Tess Charles’s Bedside Table

Tell us a bit about yourself. I live in a big creaky house by the sea in Castlecliff, Whanganui. I have a dog and a cat and overgrown lawns. I work part-time as both an osteopath and a photographer, and in my spare time I like to listen to Taylor Swift and walk the beach collecting things, mainly rocks. The other day I found a tooth, and that made me very happy.

On my bedside table right now is...

A Blackwing pencil and pencil sharpener. Next year I'm opening my house for Artists Open Studios (Whanganui) and one of my goals is to draw all the things I've collected this year. So I'm trying to sketch one a night before I go to sleep.

A rock that was the subject of last night’s drawing and a sketchbook.

A tiny green Buddha. This originally belonged to my aunty who died of a heart attack when I was a teenager. I still think about her all the time. She would save drowning insects from puddles and she once disarmed a knife-yielding psychiatric patient by giving them a hug.

Lip balm. It’s really old and I don’t ever use it. I should get rid of it. I think the intention was that I would put it on before going to bed so I don’t get wrinkly lips but for some reason I never remember.

Earplugs (in a little dish that has no story), because I live in a neighbourhood that likes to play Fat Freddy’s Drop at 3am on a Tuesday.

Quick-Eze because I get reflux sometimes.

A head torch that I found on the road and taped back together. It’s by my bed in case of a power cut or when I have to put ear drops deep into my dog’s ear, which is like the Grand Canyon.