Part Of The Furniture

Above the door in our bedroom is a useless little shelf.
The day we moved in, I placed several odd little items on it
A few old poision bottles, two tiny  burleigh ware jugs, a couple of Carlton ware dishes.
Nothing much, but for years they have sat there, unmoving and practically unseen as if they have morphed not the very fabric of the cottage.
Before I got up this morning, I lay there and looked at the shelf as if I had seen it for the very first time.
The Art Deco jugs looked cute as a button. The dishes beautifully painted and the bottles, delicate and tiny enough to feature in a child's dolls house.
I enjoyed each piece as if I had just bought them

 

Things we see every day, can almost become invisible to us can they not?
The same thing can be said of almost everything in our lives
An Art Deco jug on a shelf, a painting above the fireplace, a plant in the garden, the view from a window..... a friend from down the lane.....a close relative.....
It's easy to accept all these things are just " there" without
really " seeing" them again with fresh eyes
and a fresh appreciation
I am not a lover of the phrase
Familiarity breeds contempt
I think I prefer the more clumsy 
Familiarity breeds invisibility 

60 comments:

  1. So true. But you miss it if it's gone. Like someone ripped something precious to you right off your soul. ... then again, I'm a slight bit odd. Maybe no one else notices. o.o

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  2. Great post John and very pretty shelf collection After more than 25 years of marriage I hardly know what colour my husbands eyes are. Familiarity does indeed breed invisibility.

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  3. It's always nice to see things through fresh eyes.

    I find it easier to do, I trained in visual merchandising many, many moons ago and we had to step out of our shops and then come back in as if we were customers to see what the customer saw.

    It's scary when you do it in your own home on a regular basis, but it does keep you moving things around a bit :-)

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  4. I was very good there ..... I didn't mention the dust once ....... :-)

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  5. Very true. It's funny how we inevitably take things and people for granted.
    Until you break a favourite dish, or a friend becomes ill, then you wish you had spent more time appreciating them.

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  6. this is why i like blogging! my photos make me look at things i think i am very familiar with in a whole new way.

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    1. Yes I must admit, taking photos for the blog, does make you look closer at you and yours

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  7. Anonymous11:05 am

    It's true. I like rediscovering a little treasure every once in a while.

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  8. Some things trigger memories. Always good to look with fresh eyes. I try to do this while dog walking down paths I've trodden hundreds of times before

    ( I now have my date for introduction to training for the Samaritans )

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    1. Well done!
      I start being mentored next week!

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  9. "Familiarity breeds invisibility" - I have never heard that take on it before but sir I do believe you have a point. Interesting.

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  10. A very pretty collection of bits to contemplate.

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    1. And when we are dead and gone.... They will be in some junk shop somewhere

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  11. I'm a minimalist so I prefer the invisible.
    Jane x

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  12. Dust and dog hair would be awesome were it invisible right up there with the rest of the housework & debt to boot. However I do prefer the 2nd saying as you, John. x

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  13. And when something familiar is MISSING from a room; it shouts at you!

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    1. But sometimes you cannot QUITE work out what's wrong with the scene!

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  14. Another reason why I like to shuffle things around here occasionally. Thank you for the reminder.

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  15. Good to see that you can pause for a second from your busy schedule and take a look around.

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  16. Very true about things becoming invisible. We have a fabulous abstract painting in our kitchen but we can go in and out of the kitchen a hundred times without even seeing it. Sometimes I have to consciously look at it and appreciate it rather than passing it by.

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    1. Yes we see but don't look or is that the other way round?

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  17. Oh yeah - those two little jugs are pretty!

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  18. You are so right about invisibility, but once it's changed, a person notices. Lovely pieces that you have there!

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  19. I'm terrible about stuff like that. I'd forget to dust it!

    But they look beautiful!

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  20. Nice read to end the day on.

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    1. Thank you carol.. That was sweet of you to say

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  21. So let me get this straight, you are an intensive care nurse with a collection of empty poison bottles...

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  22. When I was a kid, I used to love hanging upside-down over the edge of the couch and imagining the house built that way. But I think the true effect was to change my perception enough that "part of the furniture" became new in my eyes.

    Sadly, when I try that same trick now, I just get nauseated.

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    Replies
    1. Oh bless
      You were a mad little gal then
      X

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    2. Birds of a feather, my friend!

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    3. Birds of a feather, my friend!

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  23. Very true, John.
    And they are pretty to look at.
    Hope your day is a great one!

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  24. Hope it's not TOO downbeat to say this, but your posting here reminds me of what the late, great Stephen Potter said in his final and moving interview with Melvyn Bragg, when he knew he was approaching the final stages of the cancer which was shortly to claim him. Namely, how his eyes had been opened to the wonder of everything and that he started to see things as new. I know it's an obvious lesson but it's also one of which we need constantly to be reminded, even though he was specifically referring to Nature. The time will come to all of us when we regret that we didn't constantly appreciate what was right before our eyes.

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    1. Oh dear
      Well I am generally fit and well....
      ( and have lost 4.5 lbs at weightwatchers this week)

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    2. D'you mean Dennis Potter? or you could enlighten me as to who Stephen Potter is,please and thank you.

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    3. Yes, so sorrrrrryyy!! DENNIS it was.

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    4. No need to apologise - I remember that interview too - it was terribly sad wasn't it? I loved 'The Singing Detective'.

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    5. Yes, 'Detective' deserves to go down as a classic of British TV, to be cherished for a very long time.

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  25. I like your phrasing. I don't think I've really lived anywhere long enough for familiarity to set in.

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  26. Great post John. Our house is full of an eclectic collection of oil paintings, copper kettles, animal plates.., and tons of books that I have read, unread or even half read. They are all here to stay. Could say the same about stuff around the smallholding too. Especially my tractors and livestock.

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    1. Good point.... I have just locked up the ducks and stopped to take a good look at their colours......I forget to do even that sometimes

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  27. I notice that the poison bottles are now empty! So who's been using it and what have you done with Chris? Come on, own up Nurse Crippen!

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  28. I notice that the poison bottles are now empty! So who's been using it and what have you done with Chris? Come on, own up Nurse Crippen!

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  29. Anonymous6:10 pm

    I think that if I had such pretties over my bedroom door, I should look at them and appreciate them every morning. You have some beautiful things there John.

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  30. Oh so true ... but poison bottles? Well!

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  31. Lovely shelf of stuff! I've been preparing some posts of bits and pieces around the house that I love and have been feeling the same about them. Sometimes the least valuable things are the most treasured.

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  32. Very well put. Sometimes one needs to enter ones home as if they are seeing it for the first time to appreciate all that surrounds you. Makes you stop comparing yourself and realizing how welcoming your home probably really is :)

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  33. I had a shelf of trinkets like that. They succumbed to cleaning ladies, one at a time. Two left; a tiny glass vase and a ballerina. No cleaning ladies now; they are plenty dusty.

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  34. Poison bottles?

    Love,
    Janie

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  35. Is this a euphomism for something other than shelves and bric-a-brac? It's got a bit of a sad message, if you don't mind me saying so. Great result at Weightwatchers, well done. I made apple crumble last night in homage to The Great British Bake Off (shall we abbreviate it, what a mouthful,pun intended)and had some with the most fabulous Orkney ice cream but felt slightly queasy after watching all those biscuit towers being made - all that sugar!The tension's building though, isn't it?That Hollywood's a po-faced git.

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