Alexa what day is it ?
Ohhh it’s Thursday? thank you I had forgotten
What am I doing today?
I’m drinking from my bucket of coffee having a think about this
After a dog walk I think I will clear my driveway of weeds and then clean the car
Nothing sparkling ,
Just satisfying .
A courier driver has just dropped off a package
No more glorious scotch eggs I’m afraid
But something quite special nevertheless
Four 1950 American diner coffee mugs!
Years ago I bought one on a trip to New York
And I loved its curves which always reminded me of one of those classy American Art Deco bathtubs
I loved that mug, which sounds an odd thing to say given the fact it was only a mug,
But I did,
And when I smashed it , during one of my dyspraxic attacks
I cried like a baby.
Now I have four replacements
FOUR!
given my dyspraxia , the law of averages seem to be on my side
Hopefully I will always have one functioning mug
To lovingly cuddle every morning
What inanimate belonging do you love?
I’d be interested to hear
I had (and sadly it is past tense) a pottery coffee mug for over thirty years. It was the only one I ever used. When I dropped it and it shattered I wept bitter tears. And have not yet found one that feels as right as it did.
ReplyDeleteI’m not the only one
DeleteI have a tiny Victorian vase, about three inches tall, classic case shape, but looking like a little garden, the body stippled clay painted green to look like a flower bed inset with forget me nots which surround the lip, a pale pink rose in the centre front.It is not my usual taste at all, but is a reminder of my grandmother, Ruth Priestnall. She died when I was goyr, but I have such clear memories of her cleaning it with suds and a soft tootbrush, and finding a specimen flower to sit in it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I thought about your question, the answer was a surprise! Thank you for the memory prompt!
Funny where blogs takeu
DeleteOh I love the shape of those mugs. Both robust but subtle too.There are several inanimate possessions I love such as the coconut shell drinking bowls that were given to me on the island of Rotuma long ago. Used for ceremonial yagona (kava) drinking.
ReplyDeleteYes they are pleasing arnt they
DeleteMy favourite object(s) is a small collection of pebbles found on Aberystwth beach years ago, lovely varied colours and stripes, sitting on the hall cabinet arranged in the shape of a flower. Great memories attached to them.
ReplyDeleteMemories and stuff
DeleteGo together
Hundreds of them, a letter opener (paper knife) my sister gave me when I was a teen, is has a lucite handle with pennies in it. It is in a rustic ceramic mug I bought when I was about 12 and have used to hold pens and other desk stuff for 50 years.
ReplyDeleteLovely
DeleteI love my crappy old ipod with a cracked screen, as it keeps me entertained on my walk to and from work, laughing along with podcasts or being informed by more serious ones.
ReplyDeleteMy hubby. :-)
ReplyDeleteFunny x
DeleteMy bed. Made in Yorkshire and worth every penny.
ReplyDeleteAlways good to check where products are manufactured if you want top quality.
DeleteHarrison spinks. Yorkshires finest, Mr pudding.
Delete"The True Bedmakers" as opposed to the false ones you find in other counties. By appointment to The Duchess of Blackburn.
DeleteFunnily enough I also have an attachment to a specific mug and cried like a bitch when I accidentally destroyed it. I have bought many replacements over the years, but decided a while back that at £15 each it's a habit to break.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have anything except I like my Siberian tiger and horse. Not sure if they count.
ReplyDeleteTh3y do indeed
DeleteA little pressed-glass cow - probably a promotion for a dairy in the early 1900's - one horn broken off. It is just too cute and I don't remember how I ended up with it. I seem to remember one grandmother having it.
ReplyDelete😘
DeleteI had a mixing bowl that was my Mom's when I was a kid and that she gave to me when I got my first apartment. It was about 50 years old when it fell on the floor and broke a couple of months ago. I felt quite bereft about losing it. Just an old white bowl but it had such associations for me!
ReplyDeleteThey are often not just things but conduits to another life another memory
Deletean old wax red candle and glass holder that was my maternal grandmother's. she always put it on a table during the winter holidays. that thing must be over 60 years old. but it reminds me of her. and the candle has never been used.
ReplyDeleteMy sewing machine, I love one to one time with it, and always gave something lovely once we have finished. I have had a sewing machine (more than one) since I was 16, it's all mine, and I share it with no-one.
