September 2016 – Page 3 – derrickjknight

Hanging Around Part 2

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED.

For once I have not featured my archive material on a rainy day post, for I had yesterday’s images from Margery’s exhibition that I had not had time to upload last night.

As will be seen from this front page of the promotional leaflet, ‘Hanging Around’ is a prelude to an important exhibition next spring.

I featured a photographic portrait of the artist in ‘Hanging Around Part 1’. The leaflet contains a pen picture.

Here are visiting details for those fortunate enough to be within striking distance.

With work going on around me, I photographed a few of the works at random.

It is only three or four years ago that my sister, Liz Keenan, taught Margery to create handmade books, and she has brought her own stamp to them.

The wonkiness of these images is nothing to do with the hangers, but is all the responsibility of the photographer. Since the pictures had mostly not yet been labelled, I cannot give the titles, but most tell their own story. Margery’s sensitivity shines out of this one that leaves the viewer to supply the subject’s thoughts, which will probably reflect their own.

The Cyclist appears in one of the artist’s small rectangular formats, and amply displays her renowned humour.

We smile with Margery at these two friends staggering home from their hostelry.

Clarke is equally at home with a large scene, making full use of its space.

The year before Margery painted these dancing nuns in 1964, the Belgian Dominican Sister Luc Gabriel, known to us as the Singing Nun, recorded this hit:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n295hjktHD0&w=560&h=315]

Was our friend influenced by this, I wonder? (See Paul’s comment below; and his longer one describing the influences of other pictures)

Even garbage collectors are represented with a sense of fun. How is he going to pick up his lid?

High Steps appears in the leaflet;

as does Pub Interior, displaying the artist’s innate sense of composition and perspective.

It looks as if a joyful greeting is taking place here.

Margery is also capable of dramatic landscapes;

and grand scenes like Assembling In The Square.

She enjoys musical themes

and a chuckle is never far away.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s excellent chilli con carne with rice and peas, followed by lemon meringue pie ice cream. We both drank sparkling water.

Hanging Around Part 1

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED.

Although Aaron has been promised a sturdy third-hand greenhouse for us, the Head Gardener is determined to get some use out of two flimsy flat-packed garden centre apologies for the items that she bought but didn’t use last year. She placed them in the shelter of a corner of Aaron’s nice new fence. During the recent winds these were blown down

and some of their plastic joints smashed.

Jackie repaired these with duct tape and we nailed the structures to the fence.

As I pierced the pristine boards with nails, I thought of the pain of seeing Sam’s first cut. This was the earliest blemish on a perfect skin.

Later this afternoon Jackie drove us to West End to visit Mum; to Bitterne to drop in on the preparation for the Private View of Margery’s 90th Birthday Painting Exhibition, wittily entitled ‘Hanging Around’; and to The Farmer’s Home at Durley where we met Elizabeth for a meal.

The food and service at the pub was as first rate as ever. My choice was tender lamb shank in a lovely mint gravy, perfect new potatoes, and crisp carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli, followed by creamy Eton mess. I drank a pint of Ringwood’s best while waiting for my sister, then shared a carafe of merlot with her. Jackie drank Amstel.

Here is a portrait of Hilda Margery Clarke, the artist herself, but it is far too late for me to upload the photographs of her works that I made while the exhibition was going up around me, so I will publish those in the morning.

Good night for now.

A Trio Of Flamenco Dresses

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED

Watering and dead heading were the orders of the garden today. For the first time, I availed myself of

the Head Gardener’s dead heading trolley. This is basically an adapted IKEA sack barrow. The slot for secateurs has been obscured by the contents of the bucket of dead blooms. Scissors, weed- and slug-killers, stand in the top tray, so as to be readily available should the need arise.

I have selected various shades of pink to feature today. First we have the antique hue of kniphofia

blending well with this latticed candle holder.

White Japanese anemones featured yesterday, but we also have many pink ones;

similarly white gaura have featured before, but we also have other hues.

Phlox also comes in other pigments. Here is a pink one.

