The Wind Chime Was Complaining of Bashing

A little right of center above the top clothesline wire is Venus. It was so vivid when I went out to retrieve the clothes that have been hanging there for two windblown days now. It's a pin dot in this picture; just shows how steep the camera skills learning curve is ahead of me.

I have longed for a clothesline for years now, but just couldn't "find the time" to rig one up or imagine actually going through the movements to use it.
Necessity. It gets things done alright.

Nickels being hard to find, somehow the time came along to find some time.

Awhile back, my friend in Gilbert asked me if I wanted a few things she was getting rid of. One item was a canopy. She wasn't sure of what condition it was in, but I decided to take it home and inspect it. Turned out the tarp part was pretty bad, so I threw that away and set the skeleton frame aside.

As nickels got tighter and tighter, a light bulb went off and I rigged up the canopy frame as a clothesline. It took me another month to unearth some kind of wire or rope to string across. I made due with the frame and just draped clothes over it in the meantime.
What a luxury to have the wires now...it's all a matter of perspective. I'm a little shy of pins, but I'm sure some will surface soon.

(Not much of a skill, but I do need to remember that the lens shutter keeps sticking.  Hence, the black streaks in two corners.)

The clothes smell so nice bunched up in my arms and when I go to use them. Crispy and crunchy too. They feel so clean this way. Sun disinfected. No bleach required. And they soften up the minute you use them or put them on. Sure, wrinkles fall out nicely in a dryer. I'm starting to like my disheveled look.

One leg of the frame didn't want to behave. It was stuck. Liquid wrench, ruining the aluminum holes with a screwdriver trying to leverage it out, breaking the foot off...I finally went on a scavenger hunt for a rig to level the leg.
Several things didn't work. Then one day while I was trying to get something from underneath the old Christmas tree stand that I just couldn't seem to part with even though I only ever use my vintage aluminum tree anymore...when the stand came tumbling down and hit my head...another light bulb moment...three kitty food cans and two pie pumpkin cans later...

Voila!!  Fairly level and wind resistant. Nothing has fallen yet and today they said we could expect gale force winds. It's still up as the wind chime complains of bashing.

I've been very busy lately cleaning other peoples laundry, dishes, floors and fridges.
But today I took time out to attend an SBA sponsored USDA Farm to Market Meeting. I almost left during the first segment while they were reciting the hoops one must jump through to use government money..zzzzz...but I endured and next came a lady touting the Farm Bureau with much of interest to share and a local man who grows, packs and distributes locally sourced organic produce.  I was there as a representative of Grace Chapel, my church, because we are in the troughs of creating a community garden. Mostly what I learned was that I need to take a lot of gardening classes or just start doing it.

I like the quote Patagonia Orchards, LLC has on their site:

If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food either. ~Joseph Wood Krutch

The apricot's in bloom. The bees are busy. It's starting to green.
Just do it!
Oh, and I got a new pair of walking shoes and me and Little Red-Haired Girl went for a couple loops around the neighborhood. She left a present for my friend (as she always drags me to his house to see if he is home),  and I left him a pooper scooper bag! That's what friends are for?