All these photos are of ginger beer being made yesterday.
I have noticed something about myself since I started reading blogs and again when I started the forum. I wonder if some of you feel it too. It is that when I see productive work in others, it motivates me towards similar work here in my home. I see many photos of beautiful sewing and knitting and it inspires me to pick up my needles and knit, or start cutting out a project to sew. When I read about women (and sometimes men) canning or making jam, I want to do it too. The most mundane and simple tasks, when shared, make me want to join in and do my fair share of the work. Of course, my work is being done here, yours is done in your home, but blogging and writing about it on the forums moves me away from the computer and towards the broom.
I wonder why that is.
Yesterday when we shared what our collective days would hold, it motivated me to bottle my ginger beer, test wash up with my newly made liquid soap (more about that next week) and rearrange recycled jars and bottles in the cupboard. I had planned on spending some time posting on the forum but those words compelled me to scrub and bottle those drinks and organise my spaces better. Why?
I wonder if others feel it too.
I've been thinking about this overnight and I wonder if seeing the work of others or reading about productive work being carried out in homes stirs something deep inside that has been buried so long that it struggles to see the light of day. Maybe this motivation I feel is a remnant of those times when we - women and men - worked together in fields, or when women joined together for sewing and quilting bees, maybe it's something akin to the Amish and their barn raising. Is it the knowledge that when many hands work for the same cause, the work is done faster and the work itself is lighter? Do we have an inclination to work in groups?
Or is it more simple than that? Is it that seeing others work reminds us to get our own house in order. Maybe it's similar to the nesting instinct that many woman experience in the last stages of their pregnancy when they start rearranging, planning and fluffing the nest ready for a new baby.
I doubt I'm the only one who feels this motivation because I often have emails from some of you saying you love to know what I'm doing because it inspires productivity. This is not a one way street, I feel it too! So do you feel this pull towards work when you see or read of others working? And if you do, tell me, why is it so?
I wonder why that is.
Yesterday when we shared what our collective days would hold, it motivated me to bottle my ginger beer, test wash up with my newly made liquid soap (more about that next week) and rearrange recycled jars and bottles in the cupboard. I had planned on spending some time posting on the forum but those words compelled me to scrub and bottle those drinks and organise my spaces better. Why?
I wonder if others feel it too.
I've been thinking about this overnight and I wonder if seeing the work of others or reading about productive work being carried out in homes stirs something deep inside that has been buried so long that it struggles to see the light of day. Maybe this motivation I feel is a remnant of those times when we - women and men - worked together in fields, or when women joined together for sewing and quilting bees, maybe it's something akin to the Amish and their barn raising. Is it the knowledge that when many hands work for the same cause, the work is done faster and the work itself is lighter? Do we have an inclination to work in groups?
Or is it more simple than that? Is it that seeing others work reminds us to get our own house in order. Maybe it's similar to the nesting instinct that many woman experience in the last stages of their pregnancy when they start rearranging, planning and fluffing the nest ready for a new baby.
I doubt I'm the only one who feels this motivation because I often have emails from some of you saying you love to know what I'm doing because it inspires productivity. This is not a one way street, I feel it too! So do you feel this pull towards work when you see or read of others working? And if you do, tell me, why is it so?
