SYLVIA OATES

Bev Nel's room

 

Our Kitchen

I am sitting in our kitchen – it is new that I can say ‘our’ as I have only recently moved here – moved in with Chris. It’s not a big room. I am sitting on an old 2 or 3 seater church pew, and will describe the room from this point. I am sitting at one end of our kitchen table, an old wooden table marked by years of cooking, eating, farm tools and implements. It usually has a mixture of work and kitchen stuff on it…

As I write there are only a few things on it but there are echoes of the past. In front of me on the table I see my car keys, my red recipe book, and some black gloves. There’s also a letter ready to be posted. Around the other three sides of the table are wooden chairs – I can see their backs.

I am at one end of the room against a wall – and looking in front of me I face a wall that has the main entrance to the house (on the left side of this wall). The door is an old heavy white painted door – again with years of scratches and marks…it has a heavy bolt at the top left, and various coats hanging on the back. This includes my red raincoat, Chris’ Levi jacket, and other farm work coats. Because it is an old door there are draughts – and I have just fitted some old pink carpet along the bottom of the door – which has made a huge difference! Above the door is a large clock face – with Roman numbers. It actually is a new clock made to look old. The time is 3.15pm.

Directly in front of me is a wooden cup holder (diagonally criss-crossed, one that folds), with an assortment of mugs all hanging in the same direction. Below this hangs an old brass thermometer. Below this is our grey/silver dishwasher. Upon the dishwasher is a blue metal lamp and our fruit basket…I can see the tops of pears and a lemon! Next to the dishwasher and into the corner of the room is the sink. The sink is a bit rundown – with white drawer fronts and brown doors below. One of the doors is hanging off a bit ! The tiles above the sink are a bit dull – beige – and with a few missing leaving a messy bit that is crying out to be painted! Above the sink is a window – about the width of the actual sink and 3.5ft high.

It is an old window – which needs replacing. The frame has been painted in pink – but because it is so old it is not weather proof – and so we have covered it with some old Perspex which is a bit cloudy and scratched. I can see through the window though – and can see a huge tree – which is in our garden. It fills the window frame.

Above the sink and running out from this corner of the room, along the wall to my right, are 3 wooden shelves approx 2.5 feet long. These shelves have the CD player and CDs on. On the lower shelf are boxes of tea – and one tea caddie in black tin. From this lower shelf (which is over the sink drainer) hangs an old white colander, pink handled scissors, and a table mat made of cork and in the shape of 5 fishes. Then there is in the middle of this wall a large window – approx 5 ft wide and 4.5 ft high. 

This is a lovely double glazed clear window with a fab view across the farm and fields. This shows the flat Lincolnshire landscape. I can see a winter sky, streaked with dark grey clouds across a light grey sky which is yellowing as I write this as the sun is low. A bit earlier the sun was shining through this window which was spectacular….as the clouds momentarily clear there is now a glow in the room from this low winter sun. We have a long green net bird feeder hanging from the window outside, where small Blue Tits visit and hang from to nibble away at the peanuts and fat balls. It’s great sitting here watching anything from 2 to 8 birds nibble away. I see our green grassy garden, and leafless hedgerow, reaching up into the sky as it is need of trimming…. In the near distance on the left a barn roof, and in the far distance more fields edged with trees.

Often these fields (and directly next to our garden) are filled with black and white cows. As it’s winter the cows are inside – but it would be fine to bring in this if you want to! This is a dairy farm and the cows are part and parcel of being here!

The window sill (inside) is a useful shelf…from left to right there is: a generous shapely rounded yellow jug with a light green handle, a tall pink orchid which is strangely always in flower!, two large pots of geraniums – in for the winter – one with red and one with pink flowers, both in pots too big for the window ledge but I couldn’t find another spot for them, next is a small white pestle and mortar, and then two large ceramic jars filled with the usual cooking utensils – wooden and metal spoons, fish slices, draining spoons and a rolling pin. There is also a garlic filled bowl and the salt cellar. Just below and to the right of the window is our dark green cooker with a couple of large cooking pots – one half filled with veg chilli for tonight! A red and orange striped T-towel hangs on the front of the cooker.

Below the window is a beautiful old wooden sideboard which has twisted wooden front edges. The top is made of marble – fab to roll out pastry on! This is the main food prep area. On the left of the side board is the metal kettle, and white toaster…sort of cluttered area with chopping boards, bread board, brown tea pot, silver coffee pot, pot of growing parsley, 2 cooking apples, wooden sugar box, white butter dish and egg box.

To my left is the walkway between the front entrance door and the rest of the bungalow. The wall is painted orange – but not a bright orange. More a peachy orange….. It’s feels a cluttered wall….from left to right there is a blackboard with a mixture of writings; numbers, measurements, dates, Yoga terms and descriptions…..all pieces of writings from before I was here…some of which feel sacred and never get rubbed out! Above this is a shelf with an old bowl and basket filled with paperwork bits and bobs. Then an old pair of weighing scales….and a few cobwebs. Then along the wall to the right of the blackboard is a lower two shelf unit on the wall – filled with CDs, a bowl of keys and pairs of sunglasses…also cluttered! A lovely photo of Chris surfing in a blue sea sits on the top shelf. Below this standing on the floor is a three shelf unit filled with paperback books. From the ceiling is a wooden clothes hanger – at the moment clear of any clothes – but there is a piece of mistletoe hanging from a light blue ribbon on the end of it.

The last space on this side of the room is the pantry door. It’s potentially a nice wooden door with 4 horizontal panels – but it could do with sanding. You can see in the past someone has had a dart board on it as there is a circle of tiny dart holes radiating outwards from a blank neat circle of wood. It looks like the sun with its wild sunrays spraying outwards. On the door over this dart hole area hangs my blue apron and a blue, red, yellow and green towel. Above the door is a cheap clock with a black surround.

In this last corner (which is between the pantry door on the left and the main entrance door on the right) is our cream plastic bin. Above this at chest height is a triangular shelf. The wooden shelf has a hand carved scalloped edge. This is also where the orange wall meets the white wall of the main entrance. On this shelf is a collection of Chris’ history….a mix of old photos of friends and family pinned to the walls, and an upside-down surfing helmet in turquoise filled with odd bits and pieces including an old stick, golfing tees, golf balls, nuts and bolts.

The floor of the kitchen is old blue vinyl/lino. Because we’re on a farm it is difficult to keep clean – shoes and boots are always left outside the door – but we have a dog that tramps mud into the house! Use all or bits of this writing to make your art! Good luck.