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Licht im Schatten. Lässt Sterne strahlen.
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The sunlight of spring awakens these delicate blue stars to bloom. And let us breathe a little ... Taken on a small walk at the edge of the forest, sunny and a bit windy.
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Das Sonnenlicht des Frühlings weckt diese zarten Blausterne zum Erblühen auf. Und lässt uns ein wenig aufatmen ... Aufgenommen auf einem kleinen Spaziergang am Waldrand, sonnig und etwas windig.
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Squills occur throughout Europe, parts of Asia and in a few places in Africa. Among the representatives are also some ornamental plants. The best known of these is the indigenous two-leaved blue alpine squill, which is also planted in many parks and gardens.
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Blausterne kommen in ganz Europa, Teilen Asiens und an wenigen Stellen in Afrika vor. Unter den Vertretern finden sich auch einige Zierpflanzen. In Deutschland am bekanntesten dürfte der einheimische Zweiblättrige Blaustern sein, der auch in vielen Parks und Gärten angepflanzt wird.
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Nikon Micro-Nikkor-P / 1:2.8 / 55 mm
Decked out for Halloween.Part of an amazing display of spiders at one of our local pubs. There were so many hanging from the ceiling we couldn’t count 😱
Thank you Maria for the invite 😊
My wife was fond of rings.
The Looking close … on Friday group has chosen Jewellery (selective colour) this week.
My wife made this little card for me more than twenty years ago when she went away for a few days – yes, I miss you too Valerie.
The Looking close … on Friday group has chosen Words of Love this week.
February Alphabet Fun group's eleventh picture of the month comes to you by courtesy of the letter K for "Keepsake".
20250703_5066_R62-100 Pink Hollyhock
It is middle of winter and not many flowers around, apart from some tatty white roses and two or three hollyhock flowers.
#16318
Two bottles of Banks's Bitter. It's good beer and only 89 pence for a 500ml bottle – which works out at just on a pound a pint 😀
The Looking close … on Friday group has chosen Bottles this week.
The theme for “Looking Close… on Friday” on the 19th of February is “my name is”, and it must be a black and white image. This made me think. When I heard the theme, I wrote my name out cursive script as I usually do. I imagined my surname, Raaen, to be like a long curling ribbon, blowing in the breeze like the tail of a kite. I decided to combine this idea with my love of illustration and drawing, including silhouettes, which I have always loved ever since I was a child looking at my faerie tale books of Arthur Rackham. I came up with this silhouette illustration of my name on a windy day. It is surrounded by the tools I used to create it: an HB grey lead pencil, an eraser, a pencil sharpener and a black felt tip pen. I do hope that you like my creative choice of the theme.
I remember the day in 1983 when my Grandmother came home from shopping in town at Selfridges with a gift set of “Wind in the Willows” soaps and talcum powder as a present for one of our next door neighbours’ daughters as a birthday gift. The talcum powder had Mr. Badger on it, and the soaps had Mr. Toad and Ratty on them. I was so upset that she was getting something so beautiful when she probably didn’t care very much about. Luckily, my Grandmother knew how much I would love them, because I enjoyed reading Kenneth Grahame’s book, and we had watched the Cosgrove Hall stop-animation series on the telly - for which I also had the cassette tape which I played regularly - so, she had bought me my own box of two soaps featuring my two favourite characters: Ratty and Mole at the same time!
The theme for “Looking Close on Friday” for the 29th of January is “soap bar”, and I immediately thought of my precious Cosgrove Hall Production television tie in “Wind in the Willows” soaps. I have never taken these out of their box, and even after nearly fourty years, they still smell beautifully. I have them in one of my drawers to help keep my jumpers smelling beautiful. I love the fine transfers on them, and the images on the packaging, including Ratty’s house, the Riverbank with Mr. Toad punting down it and Toad Hall with the yellow gypsy caravan parked out the front. I hope you like my vintage soaps too!
These soaps were, quoting from the back of the packaging, “beautifully made in England by Richard Appleby Ltd. 50 Jermyn Street, London SW1” in 1983. They were made as a television tie in for the Cosgrove Hall Production of “The Wind in the Willows” which they then followed up with several series of shorter episodes, all using stop-motion animation. I loved them when they started in 1983, and I still love them now and have the whole series on DVD!
