Stuff


It started off a rather melancholic morning. I was up early as I had already caught up on sleep over the last few days and was feeling a little better despite having a streaming nose from the cold which has now decided to " ooze"
I culled a hen before breakfast which isnt a nice job at the best of times, but she looked so sick that I felt obliged to do the deed there and then.
I laid her body next to the badger track through the field and later her body will be recycled by them as they scratch out a living in the cold autumn ground. In the meantime some of the other hens and the gentle cockerel Thor gave her sad little body the once over.


I was repairing a Mary ripped hole in a pair of pyjama bottoms when there was a knock at the front door. It was a friend from work wanting coffee. She told me she had tried to come through the back garden but a ugly looking dog had prevented her from opening the back gate.
I told her it was Winnie who had just spent an hour watching gardeners doing the garden at a neighbours house, " she's obsessed with workmen," I informed my friend " she has a thing for
overalls!"
" dont we all?" my friend replied , looking around our living room with interest.
I realised that she had never been to the cottage before.

I think it's a common thing to be apologetic when someone new " checks out" your house, after all you are more than aware of that blotch on the stair carpet left by a menstruating bulldog, or that mark on the hall corner which signified  an old Welsh terrier's scratching spot, but my friend seemed rather captivated by the " old lady" feel of the place, which the cupboards and shelves filled with objects, photos, books and clutter.
She wandered around the house as if it was a museum.



She loved the paintings, the carlton ware 1930s lobster bowl and the wooden dog toy above the bedroom door. She loved the crockery and the glassware and read titles from the books on the shelves and ran her hand over the wade jug on the chest of drawers.
She wanted to know about the history of the art noveau desk in the living room.
" its lovely" she said and it was nice for me to see the cottage through bright new eyes.















64 comments:

  1. Well, after seeing how nicely your nice stuff is arranged I'm determined to have tidy-up around here. And a lovely picture of the gentle cockrel Thor supervising the funeral arrangements, by the way.

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  2. Your lobster bowl is amazeballs! x

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  3. You decorate like me.

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  4. Poor little hen. Your cottage looks cosy and eclectic John and reminds me of gentler days.

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  5. It's funny how you only really see your house when someone new visits. But a house isn't a home unless it looks lived in.

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  6. Love your house..I would instantly feel at home there!

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  7. Reminds me so muchof our home John. Last year we asked a decorator to call about redecorating the bedroom and the kitchen. He has done the bedroom (very well I must say) and the kitchen awaits the day when we can face moving everything for him to start. As he said when he looked round on this visit 'you do have rather a lot of stuff don't you?'

    I do love the look on Winnie's face as she looks through the gate. I suppose that to someone who doesn;t know bulldogs it could be a scary look - I just see it as a contemplative look.

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    1. It her " getoutof the bloody way" look...the workmen were behind me

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  8. I'm always embarrassed when someone comes to my house for the first time. That comes from watching to many of those decorating and home shows on tv...'cause I AM an old woman!

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    1. I did have 25 minutes notice to make good the mess

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  9. If she felt the spirit of your home she's a good woman.

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  10. Anonymous2:38 pm

    You have a very cosy home! I love the eggs ;-). Sorry for the hen, but it's great you released it from pain.

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  11. Winnie - ugly? How DARE she! Please never allow that person inside your house again.

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    1. Absolutely right Raybeard - how dare anyone refer to our gorgeous girl as ugly !

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    2. If she was put up for 'Miss World' I have every confidence that she'd walk it!

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  12. Thanks for the little mini-tour! :) Love the lobster bowl and your other carefully chosen tchotchkes. Too bad about the hen, poor girl.

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    1. The lobster bowl is an early one 1925.
      It was the very first thing i bought

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  13. You have some pretty neat stuff John. I wasn't sure about the title - if it was stuff stuff or the stuff happens stuff.

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    1. Or the walking dead " stuff and thangs"

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  14. You may have already mentioned this, if so sorry for the question:)

    Why don't you post about the 'Ukrainian Village' any more?

