PART 2 OF: HOBBIES: COLLECTING BIRD FIGURINES

Not being wide awake when I wrote the previous post here are the photographs I've just taken which I should have done before starting it in the first place.

HOBBIES: COLLECTING BIRD FIGURINES

As I mentioned in the previous post, I've recently moved house. What I didn't mention is the decoration. I'm not talking about having the walls painted either white or cream but what goes on the walls, on the window sills, on the mantelpieces and stuff. I'm still in process of putting up pictures but those up so far are: a quartet of linked Japanese sepia brown and gold paintings showing different views of shore/lake/boats placed above the mantelpiece; two Chinese paintings of birds on a kitchen wall; and, facing you as you go downstairs, a framed page of original artwork by Dave Gibbons from the legendary Watchmen graphic novel.

These have all been brought from my previous address and I should thank Susan very much for letting me have the first two which were hers and which I've always loved. But what I didn't expect was to pick up a number of small painted figurines from the Country Bird Collection which was issued ten years ago-ish as a part-work. About eight had been recently donated to our Animal Krackers charity shop and, despite not being interested in birds much, found them really quite attractive, bought the lot and when I moved in dotted them about the place on various window sills. Apart from simply liking them, I had the idea that they'd be eye-catching to visitors despite being quite small (also part of their attraction).

However, I decided I didn't have enough and just before starting to write this post, I went on to Ebay and bought another eight of the figurines. The first one alone cost me as much as all the others from the shop but even then, at an average price of less than a fiver, they are quite affordable and I may well buy some more at a later date.

They aren't the only small ornaments I've got of course. Needless to say there are several cats, a couple of small wooden Buddhas, and a Gollum figurine from of the expensive director's cut DVDs from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, plus a few conventional bone china things from Susan which are blandly pleasing but which I doubt will be permanent residents.

I'm not pretending to offer any insights into the mind of collecting because I'm not collecting. Rather what I've discovered is that it's rather fun finding objects to place in your house and that it can be surprising. This may be obvious to many of you but, at the age of 64, this is the first time I've been in the position to do so.

MOVING HOUSE

Nothing to do with pop culture or reviews, this is purely a personal piece about why I haven't been posting recently.

I won't go into to detail so suffice to say that my wife and I agreed to split up. Everything has been extremely amicable, we're still friends and see each other every day. It helps that we're both active in animal rescue (see my other blog for details). After not too much looking around I found a house I liked only five minutes walk away which I got for a fair price and, it being in pretty good condition, didn't expect to have to spend too much doing it up. Until I found out it needed re-wiring which more than doubled the amount I expected to spend and postponed the moving in date by several weeks. Of course it wasn't just the rewiring as one thing leads to another but I did end up with a house in very good condition and done out mostly the way Susan, my wife, wanted. I did manage to put my foot down on a few things.

I decided to go with Sky rather than Virgin as comparing prices I got more bang for my buck. What I didn't expect was that it would take another three weeks after the TV stuff was installed before I got my broadband internet connection which was frustrating as hell. Still I finally have it and working properly as of today. So I'm back to blogging.

Here are a few photos of the place in various stages.

Being the back and front.

 

 Susan inspecting.

I've got a nice large kitchen, a similar sized living room with new 42inch TV, blu-ray player and Bose hi-fi one side of the fireplace, computer and tall CD units on the other, a room just for books and DVDs (though my new cat likes to hide there), three cats (plus fostering a fourth), a conservatory (currently still a mess) for sitting in the summer, and a nice large but easy to maintain garden. Asda is just up the road and a major bus route two minutes walk away. There's still some work to do but not a lot. I've definitely settled in and I like it a lot.