Shirtless Steele and Some Old Slides

Another nice day yesterday, though not quite as nice as the day before. A bit cooler and cloudier. Still, plenty of opportunity to be outside.

I spent the morning in the garden reading, followed by a walk to Camden Market. I encountered Sir Richard Steele along the way. He looks a little cold, doesn't he?

Camden was my destination because when I wandered through there last week, right before meeting Colin for one of our concerts, I saw a guy selling loose photographic slides from a big box. Well, you know I love old pictures, and rescuing them from oblivion is one of my missions in life. So yesterday I returned with lots of time and some spare change, and emerged with about 50 slides.

(Side note: I didn't try to take Olga along to the market. It's farther away than the Heath and given our big walk the day before, I thought she needed to stay home and recuperate. She didn't protest, and it felt good to walk briskly and get my heart rate up, which I can't do when I'm tethered to the dog.)

Coming back from Camden, I passed through Hampstead village and stopped at a sidewalk antique place I've passed many times. Usually I have Olga with me so pausing there isn't easy, but this time I could browse and I bought two cut-glass wine glasses that I thought Dave and I might use sometime.

I've looked through all the slides more carefully and I think about half of them are worth scanning. The slides themselves don't cost much but the scanning is an investment, since I have it done professionally. (I don't have a good slide scanner of my own.) Choosing interesting slides from a big bin of loose junk in an open-air market is a challenge -- I have to hold them up to the light and squint and do my best to assess the photo. I can't always tell if it's going to be blurry or if someone's eyes are closed, and sometimes upon closer examination they're just not as interesting as I first thought.

Anyway, that was my daily excitement. I resumed reading "American Dirt" in the afternoon, and also caught up on blog-reading and responding to recent comments here, which felt good. I know I've been lagging behind!

This is another Camden Market purchase. When I showed it to Dave, he said, "Your Florida roots are showing!" And indeed, it does look like something that would be hanging from a carport in his parents' Bradenton mobile home park. But there's a purpose behind it.

Remember how a squirrel ravaged our avocado tree? I thought this shiny, flashy thing might keep it away. So I moved the avocado back outside and suspended this gizmo from the branches. The squirrel nibbled off three leaves yesterday. So much for that idea.

Still, I'm leaving the avocado outside. I think the squirrel will eventually lose interest, if it hasn't already. And if not, it will help prune our overlarge tropical plant!