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    1. Its still there and i did last week ....winter is a depressing time for Ukranian villages! They look rather sad!

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  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  16. Lovely home John. I think I would enjoy it very much.
    Poor hen. When I was a child, my father used to dispatch our hens painlessly (so he told me), but I always cried buckets. They were for the table but I could never eat them.

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    1. This hen had " gone light" no meat on her old bones!

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  17. I have a similar sort of home, a bit messy, dated and cosy. I feel that Grand Designs and Location etc., have mucked my view up too. I always feel ashamed but as most people soon have their feet up and drinking tea with cake perhaps I ought to have a rethink. You are so kind to your animals, lucky hen she had a wonderful home. Love Andie xxx

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  18. Nothing like a guest to make you see your home through fresh eyes. Inlaws due any minute and I've spent the morning roasting a turkey breast, making stuffing, cleaning the floor on my knees and wrangling a toddler. When my son grows up i will impress upon him and his future partner to please not waste the hours before my arrival scrubbing the house.

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    1. Anonymous4:31 pm

      Careful what you wish for, Cottontail. A friend of mine (Irish with a laissez-faire attitude to match) would let the house fall to bits, cleaning and the ironing piling up for weeks - in anticipation of her mother's visit. By the time her mother's plane landed the place was a tip. No bull. And hilarious it was too. And by the time her mother left (say, a week later) the house was spick and span, my friend,her husband, her kids AND her mother happy - repeat ...

      U

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  19. what a warm and cozy home you have ! I love it .. crowned by the pups and hens. Although I am very sad about the little hen.
    These days, I get sad when a cat kills a lizard so ignore me.
    <3

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  20. I told the in laws I only clean when their son visits (he has allergies) and thank goodness he does (visit) otherwise I would never do it. A slight exaggeration but not much. They looked horrified, tee hee. I much prefer a comfortable home than a pristine one.

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  21. Love the lobster bowl - you have some lovely, very carefully chosen things John - they make your house a home.

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  22. I do the same when I visit a friend's or acquaintance's house I've never been to before.

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  23. I adore your home every time you post any photos of it. It looks comfy lived in happiness. I just want to snuggle-up and spend the day there with copious amount of tea. Surrounded by the furry gang of love.
    For me I live in a sparse (?) home. Simple very Japanese for me. Clutter messes with my mind. I like the Mid- Century look. I would love to live in a Joseph Eichler Home.
    Sorry about the hen.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. I completely love that look/style. An Eichler home is a dream for me too ! I came close, when I lived in LA.
      Now I am looking at Spanish style homes , stucco and red tile roof in Florida ... boy did my world change ! :)

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    2. I had to leave California, could not afford living there after the divorce.
      There was a Eichler home near Pasadena in bad shape that I would have loved to live in and remodel. If I only had the money.

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  24. It IS nice to see home through someone else's eyes. Poor Winnie, to be so sweet and to seem so unwelcoming.

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  25. I put most of our ornaments away years ago when the kids were toddlers (kept a few out for training purposes!), and liked the clean look so much I kept it that way ... but I still like to look at what other people collect. You have interesting Stuff.

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  26. I love that your visitor gave you the chance to look through appreciative eyes.

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  27. Sorry about your hen - I lost my 6 year old Maggie May this year. Only culled once and I'm not very good at it. Can I ask why its called the Ukranian village? Fairly new to the blog so apologies if you have told people already. I love stuff too. I have made a point of using cake plates etc as its nice they are on the shelf but look even better with cake on. I love Winnie's come hither look. Is it a common bulldog trait liking men in uniform or is she just a bit of a tart? Glad you are feeling a bit better.

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  28. You could raise a lot of cash for The Samaritans by turning your house into "The North Wales Museum of Village Life". Coachloads of American visitors would arrive snapping their cameras, chewing their gum and saying strange things like "Gee!" "Far out dude!" and "Cool man!"

