Ship of Fools: What can you see?

Thread: What can you see? Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

I love this question as it gives a little snapshot of people’s lives.

I can see two snoozing dogs, a black Lab on a chair and a Golden Retriever puppy on the floor. The table is covered with homemade soap ready for sale at a Christmas fair. The washing up from breakfast remains undone on the sink and a pile of mending also undone on a chair (mending caused by said puppy). There are three tin foil wrapped baked potatoes by the oven ready to pop in when it’s time.

It’s dark outside but new coffee machine glows and beckons.

🙂

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

I can see the computer screen on which I am typing this; the little internet-cafe cubicle that I am sitting in; headphones hanging on the glass wall of the cubicle; and the bottle of Seagram's sparkling water next to me.

Looking up from the cubicle, I can see a no-smoking sign(or dubious effectiveness)on a pillar; and farther away, a drawing(or some such representation) of the Marx Brothers on the wall. (I would be willing to bet that no more than a dozen of the people who have ever set foot in this place know who the Marx Brothers were.)

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Two pages from a Japanese clothing catalogue c 1902, 4 pastels of Scottish or Irish landscapes, one watercolour ditto and a Tibetan thangka. A few hundred books, a basket of knitting, a TV, a husband and 3 pot plants.

Posted by M. (# 3291) on :

Hotel room tv, mirror and wardrobe.

Papers for the seminar I'm doing tomorrow. Stupid cushions that I've thrown off the bed (why do they put umpteen pointless cushions on beds in hotels?)

M.

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :

From my chair in the den with a view to the kitchen through the door. Glow of red light button telling me portable oil heater is on low, autumn leaves in vase on kitchen table are turning brown and dropping and need replacing. apples waiting to be cut this afternoon for Mr Image's birthday pie. ( he does not like cake) The trash can is full and needs to go out during a break in the rain storm, dog walking through room on her way to the back of the house. Out the den window the garden looks green and happy from the rain and the leaves on the fruitless mulberry tree are a deep yellow. The plants on the window sill need water. A prayerbook is on the table to my left with a copy of "Letters to Jacob," by Fr. John Julian. All of that seen without moving from my chair.

Posted by Sipech (# 16870) on :

MI6, the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and The Oval. Plus, the inside of a London bus.

Posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider (# 76) on :

Telly and a beer glass which is too empty but for which there is little justification for refilling. Besides I'll be up all night. You know what it's like; first couple of pints are fine, then you break the seal as it were and it's back to the khazi every quarter pint thereafter. I think the flushing's good for the urinary system though.

At least it's homebrew, so it only costs be about 50p a pint to make and widdle away. Ah, you never buy beer. You only rent it. And pay capital gains tax in nocturnal widdle trips.

[ 20. November 2017, 21:53: Message edited by: Karl: Liberal Backslider ]

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

Two separate knitting projects. Three separate items to be sewn on the sewing machine. One pad of scribbles and five calendar year printouts relating to a novel, a map taped to the console depicting the area of an entirely different novel. Eye vitamins, prunes, and three separate sets of reading glasses of varying strength. Two pairs of scissors (fabric and yarn), three crochet hooks, four or five double-pointed knitting needles, and an entire storage unit full of circular ones. Many, many balls or yarn, too many to count. A large art-glass jar holding two dozen straight knitting needles.

Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :

A bookcase, crammed with books. A video cabinet jammed with DVDs. A rack of audio CDs, but really not many of them. And 5 mechanical clocks, all telling the same time, more or less, give or take.

My sweet cat Lissa is asleep on my bed upstairs, so I can't see her now. [Frown]

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

The dog and cat, out the darkened window, snow
a cup of tea, a dish of crisp-and her
beside me in the living room
O, cup of tea were heaven earth just now

Posted by Ohher (# 18607) on :

My computer screen, a jar of pens and pencils, a shelf of books, family photos, a calendar, my To Do Or Not To Do list, a glass of water, a little container of catnip for Bibi, my three-color, bobtail cat curled up in the rocking chair just visible out of the corner of my eye.

Posted by Hedgehog (# 14125) on :

Update! Sweet Lissa has made an appearance, so now I can both see her and pet her as she snuggles up next to me...

