Three Good Things

I follow lots of people on Twitter - and the day one of them Liz (@Margot&Barbara) tweeted that she'd done a blog post about 3 good things in her life. It was a really positive life affirming post that made me smile and I said I'd do a post along the same lines too.

My three good things are:

Mr Pops - (if a person can be a thing)  my ever lovely, kind, thoughtful, patient, generous husband who shares my sick sense of humour, love of cameras and photography and cats. We've been together for 17 years and I know it's a cliche but I honestly couldn't imagine life without him. Well I could but I'd rather not as it would be horrid, flat and miserable and no-one else would laugh at my poor taste quips.

I'm part of the Place and Memory Project (details here ) and it is one of the most exciting, interesting things I've ever had the privilege to be part of - I'm learning lots, challenging myself and yesterday I spent 6 hours in the university library reading about the history of my place and its social context.

It was blissful to be in the comparative cold of the Brotherton Library at the University and lovely to be away from tinternet based distractions - and so instead of sitting at home pointlessly clicking refresh I distracted myself with books. Lovely, lovely books. I've mentioned this before but I love the tactile nature of books - their weight, their feel, their smell, their musty spots if they're very old and the delight of discovering someone else's to do list or an old bookmark or best of all a photo in a secondhand book. You don't get that with a kindle - even if it is easier to fit in your bag....

I won't tell you what my place is yet - but all will be revealed soon and one of the chapters of the books I was reading yesterday for research was entitled 'A Celebration of Death' so you can start guessing now where it is...........but also I didn't have the happiest or easiest of times at university so this is a bit of a reclamation for me too and it is feeling so good to overlay old unhappy memories with positive happy new ones.

but as a taster here is a pic from my place - there will be a prize (of no monetary value whatsoever other the glory of being right) for the person who can tell where this is from....

Nicknames/Epithets - I've got a few at the moment, my all time favourite given me by a chum at a party is a 'lens that focuses wrongness', I think he meant it in relation to my sense of humour but as I am also a photographer who really likes taking pictures of urban decay and what have you this pleases me enormously.

I've also been called a low rent Martin Parr - this was in connection to my love of tacky souvenirs and memorabilia and it is tremendously flattering to be mentioned in the same breath as such as skillful and wonderful photographer as Martin Parr. I love his work.

A classmate on the creative writing course I've been going to called me 'Fifty Shades of Graveyard' which really made me chuckle - as a self confessed bit of a goth (albeit one with a penchance for big band swing and the Beach Boys) and a devotee of Hammer Horror, anything macabre and uncanny this sums this part of me up nicely.  He called it me after I told him I'd enrolled on a Skeletal Human Remains Analysis Course at the Museum Discovery Centre as at first he didn't believe me but trust me it was real and it was brilliant, I learnt lots though I remain unable to tell left from right and am rubbish at reassembling pelvises but I got to handle lots of human skulls so I'm a happy woman.

Last night a chum gave me another - 'the Tim Burton of Knitting' after I showed him a kind of mutanty kitten thing I made recently. Tim Burton is one of my favourite film directors - Ed Wood and Frankenweenie are two of my all time favourite films evah!! and I adore knitting - it's a win win combination.

Here is a pic of the kitty and zombie/mummy doll type thing

What are your three good things?

Busy, Busy Busy.....

There are times I love being busy and other times when I think 'stop the world, I want to get off'. Pottering time is essential for me to feel on top of things rather than underneath and overawed by them. Mostly my pottering takes the form of tinternet surfing but I'm hoping to get in the habit of going for a walk pottering - as not only will this be a bit of fresh air and exercise and also an opportunity to look at my locale anew. I don't think familiarity necessarily breeds contempt but I do think it stops you noticing things so I'm hoping if I pop out for a walk each day and if I take my camera with me I'll notice things anew.

I'm also intrigued by the idea of taking a map and directions for one area but using them for somewhere else - and just seeing the route it takes you and what expected and unexpected places it'll take you......

Nostalgia - Is It What It Used To Be?

According to the tinternet nostalgia is 'a sentimentality for the past,typically for a place or period with happy associations'. And I know I may well be viewing it through rose tinted glasses but I love it. I don't want to read about the bombings in Afghanistan or how our elected and non elected representatives are still being caught with their hands in the till as that makes me feel both helpless and hopeless, I would far rather be musing on what it was like waiting for the 'popman' when I was little - dispensing his brightly coloured sugary liquid in refundable bottles from the back of a flat bed truck. You can still get Ben Shaws but I've only seen it in cans recently - not in dimpled glass bottles and I don't know of anywhere that still has a 'pop man'. I don't think we even have a milkman anymore on our road.

My Nana used to keep her choices of Cream Soda and Sasparilla (nasty stuff then but I quite like it now) along with a couple of bottles of lemonade lined up by the back door. If you were really lucky you also got ice in it - ice from a metallic tray which always seemed incredibly reluctant to give up it's icy cold goodness so invariably you just has tepid pop instead. But tepid pop was better than no pop or worse still 'corporation pop' as my Grandad used to call tap water. Today's pernicious and ubiquitous Coke and Pepsi weren't for consumption in the home but for special treats when out and about - I used to feel very grown up if we went to a cafe and I got Coke in a glass with ice and a straw. And if I got a Coke Float or a Lemonade Float - pop with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the top I was in seventh heaven - though on reflection that may have just been a sugar rush....

The only other time I got a straw to drink through was on the rare occasions we went to the Wimpy and I had one of their delicious strawberry milkshakes and I was told under no circumstances was I to blow back through the straw to make more bubbles. So the trick was to do it really quietly and carefully so you got bubbles but they didn't pop loudly or splash over the side of the glass.....plus IIRC it was made from milk and Crusha - a thick concentration of sugar and fruit flavour though it might also have had some carmines in it, not especially healthy but nowhere near as unhealthy as the ingredients in a modern day McDonalds milkshake I'm sure. Though I must be honest - one of their chocolate milkshakes if you have a hangover makes you feel loads better - must be all the chemicals in it.......  

I love looking at old things - the Robert Opie Scrapbooks of each decade are nostalgia porn for me, I get all misty eyed and glowy even looking at things I have no direct memory of. My Dad always says to me when I start waxing lyrical about something of yesteryear 'you were born in the wrong decade and how can you possibly like that - you weren't even born then? '. And he's right in a way but also not - I'm very grateful to have been born when and where I am - I have the vote, access to reliable and reasonably safe contraception, let alone access to the Health Service, I was also one of the last lucky few to get a full grant to enable me to take advantage of higher education without having to mire myself in debt ( a godsend for those of us not lucky enough to have been born to financially affluent parents) and thanks to the wonders of the tinternet I can comfortably look back  at yesteryear stuff, it reminds me of though I hesitate to use this phrase 'a kinder, gentler time' because luckily - that's exactly what it was for me. I still play vinyl, use film cameras (the oldest one I have is a Kodak Vest Pocket from the 1920's which still works perfectly fine) and I have a valve radio from the late 1950's - it and its attendant hum are truly beautiful.

Long live the past and all its beautiful nostalgic glories........



 

Running, Music, Peter Cushing and Roast Chicken

For the last 12 months I've been trying to be a bit healthier - I'm much more sensible about what I eat, I don't drink during the week anymore (or rather I v rarely drink during the week these days unless it is a special occasion) and I've started exercising. I've lost a bit of weight, got rid of most of my bingo wing flab and have grown out of some of my favourite clothes but back into others and got some lovely new ones - in short I feel loads better than I did this time last year. Not just physically but mentally too - a lot more in control of stuff.

But I'm finding running hard - I can do 5 - 6 minute bursts on the treadmill in the gym but struggle to keep going for that length of time out of the gym. I can run a bit more each time and am slowly getting quicker each time I go round the bridlepath and I can keep walking between each bout of running now as opposed to having to stop dead still unable to move and feeling like I'm going to hurl my guts up so I *know* I am progressing but I don't *feel* like I am. Door to door and round the bridlepath twice is just over 3 miles and believe me when I can complete that in one go you'll hear the whooping wherever you are in Leeds :-)

Anyways I've started running to music in the hope that that will keep me going but the trouble with that is - I must have a really odd shaped right ear as the headphone for that side just keeps popping out which means I'm forever fiddling with it as I try and run round and the kind of music I normally listen to for pleasure - Edith Piaf, Al Bowlly and Glenn Miller really isn't the best for moving along to, it's perfect for listening to dreamily and wanting to be in the 1940's (but without bombs please) but not good for running.

