Addition to the Collection

A couple of days ago I went out for a walk, starting out from my house. About a block away, I waited at a traffic light, and I thought about how my husband had found a specimen for my small but mighty lost brake pad collection here some time back.

No idea why this thought came to mind. But I looked around the intersection anyway, because I had the feeling I was going to find one today.

Not there, I didn’t. But…about a mile later, along the edge of a parking lot, guess what.

Yes. A lost brake pad.

This one looks like it’s been out in the weather for a while. The parking lot where I found it is used intermittently for overflow vehicles from a nearby car sales lot but is empty right now and has been for a while. I guess this brake pad could date from some earlier use of this lot, even (the site is a former gas station) – just now coming to light.

It called to me. Yes, I think it did. That’s why I was looking and that is why I found it, and you can’t tell me any different!

Here is a photo of the other items in my collection:

Another item added

…to my lost brake pad collection.

My husband spotted this one in a parking lot in Bryn Mawr, PA, on July 23.

It’s just a little baby! Here it is on its own:

And here it is with the rest of the gang. It’s the one on the lower left. Now you see how small it is in comparison with the others.

You may wonder how we come across these items. Well, we walk a lot, and over time we have realized there are places where these guys seem to find themselves. Look along the edges of parking lots (that don’t get swept a lot) or along the curb in busy roads where lots of trucks go (because I think trucks seem to lose them more than cars, but I could be wrong).

If you want to know more about this collection (and of course you do)… Look here.

New Addition to the Official Brake Pad Collection

You may remember I have a brake pad collection, consisting of…brake pads lost in action along the road and picked up by me (or by my husband, a couple of times). Look here if you want more information on the history of how this whole thing got started.

This collection is small but it is growing! Here’s the latest member to join the gang, showing each side:

Yesterday my husband and I were walking along Greenwood Avenue in Wyncote, PA, which is a moderately busy road through our area. As usual I was scanning the ground for metal objects, because I know that along roads of this type, there will be a lot of debris lost from vehicles that attracts me. I like to make sort of sculptures with some of these items, in some cases, and other times…I just like the look of the metal object, whatever it may be.

Brake pads fall into the latter category. I don’t do anything with them but enjoy looking at them.

As I said, the collection is small. You don’t find a brake pad roadside every day. So when you do, you celebrate! Here is the whole group that I have right now, once again showing both sides. The new guy is at top left.

OK, that is where we are today. I’ll keep looking for more.

The Collection Grows

You may remember some time back I wondered when a number of objects could call itself a collection, and when do you even realize you have a collection? and that I evaded any hard and fast conclusions. But I did determine that I have a collection of brake pads lost in the line of duty and picked up where they fell.

Now that that burning question is settled, I can add to my collection and let you know all about it, with no ifs ands or buts.

Yes. Another brake pad has arrived, courtesy of my husband and his pre-dawn walks. This one was out in the street. Which is where you will find these things, usually, just as they fell off the vehicle, though I did find one in a parking lot once, but the same thing applies – they do just fall off.

Oh my goodness, this one has had a tough time. The metal is striated and grooved with friction. Even the edges of this item are sharp and damaged.

But what a beautiful look it has.

As you turn it in the light, the metal catches the illumination and is iridescent. Hidden colors suddenly jump out. Wow!

The collection is certainly enhanced by this addition, I think!

Voices Are Speaking if We Will Listen

A couple of days ago I saw this AWOL glove at the Pennypack rail trail:

Well, you know I’m interested in these gloves that get away out on their own. Plus I liked the purple, orange, and white color scheme a lot. I took the photo and came a little closer.

I then saw that this glove had a message for me (and anyone else who stopped to listen, too). Look at the sticker – “You Are Beautiful”.

Thank you, purple glove.

Passing By

Last week I was sitting the car waiting for my husband to run in and out of a store. It was pouring rain and pretty early on a dark winter morning. I liked the way the rain gradually made the windshield into a blurry view of the passing traffic, and I just started snapping some photos.

So, I thought I’d lay them out for you, in the order they were taken, over about one minute on a rainy winter morning. Nothing unusual, nothing exotic, just everyday life. But beautiful, I think!

Or here it is as a slideshow. Traffic never stops. People are always going somewhere.

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A Collection Never Planned But Going Strong Nonetheless

People, I am going to show you an activity you may not have ever thought about, but once you do, you’ll wonder why you aren’t doing the same thing.