...and goes back to sleep. I tell you, if she doesn't get her 16 hours of sleep, she is just no good the next day.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

Very little. I am outside on the patio typing on a laptop which glows in the darkness. Hot flashes have driven me into the cold away from the warm house at my side. A few windows, a line of faint garden lights, email, and Thou--oh, such bliss were heaven enough enow!

Posted by mousethief (# 953) on :

A dark window. Paintings and photos. Books. More books. A pen cup. Lots of wires and cables. A SAD light. A fan. A back scratcher whose handle is in the form of a bat. And of course a laptop computer.

Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on :

Lots and lots of clutter. A pile of weekly church bulletins (which I edit) covering about the last year since I last had a clear out. Church Flower rota, 2 calendars, framed certificate from BT chairman thanking me for over 20 years service to the company, a certificate from ebay congratulating me on reaching a feedback score of 100, a poster depicting chocolate wrappers from the 1960s. Printout of half composed music. Digital camera. Desktop computer. Paper rainbow flag from LGBT staff network of the County Council. Box of printer cartridges which do not fit the current printer. And lots more clutter. This is the 'study' a room that allows me to dump things around my desk and not move them for years [Hot and Hormonal]

[ 21. November 2017, 07:43: Message edited by: Gracious rebel ]

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Rather boringly, a fake fireplace, a television set, a sofa, four houseplants (one virtually extinct), and a view out into a gloomy dank garden (with the washing whirligig prominent in the foreground).

Posted by Cathscats (# 17827) on :

A rather cluttered desk - but I know where everything is. A black and white cat asleep in a rocking chair. Bookcases on two sides and a cupboard which is just a little too full to close. To my left is the window, a view of houses and trees, Scots pines prominently, and leafless silver birches, and the road which will become the Road to the Isles threading its way through it all. Today, no sun, no snow, no movement in the branches but yes, there is the red squirrel practising acrobatics.

Posted by magicroundabout (# 18869) on :

My laptop, the detritus left over from a hurried breakfast with two kids, a pile of washing I'm supposed to hang up before I leave home to go to my office. And...

...THE TOTALISER ON THE SHIPYARD SITE !!!!!

[Smile]

Posted by Stejjie (# 13941) on :

My desk, which is covered in papers, a Bible, my mobile, PC monitor and speakers, an uneaten Snickers bar and a mug of (not very good) coffee - oh, and an empty water bottle that has been there for far too long.

To my left, another computer desk with two Commodore Amiga computers on it (an Amiga 500 and Amiga 1200 if you're interested, both bought in the past year, both of which I got into trouble from Mrs Stejjie for buying), a Sega Mega Drive tucked away underneath and a Samsung LCD tv to play them on. So, retro computers & gaming, then...

To my right, the stairs down the loft where I am currently to the rest of the house. Outside, grey skies.

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Cathscats:
A rather cluttered desk - but I know where everything is.

This. I was going to take a photo and post it, but then I decided I was too ashamed.

Amongst the various mugs are my watch - removed for ease of typing - my backup mobile, my phone having died last week; a new phone awaiting the arrival of a nano SIM card; a strange flannel with a paper band around it commemorating the death of a Thai friend's father, perched there while I wonder what to do with it.

Unusually for this part of the world, the sky is currently the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

My living room table stacked with various papers relating to our next PCC meeting, along with items I am taking for my stall at our Christmas Bazaar this Saturday.

Outside the window the big cherry tree on the pavement has nearly lost all its leaves which have blown into heaps on my forecourt, and my next self imposed task is to sweep them up and put into bags to make leaf mould for my garden!

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

My desk. Thirty A4 box files, painted the same colour as the wall to make them blend in. Twenty-eight other boxes of various sizes, painted likewise and labelled "Chargers" "Highlighters" "Envelopes" "Black pens" "Blue pens" "Other pens" etc etc. My husband describes these painted boxes and files as "The Wonderwall of O.C.D."

Two bookcases, the one to my left full of books relevent to my subject, the one to the right general reading matter. A mug of coffee. Handcream. Pens. My dressing-gown hanging on a hook on the door. Family photos. A wooden pot made by my late grandfather. Two small handmade glazed pots, which were a Ship Secret Santa, and a wooden loving spoon, ditto.

If I turn 90 degrees I see autumn trees silhouetted against a grey sky and steady rain.