So to this end I've put together a playlist of the other music I like listening to that is mostly stompy industrial goth nonsense with a bit of S'Express and Gina G thrown in for good measure but if any of you reading this have any running or music tips then I'd be very grateful for them.

Sunday 26th May was the centenary of the birth of Peter Cushing and I celebrated this by raising a glass in his honour, rewatching Curse of Frankenstein, reading more of  'Peter Cushing My Life In Film' by David Miller and listening to him talk about his love of wildlife and birds in particular on this rather wonderful programme on Radio 4 Extra - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01slst0 which was lovely. I doubt however he would have approved of my roast chicken dinner yesterday as he was a strict vegetarian. Oh well, it was a free range one and very tasty........

Photographers I Love :-) Man Ray.

I've spoken before about my love of George Hurrell's work, I also adore Man Ray's work and thanks to my lovely husband paying for the tickets and the decision of the couple who were getting married to have their ceremony start at 3pm - we had enough time (just) to be able to go to the Man Ray exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in that London before the wedding. The wedding being the main reason for a trip to that London in the first place.

The wedding was lovely and the Man Ray photographs were just gorgeous - beautifully monochrome though with a few later colour ones - which IIRC were done by a three layer colour technique that also involved carbon paper - though I may have got that completely wrong as I have said before - I am a intuitive rather than technical photographer and technical details are not my strong points. In fact thinking about it - I can't remember if I read that in a blurb next to the pictures or on a programme about Erwin Blumenfeld - another of my favourite photographers.

The exhibition featured work from 1916 when he was starting out in New York, his work in Paris of the 20's and 30's and his Hollywood work from the 40's - not as breathlessly glamorous as Hurrell's but still gorgeous and then his work in Paris until his death in 1976.

I first heard about Man Ray when I was in my late teens and slightly obsessed (a slight obsession that has continued) with Dadaism and Surrealism (my favourite painter is Magritte and I am lucky to have seen a lot of his work in the main gallery in Brussels) and I think I bought a postcard copy of his portrait of Nancy Cunard see here with all her wonderful bracelets from the Whitworth Gallery Shop. I was mostly skint as a teenager and postcards were an affordable way to buy copies of artwork. I still have that postcard somewhere. I also fell in love with the portrait of the lady who had a violin as her back -image no 5 on the slideshow   and the exquisite eyelashed eyes with such big beautiful round tears - see here

It was wonderful to see pictures of all the people and artists I had read about all those years ago, the names which I couldn't then and probably still can't pronounce flooding back to me in a lovely proustian rush. Those  lunchtimes spent in the library reading about the Armoury Show and Duchamps love of chess and found objects were not wasted. I could lose myself in that period of post and pre war horror many, many times over. There is a glamour and a playfulness and an inventiveness about his photographs I find utterly enchanting and I know I am going to lose myself in the exhibition catalogue many times over in the next few weeks.

Plus I find myself inspired to take actual portraits (in b+w obviously) something which I very rarely do as I usually prefer to take pictures of places, things or reflections so watch this space as I experiment. It seems you can recreate 'solarisation' in photoshop though that means sitting in front of a computer 'fannying about' so I might just have to resort to proper old school chemicals and light instead........

Been A Bit Remiss...Horror Film-Ness :-)

It's almost a month since I updated this blog, in spite of the best intentions to get back into a habit of doing it regularly on a Monday I haven't. For lots of good reasons though aside from just laziness - I've been busy with WI stuff, been gothing about in that Whitby (though to be fair I goth about most of the time, not just in Whitby) and I try and go to the gym on a Monday night and if I haven't written a post before I go then the chances of me doing it when I get back are minimal as all I want then is to change out of my (black) gym kit and then  have something to eat whilst watching The Big Bang Theory and then fall asleep.

Last night I had a chum round for dinner and I made kedgeree and then we watched the restored edition of Hammers version of Dracula on blu-ray. It's shonky in places - some of the dialogue clunks, staked vampires still breathe and I'm still not quite sure why a servants daughter would be so close to the mistresses family but other than that it is a wonderful film. I am ever so slightly in love with Peter Cushing (for slightly read madly) and he is magnificent as Dr Van Helsing. Authoritative and charming - I'd want him on my side if ever I was involved in a fight to the death with the undead. Christopher Lee is good too though I prefer him as the Creature in the Curse of Frankenstein. But then I always feel sorry for the Creature - he's not made evil, he just becomes that way because his creator rejects him. There is a wonderful pathos to Lee's performance as the Creature though it doesn't quite reach the same heights (or should that be depth?) as Karloff's - there is something truly magical about that. Cushing is marvellous as the obsessed Frankenstein though - the near wink he gives when he knows he is going to get up to no good with his housekeeper is a wonderful moment. As is the look he gives when he locks her in with the Creature - ooh I might just have to watch it again this evening.

I'm not quite sure when I fell in love with horror films as such though I had long been a fan of Scooby Doo and Misty Comic - though I can remember when I fell in love with Peter Cushing. It was on a camping holiday in Wales and we had a portable b+w tv (the kind you tune in by a dial - the kind I still have in the kitchen) and we watched The Creeping Flesh. It was a wonderful load of campy old nonsense and he was magnificent in it and I was hooked from then on. I spent many a misspent hour in my youth watching unsuitable and age inappropriate films on VHS with my Dad which he 'got from a mate at work' and I don't mind the odd slasher type horror movie - Halloween and Friday the 13th are my favourites in that category and I'm rather fond of zombie dismemberment too - Night of the Living Dead and Dead Snow are my two favourite zombie films.

But really I like my horror to be oldey worldy, creepy, atmospheric and ideally in b+w  or gentle old technicolour as opposed to full on in your face modern torture porn things like Saw. I love the Universal films of the 30's and 40's - I even love Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and the wonderful creepy films made by RKO like I Walked With A Zombie and Cat People too though I will always have a soft spot for the original My Bloody Valentine. Though Night Of The Demon, all of the Corman Poe films and the original The Haunting are also some of my all time faves.  I'd be very hard pushed to say what all my all time favourite horror film is, though on balance I'd probably say Bride of Frankenstein. There is something really magical about it - might have to rewatch that soon too.

What are your favourite horror films/moments?

(Tacky) Fridge Magnets

Along with lovely olde worlde postcards I also collect fridge magnets or tacky fridge magnets to give them their full and correct title. It's been argued that fridge magnets by definition are tacky and I would agree but some are much more tacky and nasty than others. I have hundreds of them - literally. I did count them once and it was about 320 but that was a while ago and we've had quite a few new ones since then. I'm not very good at counting either but one day I shall count them again and feel incredulous (and possibly slightly depressed) that I have managed to amass so many.

We have one of those fridge freezers that is a fridge on the top and a freezer on the bottom, and two sides of it are completely covered in fridge magnets. The third side is against the wall otherwise it'd be covered in fridge magnets too. All my friends know that one of the best things they can give me is a fridge magnet and the tackier and nastier it is the happier I am. They make me smile and laugh and flinch all at the same time and this can only be a good thing. I think it was William Morris who said you should only have things in your house that are beautiful and useful and I agree and in this case their beauty lies in their ugliness and their usefulness lies in the fact that they make me happy.

This picture was taken 5 years ago and the fridge is much fuller than this now - I am feeling a bit below parr today otherwise I would go downstairs and take another one to show you but trust me it looks like this but with lots more on it :-)

I have ones which claim to have a piece of the genuine Berlin Wall attached to them (which we got on honeymoon whilst in Berlin) ones of hybrid unicorns and my little pony types which are just this side of copyright infringement with FILEY written on them in black felt tip - I also have one of a buddha figure with FILEY written on his tummy though quite what the connection is between Filey and the buddha is I'm not sure, ones of little plastic jars filled with rice and pasta and covered in little gingham fabric hats with names of greek villages on,  I also have one of Big Ben with a bottle opener on - but alas the bottle opener on it is too heavy and so Big Ben remains upside down unless it is propped against another fridge magnet, and ones which have sentimental meaning because of where they are from and what we were doing there or because of who gave it to me and how much they mean to me.