Mark Hall and Brian Cosgrove headed the Manchester based company, Cosgrove Hall Productions who created meticulously and most beautifully crafted stop-motion animation films. In 1983 they produced a feature length pilot film of “The Wind in the Willows”. The series continued where the film, and for all but two episodes (“The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” and “Wayfarers All”) the book left off for a further sixty-four original episodes between 1984 and 1990. The series featured famous British actors Richard Pearson, Peter Sallis, Sir David Jason and Sir Michael Hordern voicing the main characters with Ian Carmichael as the narrator. Cosgrove Hall Productions was part of the Thames Television group. Once a major producer of children’s television and animated programmes, Cosgrove Hall was wound up by its then owner ITV in October 2009. As well as the “Wind in the Willows” series, Cosgrove Hall Productions was known best for its series “Count Duckula” and “Danger Mouse” (both also voiced by Sir David Jason).
Paint I used for kitchen drawers. And well - being an artist it allows me to hide behind that and be messy... to a point.
The Our Daily Challenge group has chosen Bathroom decor as today's topic.
The Looking close … on Friday group has chosen Different shades of green this week.
What are the markings on the bottom of glass?
#Lookingclose...onFriday! #CombinationofLetters&Numbers
Wickham Place is the London home of Lord and Lady Southgate, their children and staff. Located in fashionable Belgravia it is a fine Georgian terrace house.
Today we are below stairs in the Wickham Place kitchen. The Wickham Place kitchens are situated on the ground floor of Wickham Place, adjoining the Butler’s Pantry. It is dominated by big black leaded range, and next to it stands a heavy dark wood dresser that has been there for as long as anyone can remember. In the middle of the kitchen stands Cook’s preserve, the pine deal table on which she does most of her preparation for both the meals served to the family upstairs and those for the downstairs staff. And here we are before the range at the pine deal table where Mrs. Bradley the Cook is going to give her scullery maid another cooking lesson by having her prepare vegetable consommé for the second course for the upstairs dinner this evening.
“Agnes. Agnes.”
“Yes, Mrs. Bradley?” Agnes scurries over from the sink.
“I think you’ve earned the right for another cooking lesson.”
“Oh! Oh really Mrs. Bradley! Your famous soufflé?”
“Heavens girl!” the older woman cries, throwing her careworn hands in the air. “Do you really think me a loon? I’ve told you before. You need to learn the basics of plain cooking before I can teach you anything fancy. And a clear consommé of vegetables will be fancy enough for you.”
“That sounds very fancy Mrs. Bradley.”
“That’s because them who eat upstairs,” she raises her eyes to the ceiling. “Like their fancy names for their finely cut vegetable soup.”
“Vegetable soup, Mrs. Bradley?” Agnes’ shoulders slump.
“Now! Now! Buck up my girl!” the Cook says as she steps towards her enormous range to stir a pot over the flame with her wooden spoon. “Don’t think of it as vegetable soup. Think of it as,” She flourishes her spoon through the air. “Consommé.”
Agnes goes to the pine deal dresser on the left hand side of the range an takes out the big copper stock pot and under Mrs. Bradley’s instruction, fetches carrots, parsnips, potatoes, onions, leek, a clove of garlic and thinking it might also go in, a radish.
“Did I say a radish, girl?”
“No Mrs. Bradley.”
“No radish in vegetable consommé, Agnes.”
“But it’s a vegetable, Mrs. Bradley.”
“So’s an artichoke, but you aren’t putting that into it either girl!”
“No Mrs. Bradley.” Agnes says with an apologetic tone.
“Now, get chopping girl! Small pieces mind. We don’t want upstairs choking on big chunks of potato, now do we?”
“No, Mrs. Bradley.”
The theme for the 11th of September “Looking Close… on Friday” is “vegetables”. This tableaux is made up of part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection. Some pieces come from my own childhood like the ladderback chair and the teapot on the dresser in the background. Other items I acquired as an adult through specialist online dealers and artists who specialise in 1:12 miniatures.
Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:
All the vegetables and garlic clove seen on Cook’s deal table are artisan miniatures from a specialist stockist of food stuffs from Kettering in England, as are the onions hanging to the right of the range. He has a dizzying array of meals which is always growing, and all are made entirely or put together by hand, so each item is individual.
The kitchen knife with its inlaid handle and sharpened blade comes from English miniatures specialist Doreen Jeffries Small Wonders Miniature store.
The copper stock pot, the copper pan and the pots on the range in the background are all made of real copper and come from various miniature stockists in England and America.
