Oh Gawd!

We have a cleaner, only she hasn't cleaned or tidied anything since the world went into lockdown. The current understanding is she'll be back at the beginning of September- but we'll see.

Anyway, my son and his wife were visiting yesterday and first thing in the morning I put on the pair of spectacles called "as others see us" and scanned the house and thought, "Oh Gawd!¬"

I put a few objects away in drawers and a few others in plastic bags to be taken to the charity shop but I don't think it made much difference.

As for dusting.....

But let me show you what I'm talking about.

This is what my mother sees if she glances off to the side while eating her breakfast. Most of the junk shops I visit are neater...



Ask me what any of those objects are and I'll give you their history and explain why I couldn't possibly get rid of them. Marie Kondo says we shouldn't hang on to anything that doesn't give us joy- but all these bits and pieces give me joy...

And the very few that don't give me joy give Ailz joy, so there....

Not Tricky Enough- Alas...

Did you know that President Nixon came very close to delivering a universal basic income in the 70s? It was affordable, he'd squared his own party by cloaking the policy in dry, rightist rhetoric- but was stopped from putting it into law by the Dems. Imagine how we'd remember him if he'd succeeded! Apparently he'd been reading 19th century political history and had come to the conclusion- which he confided to Daniel Moynihan- that "Tory men and liberal policies are what have changed the world." I don't think he was so very far wrong.

I got that snippet from Rutger Bregman's Utopia for Realists- a book chock full of old ideas whose time (please God) has come....

High-builded

Our corner of Kent has dodged most of the rain that has been going the rounds but has copped for some today. I do so admire "the high-builded clouds" (Larkin's phrase) that come sailing up to deliver it.