Wick (D Gillies): Week 18, 26 May

(Sorry this is late – I’ve only just noticed it didn’t get published last week!  So you get two posts in one day.)

Last week, I left you all hanging, wondering what happened during the rest of my time away. The rest of Mayday was taken up having a good long nap.  The day after, I met two friends at Delapré Abbey, on the outskirts of Northampton, for coffee, cake, and catch-up.  One of them is Gordon’s oldest friend, in years known rather than years of age.  We’ve been keeping in touch and occasionally get together when I’m in the county.

Later that day, I started on the primary task to be accomplished during my visit – going through every drawer, wardrobe, cupboard and box to cull what might be of useful or sentimental value, to me or others.  I was thankful that I’d already done some preliminary triaging.  Once this was done, I could give the all clear for the house to be cleared prior to auction.

In one bedroom, one of the wardrobes was full of spare cutlery, china, hotplates, platters, and serving dishes.  Mr & Mrs Reid regularly entertained, doing so regularly until age prevented it.  Also found in the same bedroom were albums of first day covers, Dungeons & Dragons figurines, and a well-worn carved Chinese camphorwood chest filled with recipe clippings dating to the 1950s.  I doubt my mother-in-law rarely looked at or even tried most of these recipes, but kept them ‘just in case’.

In another bedroom, more Dungeons & Dragons figurines and another album of first day covers – both were added to the pile in the first bedroom.   In a bedside cabinet, a box of slides and a contact sheet of photos from the Reids’ wedding. One of the fitted wardrobes contained two tablecloths large enough to fit the 12 ft table in the kitchen/diner; these were used on special occasions.  There was a vintage Singer hand crank sewing machine, and Mr Reid’s kilt, sporran, and jacket too.  In one of the drawers of the divan bed, there was a true surprise – a battered square metal box, with a label reading ‘lacquer recording blanks’. Upon opening, there were records labelled ‘Wedding Ceremony – Mr & Mrs Reid’.  They were married in 1955, and I had no idea that people recorded their wedding ceremonies then. 

Path to the shore

And so it went throughout the house.  Things squirreled away in illogical places, like any house; things kept because they were gifts; things kept because they were too good to throw out.  I haven’t set aside much – a few items of furniture, two framed embroideries I’d made for them, a framed print of kowhai (a New Zealand tree), linens, teatowels, a squashed round cheese grater that was kept in a kitchen drawer, the box of photos from the top floor – that’s a winter project, scanning and organising them.

Sea thrift

I tried to keep up with the knitting, but tended to get caught up sorting things.  Progress has still been slow since my return home.  The keen-eyed among you will notice that the cables have been reversed, each pair now twisting towards the centre instead of towards the edges, which it is how it is in the original photo. Obviously I had a brain fade when I charted it.  I also thought of taking the little diamond panels out, but realised the front and back wouldn’t match at the shoulders.  Next time.