Today brought a few reminders that I’m way behind on my 100 objects project.
The second occurred when I looked back at my list so far and saw that it seemed that I’d missed a number in my inventory, resulting in a review of all items and several trips down memory lanes, cul-de-sacs, and back alleys. Wow, I’m only at 28…a long ways to go.
The first occurred with an accident – knocking a few things off a shelf, which then crashed onto the counter and then the floor. When silence and stillness settled, only one item was broken, a treasured item that I had yet to document here. Sadly, this shard is all that remains of the thing known as the salt rock. I have no photos of it in all its purply-blue iridescent glory.
Many, many years ago, I was at a friend’s home for family dinner (I think it was Christmas), and there was a curiously shaped dish/bowl/item on the table. When I picked it up, I recall some amusement as I tried to figure out what it was. Sitting on the table, it looked like an upside down bowl. On the underside, it was shaped like a funnel, with the spout pointed into the bowl. I could tell that there was salt or something like it inside, but had to be shown how it worked – like any salt dispenser, you shook it and salt came out. If you’ve never seen one before, it’s hard to describe. Trust me, it is a marvel of physics.
This photo shows the ingenious construction. To fill it, you turn it over and pour table salt through the funnel and into the bowl. When you turn it over, with the funnel now pointing up, the salt settles into the rounded bottom of the device. When you shake it, the salt is shaken out through the funnel’s hole.
A few years later, I was shopping at the annual Circle Craft Christmas Market – an annual extravaganza and fun day with my sister – and one of the artisans had these miraculous items for sale. I don’t recall if I bought any as gifts, but I definitely bought one for myself. It came with me through several moves and survived a few kitchen renovations. Never a big salt person, it remained a curious but permanent item in my kitchen. Until today.
I have started a search for a replacement, made extra complicated by not knowing what it’s called – upside down salt shaker? round salt dispenser?. Any new one will never be as beloved as my original salt rock, so called I think because the colours and sheen of it looked like a rock you might find on a remote salty beach. Maybe with a genie in it.
RIP salt rock. Thank you for all the years of curiosity and memories.
rclr 
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