For about 40 years my wife and I have lived in our very old, creaky, dusty, much-loved house. And we have somehow accumulated a surprising amount of stuff. Realising that we will soon have to start decluttering got me looking more carefully at it all. There is too much for our children and grandchildren to ever have room for, but rather than just disperse it unrecorded I will post a weekly picture of small parts of our home that I particularly like. It will be ‘dust and all’, with no items rearranged for effect. Hopefully some sort of overall picture will emerge to give you a sense of the place and perhaps a reflection of our past life in it. By the way I like photographing parts of things, so some pictures may be a bit enigmatic.
The occasional written pieces are simply reflections on whatever I find interesting, puzzling or important. Hard to say now what they will be about- so I won’t try.
Reflections 
Great title image
Thank you; it is a WordPress one but fortunately seemed very apt for this topic 🙂
it is nice – but some of us have seen it a dozen (or more) times – and so from what I have seen with your photographs – I think you should use one of your pictures – one of your eccentric shots that personalizes things even more. Or maybe not – because you are right – the photo does match the vibe of your blog. 🙂
Hello – I’ve nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. You can see how it works on my award post here (http://awritersnotepad.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/versatile-blogger-award/) and if you decide to participate, you just need to follow the rules for the award, which are:
• Display the Award Certificate on your blog (just cut-and-paste it from my post)
• Write a post and link back to the blogger who nominated you – that’s me!
• Nominate 15 other bloggers (I’ve kept to 10 as 15 seemed quite a lot)
• Inform them of their nomination via comment on their blog
• Post 7 interesting things about yourself.
Whether you join in or not, I just want you to know that I nominated you because I enjoy your blog and thought you would like to see it shared with some new readers.
I’d like to ask you a question. Is the avatar you use a drawing of yourself, or is it just a drawing you like? I also like your username: Trifocal. Good one.
The avatar is a portrait of John Stuart Mill. I imagine the original was an engraving. He was a 19th Century British philosopher many of whose views I share. I changed the picture a bit to give him a slight smile, which seemed suitable as he placed great emphasis on the value of well-informed happiness in living a good life. (Nor can I believe that the Victorians were all quite as gloomy as they look in their portraits and photographs!)
The name Trifocal is a sort of obscure joke. I wear (bifocal) spectacles and of course use a camera for the blog, so everything I show in the blog has been seen through three lenses; hence ‘Trifocal’.
It’s a clever name, even if you wear bifocals, because ‘trifocals’ do exist but in the U.S. they ‘blend’ the three planes and call them ‘progressives’ or ‘blended’. The trifocal is used to cover the middle visual field the bifocal does not cover.
Love the images that are building in my mind just from the description of your photgraphic project …
Pleased you enjoyed reading it 🙂
I love your tag line on reflection – and your intention to photograph your ‘stuff’ as a way to tell your story.
A few year’s ago when my mother passed away, we found ourselves pondering many things that she had that we wished we knew the story behind them and why she obviously treasured them. It made me realize that my own sons (now adults) will one day be faced with the same thoughts.
Your approach is a very thoughtful one!
So pleased you liked that Joanne. Neither of my parents left very much at all by way of physical objects, and I find the memories they left do get fainter and more uncertain as time goes on. I do agree with your point; isn’t it very often the way that the things you want to ask of people only occur to you when it is too late to get an answer?
What a wonderful idea. We are in the midst of decluttering here too. There is an accumulation of several generations’ ‘stuff’! The process is slow and exhausting but we continue to plod on.
I am very much enjoying your images – I looked through them all quickly but will look in more detail from time to time. I love the way you use light to show off the objects so beautifully.
Very kind- pleased you enjoy them. We are very lucky with the positioning of the house as far as light goes, and being at home all day helps too. I have to confess though that since writing this post a year ago our decluttering has been getting slower and slower. I suppose you always start with the obvious stuff, and then it gets complicated…
Complicated, indeed! Deciding which bits are to go, where, how, at a fair price, to someone who will value them rather than make a ‘quick buck’, not to mention the loaded emotions every piece carries!
Exactly. Perhaps the problem is that the things themselves carry a heavy freight of memories and feelings that we still value, even though we know we cannot hold on to the things themselves? I know many of the things shown in this blog have that importance for my wife; for me my books are very important. Many of them are a kind of concrete manifestation of my interests and concerns over half a century, so are not that easy to let go…
Of course, if you post pictures of your house and announce you are downsizing, that pretty much guarantees a bidding war on all the objects d’art you photograph. I am particularly fond of Mediterranean pottery and the color turquoise. (Despite my inability to spell the color without looking it up after several failures.)
Ahaah… maybe you have just found me a way of making money while avoiding paying Amazon anything 🙂
Life was fresh so were things we did buy some and got some from those who loved us more..then time passed we got old..things got torn or worn..that was the moment it was decided to do away with cluttering of those which were invaluable or priceless but were things…let them go..but wait a bit record them instead..keep them with me..and share with others ..so they can also see..what I must throw or give it away..day by day.
Nice way of putting it- thank you 🙂