Thoughts from a simple Traveller - "Shabby Chic" and Eccentricity

(Photo by Tavarua)

A few years back in Clubland -  I overheard a conversation about "Shabby Chic" 


 Rather interesting concept "Shabby Chic"

I was amused????

"Shabby Chic" 

Well, is that what we call it???

Hmmm - a style of intelllectual and social overtone appering as an effortless understated elegance of times passed by.  Interiors that bring back life of an era of unsurpassed good quality and taste.  Well, now suddenly "someone" had assigned a old way of living/life a name and thought about reproducing it of how many grew up and lived. Pasted down from generation to generation with the imprint of old faded grandeur, peeling paint from untouched walls, faded old fabrics, the rich painted canvases, tooled leather, chipped and scuffed solid mahogny furniture, piles of old leather bound volumes, crumbling leather - an interior which had aged in its own way until it has reached that perfect comfort of plain simplicity and dignified old age.  

Aesthetic splendours  - eccentric untamed sophistication from the days of Under Canvas to Ancestral homes. Maybe it does not follow any pattern at all.  Perhaps it just follow the character of the person who lives there.


  Does it have to do with Eccentricity? We know that the Eccentrics do not care about what is in fashion, rules, criticism, money or time which are all of little concern for them. Their mind has a creative impulse as well as an uconforming attitude.  Sometimes definitely serious Eccentricity and sometimes making the best of what you had/have - when there were no money to repair,restore or to replace. 

"Shabby Chic" - This is and will always be an atmosphere that can never artificially be recreated.  "Shabby Chic" is a bourgeois concept.


Still - Interior Decoration is one of life's greatest creative pleasures.

African Bush Elephants in the Flower Garden

 (Photos by Tavarua)

From Africa to Holland and the beach

(Photos by Tavarua)

Soon I will travel back to a "Travellers Nest" to pack up and move to another continent for a few years to come.  This time a lot will be left behind never to be seen again - with their own history they will move on to someone else - old chesterfields (and they are perfectly distressed by old age), wingback chairs, tables, a fishing trawl door (which has been one of my tables - you can find the exact one at the Explorers Club in Chicago), books - books - books, oriental rugs, silver, china and glass, suitcases and trunks etc. etc. 

 I will minimize to 5-8000 pounds in weight.

A few things will follow to my next "Nest" - those oriental rugs at least 40 and a small library of 600 books, roorkhee chairs, a few tables, cameras, leather and canvas trunks and bags, engravings, spears, skulls and horns.  Well, simplicity, simplicity ...

You asked - Home? is within...

Simplicity does not precede complexity.

Choose your own path and do not fear the thorns - keep walking.  It is your thoughts and act of the moment which will create your future.  

Ancient Sanskrit Poem never to be forgotten;

Look to this day for it is life the very life of life.

 In its brief course lie all the realities and truths of existence the joy of growth the splendor of action and the glory of power.

For yesterday is but a memory and tomorrow is only a vision.

But today well lived makes every yesterday a memory of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day....

Living Life - Loving Food

Simplicity is an acquired taste.

Photograhy produces pure simplicity

Grilled Sea Bass

The Dance of the Giraffe

       

(Photos by Tavarua)

       

Cape Horn

(Photos by Tavarua)

The African Bush Elephant

(Photos by Tavarua)