You're going to want to slap me

Not only do I not write a proper post, I'm also expecting you to give me answers!

Which is naughty as I know I’ve been a bit slack around here this past week and I am sorry and missing you all, but on the home front things having been moving along. The kids have now broken up for half term and we have a whole week with no schools runs. Instead we have extra rugby, swimming, J’s birthday and a day off for Daddy. It’s all kind of planned, except I haven’t gotten around to calling J’s friends yet for birthday tea. Would rather like to forget it really, as the house is a mess and the garden a jungle. But she's excited and so I’ll think about it tomorrow, after swimming.

Finished wallpapering the three walls of the office, and unfortunately I’m facing the wallpaper. But on the upside, my desk is always so cluttered you can hardly notice the design!

But I am making attempts to clear some space. Particularly in the nonsense-area clutter. You see I’m a bit of a hoarder at heart. Over the last few years I have managed to curb my habits, but am still swamped by useless items I purachased way back then, and have no real place in my life. And that’s where you come in!

I figured there must be some arty types among you, and I’m after some ideas for a few things I hate the idea of dumping. Basically because they’re old. It seems to me, if they’ve survived this long, it’s wrong that that I should be responsible for the end of their days.

I don’t even know what the first items are. I bought them at auction for a couple of quid as they struck me as quaint at the time. Which I know is a terrible reason, as well as a waste of money, and definitely I wouldn’t do it now. But I did then, and now I have them, and need a purpose for them.








I have about forty ‘slides’ and I’m guessing they were used with gas lights to make pretty pictures on the wall. A lot are religious, but some are of distant locations, others story based, and some might be family.


If you know what they are, or have any ideas what I could do with them, please let me know. And yes, I know when the BH reads this, he’ll be shouting ‘Put them in the bin!’ at the screen.



















Next up is the Bible. I’m sure I never meant to collect bibles, but everyone in the family seemed to pass one down to me. And then a couple of friends noticed and got an idea to give me more. Then there were a couple that seemed lonely at the auction house.











That’s how I got this particular bible. Except it’s not really a bible. Was once. Once it was a huge beautiful bible (17"x11"), originally printed in MDCCVII (1707), now it’s a pile of pictures. The maps are gone, and that’s why the thing is just jumbled pages, as it’s the maps people like to destroy the old bibles for.


But the point is, it’s nearly three hundred years old and I can’t just throw the pages in the bin. And I don’t really want to part with them anyway. But at the same time, I’m not into the idea of framing the most detailed pictures and hanging them around my house – apart from the cost of framing and possibly appearing a tad keen to visitors, they’re awfully depressing depictions and dull to boot!

I did have a thought about wall-papering the cloakroom with them. But…it doesn’t seem quite right on too many levels.

So what do I do? I could offer them to the local museum, but I donated stuff from our last renovation job and the man said they were always inundated with people’s old rubbish (though he swore he loved the light fitting I was handing him!). And anyway, what would they do there? No one would get to see them. Not really.

So. What to do. Tell me! Dump them? Send them to auction? Paper the cloakroom? Give them to the kids to colour in? Force them upon the museum?

Knowing me, they’ll sit under my desk for another seven years!