Filey is the mecca for tacky fridge magnets - trust me, there you will find the nastiest and tackiest ever and all for the princely sum of just 150 of your earth pennies - this was the one I bought when we went there the other week - I think it is quite possibly the most hideous fridge magnet ever made - it is pictured next to the bear badge I won on the two penny falls.

It is beyond nasty and I love it. What's the nastiest fridge magnet you've ever seen?

Being Remiss,Plugs, Proper Lovely Old Seasides :-)

I set myself a target of updating this blog at least once a week (ideally on a Monday) at the start of the year and up until a couple of weeks ago I was meeting this self imposed target and then I'm not quite sure why but my blog mojo upped and left, I've made myself sit down and write this in the hope I can make my blogging mojo return and ideally stick around.

Plus even if I can't think of anything to write about I could just talk about the exhibition some of my photographic work is in - a while ago Exposure Leeds asked its members to take pictures of a place that means something to them. I took black and white ones of one of my favourite places - namely Meanwood Woods and the Bridlepath round what used to be Meanwood Park Hospital. The exhibition is called This Is My Place and it is on at the White Cloth Gallery in Leeds until 25 April  and after that online  - full details can be found here  . The sad history of Meanwood Park Hospital itself can be read here, as far as I can tell the old Mansion House is still standing in the middle of the new housing estate but none of the old hospital buildings remain. Anyways go see the exhibition if you can - there are also some aces pictures of Elvington Air Museum, Whitby, Roundhay Park and Louisville in Kentucky too.

So plugging aside what else? well seeing as I haven't been writing my blog what have I been doing? bit of gardening, lots of WI stuff - am undertaking a couple of new roles and so a lot busier WI-wise than I used to be, lots of knitting - have almost finished the dinosaur I'm knitting for my eldest nephew's birthday present and I am also going to knit myself a new shrug though whether it will be ready in time for me to wear in Whitby in a couple of weeks is doubtful....and of course going to the seaside as often as I can...

I love going to the seaside - trips when I was little were mostly to Southport or Blackpool and along with fish and chips and 99's they would also include candyfloss. Lovely, crunchy, melty, sickly sweet, unnaturally coloured candyfloss which you either got readymade in a bag or watched some bored teenage girl (ideally in an orange polyester tabard) magic up onto a wooden stick from the inside of a rotating metal bowl. In turn the candyfloss would then stick round my mouth and my Nana would scrub my face with a hankerchief in a vain attempt to get rid of it. A hankerchief she would either get me to spit on or dip in a water feature if we were passing one. I'm not sure if it's worse being covered in candyfloss remains or candyfloss remains,spit and minging water feature water - you know the kind that is full of bits of rubbish but hey ho I can look back and say 'well it never did me any harm'. At least I don't think it did......

Anyways bits of seaside I've been to since xmas include Whitby, Saltburn, Hornsea, and Filey. I love the cobbled gothic streets of Whitby, the graveyard , the Abbey and the Museum in Pannett Park which includes such gems as Dr Merryweather's Tempest Prognosticator (a kind of weather forecasting machine involving slugs,bells and a big bell jar)  - it looks a bit like this:

 and best of all The Dead Man's Hand - a totem used by burglars made from the hand of a man hung - ideally for murder as that made the most powerful totem, which when the thumb was lit would ensure the occupants of the house being burgled would stay asleep. It looks like this  

I have it on a fridge magnet and on a keyring - it's one of my very favourite things. There is also a very lovely tea room and some quite badly stuffed animals who look sad - both in the modern and traditional sense of the word. If you go - keep an eye out for the bozzy eyed seal. I think I'd like to retire to Whitby, it is one of my very favourite places :-)


I've only been to Saltburn once but I really liked it - got some good knitting patterns in one of the charity shops, had lovely fish and chips and enjoyed the guerilla knitting on the front, the day I was there the North Sea was attempting to make its way inland and it was BLOODY FREEZING but I look forward to going back in better weather though if I'm being honest I do prefer my seaside slightly closed.

Hornsea had a water features with bits of rubbish floating in it and I almost had a pavlovian response and wanted to stick my hanky in it and start scrubbing my face but it is many, many years since I've had any candyfloss so I managed to resist. I couldn't resist fish and chips though or hot chocolate as again it was BLOODY FREEZING and these were necessary in order to stave off hypothermia.

Filey along with Cleethorpes are my favourite seasides after Whitby. Filey surprisingly wasn't BLOODY FREEZING when I went last week - in fact the sun came out and it was beyond lovely mooching along the sea front eating freshly made doughnuts made by a bored teenager in a tabard (result!!), instead of fish and chips though we had local crab in a baked potato in the lovely oldey worldy tea room surroundings of Bramwells, I scored some aces knitting patterns in the charity shops and a late afternoon stroll along the top of the Brigg in the spring sunshine followed by a mooch round St Oswald's Churchyard was gorgeous and just the thing to lift the spirits after a long and miserable winter. Next time we go back I want to go to the Museum again as it is a treasure trove of local history and general seaside wonderfulness.

What are your favourite seaside places to go and why?

Sooty

When I was little I loved Sooty - well the Sooty show that is. I didn't actually like Sooty himself as I thought he was a bit of a goody two shoes sneak all too ready to get Sweep into trouble. I adored Sweep - he was cheeky and impish and could be quite naughty and I loved the way his squeak sounded when he laughed. I didn't like the way Sooty took advantage of his slightly dim nature and Sue - well she was just a bit too high pitched really and a bit of a suck up to Mr (Matthew) Corbett so she got on my nerves too. I was also quite fond of Spike the dog.

Some years ago I went to the Sooty Museum in Shipley (sadly no more) and it was a wonderful meander down Memory Lane - there were videos of proper old black and white Sooty shows with Mr Corbett Senior in charge of the mayhem, as well as sets and props. I spent ages happily wandering about though my back did ache after a while as it was really designed for children so everything was a bit lower and I had to stoop to see everything.

One of the toys I still have from being little is my Sweep and he is quite tatty, bit manky looking and misshapen but I adore him. Plus if you press his tummy he still squeaks!! No mean feat considering he has been so well loved and must be at least 40 years old.

Here he is in all his slightly faded and grubby glory :-)

I have seen the latest Sooty incarnation - well the episode that featured John Shuttleworth that is and that was funny , though the new man in charge of Sweep et al wears very heavy foundation and I don't think I could sit through the whole series. It was far too noisy.

But I could sit in front of this (almost) all day and be utterly entranced - this is the one that can be found on  front at Cleethorpes and another fully restored one can be found in the Vintage Arcade on the pier in Southport. In Cleethorpes you put in 20p and they dance and play along to Buddy Holly and The Crickets and in Southport they dance and play along to old nursery rhymes like Baa Baa Black Sheep and Pop Goes The Weasel. The one in Cleethorpes is full of dust and held together with sellotape but the one in Southport is much more pristine - still worn but not quite as manky and operated by a big old golden penny. And best of all when they finish playing a tune in Southport Harry Corbett himself says in good old fashioned Sooty style - 'bye bye everybody, bye bye'.

The vintage arcade in Southport has all sorts of gems and if you're ever near there or Cleethorpes I urge you to go and seek them out as they are the best nostalgic fun you can have for pennies - plus you can marvel at Sue's dedication to her drumming in Cleethorpes as she doesn't actually hold the sticks - she has had them grafted into her arms - now that is dedication for you. But there must have been artistic differences within the band though as in Southport she's been shifted from the drums to the piano and Sooty is on the drums and Sweep's guitar has been replaced by a saxophone. Here is Sweep in all his saxophonic glory - 

I've just noticed that Sweep in both Cleethorpes and Southport is grey with black ears whereas mine is two shades of brown with black ears - I never noticed this when I was little as we only had a black and white telly - but now I'm looking at him and wondering if my beloved Sooty who I've had for years is in fact a knock off version......

Oh and if you know where there are any other Sooty TV Concert machines please let me know as I'd love to visit all the ones left I've heard a rumour there might be one in Southend but if anyone could verify that for me before I set off to try and find it that would be aces.Ta.  

