Un-ravaging

It was a slow, rainy day yesterday so -- besides fighting the crowds at two groceries for ingredients for hors d'oeuvre we're taking to a cocktail party tonight, and ferreting out a spark plug for the Gator -- I spent some quality time with picture frames that needed fixing.

Over winter, when we're not here, the house gets cold and dry. That does no good at all to old wood, and especially not to plaster ornament or fill. So when we get home, those little white chips are staring right at us on the big Dutch landscape in the entrance and the bird paintings in the library.

Purists may cringe that the repairs aren't professional, but it's obvious that I'm not the first to give them a bit of TLC. And hey, they're frames, not canvases.

The first is too big to move, so up go the ladder and the lights and out come some glue and the paint kit, with its shades of gold and brown, for a few hours' close work. The other two come down, with some help, to get their damage camouflaged on the kitchen table.

It's a little job, but a satisfying one.