Apparitions Shadows Reflections

Haunted furniture... certainly not what I sought in a secondhand bookstore, perusing the pages of an enormous book picturing over 5000 antiques.  The heavy book balanced on my knee, I paused in the "looking-glass" section.  So many of the mirrors reflected views of old-fashioned interiors - the first thing to capture my attention, but they also exuded a certain atmosphere - which perfectly clean, but inwardly dusty crackled and speckly mirrors will do.  Some mirrors seem to reflect something about to happen - or happening just out of the realm of vision... a swishing of skirts, parting of curtains, a hand reaching for books or luggage, an inspection of one's appearance.  Here, you can see them too:

Nature's True Wunderkammer

"What's this under the cabinet?", He said as he tied his cravat. She clipped over gingerly in pointed little slippers, "Looks like roots". They didn't know what to do with the thing. It went well with the decor and was a Serrurier-Bovy, but One can't just allow a piece of furnishing to take up roots and go to seed.

They placed it in the woods where it thrived, flourished... from its arcs and angles foliage grew and its feet planted firmly in the earth. One day, They visited it - a picnic under its shade and noticed monarchs springing forth - up and out of its glass doors - and into the blue sky air. Another day, as She glanced into the forest, a swirling soaring shifting murmuration of birds appeared like a mirage from - She was most positive - its direction.

Nature's true Wunderkammer.

"Nature's True Wunderkammer", Toile La La quick fiction and collage artwork images