Another In The Old Postcard Series

This postcard is of The Pagoda Fountain at Alton Towers, not sure when it was taken but a quick tinternet search informs me it is still there which makes me want to go and see it. But otherwise I have no interest in going to Alton Towers as I'm not that keen on rides really and I certainly don't want to go on something that makes you go upside down and makes you feel like your insides are going to drop out. The Mouse at Blackpool Pleasure Gardens is as scarey as I've ever got and that was quite scarey and bouncy enough for me. I quite like the old style Merry Go Rounds though and those swings you sit in that go outwards. I'm not sure yet if I'll go on the Leeds Observation Wheel as it looks a bit too wobbly for me - though a chum who has been on it assures me it's okay as long as you don't move around in your little capsule. Hmm - I'm not convinced.

But back to the postcard it is that lovely muted oldy worldy colour that I adore - it must have been hand tinted as this was well before the days of Photoshop and the Pagoda looks suspiciously yellow or maybe they used filters when taking photographs at F Frith and Co Ltd who were based in Reigate. The tinternet tells me this company was founded by Francis Frith in 1859 and was the worlds first specialist photographic publisher. He embarked on a mission to photograph all the towns and villages in Britain, had to hire people to help him do so and became so successful that at one point his postcards were sold in over 2,000 shops in Britain.  He died in 1898 but the firm he founded continued without him until it closed in 1970. His incredible archive was bought by Rothmans and then by John Buck and it is now called the  Francis Frith Collection and you can look at it here  and buy things should you so desire. My postcard is there - albeit in black and white and it seems it was taken in 1955. So it must have been handtinted for publication.

The date on this postcard is obscured but the stamp is a brown 2d one which the tinternet tells me was in use between 1957 and 1959 and it was sent to Mrs someone (can't read the handwriting) who lived at Sunnyside in Jersey. The message reads:

Monday
Dear Win
Arrived here O K after lovely trip in the coach, went to this place yesterday, a friend has lent us a car, hope to go to Dove-Dale tomorrow.
Hope you are all well.
Catherine & Geoffrey sent their love
Nora (I think it's Nora - could also be Dora - handwriting isn't very clear)

I wonder if they did get to Dove-Dale after all.

Are Pyjama Cases Still A Thing?

I had at least two pyjama cases when I was little, one of them was shaped like a koala bear and it had scratchy black plastic claws, and a zip on the back of its neck and you undid the zip and stuffed your pyjamas inside it. I'm not quite sure what the other one was like - plain I think. I'm not quite sure whether this was to fool burglars intent on stealing your pyjamas who would be looking for pyjamas rather than cute stuffed toy things containing them or because it was a way to have a stuffed toy on your bed without embarrassment if you were a grown up.

Like I said I'm not sure either way but I adored my koala - even if it was uncomfortable to sleep next to because of the plastic scratchy claws and I was very upset when my Mum deemed it was time for him to go in the bin - I'd somehow got felt tip all over his tummy and it just wouldn't wash off. I was quite upset but consoled myself with her argument that I was now a big enough girl to just fold my pyjamas and put them under my pillow instead.

And she was right - pyjama cases are a right load of faff really when you can just fold your pyjamas up and put them under your pillow instead. Mind you the pyjama sized hole inside a pyjama case was useful for storing contraband on occasion - I seem to remember secreting Club Biscuits inside of mine once - back in the day when they really were covered in lots of chocolate and it was a delight to eat the chocolate off the sides and top of the biscuit before crunching the now slightly soggy biscuit itself. Orange ones were my favourite but I also liked the ones with raisins in too.

I'm not sure if you can still get club biscuits but a quick tinternet search shows me that pyjama cases are still very much a thing and available in all manner of branded character versions and that most double as pyjama and hot water bottle cases. That's progress for you. Hot water bottle covers were unheard of in my house then (I now have lots - mostly with skull and crossbones on but I also have a Spongebob one) so you scorched your feet on the meltingly hot plastic for as long as you could before moving it away and it was awful when you came across it in the morning - by now freezing cold.

We didn't have central heating and the only heating upstairs (aside from a two bar electric fire which you only got the use of if you were poorly) was an ineffectual electric heater positioned high above the bathroom door - which smelled of burn when it got switched on for the first time after the summer. I was also reminded of the things I now take for granted which I didn't have when we were younger this week with the news articles about census results. I've always had an inside flushing toilet but my grandparents didn't - theirs was at the bottom of the garden but at least it was theirs and it did flush. Most people now have a washing machine - we used to use the launderette at the bottom of the street and I can still remember the awe and wonderment when my Mum upgraded from having just a spinner to having a twin tub as well. We had a phone box at the end of the street - don't think we had our own landline til the early 80's and then it was a party line.

Misnamed as there never seemed to be any partylike goings on it at all. Now of course people are more likely to have a mobile phone than a landline.

I'd be lost without my washing machine, I think I could just about manage (but wouldn't like to have to) without central heating and double glazing. I could cope without a microwave too - at a pinch I could manage without my mobile phone too but please don't take my washing machine away. I have however been managing quite happily for years without a pyjama case which means a)I really am almost a grown up and  b)they really aren't that useful after all.

(yet) Another In The Old Postcard Series

It's a long time since I've been to Lladudno, must be over twenty years ago. I don't remember much of it except it was exactly the kind of slightly past its best seaside place that I love. I do remember a lovely old secondhand bookshop which had lots of books which I couldn't afford at the time as I was absolutely skint but which I would happily have sold my soul for. I wonder if the bookshop is still there. Lladudno has been on my list of places to revisit for a long time. My grandparents used to go there a lot - along with the Isle of Man and Blackpool it was one of their favourite places to go to. I wonder if they walked along the Colonnades pictured in the postcard and if they are still there and still recognisable. I have vague memories of walking along the Promenade and having a go on the seaside treat of a firefighting tableau that you put money in and then aim a massive water pistol at characters mouths. I can't help but wonder if Happy Valley is happy? I did climb part of the Great Orme on a school trip once, I was wearing an orange kagool of which I was inordinately proud of at the time, no idea why. I've moved on to umbrellas now and would rather get wet than wear a kagool - even if they don't turn inside out in the wind - one of my biggest gripes about 'sensible outdoor gear' is that it is mostly available in brown and navy, two colours I've banned from my wardrobe (unless you count the brown in leopardprint that is) and whilst it may be water and wind proof it is also unbelievably dreary. Why can't it be in black or red or purple - which are of course the best colours.*

But I digress - something I often do and something which was occasionally commented on in my school report, think 'prone to going off at a tangent' was the phrase used. I've been to Conway Castle too - a rather magnificent building. I really must go back.

This postcard was posted on 10th September 1958 to a Miss V Moss who lived in Walsall. It was signed G.
It reads:
Thank you for letter this am, am glad to know you are alright and Whisky too.Sorry you did not get my PC til Tuesday. I posted early Sunday AM so you should have had it Monday.
Having a lovely time and yesterday and today have been glorious and cloudless, v lovely. Monday v wet AM but fine later. Would you be alright if I stayed til Monday next? Aunty would like to stay and everyone says better for travelling, so if you would be alright, arrive the usual time just before 6 o'c? Going to see Sallie tomorrow. Lots of love to you and Whisky.Nearly living on the Par?
PS Pretend you are on holiday too - get out a bit.

I wonder what V stands for - Veronica possibly, I wonder what G stands for and what kind of creature Whisky was - am presuming it's a dog but it could have been a pony or even a cat. I wonder if Aunty did stay and if it was a successful visit and if V did get out more. I don't know what Par means either - a place or a status, not sure.

*pedants can feel free to point out that black isn't a colour but rather the absence of colour.

Another In The Series of Old Postcards and a rant about...

Regular readers will know I love old postcards - either in sepia,black and white or in lovely over the top hand tinted colour loveliness like this one.

It's a bit tatty round the edges but it is also beautiful. It shows the Floral Hall at Rhyl which the tinternet tells me opened in May 1959 at a cost of £21,000. It was visited by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester (whoever they were) in 1960 and was thereafter known as the Royal Floral Hall. It was then converted into a butterfly garden but alas this didn't stop it from being demolished in the early 1990's and it is no more. It seems the glass it was made out of wasn't thick enough to comply with new safety regulations and it would have cost too much to get the glass up to scratch.