Posted by wild haggis (# 15555) on :

In front of the patio doors, on the floor, I can see my pile of folders and books ready for tonight's Welsh lesson. Outside, the patio is soggy and damp with a sparrow hopping around looking for a tasty grub.
The coffee cup my husband left is sitting on a small table between 2 arm chairs. His slippers are beside another table with a spider plant on it. Are they ready to do a dance? The slippers might be able to, but the husband can't! The spider plant could well dance when no one is watching!
Beside me on the sofa is my diary and a folder, ready for me lift when I go out to do my stint of mentoring at the local secondary school later.
Oh, there's a coal tit on the bush at the end of my very small garden. Most of the trees now have no leaves but there is one, hanging over the fence from next door, that has greenish, red firey colours.Soon the colour will be gone and it will be bare branches.
Yippee, here comes a shaft of sunlight!

Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :

Looking out of the study window I can see white panicles of catalpa flowers against grey skies. On the window sill, a Consol solar jar for power blackouts and three scented candles. On the study bed my ageing Great Dane, farting noiselessly. Small dogs asleep at my feet.

Bookcases of contemporary fiction, art criticism, cookbooks, academic textbooks on architecture, media studies and theology, a painting easel. A large handthrown ceramic mug of cooling English Breakfast tea next to me on the old yellowwood table that serves as a desk. Laptop, Samsung Tablet, old landline phone that buzzes and crackles in wet weather. Desktop lamp, ugly. Botanical art and a reproduction Gerhard Richter on the wall to my left. A small antique mirror propped up on dust-gathering old Roman missals and a copy of the Raccolta. On the floor in the corner, two ‘ukhamba’ African calabash clay pots and a walking stick carved from imbuia, chewed by some puppy years ago. On a smaller bookcase, a cutting in water from some rare pelargonium I am trying to identify.

Where did all this stuff come from? Why don't I dust or declutter? *self-revelatory angst*

Posted by Sarasa (# 12271) on :

A computer screen on a desk, an Alma-Tadema print on the wall and a printer. Looking round there is a bed, a chest of drawers an art nouveau fireplace and sheets drying on an airer. Outside i can see the pretty houses opposite, which would be even more lovely if there weren't cars whizzing by in-between. I love looking out of the window and seeing the school children, students and various members of the public walking past though.

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

My little Den has cream wooden walls, relieved by dark green-painted trim.

I can see the computer screen, and several shelves of BOOKS, including all the novels of Charles Dickens, and a goodly selection of detective stories by Freeman Wills Crofts.

On the wall is a map of Middle-Earth, and an original painting by a former neighbour, a professional artist/garden designer. It cost me lots of £££, but it's an Original, and will be worth a lot more after my Death (and/or hers - may both be long-delayed!).

IJ

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :

Apart from the laptop -

A really quite appalling amount of desk clutter, too much to detail. Edited highlights include a pad of post-it notes, four tubes of paint, some drawing ink, a holding cross, a pack of oil pastels, some pens stuffed into an old Uncle Joe's Mint Balls tin, a pack of playing cards from the New York New York Casino, Las Vegas, and a set of headphones.

On my windowsill: an icon of the Virgin and Child, some interesting shells, a pewter tankard that belonged to my Dad, which now holds some of my paintbrushes, a tiny painting of a woman in a red robe which a friend gave me, and a locket and small jewellery box that belonged to my Mum.

Outside the window: two streetlamps shining through the trees.

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

I give this a try but it is quite complicated.

Working outwards

My computer

A pile of notebooks with my mobile phone on top, electrical wires, a pile of papers, a desk easel, a box of tissues and a clutter of bits of paper, my laptop bag

A bookcase with books higgedly-piggedly on it due to two shelves having partially collapsed, assorted upright chairs around my living room table, a glass fronted display cabernet with assorted items in on top of which is a dish with candles in, a vase, a mirror and another vase with artificial flowers in and finally a dead weeping fig and a standing lamp in front of the drawn curtains.

Jengie

Jengie

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jengie jon:
a glass fronted display cabernet

The actual drinking ones are more fun.

Posted by rolyn (# 16840) on :

A large Ginger cat, TV screen and someone quietly knitting.
Usual bits and pieces to be found in a lounge/kitchen and wall light reflecting on a glass door with darkness outside.

