“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

While we’re off scrambling for more or less permanent shelter, here are some fun things from my parents house that I thought you guys might like.

If there is a theme for their decorating, Dad says it’s Anthropology. Dad’s family was in the oil business and Mum’s father was a contractor in Japan after WWII, and then Dad went into government/military service himself. We’ve spent two full generations moving constantly (I’m campaigning hard to make it a third with Jeff and myself, and one brother is going into the military as well). The result is that we have a rather nice collection of hodgepodge in the British style: we picked up stuff wherever we went and now display it on the walls. And floors. And wherever we have space, really.

Mum collects blue willow patterned antique china, so it’s all over the house. At the top is a Samoan (I believe) war club and to the left of the painting is a handmade birdcage.

Dad’s eyeglass case rests on an old Japanese wooden pillow with two Balinese baskets, a Chinese cricket cage, and a betel nut cracker in the shape of a horse, all on an antique obi. Betel nuts are common all over the Pacific and are chewed as mild stimulants, a cheap sort of drug since they literally grow on trees. Unfortunately they have a lot in common with chewing tobacco, especially when it comes to causing cancer.

Balinese mask in the shape of a frog.

Mum’s other collectable, antique pewter. These are a couple of antique farm hutches that sit in the kitchen.

A traditional Chinese folding screen. In our case it’s used as a wall hanging, although I think it would make a spectacular headboard!