Cabinet of Curiosities - Joan Lennon

Like every writer who goes into schools, I have been asked many times, "Where do you get your ideas?"  And I trot out the same old answer, how everything I see or hear or do or come across or experience in any old way goes into the soup between my ears, and how then this bit and then that bit and then another bit will float to the surface and bump into each other and a what if will ensue ...  And it all sounds pretty revolting, really.  And then, not long ago, I rediscovered the delectable Lucinda Lambton and her beguiling TV programmes from the 80s* and I realised how much more elegant it would be to compare a head full of this and that to a cabinet of curiosities -

Domenico Remps** (1620-1699)

Ole Worm** (1588-1654)

Frans Francken the Younger** (1581-1642)

(all images from Wiki Commons)

So the next time I'm asked, the process of collection remains the same, but I will ditch the soup and describe myself as having a head like a cabinet of curiosities, each experience and snippet having its own little drawer or place on a shelf.  Beats a bobbing bit of carrot any day!

* such as this one on, in fact, Cabinets of Curiosities.  Wonderful!

** And those names - fabulous!  I'll be having those for my cabinet, for sure!

Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.
Silver Skin.