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

I am sitting at the hole in the wall we made between the room where we eat, and the kitchen. Slightly to my right is the steel pole which stops it all collapsing, covered in red primer which might get painted a chosen colour one day. In front, the kitchen - two benches either side, aisle up the middle, made of wood, lots of mismatched stuff hanging on hooks. Wonky ceiling made out of skip wood. Big set of scales found in works bin hanging from an inadequate screw in the ceiling - mene mene tekel upharsin. Kids 'wall of art' to my right - going right back, perhaps they'll be embarrassed by it soon. Wood-burner-gas-bottle at my feet, which I'm loathe to light before I have a go at re-making the flue, as there's a good chance it will fill the room with smoke. One of those baskets to my left in which people put 'things' in an attempt to be tidy - batteries, elastic bands, a calculator, sellotape, leaflets. A radio, turned off as Radio 4 has started to do my head in and Radio 3 will almost certainly be opera.

Posted by Barnabas Aus (# 15869) on :

I can see in our lounge and dining room our small collection of original art works hanging on the walls, our china and glassware in their glass-fronted cupboards, many books waiting to be read, my wife's knitting and card-making projects. Through the archway into the hall can be seen our gallery of family photographs, and the semi-circular fronted china cabinet which once belonged to my grandmother.

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

Desk alcove before me, with computer, photos of offspring behind it and Iona calendar above. To my left, a pile of papers that really ought to be read and dealt with, a bit farther, the door to the back garden with the septic system below it, and the river just beyond, but it's dark and I can't see them. Behind me, the bed, which I shall shortly occupy.

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

I won;t go into the entire contents of my living room, but the most unusual thing I can see from here is my large turtle swimming in her 55 gal. tank.

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

Soldering iron, solder, various clippers and pliers, multimeter, sash clamps of various sizes, random offcuts of foam insulation, cyanoacrylate glue, polythene tubing, photo of the kids, picture of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, large tube of smarties, a sleeping bag and rolled up camping mat, and a pair of child's wellington boots that are currently between owners.

Posted by Diomedes (# 13482) on :

Reclaimed or inherited furniture - a big old rosewood sideboard that belonged to my grandparents, an oak desk and bookcase that I recovered from a skip when formica tables became standard issue in schools. Three ceramic poppies from the Tower of London 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' installation. A collection of small plastic Eiffel Towers brought back from Paris when the kids went on school trips. My precious beach-combing find of a fossil in a lump of flint.

Posted by MaryLouise (# 18697) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Nicolemr:
I won;t go into the entire contents of my living room, but the most unusual thing I can see from here is my large turtle swimming in her 55 gal. tank.

So envious of this. I'd love to look up and see a large turtle swimming around in her 55-gal. tank and feel as if I had been transported into an irresistible Terry Pratchett novel.

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

MaryLouise, she is very calming to watch. My brother and I call it "turtle-vision"

Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
The dog and cat, out the darkened window, snow
a cup of tea, a dish of crisp-and her
beside me in the living room
O, cup of tea were heaven earth just now

Lovely, NP

From my swivel computer chair, I can see the dining room, probably our prettiest room with a fine big table and chairs, white flowers in the center in a large white vase, and long white curtains beside long windows.

In here is the den, not so pretty, with a warn sofa and the biggest, most comfortable recliner, long since taken over by the miniature dachshund who is currently covered in the softest throw. Spoiling her is the family hobby.

On the walls are a few of my father's best watercolors, and the little TV we watch.

The nice big TV being with the nice furniture in the living room we seldom enter except to clean. From time to time I suggest we move our PC and our accompanying lives into that room, but it doesn't face the front and that's where the action packed life of our retired neighborhood lies.

I look straight out over our Crepe Myrtle into the neighbor's house wherein sleep a couple in their nineties. They require a lot of watching. She's often out on her riding mower in her perpetual dress and four-buckle artics and he does much more putzing in their cluttered garage than he should. We've already had to call the emergency squad for him when he pulled some boxes down on himself.

They don't like us because they think our cat, who has been dead for a year, keeps going in their garage eating their tomato plants and that our ten pound dog is responsible for the great piles of dog doodle left in their yard by the Pit Bull strays. But we like them.

