Newton’s town dump features a Swap Shop. You can find all manner of things there: cocktail glasses, lacrosse sticks, sweaters, baskets, small appliances. When we go to drop off items, the goal is to come away with less stuff than we give away. It can be a challenge.

This week we left behind: a stack of empty frames (all curb finds — easy); two big plastic bins (they were just hogging space in the garage — easy); a few duplicative kitchen tools (they were challenging the efficiency of drawers — good call); a butterfly house (we were never gonna hang it).

But! I came home with a 1,000 piece puzzle (saves me between $19 and $29 for the next fix), a beautiful glass bowl for the garden, a metal thing that I “planted” as structure for morning glories (see above), some vintage paper Santas mounted on wood (I know. I know), and a decorative wall candleholder.

The product below was the idea for the morning glories:

A portion of a dead tree provides support in another pot. That’s the root at top.

Immediately after writing the latest hand-wringing post, I got up to find that a framed picture of Danny had fallen over, taking with it the three puzzle pieces that had been leaning on it. One puzzle piece landed on the floor.

Hello Dan.

The piece that hit the deck was the lanky guy with a viewing device. A scout? A bird-watcher? Someone who can see farther than the naked eye for sure. Someone who can scan the horizon or examine distant treetops.

I took the sign to mean that Dan wants me to keep looking ahead, to enlarge the frame, to consider a wider perspective. This has a way of also meaning: go easy on yourself.

Thank you to everyone who liked that post or who left a comment (I did end up password protecting it, BTW). I didn’t offer replies, but I see and appreciate each and every one of you.