In front of stock pot containing carrots and parsnips is one of Cook’s Cornishware white and blue striped bowls. One of her Cornishware cannisters stands to the left of the pot. Cornishware is a striped kitchenware brand trademarked to and manufactured by T.G. Green & Co Ltd. Originally introduced in the 1920s and manufactured in Church Gresley, Derbyshire, it was a huge success for the company and in the succeeding 30 years it was exported around the world. The company ceased production in June 2007 when the factory closed under the ownership of parent company, The Tableshop Group. The range was revived in 2009 after T.G. Green was bought by a trio of British investors.
To the right of the stock pot and Cornishware bowl stands a silver Art Nouveau cup which is a dolls’ house miniature from Germany, made in the first decade of the Twentieth Century. It is a beautiful work of art as a stand alone item and is remarkably heavy.
The jars of herbs are also 1:12 miniatures, made of real glass with real cork stoppers in them.
The large kitchen range in the background is a 1:12 miniature replica of the coal fed Phoenix Kitchen Range. A mid-Victorian model, it has hinged opening doors, hanging bars above the stove and a little bass hot water tap (used in the days before plumbed hot water).
My husbands maternal grandfather was a conductor on the buses in Glasgow in the 1950s - previously on the trams - this was his badge. Made by Metrovick Traffolyte of Manchester.
Etiketten.
Auswahlfoto:
Für“Looking close….on Friday!“
Thema:“Clothing Labels“ am 04.02.2022.
Thanks for views,faves and comments:-)
This is a vintage pitcher that is over 50 years old. I have the matching vase and pitcher. I think my Mom also had a square candy dish but that is no longer around.
Rose water is a flavoured water made by steeping rose petals in water.[1] It is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals, a by-product of the production of rose oil for use in perfume. Rose water is also used to flavour food, as a component in some cosmetic and medical preparations, and for religious purposes throughout Eurasia.
20250721_5211_R62-100 All the Kings Horses...
Actually a model horse and carriage set from when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned. The first four of eight horses.
#16334
Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.
Whilst her mistress is enjoying a weekend in Worcestershire, Edith, Lettice’s maid is using her time to give the flat a thorough dusting and airing. As she dusts the dining room, a noise she detests bursts into her quiet, methodical cleaning.
BBBBRRRINGGG!
The telephone in the drawing room starts ringing.
Edith looks through the double doors into the adjoining drawing room. “That infernal contraption!” she mutters to herself.
BBBBRRRINGGG!
She walks in and up to the black japanned occasional table upon which the silver and Bakelite telephone continues to trill loudly.
BBBBRRRINGGG!
“I should pull your chord out next time I’m Hoovering. Let’s hear you ring then!”
BBBBRRRINGGG!
Edith hates answering the telephone. It’s one of the few jobs in her position as Lettice’s maid that she wishes she didn’t have to do. Whenever she has to answer it, which is quite often considering how frequently her mistress is out and about, there is usually some uppity caller at the other end of the phone, whose toffee-nosed accent only seems to sharpen when they realise they are speaking to ‘the hired help’ as they abruptly demand Lettice’s whereabouts.
BBBBRRRINGGG!
“Come on now Edith!” she tells herself, smoothing her suddenly clammy hands down the apron covering her print morning dress. “It’s only a machine, and the person at the other end can’t hurt you, even if they are angry that you aren’t her.”
“Mayfair 432, the Honourable Miss Lettice Chetwynd’s residence.” she answers with a slight quiver to her voice. Her whole body clenches and she closes her eyes as she waits for the barrage of anger from some duchess or other titled lady, affronted at having to address the maid. A distant female voice speaks down the line. “Oh Mrs. Hatchett, how do you do. Yes, this is Edith, Miss Chetwynd’s maid.” Her anxiety lessens slightly, for even though Mrs. Hatchett is somewhat overbearing, she is a banker’s wife and therefore not born with a pedigree that finds talking to the staff offensive. She listens. “No. No, I’m afraid that Miss Chetwynd isn’t in residence Mrs. Hatchett.” She listens to the disappointed response. “She’s down at Wickhamford Manor in the Vale of Evesham.” She listens again. “It’s Worcestershire Mrs. Hatchett, so I’m afraid it would be a bit difficult for me to fetch her.” More bemoaning comes down the telephone from Sussex. “Monday. She’s there until Monday, Mrs. Hatchett. I’m expecting her home late Monday evening.” The distress down the phone is palpable. “I can take a message for you, if you like Mrs. Hatchett.”
After receiving an affirmative reply, she deposits the receiver next to the telephone with a trembling hand. It sounds as if Mrs. Hatchett’s arm might fall off in Lettice’s absence from all the moaning she is making. Yet Edith has had enough practice with her mistress’ clients by now to know that it will be some silly inconsequential matter about her interior design plans that she will want addressed. Edith brushes her clammy palms down her apron a second time and then picks up the pencil atop of the pad of paper that Lettice left for her to jot any messages on.
