Light and shade

Glad to have both.

Kondo to the max

Looking for an antidote to Kondo-mania?
This stretches the spark of joy test to the limit.

Meet a man, Charles Paget Wade, who in the early 20th century 

assigned a whole house, Snowshill Manor, to his 22,000 piece collection of 

toys, furniture, bicycles, spinning wheels, suits of Samurai armour, 

chests, model boats - you name it and if he thought it exemplified 

good design or craftsmanship,

then he had to have it.

Crucially, for him, good workmanship that might be lost to posterity sparked joy.

Nothing shall perish

was his family motto.

The collection is so vast and varied that it is not catalogued or labelled.

One visitor, I was told, likes to bring and place a new object each time he comes

to perplex the curators and present custodians, The National Trust.

I would argue with his assertion that each room has a restful atmosphere.

I found it overwhelming and was repeatedly drawn to the windows

for respite from the Stuff.

But Snowshill Manor House was a home to things not people.

It is a vast cabinet of curiosities, 

a giant version of the one that his strict granny used to let him open 

on a Sunday if he had been good all week.

He lived in the tiny dark Priest's House in the garden.

When he eventually married aged 63, his wife was not keen to

make it the marital home -

this is the bathroom

and there was no electricity or heating

so you rather sympathise.

Luckily they were able to decamp to the family's

sugar plantation in St Kitts.

And like the doves from his dovecot

I was glad to escape into the warm Cotswold sun.

Three corners

We had nearly all of the United Kingdom covered this weekend.

Darling grand-daughter sped off to North North Wales for a wedding,

a seven hour journey by train, tube,train, train, bus, bus.

Younger son stayed at this fascinating, unreconstructed house in Edinburgh

for two nights before proceeding an hour north of Inverness,

by train,tube, train, train, car.

We went far South (by car) and enjoyed a quiet time

photographing cups of coffee,

blackberrying,

  beach foraging

 and exploring medieval cellars,

finishing in North North London

with a walk by this beautiful lake with my brother.

Pretty stunning considering it's not properly remote like

North North Scotland.

New terms

This may no longer be the season of sharpened pencils

 and new notebooks for me,

but I do crave a razor-edged yew hedge.

So instead I have

 sorted my summer sea glass,

and taken particular pleasure

in crisp lines

level edges

 and a new mirror in the hall
to snare the light as it swoops down to the horizon.

Getting on better terms with autumn.

Krazy Kondo-ing 2

It had to go.

The craziest of crazy paving,

never sparked a scintilla of joy

but was at least functional, until the tree

 started clawing it up 

slab by surreptitious slab

the length of its bony root system.

I think I should have been a digger driver.

It maddens me every time I drive through 

a certain major road widening scheme.

There are big signs with photos of little boys in hard hats

and high vis jackets saying,

Our dads work here.