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A bit of fragrance always sticks to the hand that gives you roses - Chinese Proverb
يلتصق اريج الزهرة باليد التي تقدمها- مثل صيني
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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.
Today it is Tuesday, and we are in the very modern and up-to-date 1920s kitchen of Lettice’s flat: Edith her maid’s preserve. Being Tuesday, Mrs. Boothby, Lettice’s charwoman* who comes on Tuesdays and every third Thursday to do the hard jobs is busy polishing the floors in Lettice’s bedroom, whilst Edith arranges tea things on the deal kitchen table in the middle of the room whilst she waits for the copper kettle on the stove to boil.
“Oh good!” Mrs. Boothby sighs as she slips into the kitchen via the door that leads from the flat’s entrance hall. “You’ve got the kettle on, dearie!” A fruity cough emanates from deep within her wiry little body as she deposits her polishing box beneath the sink and puts the dirty rags that require washing down the laundry chute. “Nah just I’ll just sit ‘ere for a few minutes and you can give me a reviving cup of Rosie-Lee** and I’ll ‘ave a fag before I get started on scrubbin’ the bathroom.”
“Oh no you don’t!” Edith says sharply as she places her own hand firmly over the opening of Mrs. Boothby’s blue beaded handbag before the old Cockney woman can grab her cigarette papers, Swan Vestas and tin of Player’s Navy Cut.
“What?” Mrs. Boothby looks up at Edith in surprise. “I’m only goin’ for me fags, dearie, not a pistol.”
“Miss Lettice has a guest and I’ve just made a Victoria sponge.” She indicates to the golden sponge cake with jam and cream oozing from its middle standing next to Lettice’s Art Deco tea service. “I don’t want it or the tea I’m making smelling of your foul cigarette smoke, Mrs. Boothby!”
“Me smoke ain’t foul!” the older woman snaps back.
“Yes, it is, Mrs. Boothby.”
How Edith hates the older woman’s habit of smoking indoors. When she lived with her parents, neither smoked in the house. Her mother didn’t smoke at all: it would have been unladylike to do so, and her father only smoked a pipe when he went down to the local pub.
“The stench comin’ from privy down the end of my rookery, now that’s foul, dearie.”
“It’s all relative Mrs. Boothby.” Edith says cheerily. “Now, I will make you a cup of tea since I’m boiling the kettle for Miss Lettice,”
“Oh, ta.” Mrs. Boothby says sarcastically.
“But if you want to smoke today,” Edith ignores her. “Please go and do so on the porch outside.”
Mrs. Boothby groans as she picks herself out of Edith’s comfortable Windsor chair. Grumbling quietly, but not so quietly that Edith can’t hear her muttering, the old woman fossicks through her capacious bag and snatches out a cigarette she had already rolled previously and her box of Swan Vesta matches. She mooches over to the kitchen door that leads to the tradesman’s stairs and lights her cigarette, folding her bony arms akimbo across her sagging chest.
“Thank you.” Edith says diplomatically, even though she doesn’t really want to thank the Cockney woman at all.
“So,” Mrs. Boothby blows a plume of blueish silver smoke out into the outer corridor. “An American, then.”
Edith knows Mrs. Boothby is fishing for gossip on Lettice’s guest, and she doesn’t like to gossip with the charwoman. Unlike her friend and fellow maid Hilda, Mrs. Boothby is not very discreet. “Mmn,” she says non-committally as she starts placing the tea things on a square silver tray, a new purchase by Lettice from Asprey’s.
“Oh come on, dearie,” Mrs. Boothby’s eyes roll as she speaks. “Don’t be prim and propa. Ooh is she then?”
“You know I don’t like to gossip, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith replies.
“Well, you’d be the only maid this side of St. James what don’t, dearie.”
“All I know is that Miss Lettice asked me to bake a Victoria sponge for her guest, and that’s what I’ve done.”
“Well ya know ‘er name anyroad, ‘cos ya let ‘er in. Ya can tell me that much at least.”
“Her name is Miss Ward.”
“Wanetta Ward,” Mrs. Boothby crows triumphantly. “I ‘eard Miss Lettice talkin’ to ‘er.”
“Well, if you’ve been listening at keyholes, Mrs. Boothby, I don’t suppose anything I told you would be news then.”
“Oh come on, dearie,” she cries. Knowing the chink in Edith’s armour she continues. “What’s she look like then?”
As soon as the words are out of Mrs. Boothby’s mouth, Edith’s eyes light up. She loves fashion and the glamourous people that Lettice mixes with. Not that Mrs. Boothby knows it, because she never goes into her room, but Edith has scrapbooks of cuttings of London’s rich and famous clipped from Lettice’s discarded newspapers and magazines in her drawers.
“Oh she’s very glamourous! Tall and statuesque.”
“Aah,” Mrs. Boothby says dismissively, but the cocked eyebrow that Edith can’t see gives away that her interest has been piqued.
“Her hair is a soft curly rich dark auburn set in girlish bob, and she has peaches and cream skin. She is wearing an orchid silk chiffon dress with a matching satin slip. It’s daringly short!” Edith gushes. “You can see the bottom of her calves even before sits down.”
“Well, she must be American for certain then, ta wear somethin’ so daring.” Mrs. Boothby coaxes carefully.
“She has a beautiful hat to match which is covered in silk flowers. She wouldn’t let me take it from her. Something about her luck? I didn’t really understand. She walks with a walking stick, just for show I think as she has a very elegant gait.”
“Oh. I wonder if she’s an actress on the stage?”
“Maybe. She certainly has the bearing of a person who commands attention.”
“Or maybe,” the charwoman continues, puffing out another cloud of smoke. “Maybe she’s one of them movin’ picture actresses, like what I’ve seen up at the Premier*** in East Ham.”
“Imagine!” Edith enthuses, her eyes sparking. “A real American moving picture star!” She looks to the green baize door that leads to the living areas of the flat.
“Yes, imagine.” Mrs. Boothby smiles wistfully as she takes a long drag on her cigarette.
“Oh, you are awful Mrs. Boothby!” Edith gasps, suddenly realising what she’s done. “You’ve made me gossip.”
“Oh, now don’t you worry your pretty ‘ead about it, dearie.” Mrs. Boothby soothes the young maid. “I’m only int’rested in ooh frequents the houses I clean for so I knows I’m in a respectable establishment. I won’t tell a soul. I promise!”
The charwoman smiles a yellow toothy grin that makes Edith regret her lack of discretion slightly.
“Per’aps she’s come ta be a film star in London. I read in the papers that they’s makin’ films ‘ere in London, over in ‘Oxton**** nah the war’s over!”
“Well, I wouldn’t know anything about that Mrs. Boothby.” she mutters, turning her back on the Cockney woman to hide the blush crossing her face after realising that she has been taken in by her.
Taking the kettle off the stove Edith fills the elegant gilded white porcelain pot and stirs it. She goes to the dresser and removes a pretty Delftware teacup and saucer and puts it on the table. She pours of little of the tea from Lettice’s pot into the cup, adds a splash of milk and some sugar. She refills Lettice’s pot.
“Tea, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith places the Delftware teacup and saucer into the Cockney woman’s empty right hand as it pokes out from beneath her left elbow.
“Oh, ta!” she replies gratefully. Lifting the cup to her lips she takes a sip, savouring the delicious hot beverage.
“I must take the tea in to Miss Lettice.” Edith says in as businesslike a fashion as she can manage.
“And yer want ta get annuva geezer at your beautiful star again.” Another fruity cough escapes her throat as she chuckles to herself. “Ain’t I right?” She taps her nose with her left hand, the glowing but of the cigarette nestled between her index and middle fingers. “I know a young girl’s heart. B’lieve it or not, I used ta be a young slip of a fing once too!”
“Just leave the cup in the sink before you clean the bathroom.” Edith blanches at being caught out as starstruck. “I will have these things to wash later.”
Edith smiles conspiratorially at Mrs. Boothby, picks up the tray of tea things, holds her head high and slips through the green baize door into the dining room of the flat to serve her mistress and her glamorous guest, American Wanetta Ward in the drawing room beyond.
*A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.
**Rosie-Lee is Cockney slang for tea, and it is one of the most well-known of all Cockney rhyming slang.
***The Premier Super Cinema in East Ham was opened on the 12th of March, 1921, replacing the 800 seat capacity 1912 Premier Electric Theatre. The new cinema could seat 2,408 patrons. The Premier Super Cinema was taken over by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres who were taken over by Gaumont British in February 1929. It was renamed the Gaumont from 21st April 1952. The Gaumont was closed by the Rank Organisation on 6th April 1963. After that it became a bingo hall and remained so until 2005. Despite attempts to have it listed as a historic building due to its relatively intact 1921 interior, the Gaumont was demolished in 2009.
****Islington Studios, often known as Gainsborough Studios, were a British film studio located on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in Shoreditch, London which began operation in 1919. By 1920 they had a two stage studio. It is here that Alfred Hitchcock made his entrée into films.
This busy domestic kitchen scene is a little different to what you might think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures from my miniatures collection, some of which come from my own childhood.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
Lettice’s tea set is a beautiful artisan set featuring a rather avant-garde Art Deco Royal Doulton design from the Edwardian era. It stands on a silver tray that is part of tea set that comes from Smallskale Miniatures in England. To see the whole set, please click on this link: www.flickr.com/photos/40262251@N03/51111056404/in/photost...
The Victoria sponge (named after Queen Victoria) is made by Polly’s Pantry Miniatures in America. The vase of flowers on the table is made of glass and it and the bouquet have been made by hand by Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. The box of Lyon’s tea has been made by Jonesey’s Miniatures in England.
On the dresser that can be seen just to the right of shot stands a Cornishware cannister. 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.
Edith’s Windsor chair is a hand-turned 1:12 artisan miniature which came from America. Unfortunately, the artist did not carve their name under the seat, but it is definitely an unmarked artisan piece.
In the background you can see a very modern and up-to-date 1920s gas stove. It would have been expensive to instal at the time, and it would have been the cook’s or maid’s pleasure to cook on and in. It would have included a thermostat for perfect cooking and without the need of coal, it was much cleaner to feed, use and easier to clean. It is not unlike those made by the Roper Stove Company in the 1920s. The Roper Stove Company previously named the Florence-Wehrle Company among other names, was founded in 1883. Located in Newark, Ohio, the company was once the largest stove producer in the world. Today, the Roper Stove Company is a brand of Whirlpool.
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.
Two of Lettice’s Embassy Club coterie of bright young things are getting married: Dickie Channon, eldest surviving son of the Marquess of Taunton, and Margot de Virre, only daughter of Lord Charles and Lady Lucie de Virre. Lettice is hosting an exclusive buffet supper party in their honour this evening, which is turning out to be one of the events of the 1921 London Season. Over the last few days, Lettice’s flat has been in upheaval as Edith, Lettice’s maid, and Lettice’s charwoman* Mrs. Boothby have been cleaning the flat thoroughly in preparation for the occasion. Earlier today with the help of a few hired men they moved some of the furnishings in Lettice’s drawing room into the spare bedroom to make space for a hired dance band and for the guests to dance and mingle. Edith’s preserve of the kitchen has been overrun by delivery men, florists and caterers. Throughout all of this upheaval, Lettice has fled to Margot’s parents’ house in Hans Crescent in nearby Belgravia, only returning just as a red and white striped marquee is erected by Gunter and Company** over the entrance and the pavement outside.
Now we find ourselves in Lettice’s dressing room where she and Margot sit at Lettice’s Regency dressing table making last minute adjustments and choices to their eveningwear. The surface of the dressing table is littered with jewellery and perfume bottles as the two excited girls chat, whilst Margot’s fiancée, Dickie, whips up the latest cocktails for them at the makeshift bar on Lettice’s dining table down the hall in the flat’s dining room.
“Oh Lettice, I’m so nervous!” Margot confides, clasping her friend’s hands.
“Good heavens why, darling?” Lettice looks across at her friend in concern as she feels the tremble in her dainty fingers wrapped around her own. She notices her pale face. “You aren’t having second thoughts, are you?”
“About the party?”
“About Dickie!”
“Goodness no, darling!” Margot clutches her bare throat with her hand, the diamonds in her engagement ring winking brightly. “About him I have never been so sure. He’s always been the one for me, darling. You of all people should know that!”
“Then what, Margot darling?”
“Well, this party!”
“What on earth do you mean? Its going to be a thrilling bash.” Lettice soothes. “I’ve hired this divine little jazz quartet to play dance music for us. All our friends are on the guest list, and they are all coming. It will be just like being at the Embassy Club, only it will be here instead.” She waves her arms generously around her. “What’s to be nervous about?”
“Oh, it just all seems so formal.”
“Formal?”
“Yes,” Margot goes on. “So grown up. I mean it’s one thing to see your names printed together in the papers, yet it’s quite another to have a party thrown in honour of your engagement as you step out into society as an engaged couple. I’m not used to being the centre of attention.”
“Well, you’ll have to get used to it, at least for a little while.” Lettice smiles as she hangs a necklace of sparkling diamonds from her jewellery casket about her neck, allowing them to cascade down the front of her powder blue silk georgette gown designed and made for her by Gerald. She sighs with satisfaction at the effect before addressing Margot again. “Think of this as a rehearsal for your wedding day.”
Margot gulps.
“Only tonight,” Lettice continues wagging a finger in the air. “You can drink as much as you like.”
The pair are interrupted by a loud knocking on the door before it suddenly opens, and Dickie pokes his head around it. The sound of the jazz band tuning up in Lettice’s drawing room pours into the room.
“Get out!” Lettice cries, jumping up from her seat and flapping her hands at Dickie. “You aren’t supposed to see the bride yet! It’s bad luck!”
“That’s on the wedding day you silly goose!” Dickie laughs.
“Don’t bother us now, Dickie,” Lettice continues, leaning against the doorframe and then glancing at Margot’s anxious face reflected in the looking glass of her dressing table. “We’re fixing something.”
“Oh, secret women’s business, is it?” he whispers conspiratorially with a cheeky smile.
“Something like that,” Lettice says breezily. “Margot just has a case of centre stage jitters.”
Dickie face clouds over. He frowns in concern and presses on the door.
“She’ll be fine.” Lettice assures him, pressing hard against the pressure she can feel from his side of the door. “I just need a few more minutes with her. Alright darling?”
“Well,” Dickie says a little doubtfully. “Only if you’re sure. But don’t be too long.” He glances at Lettice’s pretty green onyx Art Deco clock on her dressing table. “The guests will be arriving shortly.”
“We won’t be, Dickie.” she assures him as she presses a little more forcefully on the door.
“Well,” he remarks brightly in an effort to settle his fiancée’s nerves. “I’d only come down here to see if you two ladies fancied a special Dickie Channon pre-cocktail party cocktail?”
“Oh yes!” Lettice enthuses. “That sounds divine, darling! I’ll have a Dubonnet and gin. What will you have Margot, darling?”
“I’ll have a Bee’s Knees, thank you Dickie.” she replies with a less than enthusiastic lilt to her quiet voice.
