three story apartment houses that were built in 1902 side by side with one big yard behind. Big for the city and a densely populated part at that. They live in one of the ground floor apartments and have the whole garden as theirs.

This is a huge big deal for them. They will be hiring folks to help with the move and finding a small one-story house a little further out in the city with a yard and a bigger kitchen. This is all good for the economy. I think only one of their renters has been able to pay rent in the last few months and they are done with being landlords.

When they are able to find a place that is safer and less hassle for them to live in, the prospects for them to be able to stay at home for the next however long, rise, and social as Mrs. Sherlock is, she wants to be in her own place. It will be easier to get care in.

As they purge and sort and let stuff go, I am hoping that I can be inspired to do the same on my much smaller apartment dwelling scale.

Yesterday I tackled the slut wool, also known as, the cat hair, under the bed to the best of my ability without moving too much furniture. I got under the head of the bed by actually putting the vacuum cleaner on the bed.

Today it is papers, going through an accumulation of papers, the half hour will fly by.
I did receive a very cool power screwdriver for Christmas that I need to charge. I may have to remove the light switch plates to practice. :)

The other great gift I received was a set of beautiful nested prep bowls. I broke one in my small set last month and I love prep bowls. I am one of those bakers that likes to make sure I have everything in the right amounts before I start cooking.

The Moroccan Almond cookies, with the orange blossom water were good. They were a little dry because I chose the longer range of the cooking time and they have remarkably little oil in them and no butter. The orange blossom water is divine to smell though. It came on Christmas Eve Eve, when Kes and Most Honorable were here and it was like inhaling Spring!

Charity ate hers dipped in tea and the dryness was not an issue at all. The semolina flour makes them wonderfully chewy and they are pretty to look at. Mrs. Sherlock thought they were a bit bland. They are gluten free and that is a plus for me so I will make them again.

I got Kes a baking bullet journal with her name on it because in the run up to Christmas we could not remember what we make last year and when, it is all kind of a blur. Notes like…don’t try to sift the almond flour are useful and good for next time.

On Christmas Eve I walked with both Charity and Mrs. Sherlock. We went up in what we call the West Hills. The views were spectacular. None of us had seen views like that from up there before. After ten months of lockdown, I have figured out a route that involves the least amount of up with the most bang for the view buck and it was lovely. I did end up with muddy poodle paw prints on the front of my jacket though.

The two of them though got into this intense conversation on the way down about swearing. It was heated, there was energy there. I couldn’t even distract them with the 1990 classic silver Volvo in front of us.

Since then, I have walked with both of them individually and there is no acrimony, mutual respect and affection are still fully in place. All three of us have our own perceptions of what was going on, and I am relieved that it appears to have been resolved.

As we head into the new year, I hope that we can all let go of a bunch of acrimony, as well as stuff we don’t need, and find joy in the small things and each other.

May your dust bunnies be easy to get to and your heart just that much lighter.

Last updated December 29, 2020