Rudi - The Writing Desk

"Hey, Jo!", a little voice shouted, "I'm back!" Mo was propping against a paint tin and gave me a big smile and kept on talking: "I'm feeling great! Did you miss me?" 

 "Not too much, I was in quit absorbing company" I said trying to look indifferent.

"Ah, Mr. Bargain, the vacation replacement! What do you think of him?" Mo wanted to know.

"Don't ask me, ask my purse!" I sighted.

"I know. He is fantastic, but has a tendency to overshoot!" she laughed and pointed at the old writing desk I had nearly finished painting: "I bet, he made you buy this!"

I nodded. "It's going to be my son's desk. Blue and red are his favorite colors and he'll be a school boy in one month time!" 

"Good heavens!" she yelled and glanced at me pitiful. "How time flies for you humans!" 

Mo has been around me ever since I can remember and doesn't look older than a 16 or maybe 18 years old girl by now. Me instead has turned forty this spring. Dear readers, I felt the need to change the subject: "How was your vacation?"

"Wonderful!" she dwelt and stretched herself. 

"Mr. Bargain told me, that you had been with someone?"

She grinned at me for some time before she said: "Maybe I'll introduce you to him, one day. But let's talk about this desk, first. The backplane is a little broken. You could take some fabric to cover it. Moreover, it lacks an ABC garland! One with big letters on the front and small letters on the back, at best!" 

And this is how the desk has turned out. We named it "Rudi", by the way. When I took these pictures in my working room - the light was better there, than in the kid's room - I felt an strong urge to keep Rudi for myself. Luckily Mr. Overshoot-Bargain  had made me buy not only one writing desk, but two. So there's a similar desk, waiting to meet the paintbrush, which will be mine and I think, it will get a little garland as a companion, too.

Till next time, dear readers!

Yours Mo and Jo

x

Mister Bargain

Some days ago, I felt the need to crochet some doilies out of big yarn. Mo was still missing and I wanted to divert myself with something, because I had begun to worry. My plan was to combine the doilies into one big sofa throw or cover. I was examining one of the white granny-chic beauties and felt rather pleased, when I heard somebody coughing slightly behind me. I turned around to find a tiny grayish fella sitting on my sofa's backrest. "Hello, I'm Mister Bargain" he said, gave me a nod and continued:  "I'm , the vacation replacement." 

I stared at him. He was was wearing huge horn-rimmed glasses. They magnified his eyes disproportional to his little body, that was dressed in a worn out and clearly undersized pinstripe suit.  His bald head was shining and his thick lips grinned at me eagerly before he started again, pointing at himself and speaking slowly: "I am Mister Bargain, I am the vacation replacement for Mo. She wanted to take some days off - you see - because she met this nice guy." Whilst he was speaking, his eyeballs were moving restlessly and made me feel dizzy. "Did you understand me?" he asked.

"So, you are a muse, too?" I noted. 

He laughed: "A muse? Well, one might say so!"

Still wearing a question mark all over my face, I pointed to the doilies, lain out in front of me.

"Oh, that's not my business!" he said shrugging his shoulders. "I'm here to help you otherwise. Let's get started! Look deep into my eyes!"

I could not help but glance at him. His unresting eyeballs now had become pinball bullets in action. I only can remember myself asking: "What do you mean by saying Mo has met a nice guy?" then everything was wreathed in mist.

When I awoke, Mr. Bargain had disappeared and I was sitting in midst of a lot of rummage. Among others, there was a mid century wooden bench, an old lamp, two old writing cabinets, several kitschy decoration items,  and a table from about the 1890's, lovely but in rather poor condition. 

"Dear me!" I thought. Then I begun to move around the stuff, trying to find a place to for each piece, where it could rest a while, before my paint brush would bother it some day. 

Have a nice week end; or, if you are on vacation, like Mo, have a wonderful trip! 

yours sincerely

Jo

x

Gardening

My computer is very smart, he refuses to work for longer periods when the weather is hot. He has told me, that he's in need of another cooler, but I'm not going to pamper him. First it's a new cooler, then a faster main board and finally a sleeker monitor! These are the cheap tricks of technical facilities I won't play along! It's been sizzling hot in the last days and so the keyboard has gathered some dust. This, and the fact that Mo didn't reappear since the story of the When-In-Doubt-Add-A-Flower-Lamp, is the reason why it had been quiet around this little blog. Today is the first day with acceptable temperature and I dare to post.

Mo's absence doesn't worry me too much. Every now and then, the so-called-muse hides from me for a while. Like the computer she isn't very fond of warm weather. Moreover, she isn't really into watching soccer games nor does she like listening to me playing ukulele and gardening isn't her thing either. 

And this is exactly what I felt like and did lately.

Our garden is so small, it would be an exaggeration to call him tiny. So, we grow our plants on shelves. At the moment, they look a bit lost, but I hope, there is a lot of summer left for them to develop. 

Furthermore, I was lucky thrifting! I found this lovely old metal garden chair and three of his brothers. They certainly will need a lot of attention and care, until someone might take a seat on them.

I also found the prettiest phlox ever. It looks like candy to me: 

Ah, summer!

I hope, you are all having a lot of sunny days (and smart computers), too and I promise, I will keep you informed, when Mo shows up again.

x

Jo