The garden shed of my paternal home has a story of its own. It's older than I am, and has served multiple purposes before it ended up as a shabby storing place for lawn movers and old wooden skies.
I still have the hope that it may be saved for future generations.
Even though wood is the most common building material in Norway, and we have easy access to wood almost all over the country, there is also a long tradition for reusing building material. Our shed served originally as a double outdoor toilet (no water) for the church to which my parents belonged. It was torn down when indoor plumming was available in the early thirties. However, the material was not torn away, but reclaimed for a hen house by the family who built my paternal home in 1945. Food was still sold with rations cards even till the mid fifties, so keeping hen was an ordinary mean of food supply.
My parents moved in as the builders emigrated to America in 1951, and since then the house and the shed has belonged to the our family. My mother was not keen on keeping poultry, so the shed became a storage house, and later on, when I was able to play on my own, it became my playhouse. Since the house had two doors (one for men, theo other for women), my friends and I had two semidetached houses and years of fun playing with our dolls, using berries and veggies from the garden as "food" for our "families".
I guess I played there until I was twelve.
I was a lucky, happy child.
The flowers are still blooming this second day of September 2014, even though it's been some years now since my mother had her garden tools in the shed.
Linking up with Roan in Rubbish Tuesday.
http://rubbishbyroan.blogspot.no/
17 comments:
What a wonderful post! You are one lucky girl to have had a playhouse. I always wanted one. The flowers are beautiful as is your mother.
Beautiful post dear sister,It brought these words to my mind... “But why had he always felt so strongly the magnetic pull of home, why had he thought so much about it and remembered it with such blazing accuracy, if it did not matter, and if this little town, and the immortal hills around it, was not the only home he had on earth? He did not know. All that he knew was that the years flow by like water, and that one day men come home again.”
― Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again.
Thank you for showing us your wonderful shed that became a playhouse for you as a child. I loved seeing the flowers and viewing the picture of your mother.
Wonderful weathered table and bench. Tom The Backroads Traveller
Oh, this post was so beautiful! I loved that the wood for the shed was reclaimed from other things; that it became your playhouse and that you have wonderful memories of it from then, and from the years as a garden shed for your mother. Very, very sweet post! And gorgeous photos! Loved the honeysuckle particularly.
Nothing "rubbish" do I see about "Rubbish Tuesday, Felisol. Loved these photos...and began to "see" myself as a long-ago garden shed, turned over time, into a "shabby storage shed".
Then "Something" happened, and my shed got renovated, new paint job, old but GOOD used wood, etc. AND, saved for future generations.
Deserved? NO! Grateful? YESSS!
Felisol, you so perfectly wrote my story. Thank you.
P/S. I confess to not having become an avid bible reader...but this piece in your right sidebar, Psalm 139, is SURE a pretty powerful piece of poetry....
Also, I could SMELL honeysuckle, that IS what they are, right???
What an honourable memory of your mother... that she was "always busy and always caring." Those words brought tears to my eyes, perhaps because I wish to develop such a sweet, God-honouring character as well.
It sounds like you had the ideal playhouse as a girl! The history of the shed is so interesting and I really hope it will be saved and restored for future generations.
What a fun time you had in your playhouse, and it is so great the wood was re-used. The flowers are gorgeous and I like the photo of your mom.
I like your post.
Such a heartwarming story, Elise and so rich in history. The picture of your mother in the doorway is haunting.
I should have commented on each guest like Steve E does. I have to limit my writing to one, dear Steve E. You mentioned my favourite Psalm, 139th, and I was on fire.
steve E , you are for certain not reclaimed material, but a loved and seen wonder from the minute you were knitted in your mother's womb.
"3 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee."
There are a zillion things I do not understand about life, about the world we live in.I know God does, and for the most I leave it to him. I just try to sweep the little corner of the place where I live, and even that is too much, were it not for the help of our Lord and his book of love, wisedom and comfort. "I found your words and I ate them," the Scripture says. The Paslms are an endless well of comfort and enlightening to people of all times. I've heard them sung by devoted Jews and I have soared with my Benedictian monks singing them in the Gregorian way. I have listened to my father's mellow and longing voice as he read the psalm 90.
Oh, Steve E, wonderboy, you for sure is a castle built of spirit everlasting.
There's still so many treasures "hidden in the dark" to quote Isaiah.
Thank you for sharing these. Love the one of your mother.
<dear Amy B. I tried to leave a comment on your old rickshaw picture, but since I am not a G? they would not admit me on your blog. So sorry about that. I liked your photoes.
Thank you so much for visiting my blogs! The tile one and the information one are both non-active, but I leave them there anyway. However, my quilting blog and of course A Colorful World are still active! I appreciated your kind comment about my creativity. I didn't contribute to Rubbish Tuesday this past week but visited everyone else...will be contributing again soon! Have a wonderful week!
Certainly this is not rubbish... with all the memories you have shared so beautifully. My heart is warmed and touched at the several uses this little house has to its credit - an outhouse, a henhouse, a little child's playhouse, a garden shed... What beautiful memories, and even the photo you shared of your mom, and the garden around her... yes, dreamlike. Thank you, Felisol. This is a very good series, and I have enjoyed reading it. I can feel your heartbeat with every word you wrote. Much love, Lidia
Dear Felisol,
What a time you've had and how well you are handling it all.
I'm sorry I've been so immersed in my own trials to have not followed your blog postings closer.
Thank you for your insights, experiences, and advice. I think we are on the same wavelength.
Jesus is Lord even when things suck.
John
Amen, my Pilgrim fellow, John C.
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