ReplyDelete✂️
DeleteTwo wedding rings - one from each of my two very happy marriages - super reminders of how lucky I have been.
ReplyDeleteLovely
DeleteI gave mine back
I LOVE my set of Pyrex bowls/400 series. I use them daily for cooking and mixing. Can't imagine not having them!
ReplyDeleteHandmade walnut and maple striped cutting board, gift from a friend that I use daily. Once placed it down on a still hot stove element. I cried at the shocking damage, but it was planed down and restored.
ReplyDeleteX
DeleteThere are some inanimate objects that I do cherish and love. My grandmother's Singer sewing machine comes to mind- I use it still and it is a wonder of machinery. I have to admit that I also love my dishwasher but in a different way. I would not be sad if it ever died and I had to replace it.
ReplyDeleteThe second sewing machine
DeleteThe first dishwasher
My home is FULL of things I love, including quite a lot of old restaurant/hotel china, including coffee mugs like yours! They're in use every day except for the mugs - I need a bigger bucket! Sitting at a diner counter when I was a child was the biggest treat for me, which is one of the causes of the nostalgia. At my age I'm now attempting to part with a lot of my stuff, but it's difficult. Why do I form such attachments to "things?" Enjoy them John, they're a perfectly thoughtful gift.
ReplyDeleteNostalgia, memory, love, association ....who knows x
DeleteI'd have to say the cookbooks - some passed down from my paternal great grandmother; another one that is a compilation of family favorites; one that is worn with loose pages stuck in and fading handwritten instructions for preserving; the cookie cookbook with stained pages after frequent use. I'm reminded of this quote from the Orangette blog - Food is never just food. It's also a way of getting at something else: who we are, who we have been and who we want to be.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully put
Deletemy witch tambourine. probably from the 1800's and handmade and painted. i would give anything to know it's story. i've never seen another like it.
ReplyDeleteMy jeans.
ReplyDeleteLol
DeleteI have a tiny little glass paperweight in the shape of a hen. Many years ago when my eldest was perhaps 7 or 8 we were doing car boot sales to try to raise enough money to feed us each week and I gave him 50p for helping out. He went and bought himself 40p worth of sweets and a 10p glass paperweight for me. It's always been with me to each of my homes and is more treasured than the crown jewels.
ReplyDeleteVery sweet sue x
DeleteThough I usually drink Pepsi or Sam's Cola, I have a Coke glass--the classic kind where it's wide at the top and then narrows--that I'm fond of.
ReplyDeleteLike my mugs physically and visually appealing
DeleteI am sentimentally attached to almost all our inanimate pets. Just because they're stuffed animals doesn't mean they're not people, indeed, better than people.
ReplyDeleteI love having my Grandma Hall's swan neck rocking chair. It fit her petite frame and it fits me, too, so I sit in it daily. My parents recovered it in ugly wide-whale dark green corduroy and we recovered it in a lovely tapestry print that makes it sing again.
ReplyDeleteHow nice you have new diner coffee mugs!
Hugs!
Everything needs to sing
DeleteI love a silly little charm bracelet that is the only gift my father ever gave me. I was too old for it really but he wouldn't know that. But I just pulled it out of a box recently and the old familiar feeling, the squeezing in the stomach and the big old thing that threatens to block my ability to swallow welled up. I'll be 57 in a few days and still wish I had had a dad that knew how to be a dad, but now I know how to love and accept him that way he was.
ReplyDeleteI have too many items to list and definitely do not want to ever part with!
ReplyDeleteI was given an Eames House Bird as a birthday present. I adore it and constantly admire its starkness and beauty. Plus my Nans very old crochet hooks in a very battered case, I use them a lot x
ReplyDeletehttps://www.johnlewis.com/vitra-eames-house-bird-black/p4205688?sku=232102492&s_ppc=2dx92700055668809592&tmad=c&tmcampid=2&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=CjwKCAjwqML6BRAHEiwAdquMnWABmJtcmZavXxsU8sJx0yyIFT9xPbSO4aOZrcG49pHdU7LuEmAmZRoCW3IQAvD_BwE
DeleteThat's the one! Very tactile and simple- a bit like me Boom Boom x
DeleteI don't have that connection to very special objects. I lost the ones that meant the most to me in the wildfire. Best friend sent me a wonderful coffee mug that is sturdy not to heavy and holds just the right amount of coffee for me.