The furrows on Dickie’s brow deepen as he glances between Margot and Lettice. Lettice raises a finger to silence the concerns he is about to express about Margot, and then she points back down the hallway to the dining room. Dickie’s mouth screws up in concern, and he shakes his head slightly as he withdraws.
“See you in a few minutes,” Lettice assures his retreating figure.
“He’s cross, isn’t he?” Margot asks as Lettice closes the door again.
“No, he’s just concerned is all,” she replies as she resumes her seat. “As am I.”
Margot’s stance of slumped shoulders displays her deflated feeling as much as the look in her dark eyes as she glances up at her friend.
“Look. How do you ever expect to be the Marchioness of Taunton one day, standing at the end of a long presentation line for a ball that you are hosting, if you can’t greet a few guests now?”
“I never wanted to be the future Marchioness of Taunton, just Mrs. Dickie Channon.”
“Well,” Lettice places a consoling hand on the bare shoulder of her friend. “The two come hand-in-hand, Margot darling, so you have to accept it, come what may.”
Lettice suddenly thinks of something and starts fossicking around in the drawers of her dressing table. She pulls open the right-hand drawer and pulls out some lemon yellow kid gloves and a pretty white bead necklace which sparkles in the light as she lays it on the dressing table top.
“What on earth are you doing, darling?” Margot asks Lettice.
Dropping a bright blue bead necklace on the surface of the dressing table next, Lettice makes a disgruntled noise and then reaches for the brass drawer pull of the left-hand drawer.
“I’m going to share something with you Margot. Something very special. I wasn’t going to, because it’s mine, and no-one else we know has it. However, it may give you the confidence you need for tonight to have something beautiful that nobody else does.”
She drags open the left hand drawer. Its runners protest loudly with a squeaking groan. Beads and chains spew forth as she does, spilling over the edge of the drawer.
“Ahh! Here it is!” Lettice cries triumphantly.
She withdraws a small eau-de-nil box with black writing on it. Opening it she takes out a stylish bevelled green glass Art Deco bottle which she places on the surface of her dressing table amidst pieces of her jewellery.
“What is it?” Margot looks on intrigued, a bemused smile playing upon her lips.
“I picked this up when I was last in Paris. I visited a little maison de couture on the rue Cambon. It was owned and run by a remarkable woman named Coco Chanel. She used to own a small boutique in Deauville and her clothes are remarkably simple and stylish. It’s simply called Chanel Number 5.***”
Margot picks up the scent bottle in both her elegant hands with undisguised reverence.
“Like her clothes, and even the perfume’s name, it is simple, yet unique. I’ve never smelt anything quite like it.”
“Oh its divine!” Margot enthuses as she removes the stopper and inhales deeply. ‘Like champagne and jasmine!”
“She wasn’t going to sell it to me as she only had the bottle on the counter for her own use, but I begged her after smelling it. No-one else at the party will be wearing this, so why don’t you Margot?”
“Really Lettice?”
“Yes,” Lettice smiles. “I’ll wear something else. It will be your scent of confidence for this evening.”
“Oh thank you darling.” Margot replies humbly. “This scent makes me feel better already.”
“Good!” Lettice sighs happily. “Then dab it on and let’s go. The first guests will be here soon, and it will be bad form not to be ready to greet them.”
“You’re right Lettice!” Margot agrees, sounding cheerier and more confident.
“Besides, Dickie will have made those cocktails for us now.”
Margot dabs her neck and wrists with scent from the Chanel Number 5. bottle with the round glass stopper whilst Lettice applies some Habanita****. The two gaze at themselves in Lettice’s looking glass, giving themselves a final check. Lettice with her blonde finger waved chignon and pale blue gown looks the opposite to Margot with her dark waves and silver gown, yet both look beautiful. Suitably satisfied with their appearances, they step away from the dressing table, walk out of Lettice’s dressing room and walk down the hallway to join Dickie who offers them both their cocktail of choice.
*A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.
**Gunter and Company were London caterers and ball furnishers with shops in Berkley Square, Sloane Street, Lowndes Street and New Bond Street. They began as Gunter’s Tea Shop at 7 and 8 Berley Square 1757 where it remained until 1956 as the business grew and opened different premises. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Gunter's became a fashionable light eatery in Mayfair, notable for its ices and sorbets. Gunter's was considered to be the wedding cake makers du jour and in 1889, made the bride cake for the marriage of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Louise of Wales. Even after the tea shop finally closed, the catering business carried on until the mid 1970s.
***Chanel Number 5. was launched in 1921. Coco Chanel wanted to launch a scent for the new, modern woman she embodied. She loved the scent of soap and freshly-scrubbed skin; Chanel’s mother was a laundrywoman and market stall-holder, though when she died, the young Gabrielle was sent to live with Cistercian nuns at Aubazine. When it came to creating her signature scent, though, freshness was all-important. While holidaying with her lover, Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, she heard tell of a Grasse-based perfumer called Ernest Beaux, who’d been the perfumer darling of the Russian royal family. Over several months, he produced a series of 10 samples to show to ‘Mademoiselle’. They were numbered one to five, and 20 to 24. She picked No. 5
****Molinard Habanita was launched in 1921. Molinard say that Habanita was the first women’s fragrance to strongly feature vetiver as an ingredient – something hitherto reserved for men, commenting that ‘Habanita’s innovative style was eagerly embraced by the garçonnes – France’s flappers – and soon became Molinard’s runaway success and an icon in the history of French perfume.’ Originaly conceived as a scent for cigarettes – inserted via glass rods or to sprinkle from a sachet – women had begun sprinkling themselves with it instead, and Molinard eventually released it as a personal fragrance.
This rather beautiful, if slightly messy boudoir scene may be a little different to what you might think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures from my collection. Some pieces in this scene come from my own childhood, whilst other items in this tableau I acquired as a teenager and as an adult through specialist doll shops, online dealers and artists who specialise in making 1:12 miniatures.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
Central to this story is the bottle of Chanel Number 5. which stands on the dressing table. It is made of very thinly cut green glass. It, and its accompanying box peeping out of the drawer were made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire.
Lettice’s Regency dressing table was given to me as part of a Christmas present when I was around ten years old. Made of walnut, it features a real bevelled mirror, a central well for makeup, two working drawers and a faux marble column down each side below the drawers.
The same Christmas I was given the Regency dressing table, I was also given a three piece gilt pewter dressing table set consisting of comb, hairbrush and hand mirror, the latter featuring a real piece of mirror set into it. Like the dressing table, these small pieces have survived the tests of time and survived without being lost, even though they are tiny.
Even smaller than the gilt dressing table set pieces are the tiny pieces of jewellery on the left-hand side of the dressing table. Amongst the smallest pieces I have in my collection, the gold bangle, pearl and gold brooch and gold and amethyst brooch, along with the ‘diamond’ necklace behind the Chanel perfume bottle, the purple bead necklace hanging from the left-hand drawer and the blue bead necklace to the right of the dressing table’s well, I acquired as part of an artisan jewellery box from a specialist doll house supplier when I was a teenager. Amazingly, they too have not become lost over the passing years since I bought them.
Lettice’s Art Deco beaded jewellery casket on the left-hand side of the picture is a handmade artisan piece. All the peary pale blue beads are individually attached and the casket has a black velvet lining. It was made by Pat’s World of Miniatures in the United Kingdom.
To the right of Lettice’s jewellery casket is an ornamental green jar filled with hatpins. The jar is made from a single large glass Art Deco bead, whilst each hatpin is made from either a nickel or brass plate pin with beads for ornamental heads. They were made by Karen Lady Bug Miniatures in the United Kingdom.
There is a selection of sparkling perfume bottles on Lettice’s dressing table and in its well which are handmade by an English artisan for the Little Green Workshop. Made of cut coloured crystals set in a gilt metal frames or using vintage cut glass beads they look so elegant and terribly luxurious.
The container of Snowfire Cold Cream standing next to the Chanel perfume bottle was supplied by Shepherd’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom. Exactly like its life size counterpart, it features a very Art Deco design on its lid with geometric patterns in traditionally popular colours of the 1920s with the silhouette of a woman at the top. It is only nine millimetres in diameter and three millimetres in depth. Snowfire was a brand created by F.W. Hampshire and Company, who had a works in Sinfin Lane in Derby. The firm manufactured Snowfire ointment, Zubes (cough sweets) ice cream powder, wafers and cornets; Jubes (fruit sweets covered in sugar). Later it made ointment (for burns) and sweetening tablets. The company was eventually merged with Reckitt Toiletry Products in the 1960s.
Lettice’s little green Art Deco boudoir clock is a 1:12 artisan miniature made by Hall’s Miniature Clocks, supplied through Doreen Jeffries Small Wonders Miniatures in England. Made of resin with a green onyx marble effect, it has been gilded by hand and contains a beautifully detailed face beneath a miniature glass cover.
Also from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniatures in the United Kingdom are the pale yellow gloves sticking out of the right-hand drawer. Artisan pieces, they are made of kid leather with a fine white braid trim and are so light and soft.
The 1920s beaded headdress standing on the wooden hatstand was made by Mrs. Denton of Muffin Lodge in the United Kingdom. You might just notice that it has a single feather aigrette sticking out of it on the right-hand side, held in place by a faceted sequin.
The painting you can see hanging in the wall is an artisan miniature of an Elizabethan woman in a gilt frame, made my Marie Makes Miniatures.
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.
dear friends!! as the new year begins, i offer this wish from the generous fishes: that you swim fearlessly in the ocean of this life, moving fluidly and spontaneously from moment to moment... that you find friendship, well-being, and meaning on your journeys...
may all travelers find joy!!
love and best wishes,
jeanne
scanned, assembled and altered image, december 31, 2006
Magical light of Shwedagon Pagoda - Yangon
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I sincerely look forward each and every participants who think alike crowds funding methodlogy works here no matter who come forwards with regardless any capital amount input be big or small , please help gather and pool raise my objective target amount as close to USD$10K or either acquisition from any donated item listed below:
1- ideally a high mega pixel Canon 5DS ( can be either new or use ok)
2- Canon 70-200mm F2.8 L IS lens ( can be either new or use ok)
Last but not least, a photography journey of life time for a trip to explore South Island of New Zealand and Africa.
.
My intended schedule may estimate about 1 month round trip self drive traveling down scenic Southern Island of New Zealand for completing the most captivating landscape photography and wander into the big five, the wilderness of untamed Africa nature for my project 2016 before my physical body stamina eventually drain off.
During the course, I also welcome sponsor's to provide daily lodging/accommodation, car rental/transportation, Fox Glacier helicopter ride and other logistic funding expenses, provide photographic camera equipments or related accessories .
Kindly forward all sponsors request terms of condition n collaboration details for discussion soon.
Great Ocean Drive- the 12 Apostle's
Please Click Auto Slide show for ultimate viewing pleasure in Super Large Display .to enjoy my photostream . ..
Due to copyright issue, I cannot afford to offer any free image request. Pls kindly consult my sole permission to purchase n use any of my images.You can email me at : men4r@yahoo.com.
Don't use this image on Websites/Blog or any other media
without my explicit permission.
For Business, You can find me here at linkedin..
Follow me on www.facebook.com here
Beautiful Artist at Bagan
Be the first to kick start your generous support and fund my production with more amazing images!
Currently, I'm running a crowd funding activity to initiate my personal 2016 Flickr's Project. Here, I sincerely request each and every kind hearted souls to pay some effort and attention.
No limitation, Any Amount and your encouraging comments are welcome.
Crowd funding contribution can be simply direct to my PayPal account if you really appreciate and wish my forthcoming photography project to come alive.
Please PayPal your wish amount to : men4r@yahoo.com
Email me or public comments below your contribution amount for good records with your comments and at final day, at random, I shall sent out my well taken care canon 6D with full box n accessory during random draw to one thankful contributor as my token of appreciation.
Now, I cordially invite and look forward with eagerness a strong pool of unity zealous participants in this fundermental ideology yet sustainable crowd fund raising task.
Basically, the substantial gather amount is achievable with pure passion n love heart in photography and not necessary be filty rich nor famous to help me accomplish raising my long yearning photography career, a sucking heavy expense that been schedules down my photography making journey had inevitably, some circumstances had badly fall short behind racing with time and inability to fulfill as quickly in near future consolidating good fund .
Honestly, with aspiration and hope, I appeal to urge on this media for a strong humanity mandate through good faith of sharing and giving generously on this particular crowd funding excercise to achieve my desire n is not just purely a dread dream , is also flickers first starter own crowds funding strength turning impossible into reality through this pratical raising method that I confidently trust it will turn fruitful from all your small effort participation, every single persistency will result consolidating piling up every little tiny bricks into an ultimate huge strong living castle.
In reality, I have trust and never look down on every single peny efforts that been contributed as helpful means, turning unrealistic dream alive is the goal in crowd funding excercise, No reason any single amount is regard to be too small when the strength of all individual wish gather to fulfill my little desire to make exist and keep alive. .
I sincerely look forward each and every participants who think alike crowds funding methodlogy works here no matter who come forwards with regardless any capital amount input be big or small , please help gather and pool raise my objective target amount as close to USD$10K or either acquisition from donation item list below:
1- ideally a high mega pixel Canon 5DS ( can be either new or use ok)
2- Canon 70-200mm F2.8 L IS lens ( can be either new or use ok)
Last but not least, a photography journey of life time for a trip to explore South Island of New Zealand and Africa.
.
My intended schedule may estimate about 1 month round trip self drive traveling down scenic Southern Island of New Zealand for completing the most captivating landscape photography and wander into the big five, the wilderness of untamed Africa nature for my project 2016 before my physical body stamina eventually drain off.
During the course, I also welcome sponsor's to provide daily lodging/accommodation, car rental/transportation, Fox Glacier helicopter ride and other logistic funding expenses, provide photographic camera equipments or related accessories .
Kindly forward all sponsors request terms of condition n collaboration details for discussion soon.
Great Ocean Drive- the 12 Apostle's
Please Click Auto Slide show for ultimate viewing pleasure in Super Large Display .to enjoy my photostream . ..
Due to copyright issue, I cannot afford to offer any free image request. Pls kindly consult my sole permission to purchase n use any of my images.You can email me at : men4r@yahoo.com.
Don't use this image on Websites/Blog or any other media
without my explicit permission.
For Business, You can find me here at linkedin..
Follow me on www.facebook.com here
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.
Today however we are not in Lettice’s flat. Instead, we have followed Lettice south-west, through the neighbouring borough of Belgravia to the smart London suburb of Pimlico and its rows of cream and white painted Regency terraces. However, Lettice is not standing before one of these, but before a smart red brick Edwardian set of three storey flats on Rochester Row. Looking up, Lettice admires the red and white banding details of the building, macabrely known after the Great War as ‘blood ‘n’ bandages’ stripes. The beautiful façade features bay windows and balconies with ornate Art Nouveau cast iron balustrades. One of them is now the residence of recently arrived American film actress Wanetta Ward.
