Polls, Planters and Pickled Watermelon Rinds

Masking and painting begins on the monkey bars.

First there was the planter.  On successive visits to the Stanfields and Old Paths Assembly, I painted three pieces of playground equipment, some poles and door jams.  For the metal, an oil-based paint was required.  I am not used to working with oil-based, exterior paints, but I learned that they stay soft for a long time before they dry.  I also learned that they are a great collector of gnats and flying bugs who want to make their indelible mark on the world.  (I am looking forward to watercolors again!)   And did I mention that any wet paint near the ground is fair game for a red wienerdoggie to brush up against?

     Some of the paint was probably old or just onery as it wrinkled up like elephant skin when dry.  Kids came to the playground later in the week but did not heed the parental instructions to avoid the soft paint.  They left their impressions on the monkey bars and transferred paint colors to the wrong places, including their clothes.

The Pickled Watermelon Rind man

     However, before I knew what a colossal failure the monkey bar fiasco would become, a search for new colors for the monkey bars led friend Alan Stanfield and I to a local hardware store.  An acquaintance of Alan's came in to invite all takers to taste his wife's recent experiment, canned, pickled watermelon rinds.  I have never in my life wanted to sample such things, but I took the chance here and now.  Maybe it was the paint fumes, but the sample tasted pretty good, if a tad slimy.  I never expected the recipe to include clove.  The man himself, had not tasted the pickles yet.  He was looking for guinea pigs and we were they.  He decided to try them, since we did not keel over, and commented that the rinds were nice and soft and good for a man like himself with no teeth.  That was possibly the highlight of my week!