windy green day

Tree

The wind came up today. Blustery gustery, singing songing

first here and never there-trying to catch a pic was hide and seek.

A good day for painting the ancient back door.

Obtained years ago *free*, secondhand,

and reincarnated here as a rear enty.

Ten years and five bullmastiffs

worth of scratching at the door,

and several other events the stuff of nightmares,

the door was nearly replaced last fall

by a cheesy preframed metal and plastic thing from home depot.

which actually made it nearly to the checkout

before it was rejected as a cheap piece of crap.

The door served another winter

and I realized that I had some ancient paint

and several partially used tubs of wood putty.

First the scraping of old flaking paint

and then the smooshing and coaxing and smoothing

of ancient wood putty.

Several days and the old can of primer is pried open-

a mixture of latex odds and ends

that was last used as primer two years ago.

and applies as sort of a steely grey blue.

Reveals an inch or so left in the bottom of the gallon-enough for one coat

as long as we keep adding bits of water to thin it out.

Today the ancient quart of green enamel

revealed another inch of layered paint

and a ring of dried crust that protruded

into the center of the can.

Some seriously stirring and the willow and I were in business.

The wind blew and the paint spattered.

Our bare toes and knees and hands

took their fair share

but we kept it out of our hair.

Green, so bright and glorious!

we kept thinning as we went,

the paint going over the old layers of paint

and poorly sanded wood putty

showed like green dragon scales as we went.

We thinned the last bit and did the sill, the threshhold.

Whose former incarnation was a piece of pine slab

that had the right bit of wane.

A nice bright wash of green

to match the spatter and splotches on us and

the deck.