On the back is a message to Mrs Lowe who lived in Norwich which states that they are having a nice time and the weather is nice too and that they hope all is well. I'm being a bit vague as I'm afraid I can't read the signature nor can I can read the whole postmark, It was definitely posted on 17 August but half of the year bit is missing but it looks like it could be 1960. The stamp is a lovely red with a picture of the young Queenie on it and it cost 2 and 1/2d. Whatever that is in new money I'm guessing it's nothing near the postal prices of today.

You can probably also guess from my less than reverent tone of describing the royal family that I very little time for them. I don't, I find it utterly gobsmacking that we live in the 21st century yet we still as a country have a monarchy. I like people because of their talent or skills not because they were born into a particular position. I also cannot bear the fawning forelock tugging tone of most of the media reporting about them. For goodness sake they are just people - albeit ridiculously over privileged ones who live in a goldfish bowl.

 

What I've Been Doing Today...

Well I've been thinking I must write my blog as one of the few goals I set myself at the start of the year  (along with learning how to crochet and how to do intarsia - both of which remain unlearnt as yet) was to update my blog regularly and so far I have :-)

I was going to post a pic of some of the skulls I've been knitting but on close inspection it is slightly blurred so I'll not bother and take another one  and post that some point.  So instead I'll write about what I did today.

Woke up - was delighted to discover there was no Today Programme on R4 as it is invariably bad for my blood pressure when I hear some dickwad of a politician being  weaselly, got up, fed the cats, cleaned the litter tray (washed hands - goes without saying but am always shocked and disgusted by number of people who don't bother to do this on a regular basis - even after going to to the toilet. Dirty sods!!) then had breakfast of oats,banana and a sprinkling of supermarket own label frosted flakes as a sugary treat, then did some washing, some washing up, cleaned up some fur ball containing cat sick - not sure which cat it came from but am betting Mapp as it was short hair and Lucia is long haired, washed hands again, had a bath, got dressed, put some make up on, made some vegetable soup out of the 'scrag end' of vegetables in the fridge - namely some celery,sweet potatoes,carrots,salad potatoes and chicken stock - not alas home made but from one of those new fangled stock pot things. I shall be making chicken stock later tonight when the roast chicken from yesterday has been stripped of its last meaty morsels for tonights dinner. Think we might have chicken risotto but I am getting ahead of myself there....

Decided I did feel well enough to go out (have been somewhat under the weather with cough/cold/flu lurgy for the past few days which left me snotting for Britain and disappointed at having to cancel plans for the weekend plus more importantly I am no longer coughing or snotting ) so I took 2 bags of stuff to the best charity shop in Leeds - namely Meanswood Community Shop, then went and did some knitting with a knitting group who meet at Bar Arcadia and knit in aid of the Baby Units at the LGI and St James, I took along the gargoyle I mentioned in last weeks post and did a bit more on it  and am also going to have a go at knitting some hats for premature babies - afraid the pattern for cardies was bit beyond my comprehension at the moment,  then I went and bought some plastic underbed storage boxes in which to store wool as our living room is in danger of becoming something like a very untidy and chaotic wool shop and am worried Mapp is going to start chewing and eating it which wouldn't be good for her - or me and the things I am trying to knit.

Then I chatted to some chums on Twitter and Farcebook (deliberate misspelling) and then thought I must write this otherwise I won't have kept to my goal of updating my blog at least once a week preferably on a Monday.

What have you been up to? and has it involved wool?

Crematoria...

On Monday night I attended a lecture on the history and design of Crematoria and where Lawnswood Crematoria stands in it. It was part of the Victorian Societys Annual General Meeting to which members of Friends of Lawnswood Cemetery (of which I am one) were generously invited. It was fascinating and I learnt lots plus it was in the rather sumptuous environs of the Leeds Club on Albion Place - which has the beautiful marble lined mens toilets which I sneaked a look at whilst no-one was in there. The ladies by comparison are very disappointing. But it is a very beautiful building inside with lots of lovely tiling and real fires - and it is well worth a visit if you can.

But back to the lecture - it was given by Professor Hilary Grainger who is an architectural historian with a specific interest in Crematoria and she shared her knowledge and enthusiasm very generously over the course of an hour or so, with slides showing the crematoriums she was talking about and quotes from various  publications.

Cremation was found to be legal after Dr William Price (an interesting character who deserves further research) cremated his son on a hillside in Wales in February 1884 but it wasn't until 1902 that formal legislation regarding cremation was passed - which included things like the distance crematoria needed to be from public dwellings and public thoroughfares and that the body has to be placed in a coffin first and aside from some changes made as a result of the Harold Shipman case* the legislation is still the same today.

The main points which I can remember and in no order (other than the order I wrote them down in whilst waiting for John Shuttleworth to come on stage at the City Varieties last night - he was very funny indeed) are:

The architects who designed and built the early crematoria didn't have any precedents and architects often travelled to towns who already had them (the first in the UK was set up in Woking in 1878) to see what they had done and then copied them.

The early victorian and edwardian ones look very similar to chapels/churches with a mostly norman gothic design complete with what look like bell towers but which are in fact chimneys for the furnaces. One contemporary commenter pointed out that these towers didn't issue delightful peels but often belched smoke instead. They slowly but surely over the years lose some the more overt similarities to chapels and churches but the similarity was deliberate initially as it was a way to to get people to trust them and to use them and it was the only kind of building which had a precedent for funerals.

Cremation was very slow to take off but it becomes massively more popular after the Great War - in large part due to the fact that so many people bereaved as a result of that war had no actual body of their loved one to bury or resting place to visit, plus burials in a wet miserable winter are made even more grim because of the dreadful weather and a cremation is held inside. The Anglican church says it is okay for its adherents to be cremated - unlike the Catholic Church which didn't give it the okay until the 1960's.

It was advertised as a form of purification and one gentleman attendee talked of how one of his relatives had his wife cremated as she had died of cancer and he wanted the cancer destroyed.

Lawnswood had two chapels - one anglican and one non conformist linked by a walkway and the magnificent Columbarium was built in the 1930's and at the time it was considered the bees knees of storing the ashes of loved ones or remembering them. It is a very beautiful building indeed - solemn and inspiring too.

Professor Grainger showed slides which showed plans as well as actual views of the crematoria and also some showing the wars of victorian mortuary supply companies and the insides of crematoria and catafalques (the raised bier used to support the coffin before it is transferred to the furnace) and all showed the victorian morticians fondness for the parlour palm. It seemed no crematoria was complete without one.

The difficulty crematoria have is that they are secular buildings but they also have to appeal to all or none religions and the religious symbolism borrowed from traditional christian chapels both in terms of the outward design and the inward trappings gradually fades out over the years - crematoria today are much more plain and municipal than they were when they first started to be built in the late 1800's - modern crematoria often have viewing areas where you can see the coffin being burnt and blank white walls which can be used as video screens.

I can't remember which crematoria it was but one of them was the first to have a door through which you entered and a door by which you left - which is important now as it means mourners don't bump into one another due to the numbers of people being cremated now as opposed to buried but then it was simply supposed to be symbolic of both the deceased and the mourners moving on.

It was a really interesting evening, made me want to learn more and I hope to get a copy of Professor Graingers book from the library :-)

*this reminds me of a chum who whilst at medical school would ring me up every so often and ask if I fancied going for a drink as she had gotten some money - namely 'ash cash' - the money she earnt by signing an okay for a cremation. I've had many a night in the Florence pub (now demolished but it used to be opposite St James) on 'ash cash' - I do hope that those cremations hid no wrongdoing.

Hammer Anniversary-Ness :-)

I am an enormous fan of Hammer films and of Peter Cushing in particular. His cheekbones, diction and just all round wonderfulness make me very happy indeed. I know he did lots of films for all sorts of companies but it is the films he made with Hammer which are my very favourites. Aside from Cone of Silence which is a very good film indeed about the aviation industry which also features the very marvellous George Sanders (who I also have a bit of a thing for - see also James Mason, Stewart Granger and William Holden - delectable all) it is the Hammer ones which really make me happy - I love the settings, the sounds, the and their colour tone (a lovely pale kind of glorious technicolour)  so imagine my excitement and delight when we decided to spend our 4th wedding anniversary at Oakley Court Hotel. Mr Pops (my lovely husband) is a fan too - nowhere near as obsessive or fervent as I am - but a fan nonetheless.

