It's Time for Lunch

At our house Spring Forward and Fall Back take a little longer than a few minutes.  I collect clocks.  Everything from the grandfather clock in the hall to the miniature replicas of Mickey Mouse and Cogsworth from Disney's Beauty and the Beast share a shelf in one place or another.  So I thought I'd use the theme for my tablescape. 

Does anybody really know what time it is?  I'm reminded of the song by Chicago.  Time is something we call on everyday.  "Gee, I wish I had more time."  "I could really do this right if I  just had a little more time."  "I ran out of time."  There are entire courses on time management.  How to use the time we have more efficiently.  But for us time flows forward and there is never enough of it.

 

Album Cover

  I read about time. I suppose collecting clocks makes it a natural interest.  We all know or at least we've heard that time is relative.  According to prominent physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking, time can be bent.  So what time it is depends on where you are.  There are all kinds of time.  There's prime meridian time, vacation time, time from the atomic clock in Fort Collins, Colorado.

I can't remember when my fascination with time began.  I think it was when I first saw The Time Machine.  I remember being fascinated by the scene with all the clocks on the mantle.  When I began to travel, I'd gravitate toward places with clocks and not the usual spoons or ash trays although, I did buy thimbles.  The clock below I got in England near the Scottish border.  My son was six months old and we (or I) were touring Scotland.  I drove to the England-Scotland border and took a photo of the house that sits across the property line, half in England, half in Scotland.

In the small village near there I spotted this clock in the window of a shop.  Baby in tow, I went inside and could not live without that clock.  I brought it and they packed is well so it wouldn't be broken on my trip across the Atlantic.  To be sure of that, I got a huge box and shipped my clothes home.  I carried the clock.  I know where my priorities lay.

In school I loved both science and history.  Both had a lot of dates and I could remember numbers.  There was a jewelry store close to us that had a window full of clocks.  They were all set to 8:20.  I don't know if it was AM or PM, but that was the time.  Everytime I noticed a clock in a store, it was set to that time.  I wondered why and someone (can't remember who) told me that was the time that Abraham Lincoln was shot so all the clocked stopped at that time.

I was young and impressionable, so I believed it.  I don't know if it was true and today clocks are battery operated, so they are often running when you buy them.  Notice my clocks are set close to 12:15.  This is how I learned the date the Magna Carta was signed.  Lunchtime - 12:15. 

This table setting reminds me of the mad hatters tea party from Alice in Wonderland.  While putting it together the refrain of "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date" kept running through my head.  And I could see the white rabbit.  Well Easter is coming.

The plates have a Spring-type vine around the outside.  I paired it with a white plate that has a lattice pattern.  The white on white might make it hard to see (or my amateur photography - take your pick).

My guests loved all the clocks, especially when they reached the hour and the anniversary clocks played their music and gonged out the hour.  As the clocks are placed all over the house, I rarely think of them as a cohesive song, but they made for long conversations about where we were when I bought this or that clock.

And there are the clocks that aren't on the table.

Atomic Clock

The Atomic Clock is tied into Fort Collins, Colorado.  It automatically changes itself when the time changes.  I wanted to watch the numbers go back last fall.  I stayed up to 2:00 am.  Nothing happened.  By 2:30 still nothing had happened.  Suddenly, I realized it wasn't 2:00 am in Colorado and I went to bed.  When I got up, the clock had the right time.

-ish Clock

This is my -ish clock.  I've had it for years, so I can't remember where I bought it.  It's for those people who are never on time.  They will be there at three-ish.  This means that you could be waiting for them for up to half an hour (or longer).

The small clock next to the plate I got in England.  It remind me of Big Ben.  It usually sits on my desk, but I love it next to the place setting.

With all the time pieces you'd think there was no place to eat on this table.  Yet no one wanted to remove anything from the centerpiece.

I can't leave out a this clock.  I climbed up this huge hill in Greenwich so I could stand at the Prime Meridian.  Time begins here, the sign said.

 Below it is a shop with the sign of being the first in the world.

Longitude 00, Latitude 00

When next it's Time for Lunch, invite the crowd and have a remember where you were when...

12:15 - Time for Lunch