Keeping the conversation light

Don’t you love it when something you see every day is cast in a new light? This happened in a very literal sense the other day when I noticed this beautiful shadow against my wall. I’m not usually home in the afternoon so it was a treat to see the subtle patterns working as a backdrop to my beloved collection of jewellery boxes and Japanese chests. The print of a woman with magnificent eyebrows and a white cat (obscured by the big round box) is by Junichi Nakahara. There is a tiny shop in Hiro-o in Tokyo selling his prints which I used to have to make a big effort to circumvent every time I went to yoga … so much gorgeously kitsch stuff. The other print is of a cat admiring a peony which is ridiculously out of proportion, but I love it. I think it’s from an old calendar. The theme colour here is overwhelmingly burnt orange, a shade which I used to hate but which I came to love while I was in Japan as it is so often used for laquerware there.