Sunday, October 26, 2008

There is never enough room in our kitchen cabinets. Mostly they're too high, especially for dearest, who is just a little over five feet tall, and who points out frequently, in many houses, that cabinets are put up mostly by men but are used mostly by women. This means a third to half of the upper cabinets are out of reach for all but the tallest of us.

And then there is the fact that the kitchen is not just for meals, but also for flower arranging. We're not formal about it, but every year sees frosts or storms that cause an exodus of blooms from the garden, seeking shelter in the house, and they must all be put up in vases. Sometimes we have over fifty scattered around the house at those times.

And like nearly everything else in this house, the vases have stories. The Orangina bottle found in the stone wall at the top of Baou Ste. Jeannet in Provence... The patent medicine bottle found in foundation stones we used to build the gardens, which says that, "Children cry out for more!" The tiny cut crystal salt shaker we used in our first apartment... The triangular bottles which a neighbor gave us for Christmas, filled with home made limoncello and orangecello, which later made that month's neighborhood poker game so memorable...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can I relate to the height of cabinets! I'd love bottom cabinets only with a few shelves for decorative pieces up above. Oh, and someone to come in a dust those shelves about once a month.

Unknown said...

I can relate to the lemoncello and orangecello. My bottles were both square, but the memories from that poker game are just as vivid.

Cabinets are a compromise solution that never has satisfied me. The thing is that Kitchen design is entrenched in archaic memories/traditions and seldom challenged in any meaningful way.

We are so used to dealing with the shortfalls and difficulties of our homes that we can't see that there is a problem, much less a solution.

Alex

L'Adelaide said...

I so relate to the stupid cabinet problem! I built this house and STILL ended up with cabinets of which 2/3 are too high for me! I still don't know how that happened excepting the maker was a very tall man!

I remember my grandmother having a vase cabinet that reminded me of yours. Since moving, I have managed to weed all but the best but now I wish I didn't weed quite so thoroughly.....

Steve Emery said...

DCup - dusting... one of the most mind numbingly boring chores. I like your decorative items idea except for that. Moominlight would just like all the cabinets to be lower.

Alex - I'm with you on not seeing problems anymore much less considering answers. I think kitchens would be much more unique - reflecting the individual needs and cooking processes of the owners - if we were free from so many traditions and preconceived and marketed solutions.

Linda - It's always a shame when we weed too much, and then miss things later. We did it with books and records during a phase when we were younger... and we still miss some of those items.