The humid days of the warm season had pretty much practically passed this week. That meant it was time to do the bi-annual chore of defrosting the refrigerator. It’s an apartment size Coronado appliance that was sold by the now defunct Gamble’s/Skogmo store chain. I bought the fridge from a railroad salvage store when I moved into the house in mid 1984.
The appliance does not have an automatic defrosting feature. Humid air from the hot season makes its way into the refrigerator and condenses into frosty ice. The preceding five months yielded a thick coating of white ice. The frost had to be removed in order to restore efficiency and space.
I transfered the perishables into a large picnic cooler, then unplugged the fridge. I placed a portable fan in front of the open door to circulate the air. The defrosting usually takes a few hours and yields plenty of melt water. That means I must empty the drip tray several times.
I decided to whip up a few floral projects during part of the wait. I began with a small, mandolin-shaped, vintage wall pocket vase. A selection of purple flowers graces the wall just above the kitchen sink.
A Haeger florist planter contains greenery with river stones. The jumbo rose converts the grouping into a solitaire arrangement.
The base-weighted brass bud vase contains a single yellow bloom in a Zen-inspired solitaire. The project is displayed on an old dishtowel that was decorated by my mom back in the 1960s.
Ciao
The Blue Jay of Happiness quotes novelist/writer, Eileen Pollack. “Figuring out why people who choose not to do something don’t in fact do it is like attempting to interview the elves who live inside your refrigerator but come out only when the light is off.”
bluejayblog 
I remember taking our refrigerator into the yard and using the garden hose to defrost it. I’ve also defrosted them in the house and that is quite a chore. Yours sure has lasted a long time.
I can imagine defrosting a fridge outdoors in the summer, but winter is a different matter. Yes, my old Coronado probably has several years of life left. They built ’em like tanks back in the 1980s.