I’ve had these two (very dusty by now, as you can see) plastic boxes in various “storage” situations over the past 15-20 years or so. Mostly old photos and letters and, other than some family pics from Canada, mostly stemming from my new life in England, and then Spain. A few years ago I tried scanning some of the photos, but it was such a labourious task that I soon gave up and put the boxes back into storage.

When I moved to the new Casa Azahar in August these boxes were put directly in the storage room upstairs, and may have stayed there indefinitely except that this past weekend I decided to put the electric fans up there until next summer. The movers had just placed stuff in the room willy-nilly and it was jam-packed, so it was time to tackle this issue.

And so, with the help of my trusty best friend (and former flatmate) Peter @svqconcierge, we took everything out of the storage room, and I ruthlessly tossed about three more boxes of this and that, making space and, frankly, clearing my mind. It was such a relief to get rid of more unneeded STUFF. But the two boxes of photos… I couldn’t just toss them without going through them first. In this photo you can see what remains of the first box, which was reduced to what is now in that plastic bag in front of the second box. One down, one to go…

Meanwhile, I would like to find an easier way of digitalising the photos I want to keep, because I’d rather just get rid of all the actual photographs and have them on my computer. So, does anyone know of a good photo scanner app? Preferably something I could use with my iPhone?

For his much-appreciated efforts, Peter was treated to Sunday lunch, which also gave me a chance to try out the oven here. It was a bit hit and miss, but I eventually got it to work, though I’d much rather be using the new oven I bought last Christmas (more on that later). Anyhow… great lunch. And a good day with lots accomplished.

Garlicky-herby roasted chicken, boiled skin-on potatoes, grilled courgette.