All right. A while back I finished up a jar of some kind of a spice, don’t know what kind, let’s say garlic granules. I like the shape of those jars a lot, so I washed it and set it on a windowsill in my dining room.

Some time before that and not related at all, I had begun accumulating plastic bread bag fasteners. No reason, I just didn’t want to throw them out. I’m not talking twisty ties, I mean these:

Very appealing, they are. All right. I was stacking them on the windowsill until there were about ten of them and then I felt they looked messy. So…I took the spice jar and said, you will take on the task of enclosing these plastic tags.

Guess what. Things have progressed over the year+ (it might even be 2 years, I have to admit) that I’ve been doing this. Now we have a full jar, settled next to some waiting empties. (I am not going to start an empty spice jar collection. Let me make that clear.)

You may notice one of the other jars is not empty. I am now collecting white toothpaste tube caps. Just getting started on that one.

The bread tag jar is full. I will be starting a new one.

Oh, wait, I had a new idea. Let me fill this former olive jar with my current population. Look, I think there is plenty of room for new arrivals.

I am having a great time with this collection. It’s compact, meaningless, and makes me snicker. That’s what it’s good for right now. And that’s enough.

For me, anyway. The cat doesn’t think much of it, as he lies on his little rug just to the north of the collection; his life is already complete, well-ordered, and perfectly arranged.

Although I know that if I let one of those tags hit the floor, he’d be chasing it around the whole downstairs, until it fell into a heating vent. Just saying.

Let’s Pretend…

Sometimes it’s fun to think what might be, especially if your eyes are like mine and catch a glance of something that on a second look, is now something else…

First instance…

See this beautiful pot with plants in it?

No, it’s a support for the railing on a bridge over the Pennypack Creek.

I don’t care, I think  it looks like Mother Nature has made a tiny garden in this random space to remind me that small places and serendipitous weed growth go together, are beautiful, and should be noticed and applauded. Which I did, on a recent walk. And I resolved to go home and get something planted in my own clay pots in my yard.

Second instance…

Is this the salad bar at the grocery store?

No, it’s small leafy growth along the side of the trail, hiding in the shade. I did not take a bite of it but it looks fresh, crisp and crunchy to me. I am sure someone likes to eat it out here along the trail.

I like the look of this little “salad” – the delicate leaves, the multitude of yellow and green variations, the spots on the leaves, the spindly stems…When they say a feast for the eyes, well, I think this is a definition of it.

 

The Joy of the Routine

If you follow my poetry blog, you know that each week I take a day, or part of a day (or sometimes parts of two or three days, depending!) to devote to writing poetry. I’m currently in year two of this practice and 2018 is: Day Trip Poetry Marathon.

I like to leave home and do this activity in a suitable place, which for me has usually meant a library.

For the past year or so most of the time I have gone to Brendlinger Library, Montgomery County Community College, in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. As a county resident, I can check out books and enjoy the library as much as I want. And I do enjoy it – I like the atmosphere and being around students and books.

Each week I park in the lot in about the same place. It helps in finding my car if I don’t vary things too much, plus – we are creatures of habit, all of us, and this is one of mine – parking in a certain spot.

I take a photo and send it to my husband to let him know when I have arrived. Over time, I’ve got a lot of photos of the same view. Take a look – here is an array from March 3 – November 2, 2018.

Time passing in a very tangible way…

3/1/18

3/23/18

3/30/18

4/5/18

4/19/18

4/26/18

5/10/18

6/7/18

6/14/18

6/21/18

6/29/18

7/5/18

7/11/18

8/2/18

8/9/18

8/23/18

8/30/18

9/6/18

9/13/18

9/20/18

9/26/18

10/3/18

10/25/18

10/29/18

11/2/18

If you are a real fan of the parking lot saga, look here for a previous post I did back in February, the same thing…only a different time…

Update on Canary Melon Land

Remember those canary melon seeds we planted in a pot, now sitting on our porch, a few weeks back? They are growing. Take a look. Here they are on August 4.

And how about today, August 14?

I am sure we ought to be thinning them out. But we’re not going to. We’re not trying to get melons to grow, just enjoying the plants and how they develop. I noticed that, like squash and gourds and other vines, these guys might like to climb, if they could. One of the little plants is developing those twirly-grabby-on kind of things…

Full of surprises, these little guys are. Keep on growing! I encourage them every time I go in or out of the house.