The Poetry of Thrift

I have finally discovered a use for the 1970s tongue and groove pine panelling I have been stripping off several walls. By carefully trimming the edges off I can fill the gap in a solid door frame I already have with the remaining stips. I want to salvage, recycle and repair as much as possible both from within the house itself and sourced from outside if necessary. This is more than just thrift where necessity of the proverbial mother of invention.  There is a certain aesthetic to the used, damaged and repaired where the passage of time and the process of reclamation is not disguised or hidden under layers of shiny new paint.  

My Cracked Wooden Bowl

This treasure was discovered in a bamboo thicket-
I washed the bowl in a spring and then mended it.
After morning meditation I take my gruel in it;
At night, it serves me soup or rice.
Cracked, worn weather beaten, and misshapen 
But still of noble stock !

from 'Dewdrops on a lotus leaf'  Zen Poems of Ryokan. Translated by John Stevens

The same principle applies throughout where I will retain as much as possible of the original fabric of the house and replace if necessary like with like when making an 'honest' repair which is not covered over or hidden.

On Sunday morning I made a trip to Schaeverbeke for bread and a visit to http://www.hosteart.com/ on the Nieuwe Gentweg where I was introduced by Caroline to the surrealist sculptures of Marcel Taton combining glass, bronze and unusual found objects (gleaned from flea markets in Belgium and Venice) in whimsical, humorous, ironic and incongruous clusters - another case of the discarded artfully metamorphised into new forms and meanings.  

 
Also bought tickets for two concerts at the Concertgebouw in 2015-Vox Luminis in January singing work by Purcell, Morley and Schutz and Emma Kirkby and Jacob Lindberg with 16th century 'Songs and Ayres' in March