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    1. With mrs trellis selling ice creams

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    2. "Trellis" Ices in a range of delicious flavours... including leftover scotch egg flavour, "Woodbine" and sago, old chip fat with black bits and NEW bulldog in season flavour.

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  29. Ooh I do love a cluttered book case. Last time we decorated and had to replace a worn out suite I decided to go down the laminate floor, leather suite and no clutter route. I've never been so miserable and cold. This winter a carpet is going down and a comfy squishy suite installed. All the modern stuff has a home with trendier family members and I can't wait to be cosy and comfortable again. I love your home.

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  30. Your home is fun of love and life. It gets my goat when young people fall for the "it must look like the XYZ magazine homes" or just the blasted catalogues. They are sterile and lifeless, and all they say (to me at least) is 'here is a person who doesn't know their own taste yet, and hasn't connected with their own memories.
    Glad you put the poor old hen out of her misery.

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  31. My father was a caretaker for a Protestant church for many years. My brothers and I were pretty much tasked with cleaning the church, cutting the lawns and shoveling the snow to provide the house that we lived in. When we were done with the church chores we were often farmed out to the church members to do their bidding. I remember one woman who would give me a nickel, 5 US cents, after working for her all day. The aging members, especially the females, were cantankerous and imperious. They would run their white gloved mitts over the pews and wainscoting, looking for dust. We tried to make sure they never found any. Some kids grow up with the smell of apple pie, some with the smell of roast beef, some with the smell of coal gas or oil, I grew up with the smell of lemon Pledge and I love to use it on furniture to this day. It sounds like a wonderful visit, without the concern that someone was going to run their fingers across the cabinets checking for dust. From my description above, you can tell we did not have much money. As I grew older I took to buying antiques, which I call other people's legacies since I have so few of my own. Your cottage looks wonderful, the kind of home I aspire to have and maintain.

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    1. Nicely remembered....funny how smells evoke memory !

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  32. I see what Winnie meant. Looking at those old things with her eyes gives them a new luster.

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  33. Anonymous9:09 pm

    The pair of painted eggs is funny.

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    1. Affable despot ajason's daughters designed them

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  34. This is the first time I can recall reading the words "that blotch on the stair carpet left by a menstruating bulldog" and I thank you for that. You definitely painted a picture. LOL.

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  35. an ugly dog? NOT OUR WINNIE!

    your home is a comfortable cozy spot on this crazy planet.

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  36. Love having a wee sneaky peek at your bits and bobs and especially love the eggy cruet (I'm guessing here). Just don't like Winnie being referred to as an ugly dog, she's beautiful!

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  37. The thing I find amazing about any good decorating job, yours included, is the discipline people show in keeping a uniform look. I just collect bits and pieces of stuff I like and it comes in all different styles, colours and eras.

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  38. A charming collection of life.

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  39. Maybe somebody already typed this, but isn't it true that home is where the heart is?

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  40. I LOVE the lobster bowl. You have some very cool stuff.

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  41. Nice to be complimented on the things that you collected with love. Your home looks like a great place to sit, have coffee and chat.

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  42. I once apologised for the state of my housekeeping when a guy came to check for termites(something we have to do here often) and he said that every single house he goes to they do the same thing. It's so silly to worry about these things. I decided then and there never to do it again. I've mostly succeeded. :D

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  43. You and I come from the same place on collectables. Sad that other folk would view our homes as if they were a museum though!!

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  44. Oh my . . .
    I would have been wandering, looking and saying oooh ahhh as well!
    My kind of home . . . warmth . . . touches . . .
    (In my home I suppose I would have a bit of a fret over carpet puppy stains too . . . )

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  45. When I'm showing someone round the house, inevitably I'm obsessing about all the defects and general mess, while they're enthusing over the tasteful decor and interesting knick-knacks. Twas ever thus.

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  46. Lovely to see a house that is a real home!!

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  47. You have a lovely home, inside and out :-)

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