ReplyDeleteLove your new mugs.
Sobering to think that things can be lost so easily x
DeleteA knife I bought from Woolworths in 1969. Packing up for our move from Wales I put it somewhere 'safe'. Couldn't find it anywhere when we were unpacking, so presumed I'd left it behind. It's an unusual knife in that the serrated blade tapers from the wooden handle to a point and we used it all the time. No success in any of the cook shops we went to, nor the internet. Then, on 1st January this year I needed some parchment for something and there as large as 'life' it was, snuggled up safely with the parchment. Needless to say I gave it a kiss and welcomed it back.
ReplyDeleteA nice story
DeleteI would be heartbroken if my little clothes airer fell apart. Like a standing towel rail, with 4 rails, many layers of chipped paint showing, it was made by my late father at least 75 years ago. When I was a child it stood near our open fire, warming my pyjamas before I went to bed. I have kept hold of it through many house moves.
ReplyDeleteNice
DeleteA black weather vane I bought from a nice ironmonger who crafted it himself.It's a windswept man with an upside down umbrella holding onto his top hat and his charming dog with ears blowing in the wind who looks like my top dog-its on my kitchen wall(don't want it nicked)x
ReplyDeleteI have treasure items which have been made by another’s hand that remain important
Deletea thumb stick made by the Red faced Welsh farmer
The wooden eagle made by mr Endres
Two decorated eggs made by the Randa girls
I'm altogether too attached to stuff. But, on the topic of cups, I had a pottery cup that a friend of my mother's made. She was a potter by trade. The cup was handle-less, a beautiful stippled brown color, it fit my hand perfectly. It was my water cup and sat at the sink for years. Sadly, it met the concrete floor one day and yes, I cried.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember this mug. :(
DeleteFunny there are many here with fav mugs..... I love that
DeleteZoe, it broke in Flagstaff.
DeleteI love a teddy bear. He was a gift to me as a newborn, handmade by a friend of my Grammy's (I believe). His name is Teddy, and he has been near me for 36 years now. He lives on a bookshelf in my bedroom now. If my house was burning down, he would be the thing I saved (after my family and pets of course).
ReplyDeleteI have my chameleon
DeleteI have a black and white mug that has a bumblebee on the outside AND the inside. That my weekday work mug. And I have a huge, glorious scalloped-rim light teal colored mug I only use on the week-end. Gosh, I love those coffee cups.
ReplyDeleteA woman of great taste
DeleteI have 2 things l treasure for the memories they invoke. One is a bright yellow triange shaped cheese grater from Habitat, yellow is so back in fash now l see! The other thing is a pair of green with a gold rim chunky Appilco coffee cups and saucers, the thing to have in the 70's donchaknow, to go with ones Mellita coffee machine.
ReplyDeleteThese things remind me of when l grew up and stopped adorning myself with a full slap of make-up and wearing the latest London fashion clothes, and started concentrating on my home instead, still doing just that 4 decades later!
Tess xx
Funny how something so arbitrary has meaning and genuine affection
DeleteAny item of mine I have to get rid of or break I have to say 'thank you for your service and goodbye'. The guys who collected my old washing machine thought I was mad.
ReplyDeleteNurse the screens !
DeleteI love those mugs too. I grew up with such mugs and seeing them takes me back.
ReplyDeleteI have a small (about 6 inches) toy wooden rocking chair. This was hand carved by my Great-Grandfather for my Mother when she was a child. I love it and hope it will remain in my family when I am gone.
I’ve waited over two years to find the right ones
Deletemy great grandma's wedding ring, it's so tiny i have to wear it on a chain, and a set of wooden angels
ReplyDeleteI have mine
DeleteNo inanimate object that I can think of is loved by me (and not many animate objects either). Unloving and unloved, that's me :( ..... Oh, hang on though, I do love sunshine, but in moderation, and beer, in moderation, and trees and rivers and the sea... A big Calmac ferry anywhere on the west coast of Scotland... I will settle on that.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest choice so far
DeleteAfter commenting I thought I was cheating because I remembered you said "belonging", but Calmac belongs to the Scottish government, so it belongs to the people, so I reckon I must own a few rivets and at least one branded coffee cup in one of the onboard cafes. Anyone who has never taken a Calmac ferry to a Hebridean island needs to fix that fast.
