Beauty longing

All the beauty that's been lost before wants to find us again. 

                                                                                                       U2, Ordinary Love 

Our landlord Johan and his wife Debbie are destined to become our direct neighbours in a few months’ time. They are moving into the house of his late father close by which will make it easier for him to tend to the cattle side of their farming activities. At this stage the old house is being renovated. 

By mere coincidence Debbie recently got an old table back that has been in the family for generations and was given to friends years ago. The size of the table (2.75 m x 1.14 m) provided an ideal surface to work on in the chicken abattoir the friends were running at that stage. With the abattoir no longer in operation, the old table was just standing there taking up space. They asked Debbie whether she did not have any use for it. Although old, it would be a pity if it should go to waste. The timing could not have been better. Debbie was just looking for such a big table for the dining room in their new house. 

That is how this remarkable piece of furniture ended up in my workshop. It needs restoring. 

How I would have loved furniture to be fitted with a little black box, something similar to the ones they have in aeroplanes that records its travels and experiences! Who had sat at this grand old lady over the years? What can she tell me about the slaughtering of chickens and other farm chores done on her surface? Who had made her in the first place decades ago? 

I am getting to know her better by gradually removing years of dirt and old varnish from the Oregon top and aprons. By the initial look of things the legs were turned from another type of wood – teak maybe. The gaping openings in the apron on the one side are asking for new drawers. 

I want to help beauty find us again. 

George