My kitchen table - my life

This was my kitchen table yesterday and I realised that it summed up my life so well and what I hope to achieve on a daily basis.  Let me take you on a journey round my kitchen table/life ...

Starting top left and going clockwise:

Bowl of bread dough rising - this one is pumpkin bread and it turned out really tasty.  The sharp eyed among you may notice the dough is covered with plastic and you would be right.  It is a bag that had tortilla wraps in it and after being used several times to freeze things it split so got downgraded to a bread cover.

My 13 year old Nokia phone - yup, I really do have an original Nokia and it is at least 13 years old.  Dare I ask how many phone upgrades you have had in 13 years?

2 tea towels - these came from my Mum's house after we cleared it out.  We tried to salvage as much as possible of things that could not be given to charity or sold on/recycled.



My bag - now if you think my phone is old, this bag is around 20 years old.  It was a present from my sister in law and was hand made in Nepal.  It was so well make I reckon it will last me a good many years more.

Bowl of satsumas - bowl from Mum's house (our cat broke our last fruit bowl) and the satsumas came in a cardboard carton.

4 empty glass bottles - these had organic fruit juice in them and are now used when I buy milk straight from the local farm.

A bowl with the last of the peppers from the polytunnel - these will probably go in the chutney (see tomatoes, below and the bowl is a traditional teurgoule (Normandy Rice Pudding) bowl that I picked up at a boot fair. 

Torch - this one is rechargeable so has no need for batteries.

Bottle of olive oil - glass bottle, French oil ... and hiding behind the bottle:

4 pots of hedgerow jelly made from foraged fruits.

Rivals for Catan (card game) - we love playing card and board games and this is a real favourite.  Tom had an afternoon without lessons and as it was chucking it down we decided a game was in order.  I just wish the packaging inside was not made of plastic.

Cod liver oil and evening primrose - from an eco point of view these are a TOTAL FAIL.  They contain palm oil, come in plastic pots and are probably from farmed fish.  But I have bad joints and without these I also suffer badly with my back.

Last of the tomatoes - I got a fabulous crop this year.  They were slow to get going but luckily we had a lovely mild autumn so I only harvested the last of them this week.  I am hoping those on the table will ripen and those in the bowl are destined to be chutney and tomato and chilli jam.

Butternut squashes - these grew in the polytunnel from some seeds I chucked in really late.  Not a great harvest but they'll make a meal or too.  Luckily my outdoor pumpkins did really well so we will get more pumpkin bread!

Pot stand - to protect the table when I bung hot pans of food on it.  It was second hand from somewhere.

Knife - I have had this knife ages and it is still sharp.

My tea pot - even before I learnt teabags contain plastic I had switched to loose green tea as I much prefer it.  Now my other half also uses leaf tea for his builder's black tea.

Oh and the table and chairs need a mention too.  The chairs came from a friend who no longer needed them and our previous ones were in a very poor state thanks to a naughty Labrador who chewed the legs when she was a youngster!

And the table.  I reckon this table is around 80-120 years old.  I know it was my grandparents and as their parents lived in the same farmhouse it may even have been my great grandparents.  They arrived at the farm in 1881.  The table was originally just wood but at some point, probably in the 50's, it got a new Formica top.  It passed to my parents and now on to me.  I wonder if either of the boys will use it at a later date?

Over the year this table will have seen many changes and welcomed many people around it.  I wonder what stories it could tell of the lives of these who used it, studied at it, ate around it?

Does your kitchen table tell the story of your life?