Approaching the front door Lettice sees the newly minted shiny brass plaque amongst those of the residents with Wanetta’s name emblazoned on it in neat, yet bold, engraved letters. She pushes open the heavy black painted front door with the leadlight windows and walks into the deserted communal foyer and takes the stairs up to flat number four, her louis heels echoing loudly throughout the cavernous space illuminated by a lightwell three floors above. Stopping on the first floor landing before a door painted a uniform black, but without the leadlight, bearing the number four in polished brass, she presses the doorbell.
From deep within the flat the sound of a bell echoes hollowly, implying what Lettice hopes – that the flat is now empty of its previous resident’s possessions. She waits, but when no-one comes to open the door, she presses the doorbell for longer. Once again, the bell echoes mournfully from deep within the flat behind the closed door. Finally, a pair of shuffling footsteps can be heard along with indecipherable muttering and a familiar fruity cough as the latch turns.
“Mrs. Boothby!” Lettice exclaims, coming face-to-face with her charwoman* as the old Cockney woman opens the door to the flat.
“Well, as I live an’ breave!” she exclaims in return with a broad and toothy smile. “If it ain’t Miss Lettice! G’mornin’ mum!” She bobs a curtsey. “You must be ‘ere to see Miss Ward. C’mon in.”
Lettice walks through the door held open by Mrs. Boothby and steps into a well proportioned vestibule devoid of furnishings, but with traces of where furniture and paintings once were by way of tell-tale shadows and outlines on the floor and walls.
“Come this way, mum. She’s just through ‘ere in the drawin’ room.” Mrs. Boothby says, leading the way, her low heeled shoes slapping across the parquetry floors.
“But how is it that you are here, Mrs. Boothby?” Lettice asks in bewilderment.
“Well, you know ‘ow I ‘as me friend Jackie, what cleans for you when I’s sick?” Lettice nods pointlessly to the back of the old woman’s head, but she continues as if sensing it through the rear of her skull. “Well, she got this cleanin’ job to tidy up after the last man up an’ left, and couldn’t do it on ‘er own, so she asked me to ‘elp. So ere I is, and we is just in ‘ere.”
The pair walk through a door into a light filled room devoid of furniture except for an old chair without its cushioned seat and two rather imposing built-in bookshelves either side of an old white plaster fireplace. A second charwoman is busy sweeping up the broken fragments of an old blue and white bowl with her dustpan and broom and depositing them into an old wooden crate that must once have held apples according to the label. The room is silent, but for the sound of sweeping and the clatter of crockery shards, and the sounds echo throughout the empty space. In the world outside Lettice can hear the clatter of horses hooves and the purr of a motor cars from street below. Lettice immediately spots Wanetta’s lucky pink hat covered in silk flowers hanging off the back of the solitary chair and her brass handled walking stick that she uses for affect leaning against it. And there, silhouetted against the light pouring through the bay window overlooking Rochester Row stands the elegant and statuesque figure of Wanetta Ward, the morning highlighting the edges of her hair in auburn.
“S’cuse me mum, I’s gotta get back to me dustin’.” Mrs. Boothby says as she goes over to the fireplace and picks up a feather duster.
“Miss Chetwynd, darling!” Miss Ward exclaims with delight, spinning elegantly around and striding towards Lettice with open arms.
Lettice allows herself somewhat awkwardly to be enveloped by the American’s overly familiar perfumed embrace. Dressed in a smart black suit, Lettice notices the accents of pink that match Wanetta’s lucky hat on the collar of her jacket and the hem of her calf length skirt.
“How do you do Miss Ward.”
“Oh, just tickety-boo**, I think you British say.” Miss Ward enthuses. “Except you’re still calling me Miss Ward, and not Wanetta, like I told you to.” She wags a grey glove clad finger at Lettice.
“I think,” Lettice remarks, carefully choosing her words but speaking firmly. “That would add a certain… overfamiliarity to our professional relationship. I’m sure you’ll agree.”
“Oh you British are such stuffed shirts***,” Miss Ward flaps her arms dismissively at Lettice. “But have it your own way. So,” She spins around, stretching out her arms expansively in a dramatic pose. “What do you think?”
Lettice looks around at the spacious room. “It’s very elegantly proportioned from what I’ve seen so far.”
“So, do you think it will suit a young up-and-coming film star?”
“I take it the screen test went well then, Miss Ward?” Lettice smiles at her hostess.
“Meet Islington Studio’s**** newest actress!” the American woman exclaims with a cocked manicured eyebrow as her painted pink lips curl in a proud smile.
“Congratulations Miss Ward! That’s wonderful news!”
“Thank you, darling. I play my first part next week.”
“Excellent! I shall look forward to hearing more as the weeks go by.”
“You mean?” Miss Ward gasps, clasping her hands in hope. “You’ll take me on?”
“I think so, Miss Ward.” Lettice replies. “It will be quite fun to have a completely clean slate to work with.”
“Oh, you darling, darling girl!” Miss Ward jumps up and down on the balls of her feet in delight.
Mrs. Boothby’s friend Jackie looks up from her floor polishing and discreetly shakes her head at the American woman’s dramatic outburst.
“Miss Ward, tell me about the treatment you were hoping for in here.” Lettice asks, looking around at the old fashioned flocked wallpaper.
Miss Ward starts to stalk around the room. “Now, I want colour, darling! My favourite colour is yellow, so I was thinking yellow vases, lamps, glassware, that sort of stuff.”
“I see,” Lettice listens attentively, nodding. “I can see if my Italian contacts can find some nice Murano glass for you.”
“Excellent! Excellent!” The American claps her painted fingers in delight. Gesticulating energetically around the room to imaginary tables and pedestals she adds, “And remember, I want oriental too!”
“I have an excellent merchant right here in London who imports the most wonderful items from the far east. You might even find you possess a little piece of Shanghai, Miss Ward.”
“Sounds perfect, darling! Now, I was thinking that with these bookcases pulled out, this will make a wonderful wall for vibrantly coloured wallpaper.” She stretches her arms dramatically in two wide arcs, as if representing the daring colour that she envisages in her mind. “Something with a bold pattern.”
“And how does your new landlord feel about you having these bookshelves removed?”
“Oh! Captain Llewellyn? He won’t mind, so long as I smile prettily and bat my eyelashes enough.” the American woman giggles.
“That’s not Captain Wynn Llewellyn, by chance, is it Miss Ward?”
“Why yes darling!” She beams another of her bright smiles. “Do you know him?”
“Yes, Miss Ward. He’s a family friend.”
“Gosh! What a small world!”
“Too right it is!” pipes up Mrs. Boothby from in front of the bookshelves she is busily dusting, whilst carefully eavesdropping on every word in the conversation between the two ladies. “She knows me ‘n all!”
“You do?” Miss Ward gives the old charwoman a doubtful look and then Lettice a questioning one.
“Mrs. Boothby cleans for me every week, Miss Ward.” Lettice elucidates.
The American nods. “Well, a girl like you must know everyone there is to know in London, darling.”
Lettice blushes at the candid remark and looks away, hiding her embarrassment whilst she composes herself. “Well, at least in this case I know your landlord, so there shouldn’t be any trouble with removing the bookshelves. Now, I must say that with such wonderful light in here, I really do think you’ll need some white to offset the bold colours you want.”
“White?” Miss Ward whines. “But I just said I want colour. No white!” She pouts her lips petulantly, which silently Lettice admits gives her a smouldering look which perhaps explains how she succeeded with her screen test. “White is so… so… white, and boring.”
“It won’t be boring the way I use it, Miss Ward, I can assure you.” Lettice wanders over to the fireplace, carefully and politely avoiding the area that Mrs. Boothby’s friend Jackie just polished. Picking up a small white vase sitting on the mantlepiece she continues, “You need something to temper bright colours. If I am to be your interior designer, Miss Ward, you are going to have to trust my judgement.” She turns the vase over in her hands thoughtfully. “I promise you that I won’t lead you astray.”
“Alright,” Miss Ward replies, looking doubtfully at Lettice. “But not too much white.”
“With bold colours and patterns, dark furnishings, some golden yellow elements and white accents as I suggest, your flat will exude elegance and the exoticism of the orient,” Lettice purrs reassuringly, replacing the vase on the mantlepiece. “Just as you desire.”
“Well…”
“Where will you be staying whilst your flat is redecorated, Miss Ward?” Lettice boldly speaks over Miss Ward, swiftly crushing any disagreement.
“At the Metropole***** near the Embankment.”
“Excellent. What I will do is create some sketches for you with my ideas for your interiors and then we can meet at the Metropole for tea, in say a week or so. Then you can see my vision and you may pass your judgement.”
“Very well, darling.” the American woman replies meekly.
“Wonderful!” Lettice smiles happily. “Now, you’d best show me around the rest of the flat so I can envision what it could look like. It’s quite inspiring, you know!”
“Then please, step this way and I’ll show you my future boudoir.” Miss Ward says, suddenly regaining her confidence and sense of drama. Purposefully, she strides towards the drawing room door, indicating for Lettice to follow her with a flourishing wave that is fit for a rising film star with the world at her feet.
As Lettice moves to join her newest client on a tour of the rest of the flat, she stops short and turns back.
“Oh Mrs. Boothby.”
“Yes mum?” the old Cockney woman asks.
“Please don’t dispose of that vase. Just leave it on the mantlepiece if you would.” She points across the room to the vase sitting forlornly. “I have plans for it.” she muses quietly.
*A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.
**Believed to date from British colonial rule in India, and related to the Hindi expression “tickee babu”, meaning something like “everything's alright, sir”, “tickety-boo” means “everything is fine”. It was a common slang phrase that was popular in the 1920s.
***The phrase “stuffed shirt” refers to a person who is pompous, inflexible or conservative.
****Islington Studios, often known as Gainsborough Studios, were a British film studio located on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in Shoreditch, London which began operation in 1919. By 1920 they had a two stage studio. It is here that Alfred Hitchcock made his entrée into films.
***** Now known as the Corinthia Hotel, the Metropole Hotel is located at the corner of Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Place in central London on a triangular site between the Thames Embankment and Trafalgar Square. Built in 1883 it functioned as an hotel between 1885 until World War I when, located so close to the Palace of Westminster and Whitehall, it was requisitioned by the government. It reopened after the war with a luxurious new interior and continued to operate until 1936 when the government requisitioned it again whilst they redeveloped buildings at Whitehall Gardens. They kept using it in the lead up to the Second World War. After the war it continued to be used by government departments until 2004. In 2007 it reopened as the luxurious Corinthia Hotel.
Although this may appear to be a real room, this is in fact made up with 1:12 miniatures from my miniatures collection.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The Chippendale dining room chair is a very special piece. Part of a dining setting for six, it came from the Petite Elite Miniature Museum, later rededicated as the Carol and Barry Kaye Museum of Miniatures, which ran between 1992 and 2012 on Los Angeles’ bustling Wiltshire Boulevard. One of the chairs still has a sticker under its cushion identifying from which room of which dollhouse it came. The Petite Elite Miniature Museum specialised in exquisite and high end 1:12 miniatures. The chair is taken from a real Chippendale design.
Wanetta’s lucky pink hat covered in silk flowers, which hangs of the back of the chair on the right is made by Miss Amelia’s Miniatures in the Canary Islands. It is an artisan miniature made just like a real hat, right down to a tag in the inside of the crown to show where the back of the hat is! 1:12 size miniature hats made to such exacting standards of quality and realism are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that it would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet it could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, it is an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable. Miss Amelia is an exception to the rule coming from Spain, but like her American counterparts, her millinery creations are superb. Like a real fashion house, all her hats have names. This pink raw silk flower covered hat is called “Lilith”. Wanetta’s walking stick, made of ebonized wood with a real metal knob was made by the Little Green Workshop in England.
In front of the basket is a can of Vim with stylised Art Deco packaging and some Kleeneze floor polish. Vim was a common cleaning agent, used 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. Kleeneze is a homeware company started in Hanham, Bristol. The company's founder, Harry Crook, had emigrated to the United States with his family several years earlier, and whilst there joined Fuller Brush as a sales representative. He returned to Bristol several years later, and started a business making brushes and floor polish which were sold door-to-door by salesmen. Technically Kleeneze didn’t start until 1923, which is two years after this story is set. I couldn’t resist including it, as I doubt I will ever be able to photograph it as a main part of any other tableaux. Thus, I hope you will forgive me for this indulgence.
In the basket is a second can of Vim with slightly older packaging, some Zebo grate polish and a can of Brasso. Zebo (or originally Zebra) Grate Polish was a substance launched in 1890 by Reckitts to polish the grate to a gleam using a mixture that consisted of pure black graphite finely ground, carbon black, a binding agent and a solvent to keep it fluid for application with a cloth or more commonly newspaper. Brasso Metal Polish is a British all-purpose metal cleaning product introduced to market in 1905 by Reckitt and Sons, who also produced Silvo, which was used specifically for cleaning silver, silver plate and EPNS.
The tin buckets, wooden apple box, basket, mop, brush, pan and birchwood broom are all artisan made miniatures that I have acquired in more recent years. Sadly, the broken bowl is a result of an accident, which is unusual for me. When this bowl arrived it was wrapped in a small sealable plastic bag which slipped from my fingers and the blue and white porcelain bowl shattered on my slate kitchen floor where I unpack my parcels! I kept it as a reminder to be careful when unpacking my miniature treasures. Don’t worry, I have a replacement bowl which I am very careful with.
The feather duster on the fireplace mantle I made myself using fledgling feathers (very spring) which I picked up off the lawn one day thinking they would come in handy in my miniatures collection sometime. I bound them with thread to the handle which is made from a fancy ended toothpick!
The little white vase on the mantlepiece is mid Victorian and would once have been part of a doll’s tea service. It is Parian Ware. Parian Ware is a type of biscuit porcelain imitating marble. It was developed around 1845 by the Staffordshire pottery manufacturer Mintons, and named after Paros, the Greek island renowned for its fine-textured, white Parian marble, used since antiquity for sculpture. The vase and a matching jug I picked up as part of a job lot at auction some years ago.
The Georgian style fireplace I have had since I was a teenager and is made from moulded plaster.
The flocked wallpaper is beautiful hand impressed paper given to me by a friend who encouraged me to use it as wallpaper for my 1:12 miniature tableaux.
I do have breasts!
Having a makeover is such a wonderful event! I trust Phoebe completely with my appearance and she does an incredible job getting me to look as feminine as I feel deep inside! It's also fun to try on different outfits that may be completely different from what I might buy. This dress I did buy, and it was custom made to my generous measurements from JJs house. (jjshouse.com). They specialize in formal/prom/cocktail/wedding dresses and are very reasonable in price.
three for the price of one and don't say I am not generous.
Out on my walk this morning it was nice to just chill and not worry about anything leaving the past year behind for a few fleeting moments.
So onwards and upwards back to the old games of living life. So looking forward to the weather getting better and spending more time out and about.
