House Not-So-Beautiful
Mar. 29th, 2007 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowIt occurred to me yesterday that there really aren't very many decorative objects in my house. In the living areas, much, perhaps most, of the wall space is taken up by bookcases; in the kitchen, by cabinets; in the dining room, a large bay window. But what I do have, I have, and will discuss under the cut.
There is one semi-decorative object in the dining room, a wall calendar. My sister E gives me one every Christmas, and I also usually receive one from the World Wildlife Fund. The WWF calendar is in my office; the one on the dining room wall is E's gift, this year a Buffy calendar. (Lately, Buffy calendars seem to draw most of their illustrations from the later seasons, especially the last two. I'd just as soon they went back to the second and third seasons...)
On the mantel above the fireplace there is a cheap squarish battery-driven wall clock. It's not exactly decorative, but one day it will be replaced by a very nice Winchester chimes clock. That clock belongs to my father, but he's promised that it will be mine when the time comes. (For the sake of sleep, there's a damper rod that can be used to silence the chimes when necessary.)
Also on the mantel are some kitschy knick-knacks. There's a - can you call it a statue, if it's made from a cardboard base wrapped in fur? - of a bull, about a foot long and nine inches high at the hump. The muzzle is plastic, the horns and hooves rubber; the head is lowered and the horns thrust forward angrily. I remember one day, when Murphy was just a puppy. He was wandering around in the living room and, for the first time, looked up high enough, from far enough away, to see the bull. He flinched back, then began growling and barking furiously at this belligerent thing which had suddenly appeared in his house...
Next to the bull is a flat block of rough-cut wood, on which stands a carved silhouette of a howling coyote. As I recall, a neighbor of my parents made a bunch of these; they bought several and parcelled them out to the kids. Mine, however, is unique among them. My mother, with her typically pawky sense of humor, got hold of a tiny replica of a Coors can and inserted it into the coyote's mouth. (I'm not much of a drinker, you see...)
Next to that is one of those silly "Indian Weather Rock" thingies. Basically, it's a rock dangling from a stick by a string. On the base are the instructions: "If the rock is wet, it is raining. If the rock is hard to see, it is foggy. If the rock is moving, it is windy," etc.
On the wall above the TV set is a blow-up of a photograph my father took. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time, to take a picture of a rather gray dayon San Diego Bay at Dana Point (thanks, C!). At the dock sit several sailboats, all with their sails furled. A light breeze flaps a flag on one of the boats, but the general mood is of a melancholy silence. It really is a very nice photo.
There's a painting hanging in my bedroom. Some years ago, one of my colleagues retired and, while decluttering preparatory to a move to Arizona, he offered it to me. It's a rather blurry still life - the usual pitcher-and-fruit - painted by one of his sons long ago...
On the wall above my desk in the computer room is a print of a Maxfield Parrish painting, Ecstasy. I really like Parrish's use of color and light; this print was another gift from E. It amuses me to note the following. In a few episodes early in Season Six of Buffy, there are two or three paintings visible on the wall of Tara and Willow's bedroom. One of them is, quite recognizably, "Ecstasy". It's a coincidence; that print has hung over my desk since about 1995, before Buffy first aired.
And that's it. I probably should get a few more things. I'd like one of those big, old-fashioned globes for the other table in my computer room, but I'd have to clear some space for it. Also, there's room for another couple of prints or paintings here and there. Someday, maybe...
There is one semi-decorative object in the dining room, a wall calendar. My sister E gives me one every Christmas, and I also usually receive one from the World Wildlife Fund. The WWF calendar is in my office; the one on the dining room wall is E's gift, this year a Buffy calendar. (Lately, Buffy calendars seem to draw most of their illustrations from the later seasons, especially the last two. I'd just as soon they went back to the second and third seasons...)
On the mantel above the fireplace there is a cheap squarish battery-driven wall clock. It's not exactly decorative, but one day it will be replaced by a very nice Winchester chimes clock. That clock belongs to my father, but he's promised that it will be mine when the time comes. (For the sake of sleep, there's a damper rod that can be used to silence the chimes when necessary.)
Also on the mantel are some kitschy knick-knacks. There's a - can you call it a statue, if it's made from a cardboard base wrapped in fur? - of a bull, about a foot long and nine inches high at the hump. The muzzle is plastic, the horns and hooves rubber; the head is lowered and the horns thrust forward angrily. I remember one day, when Murphy was just a puppy. He was wandering around in the living room and, for the first time, looked up high enough, from far enough away, to see the bull. He flinched back, then began growling and barking furiously at this belligerent thing which had suddenly appeared in his house...
Next to the bull is a flat block of rough-cut wood, on which stands a carved silhouette of a howling coyote. As I recall, a neighbor of my parents made a bunch of these; they bought several and parcelled them out to the kids. Mine, however, is unique among them. My mother, with her typically pawky sense of humor, got hold of a tiny replica of a Coors can and inserted it into the coyote's mouth. (I'm not much of a drinker, you see...)
Next to that is one of those silly "Indian Weather Rock" thingies. Basically, it's a rock dangling from a stick by a string. On the base are the instructions: "If the rock is wet, it is raining. If the rock is hard to see, it is foggy. If the rock is moving, it is windy," etc.
On the wall above the TV set is a blow-up of a photograph my father took. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time, to take a picture of a rather gray day
There's a painting hanging in my bedroom. Some years ago, one of my colleagues retired and, while decluttering preparatory to a move to Arizona, he offered it to me. It's a rather blurry still life - the usual pitcher-and-fruit - painted by one of his sons long ago...
On the wall above my desk in the computer room is a print of a Maxfield Parrish painting, Ecstasy. I really like Parrish's use of color and light; this print was another gift from E. It amuses me to note the following. In a few episodes early in Season Six of Buffy, there are two or three paintings visible on the wall of Tara and Willow's bedroom. One of them is, quite recognizably, "Ecstasy". It's a coincidence; that print has hung over my desk since about 1995, before Buffy first aired.
And that's it. I probably should get a few more things. I'd like one of those big, old-fashioned globes for the other table in my computer room, but I'd have to clear some space for it. Also, there's room for another couple of prints or paintings here and there. Someday, maybe...
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Date: 2007-03-29 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 06:44 pm (UTC)Dad's photo
Date: 2007-03-30 02:17 am (UTC)Dad's photo
Date: 2007-03-30 02:19 am (UTC)