Oakley Court which is next door to Bray Studios used to be part of the Hammer Films set up and they filmed many films there but so did other production companies, for instance Amicus made And Now The Screaming Starts there - a film we watched whilst in our bedroom at Oakley Court (Mr Pops gave me the Peter Cushing Collection as an anniversary present and it is a good little boxset -even though I must complain that he is hardly in The Hellfire Club)  and it was beyond magical to be in the same place as we could see on screen - to walk through the same entrance doors Peter Cushing as Dr Pope does, and to walk on the same lawns and down to the same fountain as Ms Beacham. Thankfully though none of the other guests were wearing as dreadful a wig as Mr Cushing does in this film and nobody seemed to be complaining of possession by spirits, chopping insolent woodsmans hands off or slashing portraits.....

I don't think I can find the words to tell you quite how magical a stay this was for me, I am not a religious person but this was a religious experience for me and here is a pic of me about to enter those very doors looking v giddy at the prospect indeed.

 It was so lovely - we've decided we're going to go back there again for special occasions - now when is the next one.......

Not Monday....

At the start of this year I made a kind of resolution that I would try and update this every Monday. I've got a busy day tomorrow and don't know if I'll get chance so I'm doing it now instead - except I haven't really got anything to say and I don't want to copy and paste something I have written elsewhere (which would make a perfectly good blog post) as it will probably make it go all funny format-wise and I'd rather be able to read whatever I've put.

Which admittedly isn't very much......

So in lieu of written content here is a photo instead :-)

  

This was taken some time ago at Eden Camp - it isn't a very good photo as it was taken on a camera phone, in the dark and neither of us could stop giggling. It's supposed to be a terrifying camp guard dog but alas the emphasis is more on the camp as he appears to be wearing a lot of eyeliner. Eden Camp is an amazing place but bits of it -well this bit in particular is well shonky, instead of thinking about how horrible the conditions prisoners of war had to endure I'm afraid all I could do was laugh at this badly stuffed dog.

Gargoyles In The Snow....

It was a bit snowy last week, so much so - even my gargoyle who guards the garden got covered. I love him and I wish now we'd bought two so he'd have a chum. But the place we got him from has closed down now so he'll have to remain a solitary gargoyle instead.

I am knitting one as well, but it's one of those projects that is taking an age, it's not complicated but it is fiddly and so I've been concentrating on other things instead - like a poncho for my niece, some skulls for a friend of mine and some knitted fruit for my Mum. Thinking about it though I've been working on him or rather not working on him for over 18 months so I really need to pull my finger out and get him finished.....

So note to self - do more of gargoyle before starting anything else.....

Do any of you have anything unfinished that is hanging over you giving you a vague sense of guilt but equally not quite enough oomph to get it finished?

Targets and Permissions....

It's very snowy today - the back garden looks like a winter wonderland and in spite of being on a get fitter to improve my general health kick (it started last July and is paying dividends) I've decided to wuss out of walking down the hill to the gym this evening. It's too cold and slippy plus I have cleaned the house from top to bottom today (a proper clean as opposed to a quick wipe round with one of those disinfectant wipes) and tackled and completed the ironing mountain. So it's not like I've been sat on my arse all day. Though I have been sat on it for some of it.

I do feel a bit guilty though for wussing out of the gym though - even though I have lots of walking planned for the rest of the week, it's the same when I read a book at home. I ADORE reading, it's one of my favourite things to do but I still feel naughty doing it at home during the day - on the bus or the train, waiting for a chum to turn up whilst sitting in a cafe or waiting for an appointment is okay. I feel no guilt then - if anything a little smug as I am doing something productive with my time but at home when there's other things I could be doing - like sorting out the kitchen cupboards or sorting out the spare room (in spite of two bin bags of books being taken to Poverty Aid the other week but the room looks as depressingly cluttered as ever) but most of all it's the feeling that I should be 'outside'.

My grandparents had a real thing about 'outside' and 'getting fresh air' - something which unless it was raining (I grew up in South Manchester so thankfully this was often) you should be doing rather than sitting inside with either the television on or reading a book. 'You should be out there getting fresh air' was my Nana's constant refrain whenever she saw me with my head in a book. Unless it was raining and then there was still stuff you could be doing like tidying up....

And that has kind of stuck with me - I can read voraciously and without guilt on holiday but the only time I don't have a vague sense of guilt reading at home is either in the bath (carefully - obviously and not with too precious a book either in case it takes a dip - Jackie Collins are especially good for this) or just before going to sleep. Any other time - unless it's a Saturday afternoon and throwing it down I still feel I should be outside doing something else.....

I don't feel the same sense of unease knitting though - but then most of the things I am knitting are for someone else (currently working on a selection of knitted fruit for my Mum, the orange is a bastard to do so she is only getting one of those and a clementine instead) but I think I would if it was something just for me.

But back to the gym (which fingers crossed  I will be by the end of the week anyway..) I had a fitness test last week and I ran a mile in 12 minutes and 29 seconds, not record breaking but it is a big achievement for me as last July I couldn't have run for more than 30 seconds at a time and when I take the test again in a few weeks I hope to be a bit quicker again. I feel loads better for it so I have no intention of wussing out on it long term and I might just read a bit more of my book before I watch Miranda later.

If you go down in the woods today......

If you live in North Leeds and looked through the trees today you might have seen this, I love mooching about the woods and the bridlepaths and seeing what I can see through and with my camera. This was taken on the digital lumix but I also use lovely old film cameras too - they don't have the screen on the back so you can't check you're getting the view you want as go along so they can be a bit hit and miss and in order to get decent pics you need a sunny day really. I know it's not as quick and easy as digital - but for me that's part of the point. I want to really think about what I'm doing as opposed to just pointing and shooting.

Plus I love the look and feel of film and the tactile relationship you have with it - memory cards aren't anywhere near as exciting or romantic. Plus there is just an indefinable something magical about film, even if it is more expensive, a bit more fiddly and faffy. I love the faff of film though. The click as you insert the cartridge and the slight tension as you line up the holes with the sprockets and wind it on and take the first blank pic before closing the back of the camera and then clicking away  for hopefully 36 times :-)

I like using cameras with a screen but I like using cameras with a viewfinder more, I've got an instant fuji camera that is a joy to use - it's like a big kids camera for adults and whilst it doesn't quite have the proustian instant polaroid noise as it spits the pic out - it's still the aces and it still helps if you put the pic under your armpit whilst it develops.

I haven't developed my own pics for years - I live with two cats and cats and chemicals aren't a good combination so I take them to a nice man in Headingley who does them for me instead - all the excitement of film and none of the resultant chemical faff - I'm not so keen on that side of film. Plus for me there is still the excitement of handing over your numbered papered slip and getting back the envelop containing your images and having a quick scan of the test print and being all giddy and holding up the negatives to the light.

Going back to using film has improved my digital pictures - I no longer click,click,click as film is more finite than a memory card and in order not to waste it you have to really line up your shot, and really think about it before you press the button and fire the shutter. Digital cameras might have fake electric shutter noises but nothing beats the noise and feel of the real thing.

I know we are in a digital ever quickening revolution but LONG LIVE FILM!!!

Wondering what 2013 will bring....

I'm hoping it will bring all sorts of loveliness, namely lots more visits to the cinema - mostly to the Hyde Park Picture House, The Cottage Road, Armley Mills Picture Palace in Leeds,  Pictureville in that Bradford and hopefully a return visit to the Ritz in Malton and trips further afield to the Electric Cinema in that Birmingham and the Tyneside Cinema in that Newcastle. I haven't been to either of those two but they are on the list for 'must visits' this year as they look so delightful.

I love proper old picture palaces that have individuality and character as opposed to the nameless faceless look the same wherever they are multiplexes staffed by bored teenagers who don't seem to give a monkey's either about their patrons or the films they are showing. I could be doing multiplexes and their staff a great disservice there but I really don't like them and would far rather see a film elsewhere. I like to see films somewhere with a bit of character and that it's an occasion to visit rather than in a big characterless shed that seems more bothered about selling you sweets and ocean loads of teeth rotting fizzy drinks.

