Spring cleaning

Yesterday and the Saturday prior, I was doing some spring cleaning at the cottage. I set up this old washstand, complete with an enamel basin and soap dish, next the the entrance. It's all a bit rusty, sure, but I appreciate it all the same. 

I did not appreciate this rusty pile of rubbish, however. It somehow collected here in the autumn. There's gutters, old antennae and other bits and bobs. I took the smaller bits to recycling, and hauled the rest of it to the new "staging area", also known as the kitchen garden. There's already a car wreck rotting there, so... Watch this corner "magically" clean up:

I so love these before and afters, especially when you had the foresight of getting the same camera angle 🤣 Is this area of the garden all perfect now? No! But there's not a rubbish pile in front of my doorstep, I call that a win. I found the little bench in the barn, along with this mystery box!

I found it to be an old artist's box, filled with palettes and paints. These cute boxes were filled with powder pigments, for porcelain painting, I think. Pretty sure they're chock full of lead so I was careful not to inhale any powder.

This old paperclip tin had an art nouveau design, might even actually be from the 1920s.

I also brought this old garden set outside and cleaned it. It has some stubborn stains so some new paint will be needed to get it actually looking clean. Is it irresponsible to leave antique furniture out to the elements? Maybe, but the way I see it, these were meant to be outside. It's their happy place. 

There wasn't that much green yet, but this ficaria verna was blooming. I've decided that I'm just going to learn and use the latin names of plants. It's not to be interpreted as a snobby move. It's because I'm trilingual (Swedish/Finnish/English), and I simply can't be expected to learn and remember all the language variants. Joke's on me 'cause even latin has variants (ranunculus ficaria, anyone?). Apparently this is considered an invasive species in the US, but not in Finnish context.

The next week, the garden had chonked out! It went from spring to summer in a blink of an eye. There was such a thick perfume around the house that, I kid you not, I started looking for trespassers. Then I realised that the lilacs were in bloom. I couldn't believe it. The soundscape was filled with buzzing bees, baby birds crying, and a cuckoo somewhere in the distance. Honestly, I was hoping for a bit more of spring. I have so much to do.

(And yes, I have baby birds in my house. I knew some birds had liked to nest above my veranda, but I didn't get around to figuring out where they were entering or how to block it. So, now I have baby birds, who start to cry when I stomp around on the veranda a little too loudly, getting my tools. Sigh.)

The job for the day was to make the bedroom fit for sleeping. I was stowing old books and things in boxes, to be moved to storage for now. And doing the glamorous job of cleaning up mouse poop and blocking mouse holes by screwing down old cutting boards. Not kidding. It's a temporary fix. The inside of the cottage will eventually be renovated, but not this summer. 

I went looking in the store room for a bed, but this iron bed frame was fairly narrow and very rusty. I love the style, though. I'm itching to clean up the store room, but it's not really the priority right now.  

I was going through all kinds of tiny bits and bobs, and I finally found the key to this Singer sewing machine. According to the serial number, it was made in 1897! I didn't have the time to try it out. But it looks intact, if worn. 

I was transferring this curtain rail from the kitchen into the bedroom and taking measurements for curtains. I need to have some kind of curtains to sleep here. It feels very backwards to decorate with these 1970s poison green walls, but whachoo gunna do? I've decided it doesn't make sense to start painting or wallpapering when these wall coverings will come down soon anyways. I noticed the window glass is holding on with a pin and a prayer so I'm going to try my best to renovate at least these south facing windows this summer. I do love these windows, this six-paned design is so harmonious and beautiful.  

I washed the floors best I could and dusted off this sofa bed. I have an air mattress that should fit on top of it. It kinda gives me the heebie-jeebies to sleep on this thing, 'cause who knows what the mice have gotten up to. But I've decided not to bring in any new furniture before the inside is renovated, so again, will have to make do.  I didn't quite finish the bedroom cleanup, but I got pretty far! I might finish next Saturday.

I finally cleaned off this stove hood, that was covered in ashy dust. There was also a bunch of match boxes, arranged into a long train. When I took them off, I noticed that the boxes were all empty 😄 How bizarre.

While cleaning, I decided to take these chairs to the recycling center. They were all really rickety and broken, and previously repaired in a slapdash manner with pieces of ply and vinyl. One was shedding like the poster child of lead paint and another one seemed to be covered in bird droppings. I love old crap, but even I have my limits. I felt that they were not nice enough to warrant spending time and effort fixing, risking lead paint exposure in the process. 

I was very happy to go home at the end of the day. The arrival of summer weather made me feel the same overwhelm as I did last summer. Spring was quiet, now the volume of everything is amplified. There's a sense of urgency. Wasps and birds are buzzing around, making nests in my buildings. It's not easy, seeing the amount of work waiting for me, everywhere I go on the plot. It's difficult to prioritise. It's impossible to keep on top of, because everything's been neglected for a decade or two. I feel scared that the buildings will degrade too much before I get around to fixing them. Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing, because a lot of jobs require at least two people. There's a lot I just can't do on my own.

But...there's also a lot I can do. I also feel very happy and fortunate to be the caretaker of this place, don't get me wrong. It's brought me a lot of contentment. I'm feeling more connected to it with time. But so far, it's mostly been hard work, and it will continue to be a lot of hard work for years to come. I like working hard, but I also look forward to knowing what it will be like to be able to come to the cottage for a long weekend, and just mostly just be.