Just call me Dusty

St Artémis

Not Dusty Bin, nor Dusty Miller, but Very Dusty.

Since Jon is still sanding the bedroom floor, I decided to tackle the loft this morning. We've been using it as a dumping ground for so long now that it needed sorting out. I really went up there to look for some spring clothes to take to Hong Kong with us next month but you know how it is; one minute you're moving a couple of things out of the way and the next minute you're doing a major clear up and reorganisation.

All the camping equipment is up there, don't ask me why, we haven't been camping for 10 years now but the tent did come in handy last summer when my sister-in-law came to visit and couldn't sleep in the house because she is severely asthmatic and the cats would have caused her no end of problems. So, all the camping equipment is in one area of the loft now.

All the baby equipment is up there too. Travel cot, two car seats, toys, pushchairs. Hopefully they will get used again this year depending on whether Lizzie can come over soon after the new baby is born. Leo will have to have the travel cot so baby will have to sleep, in time honoured fashion in this family, in the bottom drawer of my Grandfather's tallboy. We've all slept there at one time or another when we were babies. We can make it very comfortable for a little scrap who doesn't yet sit up or crawl.

Then there are the Christmas decorations, they are in another area next to the spare bedding, double duvets, single duvets, pillows, spare sheets and bedcovers. All for those 'just in case' visitors.

Finally, in a wardrobe with far too many clothes (I really must go through and throw lots of them away), are too many years worth of Open University course books. The French and Spanish courses are downstairs because one day I really will find time to go through them all again (come back in 2020 if I'm still alive) but up in the attic are three of Jon's courses, Arts and Music, and my English course, the French and Italian history course and the Film and Television History course. Part with them? No, never. The trouble with studying with the OU whilst working full time and too long hours is that you have to be quite selective in how deep you go into the course so I worked really hard on the areas I knew I was strong in and not so hard in the other areas (French and Italian politics 1943 - 73) but I so want to go back and re-read these courses, and I want to do the music courses too - all in my own time and no exam at the end - no stress, no time limits. Bliss.

Anyway back to the point. Whilst moving all this stuff around and tidying up, I had to sweep away about 10 years of dust and debris - the loft is not yet insulated (this summer's job) and all sorts of stuff gets blown through the roof. So while Jon was making dust by sanding the bedroom floor, I was up in the loft creating a little dust storm of my own.

Now we're having a cuppa and waiting for the dust to settle - guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?