Divided reverse. Letter generously translated by Nettenscheider, the author writes to his cousin and jokingly tells them he he and his baker-colleagues take cover behind the loaves of bread they bake.
Bakers from an unidentified Prussian formation in Brussels 1914.
Germany declared war on Belgium on 4 August 1914 after which it's armies crossed the border and attacked Liège. The Belgian army was forced to retreat and by August 20 the Germans entered Brussels on its way to France. The Belgians elected not to defend the city and the Germans marched through unhindered.
Would you believe all this arrived in my mailbox from ONE person?!?! Yet another surprise package from the astoundingly generous Melissa Allen of SnitchesGetStitches fame! This time landing on my doorstep in a box big enough to fit three Sadies and featuring a candy & carnival/circus theme!
My hubby damn near had to dig out the smelling salts to revive me! I could have practically filled a bathtub with the goodies that she sent! There was no way in the world it was all going to fit into one picture frame... there's so much missing here... a package of stylish serviettes, a delectable 'Parasite Pals' purse & darling plastic 'Teacups Ride' thingy, etc. This is just a taste of what the MONSTER-SIZED box contained!
This girl seriously MAKES ME CRY she is so endlessly thoughtful & sweet! I was just about weeping with joy reading the handwritten note that came with it. Such incredible sentiment expressed. It was the next best thing to receiving Melissa in the mail herself!
Melissa you have GOT to stop doing this or you will put me in the grave! :) I heart you so DANG much! You do not know how completely shell-shocked I am, nor how grateful I am to know the bottomless well of kindness that is YOU!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, with all my Missy-might! <3
The Holy Monastery of Simonos Petra, or more simply Simonopetra, is without doubt the most daring construction on the Holy Mountain. It stands proudly at a height of 330 metres on the end of a rocky mountain range.
The Monastery was founded by the Blessed Simon the Myrrhobletes around 1257, as a result of a vision. The whole of the building work, the Life of the Saint assures us, was accomplished as the result of divine intervention. In 1363 the Monastery was renovated with generous donations from a Serb despot, John Uglesha, who is regarded as the Monastery's second founder. In the Third Typikon, Simonopetra occupies 23rd place among the then monasteries of Athos; today it holds thirteenth place in the hierarchy.
Unfortunately, among the dates which are milestones in the history of the Monastery are those inauspicious days when it was afflicted with the scourge of fire. In 1570 the Monastery, together with its valuable archive, was destroyed by a great conflagration. This resulted in the loss of documents of inestimable historical value. It also explains why we know so little about the Monastery in the Byzantine period.
The good relations which developed between Simonopetra and the Princes of Wallachia in the period of Turkish rule made possible its recovery. However, there was another fire in 1622, causing further damage. Simonopetra, which had been a coenobium, became idiorrythmic in the 17th century. Although never looted by pirates, the intolerable taxes of the Turks drove the Monastery to decline and abandonment. By the heroic efforts of the priest-monk Ioasaph of Mytilene, Asimopetra (as Simonopetra was called in the period of Turkish occupation) began to function again in the late 18th century. The 19th century saw the building of the multi-storeyed building on the south side. At the end of the same century, in 1891, yet another disastrous fire swept away, yet again, the older buildings and the Monastery's treasures.
In the present century, Simonopetra has experienced a period of recovery and of increasing prestige in the Orthodox world - particularly after the liberation of the Holy Mountain from the Turks and under the enlightened ladership of the Abbots Neophytos, Ioannikios, and Ieronymos. In the 1950s, however, a period of decline set in and in 1963, when Athos celebrated a millennium of life, the prospects for the future were gloomy. But the 1970s were a time when there was a gradual revival of Athonite monasticism. In 1973 a new 20-member brotherhood from the Meteora established itself at the Monastery. The Monastery of Simonos Petra once had a large number of metochia with fertile farm land. The oldest of these would appear to be Petriotiko in Sithonia. Today, best known are St Charalampus in Thessaloniki, the Ascension in Athens, the Nunnery of the Annunciation at Ormylia in Chalcidice, and three others in France. It is also worth mentioning the metochi of Michael Voda in Bucharest, dedicated to the Monastery in 1566 and confiscated by the Romanian Government in 1863.
Simonopetra, because of the restricted space of its site, is not one of those monasteries where we can see autonomous, clearly distinguished buildings. The katholikon is dedicated to the Nativity of Christ and in its original form was built around 1600, while the form it takes today took shape after the fire of 1891. The Monastery has four chapels within its precinct and eight outside.
The Monastery's archive contains a host of documents in Greek, Turkish, and Romanian, together with inscriptions, and musical and other manuscripts, to which must be added its printed books. However, it must be pointed out that almost the whole of the archival material is post-Byzantine.
The sacristy contains a treasury of works of art, consisting of icons, vestments, silverware, antimensia, seals, and engravings. However, the most important treasure of Simonopetra is the left hand of St Mary Magdalene - she is regarded as 'co-founder' of the Monastery - which has remained whole for two thousand years. The Monastery today has a community of 50 well-educated and active monks.
Source: www.mountathos.gr
After the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901, Lord Curzon, who was then Viceroy of India, placed before the public the question of setting up a fitting memorial to the Queen. He suggested that the most suitable memorial would be a "stately", spacious, monumental and grand building surrounded by an exquisite garden. The princes and people of India responded generously to his appeal for funds and the total cost of construction of this monument amounting to one crore, five lakhs of rupees, was entirely derived from their voluntary subscriptions.The building is 184 ft high upto the base of the figure of Victory, which is another 16 ft high. The groups of figures above the north porch represent Motherhood, Prudence and Learning. Surrounding the main dome are figures of Art, Architecture, Justice, Charity etc. The Memorial is situated on a 64 acres of land with the building covering 338 ft by 228ft. King George V, then the Prince of Wales, laid the foundation stone on January 4, 1906 and it was formally opened to the public in 1921.
The Khajuraho Group of Monuments is a group of Hindu and Jain temples in Madhya Pradesh, India, about 175 kilometres southeast of Jhansi. They are one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India. The temples are famous for their nagara-style architectural symbolism and their erotic sculptures.
Most Khajuraho temples were built between 950 and 1050 by the Chandela dynasty. Historical records note that the Khajuraho temple site had 85 temples by 12th century, spread over 20 square kilometers. Of these, only about 20 temples have survived, spread over 6 square kilometers. Of the various surviving temples, the Kandariya Mahadeva Temple is decorated with a profusion of sculptures with intricate details, symbolism and expressiveness of ancient Indian art.
The Khajuraho group of temples were built together but were dedicated to two religions - namely Hinduism and Jainism - suggesting a tradition of acceptance and respect for diverse religious views among Hindus and Jains.
LOCATION
Khajuraho group of monuments are located in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, in Chhatarpur district, about 620 kilometres southeast of New Delhi. The temples are in a small town also known as Khajuraho, with a population of about 20,000 people (2001 Census).
Khajuraho is served by Civil Aerodrome Khajuraho (IATA Code: HJR), with services to Delhi, Agra, Varanasi and Mumbai. The site is also linked by Indian Railways service, with the railway station located approximately six kilometres from the monuments entrance.
The monuments are about 10 kilometres off the east-west National Highway 75, and about 50 kilometres from the city of Chhatarpur, that is connected to Bhopal - the state capital - by the SW-NE running National Highway 86.
HISTORY
The Khajuraho group of monuments was built during the rule of the Rajput Chandela dynasty. The building activity started almost immediately after the rise of their power, throughout their kingdom to be later known as Bundelkhand. Most temples were built during the reigns of the Hindu kings Yashovarman and Dhanga. Yashovarman's legacy is best exhibited by Lakshmana temple. Vishvanatha temple best highlights King Dhanga's reign. The largest and currently most famous surviving temple is Kandariya Mahadeva built in the reign of King Ganda from 1017-1029 CE. The temple inscriptions suggest many of the currently surviving temples were complete between 970 to 1030 CE, with further temples completed during the following decades.
The Khajuraho temples were built about 35 miles from the medieval city of Mahoba, the capital of the Chandela dynasty, in the Kalinjar region. In ancient and medieval literature, their kingdom has been referred to as Jijhoti, Jejahoti, Chih-chi-to and Jejakabhukti.
Khajuraho was mentioned by Abu Rihan-al-Biruni, the Persian historian who accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni in his raid of Kalinjar in 1022 CE; he mentions Khajuraho as the capital of Jajahuti. The raid was unsuccessful, and a peace accord was reached when the Hindu king agreed to pay a ransom to Mahmud of Ghazni to end the attack and leave.
Khajuraho temples were in active use through the end of 12th century. This changed in the 13th century, after the army of Delhi Sultanate, under the command of the Muslim Sultan Qutb-ud-din Aibak, attacked and seized the Chandela kingdom. About a century later, Ibn Battuta, the Moroccan traveller in his memoirs about his stay in India from 1335 to 1342 CE, mentioned visiting Khajuraho temples, calling them “Kajarra” as follows:
...near (Khajuraho) temples, which contain idols that have been mutilated by the Moslems, live a number of yogis whose matted locks have grown as long as their bodies. And on account of extreme asceticism they are all yellow in colour. Many Moslems attend these men in order to take lessons (yoga) from them.
— Ibn Battuta, about 1335 CE, Riḥlat Ibn Baṭūṭah, Translated by Arthur Cotterell
Central Indian region, where Khajuraho temples are, remained in the control of many different Muslim dynasties from 13th century through the 18th century. In this period, some temples were desecrated, followed by a long period when they were left in neglect. In 1495 CE, for example, Sikandar Lodi’s campaign of temple destruction included Khajuraho. The remoteness and isolation of Khajuraho protected the Hindu and Jain temples from continued destruction by Muslims. Over the centuries, vegetation and forests overgrew, took over the temples.
In the 1830s, local Hindus guided a British surveyor, T.S. Burt, to the temples and they were thus rediscovered by the global audience. Alexander Cunningham later reported, few years after the rediscovery, that the temples were secretly in use by yogis and thousands of Hindus would arrive for pilgrimage during Shivaratri celebrated annually in February or March based on a lunar calendar. In 1852, Maisey prepared earliest drawings of the Khajuraho temples.
NOMENCLATURE
The name Khajuraho, or Kharjuravāhaka, is derived from ancient Sanskrit (kharjura, खर्जूर means date palm, and vāhaka, वाहक means "one who carries" or bearer). Local legends state that the temples had two golden date-palm trees as their gate (missing when they were rediscovered). Desai states that Kharjuravāhaka also means scorpion bearer, which is another symbolic name for deity Shiva (who wears snakes and scorpion garlands in his fierce form).
Cunningham’s nomenclature and systematic documentation work in 1850s and 1860s have been widely adopted and continue to be in use. He grouped the temples into the Western group around Lakshmana, Eastern group around Javeri, and Southern group around Duladeva.
Khajuraho is one of the four holy sites linked to deity Shiva (the other three are Kedarnath, Kashi and Gaya). Its origin and design is a subject of scholarly studies. Shobita Punja has proposed that the temple’s origin reflect the Hindu mythology in which Khajuraho is the place where Shiva got married; with Raghuvamsha verse 5.53, Matangeshvara honoring ‘’Matanga’’, or god of love.
DESCRIPTION
The temple site is within Vindhya mountain range in central India. An ancient local legend held that Hindu deity Shiva and other gods enjoyed visiting the dramatic hill formation in Kalinjar area. The center of this region is Khajuraho, set midst local hills and rivers. The temple complex reflects the ancient Hindu tradition of building temples where gods love to play.
The temples are clustered near water, another typical feature of Hindu temples. The current water bodies include Sib Sagar, Khajur Sagar (also called Ninora Tal) and Khudar Nadi (river). The local legends state that the temple complex had 64 water bodies, of which 56 have been physically identified by archeologists so far.
All temples, except one (Chaturbhuja) face sunrise - another symbolic feature that is predominant in Hindu temples. The relative layout of temples integrate masculine and feminine deities and symbols highlight the interdependence. The art work symbolically highlight the four goals of life considered necessary and proper in Hinduism - dharma, kama, artha and moksha.
Of the surviving temples, 6 are dedicated to Shiva and his consorts, 8 to Vishnu and his affinities, 1 to Ganesha, 1 to Sun god, 3 to Jain Tirthanks. For some ruins, there is insufficient evidence to assign the temple to specific deities with confidence.
An overall examination of site suggests that the Hindu symbolic mandala design principle of square and circles is present each temple plan and design. Further, the territory is laid out in three triangles that converge to form a pentagon. Scholars suggest that this reflects the Hindu symbolism for three realms or trilokinatha, and five cosmic substances or panchbhuteshvara. The temple site highlights Shiva, the one who destroys and recycles life, thereby controlling the cosmic dance of time, evolution and dissolution. The temples have a rich display of intricately carved statues. While they are famous for their erotic sculpture, sexual themes cover less than 10% of the temple sculpture. Further, most erotic scene panels are neither prominent nor emphasized at the expense of the rest, rather they are in proportional balance with the non-sexual images. The viewer has to look closely to find them, or be directed by a guide. The arts cover numerous aspects of human life and values considered important in Hindu pantheon. Further, the images are arranged in a configuration to express central ideas of Hinduism. All three ideas from Āgamas are richly expressed in Khajuraho temples - Avyakta, Vyaktavyakta and Vyakta.
The Beejamandal temple is under excavation. It has been identified with the Vaidyanath temple mentioned in the Grahpati Kokalla inscription.
Of all temples, the Matangeshvara temple remains an active site of worship. It is another square grid temple, with a large 2.5 metres high and 1.1 metres diameter lingam, placed on a 7.6 metres diameter platform.
The most visited temple, Kandariya Mahadev, has an area of about 6,500 square feet and a shikhara (spire) that rises 116 feet. Jain templesThe Jain temples are located on east-southeast region of Khajuraho monuments. Chausath jogini temple features 64 jogini, while Ghantai temple features bells sculptured on its pillars.
ARCHITECTURE OF THE TEMPLES
Khajuraho temples, like almost all Hindu temple designs, follow a grid geometrical design called vastu-purusha-mandala. This design plan has three important components - Mandala means circle, Purusha is universal essence at the core of Hindu tradition, while Vastu means the dwelling structure.
The design lays out a Hindu temple in a symmetrical, concentrically layered, self-repeating structure around the core of the temple called garbhagriya, where the abstract principle Purusha and the primary deity of the temple dwell. The shikhara, or spire, of the temple rises above the garbhagriya. This symmetry and structure in design is derived from central beliefs, myths, cardinality and mathematical principles.
The circle of mandala circumscribe the square. The square is considered divine for its perfection and as a symbolic product of knowledge and human thought, while circle is considered earthly, human and observed in everyday life (moon, sun, horizon, water drop, rainbow). Each supports the other. The square is divided into perfect 64 sub-squares called padas.
Most Khajuraho temples deploy the 8x8 padas grid Manduka Vastupurushamandala, with pitha mandala the square grid incorporated in the design of the spires. The primary deity or lingas are located in the grid’s Brahma padas.
