Thursday, July 13, 2017

I'm a Collector


I’m a collector and have been since I was a kid. I saved all my books, and a few horse statues that had been given to me. When I became an adult an moved to a small farm I collected small chicken statues and pictures because I had chickens and still have five now. I still have a lot of the statues, although most of them have been packed away.
 
Just a few of the bells I've collected over the years.
The next thing I collected were bells – bells I bought on vacation and bells my parents got for me when they went on vacation. Today almost all those bells are packed away.

Then I went to the Augusta Heritage workshop in West Virginia. I wanted to sign up for a laptop dulcimer class. The only two classes were for beginners and advanced. I’d already taken a class where I made a cardboard lap dulcimer and continued on with the instructor and went to a dulcimer event where I bought a beautiful lap dulcimer. I was beyond beginner, but not quite good enough to be considered advanced so I signed up for a spinning class.
 
More books with small pots I collect, too.
I found that fun and ended up buying a spinning wheel as well as the other things necessary to brushing wool, etc. Well, I enjoyed that and because I was working with wool, I started collecting small statues and pictures of sheep. Eventually, I lost interest in spinning and a few years ago I gave my spinning wheel to a niece who was interested in working with wool.

Now my bells, most of my chickens, but not all and my sheep are in boxes in the garage. My laptop dulcimer is by the piano with a missing key. I haven’t played it in years and years, nor have I played my guitar in years so I don’t have fingers tough enough to play it. It’s also in my living room.





The south wall of my library the wall to the right is total books.

My biggest collection of all for years has been books. I probably have more than a thousand books in my house if you add up the books in every room in my house except for the kitchen which only has a few cookbooks. And I have boxes of old books in my garage, also. Only one wall in my library doesn’t have bookcases on it. That has a large window for some of the orchids I collect, a desk, and a combination radio/CD, cassette and record player. I have hundreds of CDs and cassette disks. CDs are another collection of mine. I have so many CD’s with a wide variety of music. I go to a lot of folk and Celtic concerts and always buy a CD from the group playing. I have a collection of classical music, too, and song books from the days before the sound board on my piano cracked.
 
Every one of my multiple gardens has daylilies.
I guess I should mention that I have hundreds of daylilies outside, too. I can’t resist ordering some from Gilbert H. Wild & Son when they send their sale catalog. How can one not resist ordering a daylily named Witches Wink, or Tiger Kitten, or a daylily with a family member’s name like black eyed Susan even though my daughter doesn’t have black eyes.





What do you collect?



11 comments:

  1. Wonderful! I love the pictures - they are fabulous. For me it's angels, cats, and mugs. They are scattered everywhere even though I do cull the mug heard from time to time. Teapots used to be in the mix but the last two moves did me in. Four moves ago culled the books to the local library's delight. I'm learning to streamline...little by little.

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  2. Gloria,

    Not only do I collect things (coins, books, musical instruments, birds seen and photographed), but I also seem to share with you a set of serial passions (as Jan calls them)—things I spent a huge amount of time mastering, and then let go because I either became bored or uninterested in spending the time to reach the next level of expertise.

    ~ Jim

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  3. Great photos, Gloria. I have to give you the same answer I've given for years: I collect children, weeds, and bills, which is not to say I don't have a house full of stuff, ninety percent of which I'm dying to unload.

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  4. I used to collect thing in my travels. Now that I've reached the stage of wanting to clear out things, I only bring back memories. My mantra has also become not to store things for a rainy day when someone else needs them today.

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  5. Thank you, Kait. I have one little angel statue I don't remember where I got it, but it stays on my piano all year long. I often give books to Good Will or The Church Mouse, a small store in a town close to us. If they're in really good condition and happen to be a duplicate, I give them to The Village Book Store a small book store that sells mostly used books. The owner is a friend of mine because I had both of her children, now grown up, in
    third grade. She also sells my books, too.

    Jim, I like Jan's word serial passions. I guess that's what some of mine could be called, too.

    Margaret, you can't imagine the weeds I've collected because the weather was not good
    enough to start weeding early this year and then other things came up like getting sick. Still my flowers seem to be doing well even among the weeds.

    Grace I don't buy things on my travels anymore, either. I take pictures and that's about it.

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  6. We're having some work done on the house, and as I put things back, I am trying hard to make reasonable decisions about what to keep and what to discard or pass on. I think back to when I was a child and we owned so few things! Two dolls, a stuffed animal, just enough clothes to make if from washday to washday. When did all these possessions start to take over?

    I love daylilies, too. Most years, though, I end up with healthy plants and sturdy stalks, but the deer carefully bite off all the buds.

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  7. There's a new phase in the "organize clutter" book genre. This author says that EVERY item in your home should bring you joy. Well, I don't have clutter then... I have tons of joy! My first passion would be books. I also collect "book readers" they are my pretend fan club. Anything that is reading, a bunny conducting in front of a podium, he's reading music. A pig in a bikini in a beach chair with a paperback. Families reading on the couch. They all delight me. DON'T FORGET CHINESE FOOD TONIGHT. I guess I also collect CALORIES! LOL

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  8. KM, I saw your daylilies. Fortunately, none of the deer on my property come up in my back yard or anywhere near my daylilies. We didn't have a lot growing up, either. Mom didn't work, but she did the best she could so we had nice if not a lot of clothes. When I got to be a teenager, I got a part time job in a clothing store and from then on I bought my own clothes.

    Laura, you're making up for all the calories I've been losing.

    Warren, I know you collect old mysteries. How lucky you are to live close to Powells.

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  9. I used to collect cook books, rolling pins, salt and pepper shakers, and swizzle sticks. I still have my swizzle stick collection, but I got rid of the rest when we moved and pared down our possessions. These days I collect sea shells only. I love collections, but I also recognize what is special to me probably doesn't have the same meaning to my kids, who will end up giving it all away someday.

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  10. E.B. I doubt my kids will want to save any of my stuff, either. I'm not surprised you have a seashell collection. I actually have several containers with seashells, too, but mostly from Lake Erie or places I visited on vacation along a beach.

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