Digging in drawers

I ran out of wrapping paper.

This is lining paper 

and some old Christmas ink stamps

which I found in the art drawer 

 in a huge oak plan chest which now serves as

a base for a spare mattress.

It's full of reminders of past projects -

lino cutting, collage, scrapbooks,

watercolours, charcoal drawing,

stencils, reams of coloured tissue paper,

hand made papers, acrylic paints,

calligraphy equipment, badge making,

wallets of glossy photographs, origami papers,

picture frames, sugar paper, mounting boards.

Like my kitchen drawer,

it is as revealing as an archaeological dig.

Speaking of which. 

We received planning permission for a small extension,

but it must be carried out under a watching brief

from archaeologists while the ground work takes place

in order to record any items of historical interest.

This is simultaneously rather exciting,

(visions of Time Team digging

exploratory trenches, bring in geo phys equipment

and whisking me into a helicopter to survey the emerging

Iron Age settlement)

and bloody annoying because this spells extra expense

and further delay.

I once worked on a rescue dig in what is now Milton Keynes.

We scraped very, very slowly with our tiny trowels,

and washed and bagged up countless shards of pottery

before the diggers were allowed to tear the ground up.