The architecture is symbolic and reflects the central Hindu beliefs through its form, structure and arrangement of its parts. The mandapas as well as the arts are arranged in the Khajuraho temples in a symmetric repeating patterns, even though each image or sculpture is distinctive in its own way. The relative placement of the images are not random but together they express ideas, just like connected words form sentences and paragraphs to compose ideas. This fractal pattern that is common in Hindu temples. Various statues and panels have inscriptions. Many of the inscriptions on the temple walls are poems with double meanings, something that the complex structure of Sanskrit allows in creative compositions. All Khajuraho temples, except one, face sunrise, and the entrance for the devotee is this east side.Above the vastu-purusha-mandala of each temple is a superstructure with a dome called Shikhara (or Vimana, Spire). Variations in spire design come from variation in degrees turned for the squares. The temple Shikhara, in some literature, is linked to mount Kailash or Meru, the mythical abode of the gods.In each temple, the central space typically is surrounded by an ambulatory for the pilgrim to walk around and ritually circumambulate the Purusa and the main deity. The pillars, walls and ceilings around the space, as well as outside have highly ornate carvings or images of the four just and necessary pursuits of life - kama, artha, dharma and moksa. This clockwise walk around is called pradakshina. Larger Khajuraho temples also have pillared halls called mandapa. One near the entrance, on the east side, serves as the waiting room for pilgrims and devotees. The mandapas are also arranged by principles of symmetry, grids and mathematical precision. This use of same underlying architectural principle is common in Hindu temples found all over India. Each Khajuraho temple is distinctly carved yet also repeating the central common principles in almost all Hindu temples, one which Susan Lewandowski refers to as “an organism of repeating cells”.
CONSTRUCTION
The temples are grouped into three geographical divisions: western, eastern and southern.
The Khajuraho temples are made of sandstone, with a granite foundation that is almost concealed from view. The builders didn't use mortar: the stones were put together with mortise and tenon joints and they were held in place by gravity. This form of construction requires very precise joints. The columns and architraves were built with megaliths that weighed up to 20 tons. Some repair work in the 19th Century was done with brick and mortar; however these have aged faster than original materials and darkened with time, thereby seeming out of place.
The Khajuraho and Kalinjar region is home to superior quality of sandstone, which can be precision carved. The surviving sculpture reflect fine details such as strands of hair, manicured nails and intricate jewelry.
While recording the television show Lost Worlds (History Channel) at Khajuraho, Alex Evans recreated a stone sculpture under 4 feet that took about 60 days to carve in an attempt to develop a rough idea how much work must have been involved. Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehner also conducted experiments to quarry limestone which took 12 quarrymen 22 days to quarry about 400 tons of stone. They concluded that these temples would have required hundreds of highly trained sculptors.
CHRONOLOGY
The Khajuraho group of temples belong to Vaishnavism school of Hinduism, Saivism school of Hinduism and Jainism - nearly a third each. Archaeological studies suggest all three types of temples were under construction at about the same time in late 10th century, and in use simultaneously. Will Durant states that this aspect of Khajuraho temples illustrates the tolerance and respect for different religious viewpoints in the Hindu and Jain traditions. In each group of Khajuraho temples, there were major temples surrounded by smaller temples - a grid style that is observed to varying degrees in Hindu temples in Angkor Wat, Parambaran and South India.
The largest surviving Saiva temple is Khandarya Mahadeva, while the largest surviving Vaishnava group includes Chaturbhuja and Ramachandra.
Kandariya Mahadeva Temple plan is 109 ft in length by 60 ft, and rises 116 ft above ground and 88 ft above its own floor. The central padas are surrounded by three rows of sculptured figures, with over 870 statues, most being half life size (2.5 to 3 feet). The spire is a self repeating fractal structure.
ARTS AND SCULPTURE
The Khajuraho temples feature a variety of art work, of which 10% is sexual or erotic art outside and inside the temples. Some of the temples that have two layers of walls have small erotic carvings on the outside of the inner wall. Some scholars suggest these to be tantric sexual practices. Other scholars state that the erotic arts are part of Hindu tradition of treating kama as an essential and proper part of human life, and its symbolic or explicit display is common in Hindu temples. James McConnachie, in his history of the Kamasutra, describes the sexual-themed Khajuraho sculptures as "the apogee of erotic art": "Twisting, broad-hipped and high breasted nymphs display their generously contoured and bejewelled bodies on exquisitely worked exterior wall panels. These fleshy apsaras run riot across the surface of the stone, putting on make-up, washing their hair, playing games, dancing, and endlessly knotting and unknotting their girdles....Beside the heavenly nymphs are serried ranks of griffins, guardian deities and, most notoriously, extravagantly interlocked maithunas, or lovemaking couples."
The temples have several thousand statues and art works, with Kandarya Mahadeva Temple alone decorated with over 870. Some 10% of these iconographic carvings contain sexual themes and various sexual poses. A common misconception is that, since the old structures with carvings in Khajuraho are temples, the carvings depict sex between deities; however the kama arts represent diverse sexual expressions of different human beings. The vast majority of arts depict various aspects the everyday life, mythical stories as well as symbolic display of various secular and spiritual values important in Hindu tradition. For example, depictions show women putting on makeup, musicians making music, potters, farmers, and other folks in their daily life during the medieval era. These scenes are in the outer padas as is typical in Hindu temples.
There is iconographic symbolism embedded in the arts displayed in Khajuraho temples. Core Hindu values are expressed in multitude of ways. Even the Kama scenes, when seen in combination of sculptures that precede and follow, depict the spiritual themes such as moksha. In the words of Stella Kramrisch,
This state which is “like a man and woman in close embrace” is a symbol of moksa, final release or reunion of two principles, the essence (Purusha) and the nature (Prakriti).
— Stella Kramrisch, 1976
The Khajuraho temples represent one expression of many forms of arts that flourished in Rajput kingdoms of India from 8th through 10th century CE. For example, contemporary with Khajuraho were the publications of poems and drama such as Prabodhacandrodaya, Karpuramanjari, Viddhasalabhanjika and Kavyamimansa. Some of the themes expressed in these literary works are carved as sculpture in Khajuraho temples. Some sculptures at the Khajuraho monuments dedicated to Vishnu include the Vyalas, which are hybrid imaginary animals with lions body, and are found in other Indian temples. Some of these hybrid mythical art work include Vrik Vyala (hybrid of wolf and lion) and Gaja Vyala (hybrid of elephant and lion). These Vyalas may represent syncretic, creative combination of powers innate in the two.
TEMPLE NAME - DEITY - YEAR COMPLETED
Chausath Yogini - Devi, 64 Yoginis - 885
Brahma - Vishnu - 925
Lalgun Mahadev - Shiva - 900
Matangeshwar - Shiva - 1000
Varaha - Vishnu - 950
Lakshmana - Vaikuntha Vishnu - 939
Parshvanath - Parshvanath - 954
Visvanatha - Shiva - 999
Devi Jagadambi - Devi, Parvati - 1023
Chitragupta - Sun, Chitragupta - 1023
Kandariya Mahadeva - Shiva - 1029
Vamana - Vamana - 1062
Adinath Jain Temple - Rishabha - 1027
Javeri - Vishnu - 1090
Chaturbhuja - Vishnu - 1110
Duladeo (Duladeva) - Shiva - 1125
Ghantai - Jain Tirthankara - 960
Vishnu-Garuda - Vishnu - 1000
Ganesha - Shiva - 1000
Hanuman - Hanuman - 922
Mahishasuramardini - Devi - 995
Parnassusweg 11/02/2021 13h17
I love the new artwork on the Parnassusweg.
Love or Generosity (2020)
Nicole Eisenman
The construction of the new court at Parnassusweg 280 is already well advanced, and the hearings will take place there from 1 March 2021. The American artist Nicole Eisenman created the artwork "Love or Generosity" for the new court. This artwork will be on the square at the entrance of the new court from Friday 27 November. This public square, which will play a central role in the area due to future plans for the Zuidas, is accompanied by a work of art that does justice to the building, the judiciary itself and the public.
The artwork "Love or Generosity" depicts a gatekeeper of the court: not a guard, but a gentle person who offers relaxation and comfort. The statue is more than five meters high, making it a good match for the new ten-storey courthouse. Despite the height of the statue, the friendly attitude of the "gatekeeper" ensures that the statue does not deter, but rather attracts and makes you curious.
The maker of the sculpture, Nicole Eisenman, is best known to the general (art) public for her figurative paintings in which she applies different styles, ranging from Renaissance painting to modern art. Since 2012, Eisenman has also manifested himself as a sculptor, including with presentations at the Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial. In her work, current themes from contemporary society come to the fore, which she approaches with humor and love.
The end of the 2010 Winter Olympics is drawing close.
While there are things to both support and to despise about the Olympics, I have been pleased with the way Vancouver/Whistler held up and even shone.
But what has most caught my attention has been the athletes themselves.
Among the many heart-warming stories and accomplishments I just wanted to acknowledge 3 of our medal-winning Canadians and their generosity.
As far as know, most competitors are not rich. If anything, broke is a closer description. So to see Jennifer Heil, Alexandre Bilodeau & Clara Hughes donate their entire bonus for winning a medal to charity makes me proud to support them.
Congratulations to them and all the athletes for their determination is getting to these Olympics and taking the risks necessary to be among the best in the world. :)
Made {explore} - Highest position: 185 on Sunday, February 28, 2010
This is a view using FITS file mosaics generously provided courtesy of Susan Stolovy, with attribution to Rick Arendt and Solange Ramirez for their work in producing the final mosaics. Her team used a processing technique that alleviated some of the saturation issues arising in some of the brighter parts of the mosaic that one might find in the mosaics provided by the Spitzer archive.
My take is not necessarily much different than what's already been done, but it is quite a bit less saturated than what you can find on the Spitzer website, and just a bit more of those wispy dust and gas formations can be made out. Anyway, it's nice to work with some data where someone else has already done most of the work.
For reference, here is a link to the original version using the same wavelengths on the Spitzer website: www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/1540-ssc2006-02a-A-Cauldro...
Screen: 8.0 µm (IRAC4)
Red: 5.8 µm (IRAC3)
Green: 4.5 µm (IRAC2)
Blue: 3.6 µm (IRAC1)
The image is presented in galactic coordinates, with north up in that regard.
My no-fuss chocolate cake. The bliss of dark chocolate. That delicate balance of sugar and bitter. A generous slather of ganache.
Classics never disappoint, do they ?
Este trabalho foi feito especialmente para minha adorável e inesquecível amiga do Flickr, Georgina Rose. Com muito amor, um pensamento especial de agradecimento por todo o seu carinho comigo, suas doces e generosas palavras que levarei para sempre. Super obrigada por tudo minha querida Georgina, sei que você está brilhando em um plano muito superior ao nosso. A você também Caroline, por me apresentar esta pessoa rara. Finalizo com as sábias palavras do nosso genial escritor Guimarães Rosa: “As pessoas não morrem, elas ficam encantadas”... Muito amor e luz pra você...
This work was made especially for my lovely and unforgettable friend of Flickr, Georgina Rose. With much love, a special thought of gratitude for all her kindness with me, her sweet and generous words that I 'll take forever. Super thank you for everything my dear Georgina, I know you're shining on a plane far superior to ours. And you too Caroline, for introducing me to this rare person. I conclude with the wise words of our great writer Guimarães Rosa: "People do not die, they become enchanted…" Much love and light to you…
Photographer : Marshad AlMarshad
Follow Me: @MrshdM
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Warning!:
-Please Don`t Comment With Your Last Picture Or URL, Your Comment Will Be Deleted
-Silly Comments Will Be DELETED!.
All Rights Reserved for The Photographer. Any usage of the Picture without permission will cause you legal action.
Please write to ricseet@gmail.com if you like a FREE copy of this picture. In return please donate any amount and to any charity of your choice. Just trying to do the little we can help to the needy. Thank you for your generosity!
Thank you for viewing and have a happy day.
Explore #4, May 10 2012
Like to dedicate this to ALL Loving & Caring fathers out there.
Have a Great Day with the family!
Sad that this pic was stolen and
Explore #4, May 10 2012
Wishing all a Happy Weekend ahead!
When I visited my daughter on March 20 2011, my grandson, Aidan, was telling me about this bird with babies. I was excited and asked him to show me. He took me outside his home and pointed up - "there they are".
Wow - I saw how cute they were and grab my cam from the car.
Thank you Aidan!
Update: May10 2012
This pic is sold to Nat Geo for their coming book. Proceeds is going to charity.
The lady who bought the pic had a hard time tracking me down becos the person who downloaded this pic from my Flickr account without my knowledge, plastered this all over the internet and change my name from Ric Seet to Rik Seet. So no one can track the originator down. Now others are profiteering from this scam and here is the link to one such websites. You pay them to download my stolen pic:
pixdaus.com/under-her-wings-by-rik-seet-birds-aves-fauna-...
When I did a Rik Seet goggle search there are about 4 full pages of links to such websites !
www.google.com.sg/search?q=Rik Seet&ie=utf-8&oe=u...
This is one of the downside of the internet. To prevent such future mishaps, I have since disabled the download feature under Privacy & Settings. Base on the feedback this is not even safe. Additional advises is to add Watermarks and reduce file size to 800X800. From what I am hearing nothing is save on the net.
Thank you friends for your kind advise. .
Update: May13 2012
I managed to write to a few websites/blogs via email and FB.
1. A friend responded on FB and apologize for posting the pic on FB for Mother Day.
2. An Australian cyclist by the name of Craig plaster the pic for 2012 Mother Day. I wrote to inform him that the pic is my and he blocked me off immi'ly. Isn't that just great, steals your pic and ignores you!
3. What's even more interesting is Pixdaus.com has an option for you to complain if your are the owner of the intellectual property. Isn't this a laugh. I presume they believe they excuse themselves of any legal obligation in the eyes of the law by having this feature on their website! I have written to them and waiting for their reply.
Update June 1 2012
Today a caring Flickr friend brought to my attention that the above pic was stolen again and this pic was posted on Flickr. Wrote to the person to delete my picture which was done. Not a word of apology.
These people have no shame - steal other pictures and post it like theirs. Even took part in invites and participated at the various levels of award to claim credit for themselves.
here is the link if this shameful person and I have seen another couple of stolen pics as well becos they are too skillful for him. Even wrote to advise that these be remove. I am contacting the legal department of Yahoo in Singapore and making a few suggesting to them to apprehend such people.
by Pasckal2011
www.flickr.com/photos/69511790@N07/7293622534/
Since then more Flickr friends have alerted me. I am now no more angry becos I have learnt to share and come to realized this picture brings great memories & joy to others. One guy wrote to request for a print becos he wanted to place it next to his Bible.
He said that it is "God's Gift To Nature"
Update June 4 2012
Great to see that couple of my Flickr friends have added water mark to their pic. Very creative as they take the trouble to strategically position the watermark . I will borrow this idea. Thanks guys!