The spotlit trio of flamenco dresses are in fact begonias.

We finished our Chinese Takeaway this evening, and both drank sparkling water.

Finally there was a fair amount of pink in the sky at sunset.

A Garden Of Delights

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED.

Watching the suspended petal of a Japanese anemone this morning set me musing. First I considered the strength of the thread that grasped it. As the flower part spun and twisted in the breeze, its captor clung on, just as it would with a fly’s frantically thrashing death throes.

On a more musical note, my head recalled the rhythmic tones of chirpy Chubby Checker from 1960:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHGXwQeUk7M&w=560&h=315]

This afternoon we went on an outing to Stratford Tony Manor House garden which was open under the National Gardens Scheme. It was my idea of a delightful garden.

There was space for large lawned areas, many trees, a stream, and a lake.

The large borders, especially those planted against walls, were really rather splendid,

and admired by many,

including Jackie.

There were a number of interesting sculptures.

The story behind those of three girls sheltering among cyclamen under a weeping willow is rather endearing. Made some twenty years ago, they are the daughters of the family. The eldest, now brings her own child to visit the family home. This scene, reminiscent of Enid Blyton characters from an earlier time, has been brought into the 21st century with the subtle placement of a mobile phone. The standing child once had a tennis ball placed with equal whimsy, but the dog kept taking it.

Two apparent sculptures were in fact fossilised stumps with polished tops.

A more modern garden ornament features in this photograph of a photographer and her subjects. We had a delightful conversation about this, and I gave them details of this blog.

The next picture I made of them will be a surprise to them. (I hope you like it, folks).

Some quite large groups of visitors wandered around, negotiating the sometimes steep slopes,

leading to the tea terrace where a very busy team of helpers kept us all supplied.

On each table was placed one or two very tastefully arranged vases of flowers.

There were suitably placed bridges over the still lake;

visitors enjoyed crossing them,

or just contemplating the tranquil scene,

the tempting water,

and the swans.

The nicely rusting iron gate to the kitchen garden contrasted with the green grass behind it, revealed by suitable excised symbols.

At a short distance from Stratford Tony, an army helicopter chugged over crows in a recently harvested field

now draped with striped curtains.

Back at home, Mr Chatty Man Chan of Hordle Chinese Take Away provided our evening meal with which Jackie drank sparkling water and I drank more of the Kekfrankos.

A Little Short Of Perfection

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED.

After three days of cloud and rain, this one was hot and humid. Too much so for making a start on restoring our plants to their best condition.

The sun did, however, cast friendly light upon such as these heucheras and leaves of barren crocosmias.

Those crocosmias my not have bloomed this year, but many have.

During last week’s storms the container of our aptly named Tumbler tomatoes was blown down, smashing another underneath. It has recovered reasonably well.

The hydrangeas have probably fared best in the wet weather.

Roses such as Mamma Mia

and Special Anniversary have become rather spotty.

The New Guinea impatiens plants have thrived,

as have various cosmoses, like those adorning Florence.

Canna lilies stand proud in the Palm Bed.

Various delicate penstemons, like this one with a lodger, also remain upright,

while the stems of this unusual antique pink foxglove has stooped a little.

The clematis Marie Boisselot still climbs her obelisk.

The begonias and geraniums are doing well, but we have a lot of dead heading to catch up on.

As will be seen the garden is currently a little short of perfection.

This evening we dined on pork and apple sausages with strips of pork belly, fried mushrooms and onions, crisp cabbage and carrots, and mashed potatoes. I drank Meszaros Pal Kekfrankos 2013, while Jackie chose fruit jiuce.

Retouching

In ‘Face Painting’, I featured a fete in Devon that we attended in 1985. Among the photographs published there are some of Sam having his face painted. My favourite series from that day are those of Louisa undergoing the same experience. I had been unable to include them because I had framed the Louisa images in a set that has been lost. Nor could I find the negatives from that event, so I had scanned the remaining prints.