So rant about multiplexes and their evils aside what else does 2013 hold? well most importantly I'm hoping it brings health and comparative wealth to my loved ones after bouts of rotten ill health last year, a few trips to the seaside namely Cleethorpes, Whitby, Scarborough and Filey , lots more knitting adventures - learnt a new way to increase at the weekend by purling into the front and back of the stitch, and I also hope to learn how to knit in the round, crochet and intarsia. I'm partway through a toilet roll holder at the moment - it's in black and purple and in a kind of lacework stitch and I intend to adorn the finished item with knitted skulls.

Along with hopefully selling some more of my knitted goods, I'm hoping to take part in more photography exhibitions, and either barter or sell more of my work. I'm also hoping to work more on my writing - have more or less finished one short story about a man who murders his mother and I'd like to do more.

I also want to be able to run further than I can at the moment - my aim is to be able to run round the bridlepath in Meanwood without having to stop every so often to catch my breath. I'm getting there slowly but surely but it is hard. Here's hoping the more I try the easier it will get....

What are you hoping 2013 will bring?

Smells of Xmas....

There are lots of things I love about xmas and lots of things I loathe about it too. One of the things that brings back the excitement and wonder of xmas for me are the smells of xmas. Xmas had lots of smells - most excitingly there was the new plastic toy smell, a particularly pungent plasticy smell which I can sometimes get a nostalgic waft of when buying a beachball or other inflatable bit of frippery at the seaside. It was strongest with a doll and pram set and nurses dressing up outfit I got one year. Blissful.

There's also the proustian delight of a slight smell of scorch which comes from having a Nanna who didn't agree with the maxim less is more when it came to xmas decorations, her tree would be choc full on every branch with various types of decorations  - baubles, sleighs, various nativity characters left over from lost nativity sets, mini crackers, fairys and of course numerous strings of fairy lights and all those naked bulbs too close to to the multiple strands of tinsel often got a bit hot and gave off a slight smell of scorch if you got close enough.

Of course you had to get close enough as if you were me you trying to prefect the habit of stealing the chocolate decorations off the tree (never understood how they didn't melt) gently opening the tin foil wrapping, stealthily eating the chocolate and then closing the wrapping back up and putting it back on the tree empty. A tricky feat but one which I'm proud to say I managed more than once - plus the trick was to take them from round the back of the tree where their misshapenness was less likely to be noticed and by the time they taken down on Jan 6th everyone was sick of the sight of them and so didn't care thieves with tricky fingers had been at work.

My uncle swore he could hear the tree -an artificial silver tinsel one actually groaning under the weight of xmas tat on it's branches. They weren't colour coordinated or themed nor did they get replaced every year with the latest trendier aspirational styles, if anything they just got added to. The ceiling was also full of paper lanterns, paper chains and xmas cards were strung along striped string by way of tiny little plastic pegs and even the gentlest shut of the door could bring them all crashing to the ground in an instant which always led to much muttering and occasional bouts of swearing.

The other smell which always makes me think of xmas is brandy or whiskey - my Nanna would make two of three xmas cakes and all would be decorated in a similar style to the tree - ie no thought for coordination or scale so the plastic Father Xmas figure would be the same size as a plastic Robin and little plastic yule log. And we all remember the year her elbow jogged as she was mixing the icing and put too much water in and Grandad was sent to the phone box at the end of the road* with instructions to ring all family members and ask them to bring as many boxes of icing sugar as they could carry. Prior to the icing she would have been feeding the cakes with brandy or whiskey - via a knitting or crochet needle (wiped of course) every few days so that after even a slither of a slice of her cake you'd feel a bit squiffy. It wasn't safe to eat it and drive.

Happy memories all :-)

What are your smells of xmas?

* this of course was in the days when not everyone had a phone in their house let alone a mobile device that can probably time travel or something, - this comment is brought to you by someone who doesn't have a smartphone but a 7 year old nokia handset that does nothing fancier than enable calls and texts.....

Books Versus Kindles

I don't have a kindle or other branded electronic reading device, I find it difficult to read anything longer than an article on a screen. I like books, well actually that's a bit of an understatement I ADORE books - not just their contents and their ability to transport me to other times and places or to teach me but also their physical qualities - the feel of the paper,the dust jacket, the smell of years of undisturbed delicious mustiness.

But what I also love about books and secondhand books in particular is finding something inside them like an to do list (who knows whether or not the reader ever finished their list) or an old shopping list or a lovely old bookmark or best of all - an old photograph.

I was having a mooch round Hebden Bridge the other week and went to the Antiques Centre and bought a copy of Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan not for the book but for the photograph inside it.

A lovely proper seventies snap (looks like the ones I used to take on my kodak instamatic ) of a rhino house somewhere - I love the slightly washed out colour and fixed focus. I'm not sure which zoo it is but if anyone could tell me I'd be very grateful.

I'd also love to hear about what lovely or not so lovely things you've found in books - and yes I know kindly type readers are light, and you can read them in the dark but they just don't have the romance for me and nor do you find ace pics like this in them.

Testing Testing

Just want to see if this types the way I want it too and without strange white boxes.......or even worse white typeface against a white box which of course showed nothing.......

But I suppose if I really want to test it I have to waffle on about something - relief that the 26th Leeds International Film Festival has finished and I don't have to go to the cinema again for a few days. Don't get me wrong the festival was aces - I saw some excellent films, some not as excellent and some downright wastes of celluloid except they were probably shot digitally so a waste of memory card might be more apposite.

Thankfully technical difficulties were v few and far between and only twice did twats spoil the screening by chatting during the film. Honestly - if you want to talk - GO OUTSIDE !!! You're not at home watching it on the telly - inconsiderate knobheads.

Highlights for me were - Sightseers, Excision, Silents at the Cottage, Before Dawn, Golem, We Are The Night, French Short Films, Art of Negative Thinking, Jobraith AD, Last Shop Standing, Eddie the Sleepwalking Cannibal, Return of the Living Dead.....

You'd be forgiven for thinking that almost all I watch is horror films and you'd not be far wrong but I also love documentaries, proper old glorious swirly soundtrack hollywood nonsense - either in b+w or beautifully faded colour or glorious hurt your eyes technicolour - this afternoon I watched House on 92nd Street which stars one of my very favourite film actors - Leo G Carroll. Think I like him best in Desert Fox (which also stars my beloved James Mason *swoon swoon*) and North by Northwest - which also stars James Mason being quite evil but still being gorgeous in spite of wearing a rather nasty cardigan at one point.

Well that's enough waffling for now - here's hoping the formatting hasn't gone all to cock again.

Think the Leeds Film Festival is over now for me and Mr Pops - though it goes on for another couple of days. I went to 24 showings in total though as that included some collections of short films I've seen at least 32 films in total and Mr Pops went to 20. 

I've seen some really good ones and I've seen some average ones and 3 'I'd have had more fun sitting at home emptying the litter tray' ones.

Highlights were - Sightseers as it's v easy to become homicidal on a caravanning holiday, Excision because i am ever so slightly in love with Traci Lords and she is wonderful in what is a v v good film indeed, Robot and Frank for Frank Langella's delicious voice, Art of Negative Thinking for grim but hilarious swedish humour, We Are The Night for fabulous vampire action, When The Lights Go Out for really creepy 70's ghost storyness,Last Shop Standing for record shop and vinyl fabulousness, Return of the Living Dead for zombie nonsense - 'send more paramedics' , Attack of the Giant Brain Sucker Monster from Outer Space for such a wonderful send up of b movies and musicals and monsters and zombies, Jobraith AD for wonderful documentaryness and Eddie The Sleep Walking Cannibal for glorious bloodthirsty storytelling and a warning not to get on the wrong side of someone who eats people in his sleep. All in all aces!!!!! My eyes are v tired now and my bum is quite numb too :-)

Another in the old postcard series

I love multiple image postcards - especially when they are in lovely sumptuously sunny over saturated colour but also when they are in lovely black and white too - as you know my mantra is - EVERYTHING looks better in black and white and this postcard also has the added appeal of a beautiful crinkle cut edge.

It was posted on 15 August 1960 at 4pm and was sent to Mr and Mrs Kirk in Kimberley from Lily and Eric who on holiday in the area. Their message in blue biro reads:

Dear Friends

As you will see we have moved onto Bognor but it's not as nice as Southsea, still it's better than work and a change. Eric says there is a marvellous Butlins camp here. Weather mixed but when the sun comes out it's really hot.

