A Tale of Two Toast Racks

One toast rack is an elegant silver-plated affair, the other a sombre piece of pottery and both come with their own tale of mortality. The first toast rack has an oval base which sits daintily on four flattened round electro-plated “feet”. The regular loops to hold...

Chequered Daylight

The curtains are faded cotton, wide vertical stripes of pink, lilac and pale apricot: overprinted horizontal bands of pale crimson turn each stripe into an oblong, the crimson taking on different shades as it passes over pink, lilac then apricot in repeat. As the...

The Pruning Saw

When I found the curved saw lying in the front garden among the ivy and the brambles, I knew immediately that it had been there for days: the blade was rusty and the laminated ply handle, once so immaculate had split along the glued edges in several places. It was a...

Blue Glass Bottle

The other day my son brought back a bottle he had unearthed during some building work. It must have been in the ground around a hundred years: there’s a thought! I thought at first that the bottle was clear glass but when it is washed, I see that it is faintly tinted...