I am happy to say that I have now found the negatives and was able to reproduce Louisa’s courageous effort from those.

She began with a certain amount of trusting uncertainty.

Soon, she was getting a bit cross;

but responded to persuasion

with stoic patience, until…..

Wow!. The mirror bestowed delight.

When working with old negatives or slides, especially those that have strayed from my dedicated storage systems, there is always a risk of blemishes caused by deterioration or damage. This set suffered more than most.

What was required was a considerable amount of retouching. For those not familiar with the process I will briefly describe the editing facility in the iMac. The scanned images are placed in Photos. Clicking on Edit gives various options, one of which is Retouch. This is essential to remove stray spots, faults, and hairs that have blemished the original material.

Using the mouse the icon is placed on the damaged area, positioning a circle the size of which can be adjusted. Clicking or dragging on the circle transfers pigment pixels from the surrounding areas. I’m sure this isn’t a particularly technical explanation, but hopefully it conveys how painstaking one has to be to

transform this image into the third one above. An enlargement will clarify the problems. This shot has by no means the most blemishes, but it does have some of each. Sometimes I use cropping to save me doing all this. Thus, I could have removed the artist’s hair, but that would have ruined the context.

Even as I was closing what I thought was my final edit, I noticed that I had left, beneath Louisa’s ear in the first picture, a circular white lump larger than the blotchy one in the above original.

This evening we dined on Salmon Fillet & Spinach, and Cod Fillet & Sweet Potato, fishcakes topped with cheddar cheese; chips; and peas. I drank Doom Bar and Jackie drank fruit juice.

A Day Trip To Mousehole

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED

It was another dull day today. Aaron and Sean worked in the garden, finishing the log shelter, clearing rubbish, doing dump trips, and beginning to cut down the grizelinia hedge – now substantial trees.

I scanned another batch of colour negatives from the Instow holiday of 1985.

Here, surrounded by her various companions, Louisa enjoys an alfresco siesta among the daisies beneath a willow tree.

I have no idea where Jessica and Louisa were here. Does anyone recognise the sculptures? (Rusty Duck has obliged with a link in her comment below, for which I thank her)

We took the car to Mousehole in Cornwall for the day. Sam loved donkey riding. A peculiarity of this ancient fishing village is the main road through to the harbour. Sam’s donkey stands on it, and is perhaps a more convenient way of manning the steep, cobbled, ascent. The granite strips among the setts provide steps between the houses. It is not suitable for vehicles, other than the shallow wooden sleds used by provisioners to deliver their produce.

The harbour has a stout protective stone wall that can be ascended by substantial steep steps, such as those Jessica, Sam and Louisa are scaling. Jessica seems a little perturbed by our intrepid daughter’s purposeful strides.

Take a boy to a pebbled beach, and what does he do?

He chucks stones into the sea, having, it seems, first sat down.

This evening we dined on chicken Kiev and egg fried rice. I drank more of the excellent Lidl Spanish red wine.

Hordle Village Fair

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF NECESSARY.

Those who had worked so hard to create today’s Hordle Village Fair woke up to a forecast of rain from 3.00 p.m.. The event was to begin at 1.00 p.m.. In fact, although we were beset by heavy clouds, rain held off until soon after four. Jackie and I paid a visit.

A yellow clown, reminiscent of Barrie Haynes’s pink bunny persona for Bournemouth Lions fundraising events, entertained children and adults alike. I’m sure Barrie could identify the classic car standing on the left, and the others lined up in the background. The round balls seen atop one of them light up when the occasion arises. It is a Belgian hearse belonging to the creator of the Pied Piper of Hamelin scarecrow.

People of all ages toured the wide open spaces and visited the well spread out stalls around them.

There were quite a number of dogs towing their owners.

Plant sales aroused plentiful interest.

A couple of woman span happily in their tent;

other handicraft included knitted hand puppets,

flannels,

and various textile items examined by these young ladies.

A long colourful caterpillar was a children’s maze;

and there was a rubber slide.

Boys

and girls had stereotypically different approaches to the downward trip.