DeleteIt’s still the biggest choice
DeleteProbably my item or itmes would be my books, dog books or some cookery ones, McGuffin & Co plus a couple of Alice Van Kempen books my favourites.
ReplyDeleteEasily pleased
DeleteThat I am :) x
DeleteI love my car. I've had 7 cars of this specific kind, and I know this one will be the last. I like the smooth cool curve of the steering wheel, I love the seat that is short enough for me to get perfect driving position, and makes possible for me to drive all day and night if necessary. I love bright lights that make my driving safer in darkness. I love how it responds to every move I make. I hate my car, it's expensive and impossible to get fixed when broken. It burns through fuel like a jet plane and that makes me feel like a criminal. I hate it because I know I will never get another car like it.
ReplyDeleteYou asked.
I have a gorgeous small silver teapot I picked up on Portobello Road ages ago! It's packed away in storage right now, but just thinking about makes me smile. xox
ReplyDeleteIts funny how something you think of as special can be found in any little local diner within 10 miles of where I live. My treasure is a cement planter shaped like a window box with embossed chipmunks,dragonflies and wildflowers.
ReplyDeleteYes......I did want older mugs which are rarer to buy
DeleteI have very eclectic tastes and my house is stuffed to the ceiling with stuff I just love. There are reasons for this but none to go into just now. One of my absolute favourite things is a Memory bear that my youngest sister made from a pair of pink tartan pyjamas belonging to my older sister after she passed away. He has pride of place on my unit in the lounge. Also a mug with "To Someone Special" on it given to me by a dear friend before she left NZ to go back to Blighty. I use it all the time.
ReplyDeleteJo in Auckland
My sewing machine is the only thing I can call mine.Oh and my Kindle. I sew premature baby gowns out of wedding dresses and the feeling it gives me when we have both achieved a beautiful gown
ReplyDeleteMy sewing machine and stash of fabrics. They would be the the first out of the house in any disaster, after all the cats/dogs (of course). Nothing fancy but has brought me the greatest joy making and gifting quilts.
ReplyDeleteMy foreign weaving shuttle, which has a cranky shaft and tiny hole for the thread to exit.
ReplyDeleteI can't seem to keep "stuff". I am always giving things away. I'm not attached to anything. Maybe I am a minimalist.My sister is the complete opposite.
ReplyDeleteMine is a taxidermy vole my son bought me. It is so dainty and beautiful. It was road kill, it wasn’t killed for the purpose.
ReplyDeleteI've got a kitschy, cutesy little statuette of a flower child with an inscription (a sticker) that reads "In those quiet moments when you're alone with yourself... think of me now and then." My sister gave it to me in 1971 when I was 17 and she was 20 and I was just about to go away to school.
ReplyDeleteI have a lovely brown glazed pottery shetland pony which is a moneybox. My friend Roanna bought it for me for my tenth birthday. It's never held a single coin, it's far too precious for that, but for 45 years I have loved its curves and its shine and it has sat on a shelf in all my bedrooms.
ReplyDeleteI have a tiny cardboard box, the kind that inexpensive jewelry comes in, with a same-shaped piece of cotton in it. My name is written on a sliver of paper, which is taped to the top of the box. In it are a few pieces of earrings missing their other half, a tiny felt cardinal, and some other tiny interesting bits. My maternal grandmother had this box on a shelf in her sewing room, and it was sent to me when she passed. It's not what was inside the box, but that her hands had been on it, and that she had me in mind when she filled it and labeled it. Oh, my heart.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say my sewing machine. When I got my first good paying job, I got a loan and purchased the best one I could get . My husband said they would never give me a loan, and I replied, "but they already did". It is now 22 years old, ticking along like a charm. It has made me money, saved me money and given me endless hours of enjoyment. Still have my husband- he is now my partner in our quilting business and sews most days too!
ReplyDeleteBarb
My most favorite thing is my stitching chair--30 yrs old, cushion replaced once. Like you I had a favorite mug that got broken and I can't believe how much it upset me, however I was able to find a new replacement that I like even more.Enjoy reading your blog
ReplyDeleteDid you get those from Fish's Eddy?
ReplyDelete