Update Dec 17 2012
Nat Geo is now printing double the number of copies and has agreed to denote US$300/ to charity of my grandson choice - SPCA. Thank you Nat Geo.
Update Dec 25 2012
Today I received a very touching letter from a mother who requested this print. I am glad that a picture is worth a thousand words and holds special meaning and brings great joy.
So if you need a print please drop me a Flickr mail and your mailing address. Thank you.
My heart goes out to this special lady and this picture is my gift to her. Some of you are aware that my daughter was critically ill. In her own works she told me she nearly died in Oct. Now I rejoice becos she is making slow recovery ----. A small step at a time!
Hi Ric,
I have been searching for the photographer who took the absolutely beautiful photo of the colorful momma bird with it's babies under its wings. I've actually been praying I would find the original photographer. I won't get into the details, but for the last almost 2 years, I've been going through a really hard time with my health due to a horrible medical mistake that I suffered at the hands of a doctor. I will not let anyone tell me I am not going to get better. My husband and my son need me back. This picture holds such meaning for me...I've found it on other websites, which I am so sorry that people are stealing your work, and I have gone back to look at it a lot over the last several months. It brings me great comfort and the colors are just so beautiful and bright. I was wondering if it would be possible to buy a large print of it from you so that I can frame it and have it matted with a verse so I can look at it every day in my house. Would you mind letting me know if it's possible to buy a print from you? If so, what are the size proportions that you could print out for me? The place I want to hang it could handle an overall size of 24"x24" or 24"x28", which would be framed and matted with an inscription matted under it. Hopefully that description makes sense. Would you mind contacting back?
Update April 11 2016
Today i received a very comforting email from this lady and I thank her for helping mereach out to others who may need this pic becos of the sentimental/special meaning this pic means to them. For me this pic means a world to me bcos I am a dad to two precious daughters that I love dearly. No matter what -- I will always be there for them as long as I am on this good earth.
Hi Ric,
I must confess I posted your beautiful picture of the bird shielding her babies under her wings on a tweet and my FB page. I didn't take it from Flickr, I (wrongly) assumed it was in the public domain. Would you like me to remove it or would it be mutually agreeable to post a link to you for your credit and publicity? I am a solicitor working from home writing wills and trusts, hence the family theme, I have not tried to profit directly from the photo, just thought it was a nice image of caring. Sorry.
Kind regards,
Elizabeth
Thank you Elizabeth. There are lots of caring people on this good earth.
It was hard to imagine what the next step could be for a director of one of the world’s most prestigious national museums. But the art historian and former head of the Rijksmuseum, Wim Pijbes, surprised us with his role as general director of Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar, the new home of Dutch businessman and avid collector Joop van Caldenborgh’s private art collection.
‘My dream is to combine nature and art in a museum,’ says Pijbes and the 40-hectare estate of Voorlinden is the answer to his vision. The new museum building is designed by Rotterdam-based architecture studio Kraaijvanger and sits in a field bordering the forest; a long sand-coloured building that incorporates 6,700 sq m of exhibition and activity space.
‘It’s a symmetrical, single-level space with white walls and many square rooms,’ says Pijbes, ‘It’s a very clear, modern-style building. Mr van Caldenborgh’s idea was not to have a star architect – the arts always come first.’ He adds, ‘What a museum needs are walls, light and proper spaces. And yet the building is not anonymous – it has colour, form, texture – everything is just pure and beautiful. It’s truly a building that is meant to serve the arts. It is haute-couture architecture, truly made to measure.’
The façades are made from alternating glass and stone, the transparency connecting the inside and outside, bringing the art of nature into the exhibition space. The building sits atop a plinth made from the same stone. An ingeniously constructed roof is supported by a white steel colonnade that surrounds the building. Paradoxically, perhaps, this modern structure includes several classical references, from its symmetrical presentation to its grid-savvy proportions, the front portico to the Greek temple-style columns on one side.
The museum comprises 20 galleries, each featuring a generous 5.3m-high ceiling. More than 115,000 diagonal ducts are arranged over the glass roof, allowing the bright light of the Dutch coast to fill the building. Additional indirect LED lighting ensures there is always optimum light for the artworks, whatever the time or weather.
www.wallpaper.com/architecture/inside-the-newly-opened-mu...
A Tea for the Tillerman
Acte 3
Tea Party Shenanigans
The next hour and generous half were spent in a blur of social mixing, handing out and receiving compliments alike.
Most of which were genuine. For there were some rather pretty outfits being worn and equally pretty baubles. Ginny held her own against them, while I sometimes felt the pauper.
We had made a full circle before finding ourselves at the tea table standing next to mum, as we finally partook of the refreshments now fully laid out.
Mum was not much company, however, as the seemingly never-ending stream of guests, making their way in line, stopped to talk with her first.
Ginny and I, sharing a knowing look, grabbed ourselves a goblet of red wine each and fled to the sanctuary of the back garden for some relief and solitude over being social butterflies.
<<<<<<<<<<
Ginny and I go into the garden drinking from our goblets of wine. These were not our first drinks of wine, plus what we had had at the pub, and I’ll admit we were both a bit light-headed and giggly at this point.
Cleo, the neighborhood cat, is sunning himself by the small pagoda. Ginny gives me her goblet and bends down to pet the lazy fat bugger who probably last caught a mouse some 3 of his lives ago.
As she petted the scoundrel, Ginny’s dangling pendant was dripping in its’ display of brilliant, gloriously fiery cascading sparkles.
As I stared at the mesmerizing show of her necklace. I became aware of giggling young girls close at hand.
Ginny was still absorbed in petting the loudly purring Cleo, so I went off to find the source. without saying anything to disturb the pairs' bliss.
In the very backside of the garden, there is a white wrought iron bench. This was in the area I called the secret garden since it was surrounded by shrubs on the house side. My brother and I played many a game in this area, and in the wooded acres on the other side.
That was where I pinpointed that the giggling was coming from.
Feeling it was a time to be clandestine, I snuck up and peered through a gap in the shrubs…
There were three of them.
Twelve-year-old Estella, little Claire, and oddly enough, the “Wood Bead lady”. There was no sign of Mrs. Shannon or Gabrielle.
Apparently, the trio was playing a game of keep-away.
Claire was running between the other two as they tried to catch her. She was holding the wood beaded necklace that the “Wood Bead Lady” had been wearing. Estella soon captured the squirming tyke and taking the wood beads from her, gave them back to the waiting adult. Then Claire squirmed free and was hoisted up by the “Wood Bead Lady”. Estella then went to the bench, facing away from the pair.
“Wood Bead Lady” then put Claire down and pointed out Estella.
Giggling, Claire went over to Estella and pulled at her dress, holding her arms up to be held. Estella bent down, her black and white striped taffeta dress shimmering, and picked her up. Claire ran her arms up and hugged Estella.
As she did, the little nymph nimbly unhooked the rhinestone necklace and let it fall away from Estella’s throat.
Indicating she wanted down, she ran back behind Estella, scooped up the necklace from the grass, and went to the waiting “Wood Bead Lady” who pick her up, tickling the squealing child.
An odd game I thought, but at least the lady was keeping the toddler (and Estella)out of mischief.
I debated going back to gather Ginny and show her for a laugh, when I realized a sudden, undeniable urge, to go potty was making me tingle.
I slinked away, not wishing to disturb the happily playing group.
I go back and see that Ginny is still sitting on the pagodas’ steps petting Cleo.
I hailed her.
“Hey luv, I need to freshen up”
Ginny, sitting comfortably, hesitatingly asks if I need her to come along.
I laugh, coming up alongside the steps.
“No. I'm a big girl now...
I pick up her now empty goblet and walk away, saying…
“I’ll bring us back some refills”
I whip back around, giving Ginny and smirking eye…
“You just stay here and play with your pussy.”
Giggling, I dodged the pebble she threw at me, and lifting my skirt with my free hand, scurried off as quick as my heeled shoes would let me.
Heading back onto the green of the party area, I was soon waylaid by one of the guests, Cassie, who was a friend of Ginny’s mum.
I had not realized she was coming, for it was her first time here at one of our teas.
She was smashing in the looks department. Her long brown hair was tied in the back with a fancy pleat. Cassie was wearing a midnight black taffeta high-necked top with 3/4 length sleeves. A gold pleated satin skirl fell swirling from her waistline.
She was strikingly wearing a lovely gold necklace set with real diamonds and garnets that lay sparking along her downy soft top’s neckline, a very pretty thing I thought it was. Matching drop earrings, bracelets and rings completed the show.
After greeting her( shaking my leg in discomfort) she coincidentally asked me where the ladies' room was.
We had some rentals set up behind a hedge near the house for the guests, so I offered to lead her there.
Reaching them, Cassie asked me if Ginny was here today. Answering yes, I told Cassie where I had left her, giving her quick directions before apologizing that I really had a pressing errand. And that I would meet her there.
I circled the house, entering by the front door. In my room, I opened the drawer where I kept the case for my better jewellery. Lifting the lid, I pulled off both my rings, undid the bracelet, and laid them all inside. Making it to my bathroom in the nick of time.
I was in there, indisposed, for a long while.
Once I was finally through I freshened my makeup and headed back through the kitchen. Weaving my way amongst noisily working caterers.
Just outside the back door, I was intercepted by mum, who was still by the tables, calling me over.
She asked me to locate the reading glasses that she had left in the sunroom.
I go to the sun room searching, finally finding them by Papa’s wet bar.
Smirking to myself, I poured a shot of ginger brandy, and happily downed it.
Feeling rather warm inside, I picked up the errant reading glasses.
As I picked them up I could see out the long side windows Mrs. Shannon talking to some friends. Gabrielle was with her, the necklace glistening. I did not see Estella.
A silly game they had been playing I remember thinking to myself.
I scurry back outside, handed mum her readers, and listened in polity after she introduced me to the ladies with whom was chatting.
I broke away, snatched up full goblets of wine, and began my journey through the gauntlet of guests to collect Ginny.
It was then I remembered I had left my rings and bracelet inside my open jewellery case. I hesitated going back for them before deciding not to, I had left Ginny alone long enough.
It was then I spied Claire being carried by her new friend, the “Wood Bead Lady”, followed by that sly Estella.
They were approaching a 30-something lady, standing alone like she was waiting for the return of friends.
She was winningly wearing a long, very sleek, very tight, purple silk sleeveless dress that appeared to have been poured over her figure.
Claire was set down as the two ladies began chatting, with Estrella standing off to one side listening in.
As I passed I saw out of the corner of my eye that Claire had reached up her arms and the lady in purple silk was bending over to pick her up. The sapphire and diamond gemstones of the crescent moon-shaped silvery necklace she wore around her throat rippled flashily in the sunlight.
I passed them without a second thought, my mind focused on not spilling wine, as I made my way to rejoin Ginny.
I reached the pagoda where I had left her but found it deserted. Not even Cleo remained.
I went to the secret garden area, but it too was now void of anyone.
I started to walk the long way around the gardens trying to find where Ginny had gotten off too.
I had just passed one of the trimmed hedges when a hand is placed on my shoulder and I hear Ginny's voice from behind me, and see her arm reaching for one of the wine goblets I was holding
“Lost my pussy, didn’t I luv, then lost you ?” She giggled in my ear as she came up along sides me.
“Got bored waiting for you to come back, didn’t I? Been looking for you.” She said to me as a way of explanation.
We stand there drinking our wine as we watch the moving crowd of guests spread out upon the green lawn. Sun shining up in a cloudless blue sky. A perfect day.
“Lovely wine this “ Ginny said.
I turned to her smiling, meaning to ask if Cassie had found her.
But she had read my mind apparently, for she started to tell me that she had seen her mum’s friend, Cassie, holding Claire, talking to the odd lady we had met, the one wearing that turban. I didn’t want to interrupt them, you can guess why. So we will have to seek her out later…. What’s the matter?”
Ginny stopped her story, seeing the look on my face.
For, as I had faced Ginny, I had frozen, not really hearing My friend's words.
I brushed my fingers upon the vacant front of Ginny’s dress, just above the rhinestone dragons' clutching claw.
“Ginny, Where's your necklace?”
Eyes opening wide in horror, her hand shoots to her bare neck, feeling in vain around her throat.
“Buggers, it’s bloody gone!”
Next up the last Acte 4
A Most Curious Conclusion
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Rose from David Austin.
Background texture from Pareeerica, textures from Boccacino and leslie Nicole (French Kiss).
is about the heart"
Brighter Lives co-founder, Peter Towle from England, he is having a new challenge, Coast to Coast bike ride on June 9th, from Morecambe to Whitby. He wants to raise awareness and funds to help our children in Honduras. Would you help him? follow his instructions in the poster, thank you so much for helping and sharing!!
Robert Kaufman generously donated a charm pack for each member of participating chapters in the Modern Quilt Guild to use for a challenge project of our choosing.
The NOVA Modern Quilt Guild selected the Bright palate (http://www.robertkaufman.com/pre-cut/konareg_cotton_solids_bright_palette1/) to work with and each of us made one or more mini quilts (29"x29" to 45"x45"). The members were allowed to add fabric from their stash as long as the charms remained the stars of the show. The quilts will be donated to the INOVA Fairfax Children's Hospital NICU.
This quilt was created by me
For MacroMondays theme “Generosity”
This is a quite direct approach for this weeks theme, but unfortunately money is needed in order to help people whose lives have been devastated by natural disasters, wars and poverty. One doesn't have to give huge sums of money, even pennies or cents help.
Happy MM everyone!
Generosity is nothing else than a craze to possess. All which I abandon, all which I give, I enjoy in a higher manner through the fact that I give it away. To give is to enjoy possessively the object which one gives.
Jean-Paul Sartre
I suggest to look at my stream on Fluidr .
Divided reverse. Brief note generously translated by xiphophilos.
Identified as machine gunners by their P.08 Lugers and the absence of ammunition pouches, these close friends from Leibgarde-Infanterie-Regt. (1. Großherzoglich Hessisches) Nr. 115 display the strength of their friendship by locking arms for their memento photograph.
Generosity comes in all shapes and sizes. On 30 July 2016, six of us from Calgary had the honour of meeting a 92-year-old gentleman who has lived most of his long life on a huge area (380 hectares, 939 acres) of beautiful land near Hanna, Alberta. Though Gottlob Schmidt (known as Schmitty) has now moved into town (Hanna), he is not far from his beloved land and still loves to spend a lot of time there. My friends and I understand why. This untouched land is not only beautiful to the eye, with its undulating hills with small, scattered pockets of woodland, but it also hides all sorts of natural treasures, including the wildlife that enjoys this native grassland.
There are so few areas of native grassland left in Alberta, so each one is very precious. Schmitty told us that he had never seen his land looking so green! Perhaps not too surprising, as we had had so much rain recently, often accompanied by thunderstorms. In fact, the rain started on our return journey to Calgary and I was driving from our meeting place back to my house in torrential rain.
