{ Archaic }

My garden is a treasure trove. Really. You can find anything there. Our bonfire pit is piled high with old floorboards and bed slats, a hedgehog’s nest (don’t SOS, I would NEVER let my father make a hedgehog pie on the bonfire…never…I’m a vegetarian!), chipped ceramics and who-knows-what-else. Because I certainly don’t! We have pear trees, blackberry bushes, a hoarde of bluebells and grape hyacinths in spring, a small colony of brown-eyed Susans and a whole orchard to keep me happy. Plus a shed filled with paint cans of every hue under the sun, that smells absolutely gorgeous – of turpentine mixed with fading lavender. My favourite smell in the whole world!

 So yesterday my friend M and I were sitting in the orchard reading and just chatting really when we happened to gaze upon this old desk that has been sitting on the bonfire since we moved to our house, in 1994.  This desk goes way beyond 1994, however. According to the writing scrawled on the underside it belonged to a Miss Molly Cordelia Gilfitt (Cordelia obviously came back to haunt me!) in 1919. Can you believe it? Old is sad, and sad is happy for deep people, apparently…and I can see what that means. Knowing that Miss Molly is probably long gone now, but her desk lives on, made me feel so delighted.

The desk was chipped and bare and needed a good sanding, but there’s *nothing* a good lick of paint can’t fix. So M and I, we decided to give little Molly’s desk a tidy-up. We spent the whole day sanding and painting, careful to avoid the historic scribbles of Molly and friends on the bottom of the desk. And it looks lovely. Really. I can just imagine sitting in my beloved orchard with Miss Molly’s desk, doing my homework. I think it is Molly’s gift to me. So, of course, I just HAD to take pictures. Here they are.

And the desk itself, which I think looks wonderful…I can’t wait to find a little girl willing to pose with it for me. :) Miss Molly’s great-granddaughter? Anywho, I was just excited to find such a beautiful antique archaic little desk with such historical value – and with a STORY – and to be able to paint it and give it a little extra shine. I wish I had taken a ‘before’ and ‘after’ photograph but I neglected to. So.

Thanks for reading! Love Miss Lulu…and Miss Molly. ;)