I blame Wiliam Morris and his golden rule

I have come to the conclusion that the current state of affairs here at the chateau is all down to one man - William Morris.  No Alice dear, not the dodgey builder with the twitch from Peckham or the itinerant brush salesman who occasionally rocks up on our doorstep.

I am talking about THE William Morris of Arts and Crafts fame.  And what exactly is this "state of affairs" I'm referring to?  Well, in a delicately crafted nutshell, it's the echo, echo, echo .........

Old WM has been someone who's work I have admired for more than half a century.  In fact who hasn't drooled over his beautiful wallpapers, dreamed of living in his Red House or imagined being wrapped naked in one of his magnificent tapestries - possibly a fantasy too far, sorry.

However, where it all seems to have come off the rails a bit is when I recently decided to follow his advice to the letter.  Not given to me first hand, I might add 'cos I'm not that old, but words of wisdom which I came upon during my formative years when I was going through an arty farty phase, all liquorice paper roll-ups and "the Bird lives" - you know the kind of stuff.  But dare I actually tell you what he said for fear that you too will follow suit - yes I do!  He said:

 

 "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful,

or believe to be beautiful".

I like the way you think William, and so I've been up and down to the dump recently more times than a pair of whore's drawers (a favourite expression of one of my coarser forebears), but I digress.  With the Long Dogmobile loaded to the gunnels I have zoomed determinedly back and forth with all manner of ugly, useless objects which I have hurled into the skip without a backwards glance.

The boring pine kitchen table only remains by dint of it being "useful" while my greyhound collection takes pride of place under the heading of "beautiful in the extreme".  I seem to still have somewhere to lie down, a sofa, an armchair and a desk, a scattering of dog beds, some framed Long Dog's but really not much else apart, that is, from the echo, echo, echo .......

But not to worry - less to dust, more room for the dogs to play indoors during wet weather and plenty of space to fill when the brocante season gets going again next year.  What more does a girl need?  Thanks Will it's been truly liberating, liberating, liberating ........