I love getting up at five and watching the stray dogs and cats go quietly through and the neighbor's lights come on as the sun comes up. I'm very thankful for where I live.

Posted by bib (# 13074) on :

My lap top on the dining table. A vase of exquisite roses picked today from my rose garden. The perfume is delicious. Piles of Christmas cards that I made which are waiting to be completed and posted. A bowl of white nectarines which I am trying to resist as I've already just eaten two. Street lights shining in the lounge room windows as the curtains are wide open in order to let the cooler night air come into the house - we had a very hot day today (the radio reports even hotter tomorrow).

Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :

The wall behind the computer monitor in our staff room, but some great sunshine warming my back - a relief after the cold grey light of the last few days.

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

I realise work breaks are equal cluttered

Keyboard, mugs, 3 external hard drives (1 broken), earphones, conkers in a plastic box, papers (various). a tangle, pens, pen holder with 1 pen in it, Books ("Food in the Social Order" and "An Other Kingdom"), notebooks, phone, mobile phone, mugs, 2 screen computer and a box of jasmine tea. Wall with sockets on and a blind covering the window (half drawn so under it I can see the wall of the next door building).

Jengie

[ 23. November 2017, 12:13: Message edited by: Jengie jon ]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Sitting the other side of the room, so while I can still see the pot plants, the TV and the Japanese gentlemen, the views of Raasay, Greyabbey and a peat bog less so.

But I have gained the prospect of a 1,000 or so CDs on their custom shelving. And above them, and on the adjacent mantepiece, all the assorted objects, acquired and inherited, from Ireland, Scotland, England, Japan, Bohemia, Australia, South Africa, the US, Italy, Mexico and other airts unknown.

Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :

From where I am sitting I can see my quilt- wrapped spouse, who came down with pneumonia over the weekend and spent three days in the hospital. I see our ceramic wall hangings,a full moon surrounded by bare trees, that we bought a few years back at an art fair. I see our cat's jungle gym. I see our electric fireplace. I see, from our window, the dim outline of the VFW lodge across the street, and the glow of houses across the river.I see our dog, looking for the cat.

Posted by Fredegund (# 17952) on :

An open-plan office. People on the phone with headsets. Can't see the too much noise but boy can I hear it! All the blinds are drawn to exclude the dark miserable Midland afternoon.
Wish I was anywhere but here.

Posted by ACK (# 16756) on :

I am in the spare bedroom, which doubles as my study. So there is the bed that I am in, with the laptop on a folding laptop tray. To the left is a fitted wardrobe, actually used as a wardrobe, with a poster of a dragon over Whitby and another of Kipling's IF on the doors.

One the right wall of the room are more fitted wardrobes, but inside are shelves and it is full of books. The pictures on that wardrobe's doors are mainly creations by my daughter. One the wall ahead of me is a map of the world.

There's also a music stand from when I get around to learning the recorder, with a beginner's piano book on it for the Sound of Music, from which I am learning 'Edelweiss'.

On the bedside table there is a pint mug of decaf black tea, and scraps of paper with bits of a story I am trying to write, the writing paper including envelopes and train tickets. Since tickets sold on trains has changed from bits of card, to paper tickets off a roll, I can fit over a 100 words on a return ticket. I can pick up a pack of 5 excesise books for about a quid, so this saves an infintesimal amount of money, but my creativity is more suited to scraps of paper and cheap biros, than a posh notebook and an expensive pen.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

Three chairs with teddy-bears on them, a TV, a coffee-table, a side table with a rosemary plant on it, a display rack with coloured glassware and a bride's cog, a pair of bookshelves, a mock-Jacobean sideboard, a little four-drawer chest, assorted paintings and ornaments and a small pipe organ.

Posted by M. (# 3291) on :

Piglet, thank you for the extension to my education. I had to google 'bride's cog'.

M.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

Happy to be of service. [Big Grin]

Posted by basso (# 4228) on :

A library reading room. Large, high-ceilinged.
Kind of an old-fashioned sort of library, but they do have the modern bits available.

I like this one because it's close to home, and has a subscription to ancestry.com .

Posted by HCH (# 14313) on :

The topic reminds me of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe: "Alone", in which the last line refers to a "a demon in my view".

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