Welcome Home!

A lot goes on in most homes. There are the basics: eating, sleeping and the daily chores necessary to keep lives on track. And there’s down time: Time spent in front of the computer or television, time spent napping or daydreaming.

But there’s industry, as well. Some people regularly retreat to the basement or garage to tinker with tools. Others cocoon themselves in sewing rooms filled with bolts of material and spools of thread.

Some of us are kitchen table people.

As a child I spent hours at the table in the kitchen playing with my paper dolls or doing my homework. School projects were pasted and constructed there. There were card games and puzzles during school holidays and in the summer.

When my own children came along, I worked at the kitchen table while they played at my feet. Some days, I would spread out my oils and tint black and white photographs of my family and the children of my friends. Or I brought out baskets and boxes of laces and trims and decorated the hats I sold to boutiques. When they got old enough, I gave the children projects to keep them busy and they sat across the table from me chatting about this and that.

When it was time to eat we picked up the pieces. And then, after the dishes were done, we brought it all back.

Back then we had a big table, with room for a big family.

Now, with a nest that is emptying fast, my table isn’t so big. But it’s still not just the place I sit down to eat. When I’ve got a project going, it’s where I sit down to play.

This week in Home

When two women in Deer Lake sit down at the kitchen table, wonderful things happen. Out of ordinary materials they create gifts that bloom twice. Their endeavor, plantable stationary, is this week’s cover feature.

The wheels on the bus

With a little creative thinking, a Newport man found a way to move to a new life in the city without severing ties with his home town. In this week’s Urban Style feature, Amy Klamper introduces us to an interesting commuter.

Every Tuesday morning Home comes to you with fresh stories of interesting people and the places they come home to. So, pick up your paper, butter a slice of toast and pour a cup of coffee.

Take a seat at the kitchen table and enjoy.