PRETTY BOXES

An emergency blip. I spent too much time waiting for a buzzard to reappear. Himself saw it but unfortunately, the buzzard saw him as well. It flew off and remained too far away to photograph.

So then, pretty boxes. These are things we bought. The one on the left is a Georgian candle box and is made of pine and mahogany. The really lovely thing about it cannot be seen until you lift the lid and there are the finger marks of the person or persons who lifted the lid to extract a candle over and over again. They were right-handed.

I saw it in an auction calalogue and bought it by telephone bidding. My limit was £30. The bid got to £30 quite fast. I asked the man on the other end of the telephone if it was worth going on. "Oh, ma'am," he breathed, "it is beautiful." I bid another five and got it. It is the first thing I would grab if the house caught on fire. It really is a beautiful thing with the craftsman's skill very evident. The back is hand hewed.

The one on the right is a classic Scottish salt box. It is made of boxwood and mahogany and therefore quite posh. At a guess, it's early Victorian. Himself bought it at the Rait Antiques Centre in Scotland. He doesn't remember how much he paid for it.

For the record: Hazy sun, windy, +11 C. Sunrise: 7:40; sunset 5:23. Only three days of the hunting season left.