All the best

Lily and Eric.

I wonder what work Eric did and if Lily worked too and if they visited the Butlins camp and what attraction did Southsea have that made it better than Bognor?

Pop Up Gallery-Ness :-)

Put my pics up at Multiple Choice this morning (it's about 2 doors down from the job centre and kind of directly opposite the bus station and the police station and diagonally opposite the Playhouse) and they along with lots of other lovely arty things will be on show for the next couple of weeks, weekdays 12-5pm - come on down :-)

This is another Pop Up Gallery as part of the Love Arts Leeds Festival - for details of all the things on as part of the festival - see here http://loveartsleeds.co.uk/

Niece's First Birthday

It's my niece's first birthday tomorrow so I've knitted her a kind of ghost puppet type thing.
Hope she likes it, mind you if she doesn't I know her older brother will as his favourite cartoon is Scooby Doo :-) though when he grows up he wants to be a Power Ranger.

Love Arts Leeds Festival

Super excited to be part of this - got some work in The Light and will have some in the Pop Up Gallery at Multiple Choice too - well I will have if I get my finger out and get it printed up and framed...
Busy,busy,busy....

http://loveartsleeds.co.uk/events/

Rain,Rain Go Away....

Goodness it's wet outside, I know this because I am looking out at pouring rain and because I have walked through it to drop off two pictures for inclusion in the Arts and Minds Network pop up gallery in the Light. The exhibition opens on Tuesday 2nd October 2012 at 4pm a will be open daily from 10am til 7pm until Sunday 7th October 2012.

I'm exhibiting some of my black and white photographs - one is an unedited digital print (taken on the black and white setting of a Lumix) of reflections in a dirty shop window in Saltaire and one is a film print of Armley Industrial Museum taken on 120 black and white film using a Nettar Zeiss Ikon bellows camera from 1956. I love that camera - v simple but beautiful engineering and it's a delight to use - providing it's sunny.

Mmm - given the current state of the weather something tells me I won't be using it again anytime soon......

Medical Men In Lawnswood Cemetery

picture of rather lovely angel topped grave taken yesterday 

Yesterday courtesy of Friends of Lawnswood Cemetery I went on a guided walk and talk round some of the graves of noted medical men interred there. The rain added to the atmosphere really and it was an enthralling and intriguing way to spend a sunday afternoon.

The talk was a mix of biographical detail of each of the internees and a brief overview of the development of the medical profession, and of the hospitals and school of medicine we have in Leeds today. Many of the internees for instance spent time working at the Hospital for Women - now long since gone.

The rain was really quite heavy as we were walking around the graves and so against the sound of rain dripping on the leaves and on the umbrellas we were treated to the tales of various medical men - some surgeons, some doctors and some pioneers in their field.

Two of the internees stood out for me  - Max Louis Rossvally and Thomas Scattergood. Sadly I don't have pics of their graves to show you as the rain was so heavy at this point I wouldn't have been able to take a decent picture but I can tell you a bit of what I remember of their stories.

Max Louis Rossvally 1828-1892 somehow came to Leeds from New Orleans and he converted to christianity from orthodox judaism after treating a drummer boy called Charlie Coulson ho had been badly injured leading a contingent of soldiers in battle during the american civil war. He needed both an arm and a leg amputating and it seems he refused the offer of alcohol or chloroform to help through the amputations - preferring instead to rely on his faith in Jesus. Rossvally was so struck by this he decided to convert, was seemingly disowned by his family as a result and somehow came to Leeds. His wife who outlived him remarried and became the landlady of the Black Bull pub in Horsforth. It also seems he was recruited as a spy during the civil war though there is confusion over which side he was actually spying for. He was also an altruist and founded a clinic which gave free food and treatment to those who could not otherwise afford medical treatment. Charlie Coulson unsurprisingly died five days after the amputations.

Thomas Scattergood 1826-1900 was a big cheese in the field of forensic medicine and was instrumental in the case of Mary Ann Cotton  1832-1873, the infamous serial killer from County Durham who was found guilty of poisoning her step son. But it is also alleged that she also murdered other members of her family including 4 husbands, her mother, her sister, and her biological children with arsenic. Her local doctor after officiating at yet another death due to 'stomach fever' decided to send the stomach contents to Scattergood for analysis. Scattergood found arsenic which lead to exhumations of her other victims. She was found guilty and executed - though whether or not she would be today with advances in both forensic medicine and judicial practice is an interesting question.

Friends of Lawnswood Cemetery organise a number of guided walks and events throughout the year and you can find all the details on their website http://friendsoflawnswoodcemetery.co.uk/

Postcard From Berlin July 1906

Another lovely postcard from my small but well loved collection. It's not clear exactly when this photograph of the Brandenburg Gate was taken, but the postcard is dated  23 July 1906 and the postmark on the back is 24.7.06.

It was sent to Miss S Josephine Hill, who lived on Elm St, Holyoke, in the USA from Allan. Aside from the address Allan left the non picture side of the postcard blank and wrote around and above the Gate instead.

I'm not sure if the photo is clear enough for you to read what he put in his spidery inky hand so here it is:

'July 23,1906
Got to Berlin Sunday afternoon,leave 6.10 tomorrow for Dresden. This gate is at east end of Unter Den Linden.Berlin is a beautiful city with a great many fine artistic buildings. Next though Emperor Williams palace this morning.Heard the Fraiserkatz last night.
Allan.'

I bought this a couple of years ago in the antique shop in the lovely victorian covered market in St Helier Jersey. I wonder how it ended up there, I wonder who Allan was and why he was visiting Berlin - was his trip entirely sightseeing and what was his relationship with Miss S Josephine Hill and what the S stands for.

Postcards and why I love them...

The postcard trade is in terminal decline, this makes me sad. I know it's easier and cheaper to text/email but it's not the same. You don't have a lovely over saturated wide angled picture of the place you've been to to keep, nor does the text/email way result in you having to find out how you post things if you are abroad or go into a proper local heart of the community post office in you are in a tiny out of the way village somewhere in the UK. And of course the excitement of whether or not you'd be home before your postcards got to their recipients.

There is something exciting about receiving a postcard too and seeing a stamp from a far away part of the world you'll probably never visit yourself.

I love going to antique shops and looking through faded pics of places I've never been, looking at lovely old stamps, marvelling at the neatness of handwriting from yesteryear (though not all is legible) and that fact that they are mostly written in ink and not biro - and quite a lot in pencil.

Plus it's a brief tantalising glimpse into other people's lives - on the back of a black and white picture of a rather unpreposessing bridge over a what could be a stream or a small pond picture of Beckside Lane in Sedburgh, posted on Oct 18th 1909 is this message from M Pearce to Miss D Clark in Ormskirk in ornate black ink script -
' Hope you are quite well, and having better weather than we are. It has rained every day since we came back and a quarter of the term is over already.I am hoping to see Mother up here for the week-end. Love to all.'    

I wonder where M Pearce was to be a quarter of the way through the term - boarding school somewhere? pupil or teacher? and what their relationship with Miss D Clark was - relative, friend, boy/girlfriend/ , lover? Did Mother make the trip and was it a successful one?

Some of the postcards I've got are just to arrange meetings - back in the day when there was more than one post delivery per day and the first was v early in the morning so you could use the post system as a way to organise your social life. I wouldn't use the post to do that now but I do still send postcards when I go away - I always send one to my parents and one to my own house too.

Aaah postcards :-)

George Hurrell - Another Favourite Photographer :-)

One of my other favourite photographers is George Hurrell - the master of Hollywood glamour photography and if you look at some of his photos I'm sure you'll think so too.

Sumptuous images of stars from yesteryear looking impossibly glamorous and decadent,beautifully lit - for me there is something about black and white that is just so much more colourful than colour and I just adore these photos. Also I'd love to have been present at some of these sessions - nut just to see how long he took to frame and set up each picture but also to hear the discussions with the stars - would Marlene have had an input into how she was lit? Quite probably as she always made friends with the lighting man on set so as to make sure she always looked as perfect as possible, what exactly did happen between him and Greta Garbo?

I'd love to be as skilful as he was - he knew light and how to use it better than anyone.

http://georgehurrell.com/