This is where the word 'generosity' comes in. Two years ago, Schmitty donated all his land to Alberta Parks, along with certain strict regulations (listed below) on how the land was to be maintained. He was very warmly recognized for his extreme generosity. The Park is known as Antelope Hill Provincial Park and, when Schmitty is no longer able to visit and enjoy his old, family homestead, the Park will be opened to the public. For now, it remains his own, private property.
The highlight for us that day was meeting Schmitty himself. I can only hope that I might be lucky enough to be in half his shape if I ever reached that age! It was an absolute delight to spend a little time with this man with the big heart when we first arrived and again later in the day, when it was time for us to head back to Calgary. We also got to meet Schmitty's good neighbours, Donna and Ken.
www.albertaparks.ca/media/5788002/antelope-hill-pp-fact-s...
calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/you-can-thank-this-man-...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIVVBdkoUVY&feature=youtu.be
My friends (specialists in mosses, lichens and liverworts and other things) and I, were given permission to spend the day there, to list all our findings. Our time was spent climbing one main hill and walking part way around it, calling in at several of the small areas of woodland. This bright yellowy orange fungus was hidden with others within the trees. These were the other highlight for me! It is quite rare that we come across one of these Amanita Muscaria mushrooms, and it is so exciting and such a treat when we do! Isn't it beautiful and amazing? Of course, it's just a "fungi nut" talking, ha. This is a telemacro shot, so it was much smaller in reality. They are so attractive but also poisonous!
"A large conspicuous mushroom, Amanita muscaria is generally common and numerous where it grows, and is often found in groups with basidiocarps in all stages of development. Fly agaric fruiting bodies emerge from the soil looking like a white egg, covered in the white warty material of the universal veil... Amanita muscaria poisoning occurs in either young children or people ingesting it to have a hallucinogenic experience... A fatal dose has been calculated at an amount of 15 caps. Deaths from this fungus A. muscaria have been reported in historical journal articles and newspaper reports. However, with modern medical treatment a fatal outcome because of the poison of this mushroom would be extremely rare."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria
Various plants were good to see, too, including about four Prairie Crocuses that were still in bloom. I hadn't seen Skeletonweed for a long time, but there were quite a few small clusters of it. A new plant to me was a tall one with white flowers, that I still need to identify properly. The occasional gorgeous wild Rose made a bright splash of colour.
After a few hours of exploration, the only things that we were so happy and relieved to leave behind were the mosquitoes! Never had I seen so many of them - the air was filled with these tiny, blood-sucking insects that followed us every step of the way!
Thanks so much, Heide, for driving Sandy and myself all the way out there - about a two and three-quarter hour drive. Much of the distance was on the same roads that I had driven recently with my daughter, but this was the first time I had ever been as far as Hanna and just beyond. Hanna now has a Tim Horton's, opened around three months ago : ) Thanks, Heide, too, for trying to find the old railway roundhouse - unfortunate that there was too much construction in the area, so one can't get to the roundhouse. And thank you so much, Peter, for arranging and organizing this wonderful trip! Most importantly of all, our thanks to Schmitty, who so kindly allowed us to share the special land that he has called home for so many decades. Our thanks for allowing us to spend the day there and, even more importantly, thank you for your great gift to all Albertans, with your incredibly generous donation of Antelope Hill Provincial Park.
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.
Today however, being a Sunday we are not at Cavendish Mews. We have travelled east across London, through Bloomsbury, past the Smithfield Meat Markets, beyond the Petticoat Lane Markets* frequented by Lettice’s maid, Edith, through the East End boroughs of Bethnal Green and Bow, and through the 1880s housing development of Upton Park, to East Ham. It is here that we have followed Edith and her fiancée, grocery delivery boy Frank, on their Sunday off, to the Premier Super Cinema**, where Edith and Frank have just finished seeing a midday showing of ‘A Girl of London’***.
As they join the throng of theatre patrons leaving the cinema and step out through the double glass doors set in wooden frames of Brunswick Green**** and stand under the brightly illuminated portico which advertises this week’s showings in colourful red lettering, they both shiver against the December cold, which is at odds to the warmth of the cinema’s cosy interior. Along High Street, people wrapped up in thick coats hurry through the gloom of the afternoon. Only dull light manages to filter through the dark clouds hanging heavily overhead.
“Looks like rain.” Frank remarks glumly as he looks to the sky beyond the Premier’s portico. He bundles the russet and cream wool scarf knitted in a stockinette stitch***** by his Scottish grandmother, Mrs. McTavish a little more tightly around his throat.
“Well, the forecast in this morning’s papers****** said that there were rain showers due to arrive from mid-afternoon.” Edith adds, pulling the brim of her black dyed straw cloche decorated with purple satin roses and black feathers low over ears as the cold breeze blowing up High Street teases them uncomfortably. “Which is why I brought this!” She hoists up her old black brolly and smiles at Frank.
“I really need to get you a new one of them.” Frank says. “It’s a bit battered and shabby.”
“Oh, it does its job well enough.” Edith defends her slightly beaten and battered black hook handled umbrella as she looks down upon it and rubs it tenderly.
“It’s not anywhere near good enough or smart enough for my best girl.” Frank insists
Come on.” she adds brightly with a chuckle. “Let’s do a bit of window shopping before we have to go home.”
The pair look both ways before crossing over High Street, a noisy and busy thoroughfare, even on a Sunday, chocked with a mixture of chugging private motor cars, lorries and the occasional horse and cart. Edith looks across the road as they wait by the kerb to the ramshackle collection of two and three storey buildings constructed over two centuries opposite. Their canvas awnings fluttering in the breeze help to advertise an ironmonger*******, a barber, a haberdasher, a lamp shop, a chemist, a boot repairer, a grocer and a little further up the street, the large double fronted Woolworths******* display their wares. Christmas is not far away now, with only a few weeks until Christmas Day, and signs of festive cheer abound with bright and gaudy tinsel********* garlands and stars cut from metallic paper hanging in shop windows on either side of the busy thoroughfare.
“I did enjoy Genevieve Townsend********** as Lil in today’s picture, Frank.” Edith remarks as they cross the street after taking advantage of a lull in traffic.
“Hhhmmm…” murmurs Frank in reply.
“She is so glamourous, and such a dramatic actress.” Edith goes on. “She reminds me a bit of Wanetta Ward. Remember Miss Lettice’s client the American actress that ended up working here for Islington Studios***********?”
“Hhhmmm…” is all Frank says in reply.
“Miss Lettice received a Christmas card from here a few days ago, all the way from California! And she even remembered to include me in her Christmas wish!” Edith gushes. “Miss Lettice says I can keep the card for myself after Christmas is over.”
“Hhhmmm…” Frank murmurs again as they reach the opposite side of the road and begin to slowly meander the pavement as they wend their way back up the hill towards East Ham Tube Station************.
“I was reading in Photoplay************* that Miss Towsend grew up in in Freeport, Illinois and attended Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in English and English Literature. No wonder she acts with such conviction, if she studied the classics. Don’t you think so, Frank?”
“Hhhmmm…” Frank utters again.
“Frank, are you listening to me?” Edith queries as she stops in her tracks.
Broken from his own distracted thoughts by their sudden cessation of movement, Frank turns towards Edith and says, “Oh yes. Yes. Very interesting.” But his voice sounds hollow.
“No, you haven’t, Frank.” replies Edith a little disappointedly.
“Haven’t what, Edith?”
“Exactly!” Edith says with conviction, nodding her head as she withdraws her arm from where it is interlocked with Frank’s and folds her arms akimbo in front of her. “Listening to me, Frank! You haven’t heard a word I’ve said, have you?”
“Oh, I’m sorry Edith. I guess I’m just a bit distracted is all. That’s why I wanted to come to the pictures today – to get my mind off things you know?”
“What things, Frank?” Edith ask in concern, re-linking her arm with Frank’s as they slowly begin to walk again, passing by the brightly illuminated lamp shop where stars made from metallic cardboard, strung on pieces of bright red cotton hyang above the latest range of fashionable electric lamps with a mixture of modern geometric Art Deco shades and more traditional Victorian and Edwardian styles.
“Well, I just can’t help thinking about Gran.” Frank admits a little guiltily.
“What’s wrong with her?” Edith asks in concern.
“Oh, I didn’t want to worry you, Edith. Not on our day off.” Frank begins. “But…”
“What is it, Frank. What’s happened?”
“Well, I’m sorry to say this, but she’s sick, Edith.” Frank sighs heavily, releasing a pent-up breath. “She must have caught a chill the other week when I walked her home from our celebratory engagement tea at Lyon’s Corner House************** up Tottenham Court Road.”
“Oh I’m sorry Mrs. McT… err, I mean, Gran, isn’t feeling well.” Edith says with concern to Frank. She then utters a snorting half chuckle. “I still can’t get used to calling your grandmother, Gran, Frank.” She shakes her head
Frank joins her laughter and smiles - a moment of happiness amidst the worry. “No more than I can get used to calling your parents George and Ada, rather than Mr. and Mrs. Watsford.”
“I guess we’ll get used to it in time.” Edith says comfortingly. “It’s early days yet. We haven’t been engaged for all that long, after all.”
Edith wraps her arm a little more tightly through Frank’s as they wander further up the street, their soles clicking on the wet concrete beneath their feet.
“It was cold that afternoon, going home.” Edith adds.
“I’m worried that it might have gone to her chest.” Frank confides with a furrowed brow. “She had the Spanish Influenza as well as my parents, you know.”
“No, I didn’t know.” Edith falters.
“Oh yes! She nursed Mum first and then Dad, even though she herself was sick, but Gran is as tough as old boots***************, and she survived.”
Edith reaches up and squeezes Frank’s upper arm soothingly as she senses him flinch. “I’m sorry that your Mum and Dad wouldn’t be there to see us get wed, Frank, but I promise that my Mum and Dad will make up for their absence. They love you, Frank.”
“I know they do, and I know they will, Edith.” Franks says, looking down on his fiancée with a grateful smile. “Your Dad was generous to shout us all to that celebratory slap up tea at Lyon’s Corner House. What more can I ask in a father-in-law than one who cares so much and is so happy to see us get married?”
“It’s what you deserve, Frank!”
“I just hope Gran survives. Her chest was never the same after the Spanish Influenza, and a chill usually goes straight there when she catches one. That’s what’s got me worried this time. I’ve got Mrs. Claxton from upstairs keeping an eye on her, and she’ll go to the telephone box down the street on the corner to telephone for the doctor if needs be, or to telephone Mrs. Chapman’s boarding house if she needs to reach me. But I’ll feel better after I’ve stopped in myself to see her today, and see how she is.”
“Do you want me to come too, Frank? I’d love to see her and support you.”
“It’s lovely of you to offer, Edith, but best not, just today. The less chance Gran has to be exposed to any other coughs or sneezes, the better.”
“But I’m not sick, Frank.” Edith says, trying hard not to take offence from Frank’s off the cuff remark.
“Not yet, but you could be and just not know it yet. There are lots of coughs and sneezes going around.”
“Well, if that’s the case, then it means that you could be sick too, Frank.”
“I know, Edith, but I’ll cover my face with my scarf whilst I’m there.” Frank assures her. “I know you just want to be helpful, Edith.”
“Of course I do Frank!” Edith says, unable to keep the hurt out of her voice any longer.
“But if you do, the best thing you can do is stay on the Tube**************** and go on home to Cavendish Mews whilst I visit Gran. I’ve had to do this more than a few times since my parents died.” He adds soothingly. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Oh, of course you do, Frank.” Edith acquiesces. “You know what’s best.”
The pair stop in front of one of the rounded plate glass bay windows of the East Ham High Street Woolworths****************. The window is flooded with warm light which falls down upon a cornucopia of wonderful festive things for Christmas. Beneath a red ribbon garlanded and gold bauble studded Christmas tree a range of goods are artfully placed for maximum exposure to the passers-by on the footpath as they meandered before the window. Boxes of gaily coloured baubles in bright packaging smile out in metallic golds and greens, whilst other glass baubles sporting bright blue stripes or coats of the most festive red are placed on top of parcels wrapped in pretty papered and tied with satin ribbon. Boxes of Christmas Crackers****************** ready to grace any festive table with a splash of colour spill forth in yellow, blue, orange, red and pink crêpe paper, their paper hats, riddle, charade and small token sweet gifts inside waiting to burst forth when pulled with a snap. Both Frank and Edith stare at the colourful display in silence, momentarily lost in their own separate deep thoughts.
Finally, Frank breaks the quiet between them. “I’m even worried, so close to Christmas, that Gran and I might not be able to come you yours on Christmas Day.”
“What?” Edith gasps, her eyes widening. “Not come? Oh, Mum’s been planning Christmas Day for months now! She’ll be so disappointed! And this will be our first Christmas together affianced, Frank.”
“And that will disappoint you, Edith.”
“It will.” Edith mutters begrudgingly as her shoulders slump.
“I just don’t think she’ll be well enough to travel all the way to Harlesden on the Tube and then walk, Edith. I just don’t. I don’t want to spoil Christmas Day, but I don’t want her getting any sicker, and I won’t leave Gran alone on Christmas.”
“Oh, I’d never suggest you should, Frank. That would be awful for her!” Edith exclaims. She sighs heavily. “I understand.”
“We’ll see.” Frank says consolingly, wrapping his arm around Edith’s shoulder lovingly. “There is still a little bit of time between now and Christmas Day. You never know what can happen.”
Edith sighs again and bites her bottom lip to stop the tears that threaten to spill from her pretty blue eyes, so as not to upset Frank. As she stares through the mist of tears at a brightly decorated box of Christmas crackers depicting a father playing with his children around the Christmas tree on Christmas Day, she is suddenly struck with a thought. “Yes,” she murmurs under her breath, suddenly struck by a ray of hope. “You never know.”
*Petticoat Lane Market is a fashion and clothing market in Spitalfields, London. It consists of two adjacent street markets. Wentworth Street Market and Middlesex Street Market. Originally populated by Huguenots fleeing persecution in France, Spitalfields became a center for weaving, embroidery and dying. From 1882, a wave of Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in eastern Europe settled in the area and Spitalfields then became the true heart of the clothing manufacturing district of London. 'The Lane' was always renowned for the 'patter' and showmanship of the market traders. It was also known for being a haven for the unsavoury characters of London’s underworld and was rife with prostitutes during the late Victorian era. Unpopular with the authorities, as it was largely unregulated and in some sense illegal, as recently as the 1930s, police cars and fire engines were driven down ‘The Lane’, with alarm bells ringing, to disrupt the market.
**The Premier Super Cinema in East Ham was opened on the 12th of March, 1921, replacing the 800 seat capacity 1912 Premier Electric Theatre. The new cinema could seat 2,408 patrons. The Premier Super Cinema was taken over by Provincial Cinematograph Theatres who were taken over by Gaumont British in February 1929. It was renamed the Gaumont from 21st April 1952. The Gaumont was closed by the Rank Organisation on 6th April 1963. After that it became a bingo hall and remained so until 2005. Despite attempts to have it listed as a historic building due to its relatively intact 1921 interior, the Gaumont was demolished in 2009.
