now you know . . .

the cave is not large but it is filled with the stuff that makes me happy.  as i was permanently tacking what should have been seasonal bells to my mantle a week after christmas, i realized that's what home is.  a place of warmth, memories and pleasure. the bells make me happy.

and so i looked around.  i love the floor to ceiling fireplace made of coquina, jetting two stories up.  i love that over the years, kidlet, the 9TS and i stuffed goodies into the cracks and crevices.  you have to look hard but there are among other things: a crystal pig, a jute bracelet, a rubber dinosaur, a rough amethyst, a guinea pig, a frog, a small pig. i don't even remember when it started.  kidlet was small.  occasionally, someone will notice but mostly not.  it is a family thing.

there is a pair of old clamp-on ice skates hanging on one side.  the hearth is occupied by an antique fire extinguisher . . . the 9TS was, after all, director of public safety which made him a fireman as well as top cop . . . the black rotary phone my father bought me from the black market when i wanted a phone in my room at age 13, there is fat wood and fireplace tongs, two pigs and an elephant . . . and yes three antique hot dog skewers we use for roasting marshmallows.

there's a mirror with metal scroll work doors on the wall that came from a flea market.  under the stairs are two craftsmen leather chairs where the 9TS and i would chatter on cold winters evenings in front of the fire.  the end table has a tatted cover made my the 9TS's mother.  and of course the five foot leather giraffe who still wears the 9TS's hat, glasses and a mourning band.  the television will not be replaced when it dies.  i like this quiet space too much to add the disturbance. 

on the far wall stands my father's scooter.  the first toy he ever bought himself.  and nestled between the sofa and the fireplace is a barrister bookcase the sloth and i picked up in mt. dora.  it holds all manner of treasures:  my grandfather's collection of books by g. a. henty, my father's high school football team photo, my uncle's 100 year old stuffed bear, slightly munched upon by a dog my senior year of college, my mother's college copy of goodbye mr. chips, an old model train engine, a photo of my sister and i age four and one, a tiffany glass something something from kidlet's paternal grandfather, and books from my great grandfather.  sitting on the hardwood floors is a sisal rug, picked for its ability to be hosed off when cat yack has been deposited. 

yep, that's my space and now you know, kidlet.