Day 274- My Garden Of Neglected Things

We have a display cabinet that used to showcase pretty merchandise in a lifestyle store. It was offered to me when the store ceased business and would have gone to the garbage disposal man if I had said no. I simply could not allow that. Standing tall and clumsy in a corner of the walkway to the kitchen, holding mainly my art supplies and carelessly chucked materials, it was probably the least loved piece of furniture in my home. In fact, my housemate still hates it.

He calls it the chunky piece of junk and has been bugging me to throw it out. 

On the top shelf of this cabinet stood a dozen or so empty glass bottles. One or two of them have been there since 2006 when the cabinet first arrived. Over the years I have amassed a small collection of these bottles, some added after boozing with my girlfriends but most after nursing a couple of broken or lonely or confused hearts. Now these bottles, unlike the cabinet, were completely useless and not even particularly pretty. I kept them anyway, to serve as reminders, I thought. Truth is I can longer remember the occasions they were associated with.

So there they remained, on that top shelf , collecting dust and faded memories.

Stashed deep inside another cupboard, hidden in dirty plastic bags were bunches and bunches of plastic plants. The bulk of them were bought when I first started making miniatures, meaning these plastic plants and the plastic bags they came with were at least two years old, some even three. I wanted them for my Maharaja's palace, my tribal house, my firefly park.

Alas, it was a case of out of sight, out of mind 

because none of these plants were used in any of my projects. 

So 2 weeks ago, in between rusting gardening tools for the kurinji flowers and dirtying light-bulb bottles for the window sills of my tribal house , I decided it was time I clear some of those cobwebs.

I started the process by throwing away some of these things. There were not many of them because I kept thinking up excuses why they should stay. Like this metal woven cylinder that I could not even identify. I know though that it was an engine part of my old car, a vintage Alfa Romeo that has long gone to the scrap yard. Look at how they weaved those metal strips. What is it, do you know?

Then there were the broken branches and a couple of fallen fruits. I could not bear to throw them away when they looked so sweet on Flora's scallop shell.

And I just have to keep these tin cans for tea. They were from two mooncake festivals ago and I still remember why we got them, how it happened, what was said and who I was with.

You must have guessed by now that I was trying to create a tropical garden with a motley collection of neglected things, souvenirs from my past, presents for the present.

Tribal bowls from Africa, a trip I made more than 10 years ago. 

A wooden bottle canteen from the same trip.

And Win's present, a loud red box which he had bought from the salvation army thrift store. 

My brother knows me well.

It is fall now.

My favourite time of the year.

For the 1st time in my life, I see these glorious leaves in ways I have never seen before.

So I used them in my garden, as a canvas to pay tribute to the autumn colours and my friends.

Thank you, Amy, for showing me how.

Now if you ever visit, my garden in a display shelf is just around this corner.

Open the left most window of this walkway,

you'll see a garden with a great big tree.

Look through the same window from out there,

you'll find my garden with the bottled trees.

This garden is nowhere close to the other, not by a million miles,

but at least, with it, I can pretend I am a gardener.