***‘A Girl of London’ is a 1925 British silent drama film produced by Stoll Pictures, directed by Henry Edwards and starring Genevieve Townsend, Ian Hunter and Nora Swinburne. Its plot concerns the son of a member of parliament, who is disowned by his father when he marries a girl who works in a factory. Meanwhile, he tries to rescue his new wife from her stepfather who operates a drugs den. It was based on a novel by Douglas Walshe.
****Brunswick Green is a deep, rich, often gloss-finish green with a classic, historical feel, while Cottage Green is a bolder, vibrant, and rich green often associated with traditional schemes and country aesthetics. Brunswick Green is typically darker and more dramatic, pairing well with brass or gold for an elegant look, while Cottage Green is often used on its own or with lighter neutral accents to create a cohesive traditional or rustic feel. Brunswick green was a popular colour in the 1920s, especially for painting houses and architectural details. It was a common choice for the exterior trim on homes and commercial buildings, often paired with lighter colours like cream or off-white for walls. It was also popular in other applications, like for machinery and rolling stock, especially in Great Britain where it gained popularity for its use in racing cars as British Racing Green, a shade closely related to Brunswick Green.
*****The V pattern in a knitted scarf is called stockinette stitch, which is created by alternating rows of knit and purl stitches.
******Vice-Admiral Robert Fitzroy, founder of the UK Met Office, started collating measurements on pressure, temperature, and rainfall from across Great Britain, Ireland, and Europe in 1860. These observations were sent by telegraph cable to London every day where they were used to make a ‘weather forecast’ – a term invented by Fitzroy for this endeavour. After the Royal Charter ship sank in a violent storm in 1859, Fitzroy resolved to collect real-time weather measurements from stations across Britain's telegraph network to make storm warnings. Starting in 1860, observers telegraphed readings to Fitzroy in London who handwrote them onto Daily Weather Report sheets, enabling the first-ever public weather forecasts starting on 1st August 1861 and published daily in The Times newspaper. Fitzroy died by suicide in 1865 shortly after founding the UK Met Office, leaving his life's work trapped undiscovered in archives.
*******An ironmonger is the old fashioned term for someone who sells items, tools and equipment for use in homes and gardens: what today we would call a hardware shop. Ironmongery stems from the forges of blacksmiths and the workshops of woodworkers. Ironmongery can refer to a wide variety of metal items, including door handles, cabinet knobs, window fittings, hinges, locks, and latches. It can also refer to larger items, such as metal gates and railings. By the 1920s when this story is set, the ironmonger may also have sold cast iron cookware and crockery for the kitchen and even packets of seeds for the nation of British gardeners, as quoted by the Scot, Adam Smith.
********Woolworths began operation in Britain in 1909 when Frank Woolworth opened the first store in Liverpool, as a British subsidiary of the already established American company. The store initially sold a variety of goods for threepence and sixpence, making their goods accessible to everyone, not just the wealthy upper and middle-classes. The British subsidiary proved to be very popular, and it grew quickly, opening twelve stores by 1912 and expanding using its own profits to become a fixture on the high street. The stores became a beloved British institution, with many shoppers assuming they were originally a British company. In 1982, the United Kingdom operations underwent a management buyout from the American parent company, becoming Woolworth Holdings PLC. This followed the American parent company's sale of its controlling stake to a local consortium. Later, in 2000, the company's parent (by then known as Kingfisher Group) decided to restructure, focusing more on its DIY and electrical markets. The general merchandise division, including Big W stores, was spun off into a separate company called Woolworths in 2001. Unable to adapt to modern retail trends, the company faced increasing competition and financial difficulties. The last Woolworths stores in the United Kingdom closed their doors in December 2008 and January 2009, marking the end of an era.
*********One of the most famous Christmas decorations that people love to use at Christmas is tinsel. You might think that using it is an old tradition and that people in Britain have been adorning their houses with tinsel for a very long time. However that is not actually true. Tinsel is in fact believed to be quite a modern tradition. Whilst the idea of tinsel dates back to Germany in 1610 when wealthy people used real strands of silver to adorn their Christmas trees (also a German invention). Silver was very expensive though, so being able to do this was a sign that you were wealthy. Even though silver looked beautiful and sparkly to begin with, it tarnished quite quickly, meaning it would lose its lovely, bright appearance. Therefore it was swapped for other materials like copper and tin. These metals were also cheaper, so it meant that more people could use them. However, when the Great War started in 1914, metals like copper were needed for the war. Because of this, they couldn't be used for Christmas decorations as much, so a substitute was needed. It was swapped for aluminium, but this was a fire hazard, so it was switched for lead, but that turned out to be poisonous.
**********Genevieve Schmich, known professionally as Genevieve Smeek and Genevieve Townsend, was an American stage and film actress. She was born in Freeport, Illinois and attended Mount Holyoke College, where she majored in English and English Literature. After graduating in 1920, she moved to Britain, where she joined Frank Benson's theatre company. During the mid-1920s she had several lead roles in British silent films. She died in Switzerland, of tuberculosis, at the age of 29 in 1927. In 1928, Mount Holyoke College established the Genevieve Schmich Award in her honour.
***********Islington Studios, often known as Gainsborough Studios, were a British film studio located on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in Shoreditch, London which began operation in 1919. By 1920 they had a two stage studio. It is here that Alfred Hitchcock made his entrée into films.
************East Ham London Underground railway station is located on High Street North in the East Ham neighbourhood of the London Borough of Newham in east London. It is on the District and Hammersmith and City lines, between Upton Park and Barking stations. The station was originally opened on 31 March 1858 by the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway on a new more direct route from Fenchurch Street to Barking. It became an interchange station in 1894 when it was connected to the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway. The large Edwardian station building was constructed to accommodate the electric District Railway services on an additional set of tracks opened in 1905. Metropolitan line service commenced in 1936. British Railways service to Kentish Town was withdrawn in 1958 and the Fenchurch Street–Southend service was withdrawn in 1962, leaving abandoned platforms.
*************Photoplay was one of the first American film fan magazines, its title another word for screenplay. It was founded in Chicago in 1911. Under early editors Julian Johnson and James R. Quirk, in style and reach it became a pacesetter for fan magazines. In 1921, Photoplay established what is considered the first significant annual movie award. For most of its run, it was published by Macfadden Publications. The magazine ceased publication in 1980.
**************J. Lyons and Co. was a British restaurant chain, food manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1884 by Joseph Lyons and his brothers in law, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein. Lyons’ first teashop opened in Piccadilly in 1894, and from 1909 they developed into a chain of teashops, with the firm becoming a staple of the High Street in the United Kingdom. At its peak the chain numbered around two hundred cafes. The teashops provided for tea and coffee, with food choices consisting of hot dishes and sweets, cold dishes and sweets, and buns, cakes and rolls. Lyons' Corner Houses, which first appeared in 1909 and remained until 1977, were noted for their Art Deco style. Situated on or near the corners of Coventry Street, Strand and Tottenham Court Road, they and the Maison Lyonses at Marble Arch and in Shaftesbury Avenue were large buildings on four or five floors, the ground floor of which was a food hall with counters for delicatessen, sweets and chocolates, cakes, fruit, flowers and other products. In addition, they possessed hairdressing salons, telephone booths, theatre booking agencies and at one period a twice-a-day food delivery service. On the other floors were several restaurants, each with a different theme and all with their own musicians. For a time, the Corner Houses were open twenty-four hours a day, and at their peak each branch employed around four hundred staff including their famous waitresses, commonly known as Nippies for the way they nipped in and out between the tables taking orders and serving meals. The tea houses featured window displays, and, in the post-war period, the Corner Houses were smarter and grander than the local tea shops. Between 1896 and 1965 Lyons owned the Trocadero, which was similar in size and style to the Corner Houses.
***************The idiom “tough as old boots” is used to describe someone who is physically strong and resilient, or something that is very difficult to break or damage, like a tough piece of food. The saying likely comes from the durability of leather boots, which were traditionally made to last a long time. The phrase evolved from an earlier version, “tough as leather,” to emphasise that a person or thing is very strong, resilient, and enduring, much like a well-worn but still functional boot.
****************People started calling the London Underground the "Tube" around 1900, after the opening of the Central London Railway. The railway's deep, cylindrical tunnels resembled tubes, and a newspaper nickname for it, the “Tuppenny Tube”, due to a flat fare of two pence, helped the term stick. Over time, the nickname spread to refer to the entire system.
*****************The East Ham Woolworth Three and Six store was located at 72 to 76 High Street North, in East Ham. At the time this chapter is set, the building it occupied was an old Arts and Crafts building with half timbered gables and bay windows in a Jacobethan style, with three rounded floor to ceiling bay windows of plate glass and two sets of double doors on the ground floor.
******************Christmas crackers first appeared in 1847 when London confectioner Tom Smith created them, inspired by the French "bon bon" sweets he encountered on a trip to Paris. He initially sold the sweets wrapped in tissue paper with a small motto or riddle inside. Smith later added the "snap" mechanism after being inspired by the sound of a log fire, creating the "bang" we know today.
This bright festive window display may look real to you, but it is not all that it seems, for this scene is made up entirely of miniatures from my 1:12 miniatures collection.
Fun thing to look for in this tableau include:
The boxes of Christmas crackers and the Christmas Drawings book are 1:12 miniatures made by artisan Ken Blythe. I have a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my miniatures collection – books mostly. Most of the books I own that he has made may be opened to reveal authentic printed interiors. In some cases, you can even read the words, depending upon the size of the print! Sadly, so little of his real artistry is seen because the books that he specialised in making are usually closed, sitting on shelves or closed on desks and table surfaces. As well as making books, he also made other small paper based miniatures including boxes of goods. The boxes are designed to be opened, and each one contains gaily coloured Christmas crackers made from real crêpe paper. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make them all miniature artisan pieces. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago, as well as through his estate via his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.
The red and green boxes containing hand painted Christmas ornaments were hand made and decorated by artists of Crooked Mile Cottage in America. The patterned green box of red and green baubles at the front to the right was hand made by Mick and Marie’s Miniatures in the United Kingdom, as is the box of hand made Christmas crackers in the box decorated with the holly and robin redbreast at the back of the display on the left. The central box of blue and white striped glass baubles are also handmade miniatures, bought from a woman in America by a very good friend of mine who knows I love to collect 1:12 miniatures.
The painted silver and red single loose baubles that litter the display come from an online miniature stockist in England through E-Bay.
The wrapped Christmas gifts decorated with ribbons are 1:12 artisan pieces, hand made by husband and wife artistic team Margie and Mike Balough who own Serendipity Miniatures in Newcomerstown, Ohio.
The Christmas tree at the back of the display is a hand-made artisan example from dollhouse artisan suppliers in America.
The red and silver backdrop is hand printed paper made by the company Zetta Florence in Fitzroy in Melbourne.
Divided reverse. Note generously translated by Nettenscheider, the author tells us he is quartered in the residence behind the group.
There is a marvellous article on this unusual piece of kit on the Australian War Memorial's website, part of which I shall reproduce here. Original article: www.awm.gov.au/collection/RELAWM07905/
German portable telescopic periscope, mounted on a two- wheeled carriage, both painted green. The periscope consists of a steel telescopic mast with upper and lower optical systems attached. The mast is carried in trunnions on the carriage. The periscope has gears to elevate, level and align the optical systems. They also adjust the inclination of the reflector and rotate the mast around its vertical axis.
The telescopic mast is made up of 8 tubes. The bottom tube is connected to the carriage, the other tubes are connected to each other by wire cables and pulleys. The uppermost tube is held in position by catches. When fully erect, the periscope is steadied by three or four guy ropes. One rope connects to the upper side of the lower end of the upper optical system. The other ropes are connected to the uppermost extended section of the mast.
The upper optical system consists of a short rectangular tube which contains a protective window. Behind this is a mirror, placed at an angle. The rectangular tube is attached at right angles to a conical casing, which contains two achromatic lenses. At the bottom of the conical casing is a large lens which has a crosshair on the glass. The lens is pitted near the centre. A strip of leather is attached around the bottom edge of the cone.
The lower optical system is made of a tube casing. At the top of the tube is a lens. There is another near the bottom of the casing. At the bottom of the casing is a prism. At the bottom of the tube is a revolving section with two eyepieces. These give different magnification, depending on the height of the mast. They are marked '3x-8x' and '5x-14x'. The body of periscope is impressed with the 'CARL ZEIS JENA' logo, with 'Nr 228' impressed beneath.
The mast has rungs to allow a person to climb to a metal seat, to push in locking lugs while the mast is being extended. There are two further seats on the carriage, with a handle at each for raising the mast. The two seats originally had padding (missing). At the end of the 'raising spindle' between the two seats, is a logo reading 'CMD' in raised letters.
The cable drum has two handles on either side to extend the periscope up to 25 metres, after the mast has been raised. The cable drum has a measuring bar across it, with the warning label 'Mast nicht uber 25m ausziehen' [Do not extend mast over 25 metres], and markings along the length of the bar, indicating the height of the mast. The cable drum also has markings on it, indicating the height of the mast, as the cables wrap around the drum when it is being extended and retracted. To the left of the cable drum is a small circular handle, impressed with the words 'Auf' and 'Ab' ['On' and 'Off'] with arrows pointing in opposite directions. To the right of the cable drum is a larger circular handle, impressed with the text 'LINKS' and 'RECHTS' ['LEFT' and 'RIGHT']. Below the cable drum is another bar, upon which is a plate reading 'Vor dem Ablegen auf [image of a circle with a vertical line through it] enstellen' with a larger image of a circle with a vertical line through it.
Above the cable drum is a slanted, flat surface upon which observations could be noted on documents or maps. Beneath the cable drum (when periscope is raised) is attached an 'L' shaped rod, to which a small seat, similar to a bicycle seat, was once affixed (now missing). The observer would have sat on this seat when the periscope was in operation.
The two carriage wheels are wooden, with steel rims and hubs. The wheels are painted green; the inside of each wheel is impressed 'Magirus-Ulm 1917'. On each side of the carriage, near the cable drum area, is a stabilising 'spindle plate'.
Part of a series of sunrise shots at Tuweep (Toroweap Overlook)
Equipment:
Arca Swiss Field Camera
f5.6 / 210mm Rodenstock Apo-Sironar S
Kodak TMax100
developed in TMax RS
Printed on Kodak Polycontrast RC paper (generously outdated)
An associate on another forum, Hugh (he's on here too somewhere) offered me a 'care package' when he heard that i was ill.
I accepted, expecting perhaps a bottle of his homemade wine.
This morning, a big box arrived. Well, I was right about the parsnip wine. What I disn't expect was the raspberry wine, chilli jam, sloe jelly, garlic heads, bunch of carrots, big bunch of parsnips, 2 red onions, two large white onions, and four smaller onions, bowl of dried apple slices, and bowl of dried strawberries that came with it.
I am astounded, espcially as he told me beforehand that "it won't be anything dramatic".
The generosity of some people is astonishing. It will all be very much enjoyed.
Thanks Hugh.