Author: Mother

Perhaps I should feel ashamed as I admit it (I don’t!), but friends, I am STILL unpacking.  Five months of living with boxes and I think that there are only 2 left to organise or relegate to the cellar.  A wonderful opportunity has arisen as I have, through gritted teeth, unleashed the last bits and pieces.  Cards, documents and gifts have brought the giver to mind and prompted me to pick up the telephone – with fantastic results.

A decade later and I have reconnected with a chum who was truly a kindred spirit when our eldest children were toddling and teething.  I still recall, with horrified laughter, the moment when my year old darling vomited over one of her Persian carpets.  I couldn’t even offer to have it dry cleaned, because I knew I couldn’t afford it!  Chatting to another pal gave me the opportunity, perhaps for the first time, to mention just how impressive his dedication to his career and his family has been.  (Hindsight is 20:20 and if I’d known then what I know now… but that’s a completely different tale!)

So, boxes diminishing and I have been inspired to look above the parapet for a brief moment.  The peek was enough to result in enrolment on an evening class – pottery.  Watch this space for hilarious tales beginning in September.  Hopefully, I will manage to make some friends, amidst the clay.

The theme for today: use every opportunity to reach out to friends old and new.  Otherwise, you may never ever know just how rewarding the experience could be.

Blessed with eight guests (all treasured members of our urban family) last weekend, one wondered what they would make of our home/building site.  What will most interest, fascinate, concern, inspire and intrigue is always the question on our lips when we show others our space?

The size of the garden brought “Aahs!”, the verandah generated “Oooohs!”, the cellars elicited “Ummhs” and “Oh dears!”, but the library was universally acclaimed.  The library, one of the most labour intensive rooms in the house in terms of time spent decorating, is also one of our favourite destinations.

Thanks again to inspiration gleaned from the wonderful Jocasta Innes, the library is actually a first floor cloakroom!  The ceiling is tented and completed by a capiz shell lightshade, gives the impression of an exotic retreat.  The walls are a collage of pages of books, with complete copies of the books displayed on a shelf in a nook.  Informative and enlightening, pages are from texts including a thesaurus, Sidney Poitier’s autobiography, crossword puzzles, a health and food encyclopaedia, gardening journals and wordsearches.  All have been carefully applied to the walls and finished with several coats of clear matt varnish.

Originally, the intention was that the walls would be interactive, complete with whiteboard markers for global participation.  However, three torturous days of punishing labour later and the walls assumed a value far in excess of any carefully placed antique!  Interaction has been reduced to completion of puzzles etc… in books from the nook and avid reading and discussion of new vocabulary and information gleaned.

The library is the culmination of several points on my “things to do before I die” list.  I was thrilled to cross them all off – particularly, when they rendered such positive results.

So, do you have one of those lists and are you working your way down it?  Or, do you think that you are immortal?!