Although the scarecrows were mostly still displayed outside their homes, one Rapunzel had found her way to the recreation ground.

One very popular tent was that of the Liberty Owl, Raptor & Reptile Centre. Jackie and I

just had to investigate the occupants like these hawks

and the White Headed Vulture.

As soon as an announcement was made that there would be a handling display of these raptors, a crowd gathered around the showing enclosure,

and were entertained by a most eloquent and informative handler in complete control of his birds. Even the clown was rapt.

A photographer on the other side of the enclosure, like me, waited for the hawk to take off.

The bird man did his best to convince us that the White Headed Vulture was not as ugly as she was painted.

Music was provided by the Clayesmore Pipe Band of Christchurch.

Army cadets provided an information tent and were responsible for gathering up stray monkeys.

This evening we dined on pork and jalapeno sausages and colourful carrots from the monthly farmers’ market in Everton Nurseries, pork belly from Tesco, new potatoes and cabbage from I don’t know where, with very tasty gravy by the Culinary Queen. I drank El arte de vivin Ribera del Duero 2015.

A Family Pic

Just as we joined the queue for the recycling centre, heavy rain which was to continue throughout the day set in. We therefore got a bit wet unloading two large container bags of garden refuse.

This afternoon I printed some photographs for Frances and her family. They were taken on a Samsung phone and e-mailed to me.

I began with the full image of Frances with Fiona, Peter, Paul, and Michael;

then cropped it to take out a distracting light and glass of red wine.

There are sets of each for each of them.

This afternoon Jackie drove me to O2 at Christchurch to attempt to resolve ongoing signal problems. I really can’t be bothered to go into detail on this, save to say that on leaving the store I understood all to be well, and discovered afterwards that it wasn’t. I couldn’t face it again today.

Back at home I finished reading ‘Decider’ by Dick Francis. A former colleague once gave me a heap of books which I think must be this author’s complete works. I have therefore read many and found them all excellent. This was one of the best. As thoroughly researched as usual, one feels that the writer knows all about building, architecture, and explosives, as well as horse-racing. The prose flows easily; dialogue and characterisation are good; interest is held, and the pace of this mystery thriller builds slowly into a crescendo, with all appropriate ends tied up in the last couple of chapters.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s luscious lamb jalfrezi, egg fried rice, and parathas. I drank more of the syrah.

Lunch On The Green

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED

This morning was spent helping the garden recover from the battering winds. This involved gathering up broken branches; tying up plants, like the rose Summer Wine, that had come adrift; a certain amount of watering; and preparing ground for chrysanthemums and bulbs.

After lunch we deposited another orange bag of cuttings in the recycling centre, and drove along the coast road to Milton on Sea.

When the sun emerged from the rapidly moving clouds The Isle of Wight and The Needles benefited from a bright clear light.

Waves still rolled thunderously onto the rocks at the water’s edge.

The clifftop had experienced more erosion since my last venture up there a few months ago.

The bricks in the foreground of this image once formed part of a long-gone structure,

and the path shown here was set further away from the edge last year.

We may have finished our lunch, but a gentleman seated on a bench, mirrored by another eating a banana in his cab,

was still enjoying his.

On the village green a group of elderly cyclists tucked into their own snacks.

I am occasionally asked about the safety of the free roaming animals. Continuing to the north of the forest we noticed this hit and run sign beside Roger Penny Way – not that unusual a phenomenon, particularly during the tourist season.

Were I ever to take it into my head to climb a tree again, I might choose this one bearing useful bracket fungus

at the side of a somewhat waterlogged lane through farmland just to the north of Cadnam,

where sheep wandered across the road.

Initially inquisitive, these creatures, when I invaded too much of their space, turned tail and made for the field from which they had wandered.

We were soon aware of a golf course on our left. A putting session was in progress.

On our return home, I photographed the Hordle Lane housing development from the rear.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s luscious liver casserole, mashed potato, green beans, and orange carrots. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden, and I finished the Fleurie.