Picking up the receiver she says, “I’m ready for your message now Mrs. Hatchett. Please go ahead.”
She writes a message based on Mrs. Hatchett’s distressed response.
“Now, if you’ll just let me read that back to you Mrs. Hatchett. You’ve changed your mind about the Regency stripe for the soft furnishing covers, and you want chintz.” A further burbling comes down the phone. “You want blue chintz to match the walls.” She listens to Mrs. Hatchett’s confirmation. “Yes. Yes I’ll give her that message the very moment she comes through the door Monday evening, Mrs. Hatchett. Very good. Good day Mrs. Hatchett.”
Edith hangs up the receiver and sighs with relief. “Damn infernal contraption!” she says as she glares at the telephone shining brightly in the afternoon sun.
She re-reads her pencilled message and frowns. “Miss Lettice won’t like that. She hates chintz. Oh well!” She shrugs. “That’s her problem to solve.”
Edith returns to the dining room and takes up where she left off, hoping that the telephone won’t ring again until Tuesday at least, when Lettice will be back in residence.
The theme for “Looking Close… on Friday” this week is “telephone”.
I hope that this telephone, which kept people connected in the 1920s and keeps them equally connected today is suitable for the theme. This upper-class domestic scene is different to what you may think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures including items from my own childhood. The telephone you see before you is only two centimetres wide and two centimetres high.
Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:
The black Bakelite and silver telephone is a 1:12 miniature of a model introduced around 1919. It is two centimetres wide and two centimetres high. The receiver can be removed from the cradle, and the curling chord does stretch out.
The vase of orange roses on the Art Deco occasional table is beautifully made by hand by the Doll House Emporium.
The pencil on the pad in front of the telephone is a 1:12 miniature as well, and is only one millimetre wide and two centimetres long.
Lettice’s drawing room is furnished with beautiful J.B.M. miniatures. The black japanned wooden chair is a Chippendale design and has been upholstered with modern and stylish Art Deco fabric. The mirror backed back japanned china cabinet is Chippendale too. On its glass shelves sit pieces of miniature Limoges porcelain including jugs, teacups and saucers.
To the left of the Chippendale chair stands a blanc de chine Chinese porcelain vase, and next to it, a Chinese screen. The Chinese folding screen I bought at an antiques and junk market when I was about ten. I was with my grandparents and a friend of the family and their three children, who were around my age. They all bought toys to bring home and play with, and I bought a Chinese folding screen to add to my miniatures collection in my curio cabinet at home! It shows you what a unique child I was.
The green tinged Art Deco glass bowl on the table in the foreground is a hand made miniature from Beautifully Made Miniatures in England.
The geometric Art Deco wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend, which inspired the whole “Cavendish Mews – Lettice Chetwynd” series.
Wishing everyone a HAPPY and a SAFE new week!
GETTING READY FOR...
#lookingclose...onfriday
#christmasbaubles
Thank you all so much for the visit and for the kind comments and favs. They are very much appreciated!
Wickham Place is the London home of Lord and Lady Southgate, their children and staff. Located in fashionable Belgravia it is a fine Georgian terrace house.
Today we are below stairs in the Butler’s Pantry. Lord Southgate is hosting a small dinner for some of the members from the House of Lords this evening: influential men whom he hopes to curry favour with in order to pass a private member’s bill regarding the city’s parks and gardens. This means extra work for Withers the Butler. Whilst Cook enjoys herself as she prepares a fine repast for the gentlemen in the adjoining kitchen, Withers busies himself with one of his most hated jobs: cleaning the silver, which is in need of a good polish. Having selected the wine for the dinner and pulled out Lady Southgate’s modish new tea service for an expected afternoon caller, he can now set about polishing the silver. He has laid out the green baize, fetched his cleaning cloths and withdrawn the container of Silvo Silver Cleaning Paste from beneath the Butler’s sink.
The theme for the 17th of April “Looking Close… on Friday” is “Candle Holder”, and the four examples of candle holders sitting on the table waiting to be polished seemed the perfect choice for the theme. The three prong candelabra is an artisan piece of sterling silver made in Berlin and is actually only 3 centimetres in height and 3 centimetres in width. The two Victorian candlesticks are also artisan pieces of sterling silver made in England and are only 2 ½ centimetres in height and ½ a centimetre in width at the base. The avant-garde Art Nouveau candlestick in the form of a woman with foliate decoration is also an artisan piece of sterling silver made in America and is 3 centimetres in height and ½ a centimetre in width at the base. These are part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection. Some pieces come from my own childhood including the pair of silver Victorian candlesticks and the 1:12 wax candles in the foreground, which I was given as part of my tenth birthday present. The other two candle holders I acquired as an adult through specialist online dealers and artists who specialise in 1:12 miniatures.
