Upheaval - ps

Plus ca change, and all that! While searching my photo files I found these from November 2011, during (or after, or before) a previous upheaval in the flat. It's amazing that four rooms can be the site of so much intermittent chaos, on their (eventual) way to being the ideal refuge - comfortable, calm, welcoming, self-maintaining. 

A sparse version of the living room, awaiting a second chair
(and sofa, and revamped bookshelves)

In 2011 Tom was starting out on his carpentry and decorating business, practising his skills at, on, and in the home - notably with a workshop setup in my studio (mothers know when to make sacrifices - and keep out of the way!). Now he takes his tools and sets up at the job, and has an efficient tool-storage system for between jobs.

What I take from this retrospection is the notion that Home is always in flux ... yet constant. When I go to visit the current scene of upheaval, I know that underneath the heaps of objects in the other three crowded rooms, waiting patiently to be restored, is a functional, comfortable way of living in the space ... and that the space and what it holds isn't set in stone.

What the photos bring to my musings is a chance to inspect the captured moment in time. The one red chair ... the trunk used then as a seat and currently as a coffee table ... the unchanged items on the wall of the studio, the constant piles on the floor ...