The blue ceramic dish used to hold a trio of tiny ballet dancers, white china with pale pink tutus. I'm not sure what happened to them, but now it's become a repository for kitchen odds and ends. The pound coins and Euro probably came out of my pocket the day we moved in. After five years of living abroad I found it really hard to let go and embrace the thought that we were in New Zealand to stay. I think I keep the coins there as a reminder that there is more to the world than just the view out my kitchen window. Not that it's a bad view, even though you can't see it from this angle. If I crane my neck past the grey building in front of us I can see down to a small crater lake fringed with reeds, and across to Mt Pirongia. Another reminder, perhaps, to enjoy what's right in front of you!
Further down is a bunch of borage I plucked from the roadside on my way back from a run. The stems are prickly but the blueness of the flowers is so intense that it was worth it. Next, an empty French chesnut puree tin, which I am going to turn into a tealight candleholder. Then a tiny blue ceramic bowl, provenance unknown, but it's the same blue as the borage flowers so it was obviously meant to sit there.
The last two items are also related - one is a bunch of native flowers left on the doorstep by kind Jeanine, who dispenses wisdom, honey and flowers in equal measures - and the other is a Cath Kidston card from Jeanine's daughter Ann, who is back in our old neighbourhood in London. To complete the circle I should send her the pound coins from the blue dish!
What's on your windowsill?
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