One of the upsides of returning to a stateless form is that I now have a little more time to spend with my late octogenarian parents. Both are fading, but furiously independent: my mother dashing about everywhere and my father complaining that he didn't get picked for the England T20 squad. The extra time meant I went over and broke up an old garden table, put up two bird boxes and repaired a dining room chair. During the post-jobs tea and biscuits my mother stated, 'there's really too much stuff in this house'. I agreed but didn't comment further. About 15 years ago they had flown in the face of logic and instead of heading toward a 2-bed bungalow by the sea they upsized to a rambling four-bedroom house in the sticks. My protestations of that time have now become reality and they have filled the house with a decade's worth of impulse buys. My mother bristled when I said that there would be a skip required at some point. This just reinforced my thinking.
What's all this got to do with modelling? Well, if you replace my mother's gardening tools with modelling bits you soon have many of my modelling friends' houses. I am determined not to do that, determined to shuffle off with a cupboard empty of projects that are un-done. Capital stock such as locos in boxes is one thing, but we all have tobacco tins and margarine tubs full of bits that might come in useful. This is what I'm working towards and there are one or two projects formulating in my head that will take advantage of this. The sorted out seated figures above, some of which have been in stock for possibly decades, are destined to be painted up and assigned to coaching stock - something that I rarely do. The key, I believe, is consolidation of ideas and sensible planning. We are all heading in one direction, and it makes sense to leave as little as possible in the way of all the supplementary bits and bobs that are so hard to deal with by those with the sweeping up broom.
(Veuillez pardonner mon français.)
ReplyDeleteNe vous moquez pas avec trop de volume, car un jour cela pourrait aussi être vous.
CP
Gilly's parents are pretty much the same age but are in the same 3-bedroom (well, 2 and a loft conversion) cottage they've lived in for around 30 years. They decided to move last year, got rid of a lot of stuff and then...stayed put,
ReplyDeletehaving figured out that having a stair lift fitted was cheaper and less hassle.
I got rid of a huge amount of stuff prior to moving in here, but we've both since been acquiring more stuff, despite the plans to move north and west. This place has plenty of space in theory, but in practice a lot of it isn't all that useful.
At least the loft has been properly boarded out now so stuff can be stashed and, with any luck, found again...
I suspect that wherever we end up, given that both of us have multiple hobbies there will be stuff, lots of it. From the railway modelling point of view, trying to use up existing stock before buying new/more is obviously a good thing.
Perhaps being into multiple scales doesn't help as there's duplication of some things. I have been trying to box stuff up by scale/genre which works up to a point. Having more time to get some modelling done would help...perhaps!