Ornate

“Partial culture runs to the ornate, extreme culture to simplicity.”

Christian Nestell Bovee

It’s Christmas time again so, I thought time to go to garden centers to see their special decorations. Most shops have dedicated spaces for their holiday decorations. Sort of Disney-like theme park where you can walk for hours.

I started with the one closes to where I live. It’s a walking distance from my place and ideal for a Sunday walk. Besides, they won an award for the best garden center in the country for two years in a row.

When I came in, this scene greeted me at the door. I was perplexed.  I thought:  What it got something to do with Christmas? I know every year the decorations for the season are getting further and further away from the traditional ones we all know and grew up with and I appreciate some of the changes though they are not my style. A little bit of creativity won’t hurt anyone. But lately… I simply have no word for it but it reminds me of what Milton said a long time ago:

“But who is this, what thing of sea or land, Female of sex it seems, That so bedeck’d, ornate, and gay, Comes this way sailing Like a stately ship Of Tarsus, bound for th’ isles Of Javan or Gadire, With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, Sails fill’d, and streamers waving, Courted by all the winds that hold them play, An amber scent of odorous perfume Her harbinger.”

The Space To Write

“A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image.”

― Joan Didion

Where do you write? Do you prefer blogging on your laptop in a coffee shop? Are you productive in a quiet room, door closed, away from civilization? Today, describe the space where you write. Or, if you don’t have a dedicated place, what is your ideal setting? Consider these questions to shape your post:

• What are your writing habits?
• What equipment or supplies do you use to write?
• What do you need and want in a physical space?

Last time I shared my room in our country house where I used to pen my thoughts. Today I will show you my other sanctuary. A home office in the suburb. The place is more cluttered now than when I took the pictures. That time we didn’t install yet the desktop and my new laptop wasn’t there yet. In between, my old one decided it got enough and simply died so, I had to purchase a replacement.

The feature image above is the place I go when I have to get out and gather my thoughts, to have some respite from blogging/writing and to conjure up ideas for my next posts. Nature is the best antidote for over thinking, fatigue and cleansing your writer’s palate for the next course. In nature, I always find peace…