Painting

How much do you know about paint?

Maybe you will answer with a statement like, “It covers walls, choice of colour often reflects personality, it smells bad, is a relatively inexpensive way to clean up a surface and most people don’t like the process it requires to apply”. You would be correct on all accounts. Just ask me.

A couple of weeks ago our washing machine failed to stop filling and spilled all over our floors and carpet. Since then, the restoration crew has de-surfaced our floors, repaired the carpet underlay and made ready for new flooring which we expect to have installed mid-June. We were planning to paint anyway, but with the forced disruption, we decided to paint now while accidental floor drips are far less consequential.

During one of our frequent visits to the paint store, I learned that the young woman who runs the place is off for Africa this month to work with orphans in both Kenya and Uganda. Her dad, who owns the store, needed someone to cover things during her time away, and being a self-proclaimed painter, I offered myself up.

3 days on the job, and having finished painting our place (for now) I know a lot more about paint than ever before and let me tell you; it’s a complicated business! Never big on chemistry, I am challenged to memorize and communicate to the clientele what makes up a gallon of paint. Did you know its components include binders, pigments, solvents, not to mention additives that pop the foamy bubbles, help create a smooth spread, control viscosity, etc., etc.? Like I said, it’s complicated and my brain is spinning with all things “paint”!

I came home from work today, kicked off my runners, slipped into my Birks and headed into the garden to clear my head. My radishes have grown 30% since yesterday with their flat green tops and red stems stretch over an inch high. My tomatoes are beginning to flower and the fuchsias are dangling their profusely petalled blossoms over the side of a cedar hanging basket. More amazing to me than paint is the extraordinary variety of texture and colour in my garden. Although I admire Mr. Ben Moore for concocting paint, my Creator astounds me with His imagination! Wouldn’t you have loved to be in the room when He thought up flowers? Move over Benjamin Moore!