Brushing Away The Cobwebs

Can a Blog develop cobwebs? No, but if this one could, it surely would have by now. 

It's been a while, a long while, but it's January and there's no better time to start than at the beginning.

I was browsing around the art store this weekend and stopped in front of the pencil display, wondering what colors I might need to add to my collection. I returned home and checked out my store of pencils, and I realized they had been ignored for quite a while. They were in sad disrepair, broken, stubby. 

I decided to sharpen them all and there's nothing better for that job than the old pencil sharpener mounted on the wall in my barn. I wasn't surprised to see the device had cobwebs on it. That was easy to fix.

It does the job far better than the sleek little battery-operated piece on my desk in the house. And it sings a pleasant chewing song as the handle turns, so satisfying. It never runs out of batteries.

I was transported back to my days in primary school, with the big blackboards, the chalk erasers, and the smell of pencil lead. Then I thought of my blog, long neglected like my pencils. Funny how one thing can lead you right down a crooked path to another completely unrelated thing! 

Looking up some illustrated journals from my past, I noticed I had recorded one year of my garden using colored pencils, and some of my trips to Maine as well. Hmm . . . maybe I should try those pencils again.

I lined all the pencils up, looking sharp and ready for duty, and I made some notes on possible additions to the cast of colors. Any excuse to go back to the art supply store. If someone asks me my favorite colors or the colors I use the most, I only need to look at the length of my pencils. The evidence is there.

When the big things start to get you down, turn around and look for the little things. Like colors, sharp pencils, and maybe cobwebs. Then marvel at the way one thing can lead to another, in a good way.