The Butler’s Pantry is situated on the ground floor of Wickham Place, adjunct to the magnificent formal dining room and adjoining the Wickham Place kitchens. The Butler’s Pantry is the preserve of Withers as Butler to Lord and Lady Southgate, and it is well appointed. It has a white enamelled Butler’s sink and deep cupboards to house the necessary glassware and china such a fine house requires. You can just see some of the gilt white Paragon dinner service in the cupboards to the right, and some of Lady Southgate’s new Royal Doulton tea service on the right of the Butler’s sink. On the left of the Butler’s sink stand several bottles of wine: a German Moselle, a French Burgundy and a French champagne chosen by Withers from Lord Southgate’s cellar. The silver on the table consists of a Georgian and an Edwardian lidded serving dish, a Georgian tea caddy, an Edwardian sugar caster, mustard pot and pepper pot (part of a larger cruet set) two Victorian single candlesticks, a three prong Edwardian candelabra and a very avant-garde Art Nouveau candlestick in the form of a woman with foliate decoration. Once shone to a gleam with the aide of Silvo Silver Cleaning Paste and his blue silver cleaning cloths, Withers can replace the spent candles with fresh Price’s Carriage Candles from the box. The gold plate and the silver, both in use and on display in the house, would have been fetched by Withers from Wickham Place’s strong room.
Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:
The silver on the table includes a Georgian and an Edwardian lidded serving dish, a Georgian tea caddy, an Edwardian sugar caster, mustard pot and pepper pot (part of a larger cruet set) two Victorian single candlesticks, a three prong Edwardian candelabra and a very avant-garde Art Nouveau candlestick in the form of a woman with foliate decoration. All the pieces are sterling silver miniatures and are copies of genuine articles. All are made by artists in England except the three prong candelabra and the sugar castor which are German and the Art Nouveau candlestick in the form of a woman with foliate decoration who is American made. The sugar castor of 1 ½ centimetres in height and half a centimetre in diameter in the foreground with its holes in its finial actually comes apart like its life size equivalent. The finial unscrews from the body so it can be filled. I am told that icing sugar can pass through the holes in the finial, but I have chosen not to try this party trick myself. A sugar castor was used in Edwardian times to shake sugar onto fruits and desserts.
The box of Price’s Carriage Candles contains twelve artisan made wax candles like the two in front of the box. The design of the box is Victorian. Price’s was established in 1830 and still exists today. They received the Royal Warrant to Queen Victoria after making Sherwood candles for her wedding. By 1900 they were the largest manufacturer of candles in the world, producing 130 differently named and specified sizes of candles. They supplied candles for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Phillip Mountbatten in 1947 and received the Royal Warrant of Queen Elizabeth II after supplying candles for her coronation in 1953.
The green baize cloth on the table is actually part of a green baize cleaning cloth from my linen cupboard, and the two sliver cleaning rags are cut from one of my own old Goddard silver cleaning cloths. The Silvo Silver Polish tub was made by me, and the label is an Edwardian design. Silvo was a British silver cleaning product introduced to market in 1905 by Reckitt and Sons, who also produced Brasso. Like Price’s Candles, Silvo also has a Royal Warrant.
The dresser on the far right of the picture contains a gilt white china dinner service for eight. On display you can see some plates, a coffee pot and a gravy boat.
The Butler’s sink is littered with interesting items. On the far left is a sterling silver biscuit barrel based on a Victorian design. There are also three bottles of wine: a German Moselle, a French Burgundy and a French champagne. There is also the sucrier (lidded sugar bowl) which is part of a set which also appears to the right of the sink. That set is hand painted and gilded and is based on a Royal Doulton design from the Edwardian era. Near the taps is a box of Sunglight soap and a jar of Vim, both cleaning essentials in any Edwardian household. Vim scouring powder was created by William Hesketh Lever (1st Viscount Leverhulme) and introduced to the market in 1904. It was produced at Port Sunlight in Wirrel, Merseyside, a model village built by Lever Brothers for the workers of their factories which produced the popular soap brands Lux, Lifebuoy and Sunlight. Sunlight Soap was first introduced in 1884.