Funnily enough this morning I decided to take a year out of my blogging and read about it and I turned to 2011 but as always got sad along the way. I did notice how rivers meandered in and out of my blogs, the gentle stillness of Essex rivers mostly. But then in my emails an update came through of another blog, Deborah Harvey - The Red Dress of poetry.
She had just visited Wightwick Manor, a glorious muddle of dark richly furnished materials and paintings of the William Morris clan. There was a time when I loved their way of life, the art spreading out to everything they touched, like golden fingered Midas. But then realised it was over the top and I could only admire it for the workmanship that had gone into it. Their mooning women with lush tresses failed to appeal. But here it is - enjoy.
Also when mooching through the blogs I came across this, the exact opposite to Wightwick Manor opulent interior...
"So what I had decided on writing back there at the top of the page before I deviated, was the problem that I have began to acquire 'stuff', if you put a carpet down you need a vacuum cleaner, beds need sheets, kitchen china and pans, so there I was complaining and then learnt of a 9th century Chinese monk called Layman Pang getting rid of his worldly goods. The book was found in the study, and the story goes that this monk decided to turn his house into a temple, he filled his boat with all his worldly goods (and his wife and daughter but I learnt later they survived this clear out) rowed out into the middle of the lake and threw everything overboard. And then with his daughter wandered round the countryside, all his sayings and poetry collected into a book. I must say mostly the sayings are too cryptic and of its time in history but he was instrumental for being a Zen 'ancestor'."
In 2011 I had just bought the Whitby cottage, and it had to be renovated, new bathroom, the walls stripped and painted, and of course all the stuff needed to furnish the place, though it was so tiny it did not need much. I still miss the cottage, tucked away in its alleyway off Flowergate, though a garden and less cranky neighbours would have been good. Also the sea of course, in all its many moods and colours.
The Cottage
I try to make it a rule not to buy anything without getting rid of something else, though I'm not always good at adhering to my own rule!
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good measure, but not easily achievable, it is only as you get old that one begins to have twinges of consciousness about leaving all your stuff behind for the children to clear John.
DeleteWhitwick Manor - I lived less than a miles ay from it for seventeen years and loved it. It almost seems alien in the more 'roughshod' countryside up here.
ReplyDeleteMidland architecture is very different to the North, more timber and brick Pat and some lovely towns of course, when you get away from the 'Black Country'.
DeleteI would like to have the courage to throw out 50% of what I own...and maybe will do it someday.
ReplyDeleteI think it is the getting rid of stuff that we fail at Tabor. The cupboards get fuller and the surfaces of the furniture with too many knick-knacks they are always needing to be dusted.
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