There's a fixture that many of us in the UK have on a Sunday night - a distinctive theme tune and a predictable content, but for those of us who love the Antiques Roadshow, the evening would not be the same without it . At the moment we are being shown repeats, due to no recording having taken place in the last few months, but one of the benefits of getting older is that one does not (ahem) remember things quite as clearly as one used to - so that watching a repeat can be as fresh as if one has never seen the programme in the first place !
One item I did, however, remember was this quirky little bird, which the presenter described as being “ A Muranese ” creation. Crafted on the island of Murano, just off the greater island of Venice, City of my Heart, and soon as I saw it and heard the description, I was transported once again to that magical and mysterious place. I was reminded of the lunch my dear friend and I had on Murano, when we retraced the steps of two ladies who had travelled there in 1906. Like the ladies before us, we travelled by train and although we stayed in a small modern apartment while we was there, we also were invited for high tea at the same five star hotel on the Canale Grande in which they had stayed .
I'm often somewhat envious of family and friends whom I consider ‘real’ travellers, but I really should not be, as when I recount the places to which I have travelled, I realise what a rich store of memories I also have. And what a place Venice and the islands are to gather those memories! All over the islands, wandering around ancient churches filled with glorious works of art; visiting the glass museum on Murano (a place which I consider one of the great museums of the world), mouth agape at some of the exquisite artistry expressed in the most difficult medium of glass; memories of wandering the backstreets of Murano after our somewhat bibulous lunch, catching my foot on a risen paving stone edge, falling base over apex and being more amused by the expression on my friend’s face than disconcerted at the fact that I may well have broken my knee cap! In fact, although I had a technicolour bruise reaching halfway down my leg, there was no serious damage done - except to my dignity. I managed to get upright again and hobble around for the next couple of days, before making our way home (again by train, not by air ambulance rescue, as I am sure Elizabeth feared would be the case at the time).
Ah, memories, memories 😊
Memories of a more prosaic kind were stimulated today by this Victorian chamber pot on my window sill, which I use as a plant pot holder and which I acquired several years ago from a car boot sale. The memories elicited were really just of that very pleasant activity - of browsing around boot sales, which I haven't done for several years now. It just reminded me of how much I miss doing such a thing, and made me wonder why I have not done so for such a long time? Perhaps that's something I ought to schedule into my timetable in the near future, though being in close proximity with crowds is something I'm still a little wary of for the present.
The pot also gives me an opportunity to introduce “a little bit of Blue and White” which no 'Month in the Country' can do without, depicting a merry couple on their own 'Transports of Delight' - though I don't think it's an item which will be appearing on the Antiques Roadshow any time soon!
Journal prompt
Things are important – some of them form part of our identity simply because they are repositories of memories. Do you have any items from the past which are your own 'Transports of Delight', reminding you of places you have been or people you have known? Describe it/them in your Journal, include a picture if possible, and allow your mind to wander through the memories associated with the artefact. Return to your writing on another occasion, to add the recollections which may well come up over time.
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