RSPB Titchfield

 Towards the end of last month we travelled over to Hampshire to spend the night with one of David's sisters and her husband. We've always got on really well with them and this is something we did from time to time before we had all had children. It was really special just to have time to chew the fat round the table after dinner and enjoy a real catch-up. They, like us, enjoy a spot of informal birdwatching and even more so since we've all stopped working and have got time to spend in this way. It was a great pleasure to be taken round their nearest RSPB reserve at Titchfield. Alas I have no bird pictures as I prefer to simply watch them and soak up the atmosphere, but as you can see we had a glorious day for it. Was particularly thrilled to see a Marsh Harrier flying over the water with the copper sheen on its wings caught in the sunlight.

A most relaxing way to spend a morning.

Arilx

Mini wreaths.

 It has been many years since I've been on any sort of craft course. Way back when we were both earning reasonable salaries such treats were a staple part of my life which then stopped when redundancies fell. It's rather splendid to have ended the drought and rag rugging is something I've always wanted to try my hand at. Anything which uses fabric and even more importantly reuses scraps of fabric is a winner for me.

To be honest I tend to experience a bit of brain freeze when I'm in a group of people where I need to make a decision about what I want to make. Rather than getting my knickers in a twist over whether I was doing it right or not I just didn't look at anyone else's work this time. I knew that I didn't want to do a Christmas one so just cracked on with a selection of bold and hot colours. I've put patterns in there which shouldn't work together, but somehow they do. As it turns out my sister also went rogue...hers is the pink one. 

A couple of hours spent doing something creative did me the world of good. 

Arilx

Clearing the garage.

 We have had a thrilling time of late as we very slooowly work our way through some of the jobs we've been putting off until we'd retired. One of those joyous tasks was to completely declutter and tidy up the garage. We'd already done a tip run at the beginning of October, but believe me this detritus plays hide and seek with you and within a fortnight we had enough to fill the car again. This time I can confidently say we've finished and can tick that little fun filled and frolicsome chore off our list. I am afraid that absolutely nothing of any interest was excavated during this process. However, over in the Sussex village of Tangmere this homeowner has been very creative with all sorts of odds and sods and filled their front garden with all manner of beasts and vehicles. One of them has incorporated an old Singer sewing machine and some bent spoons!

Have a great weekend folks!

Arilx

The Gates of Hell

Out one Tuesday morning recently in a nearby village I unexpectedly encountered this- the gates of hell.

I have to admit that it's not quite how I had always imagined that they would look😈

Arilx

If the cap fits.

 You know how sometimes when you go somewhere you can't help thinking that such and such a person would love it here. Well that was me two years ago when I first visited the William Morris gallery in London with my fabulous pal Julie. Last month I finally made it happen and brought my equally fabulous friend Lorra back to experience some of the magic....

William Morris lived in this house during his teenage years with his very wealthy parents. He followed the expected trajectory and went up to Oxford from where he was was expected to enter the church after he had graduated. However, young William had other ideas and much to the chagrin of his Mother he decided to become an architect instead. His family didn't go a bundle either when he announced that he was going to marry a poor girl from Oxford called Jane Burden in 1859. Marry her he did though and as we know she went on to become his artistic muse, the mother of his children and further on down the line the lover of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Thank goodness for all our sakes that Morris was a man with such vision and no qualms about following that through into the highly successful Morris & Co. His drive and those of his fellow artists who worked alongside him have left us with a body of work which continues to influence interior design taste today. The single thing which always impresses me is that these leaders in the Arts and Crafts field didn't impose limits upon themselves about what they would make so the company was able to embrace many different areas within this sphere. Whilst there are hints of some of the successes of the women involved in this movement at the gallery. I hope that one day their contribution is brought into the light. Behind the famous men's names many of us are familiar with are equally talented women. Please do check out the work of Evelyn de Morgan or indeed Morris's own daughter  May if you're interested and this article has some other leads https://www.homesandantiques.com/antiques/the-forgotten-women-of-arts-and-crafts. The carnation fabric below was designed by Kate Faulkner for them in 1875 and she was the sister of Charles who was one of the company founders.

Rather than showing rafts of pictures of the familiar wallpapers I thought people might enjoy a small selection of the other goods that were made and sold to show the range available which you could have bought for your home back in the day. There are separate displays for the printing press side of the firm and Morris's political activism.

Should you ever find yourself in Walthamstow this place is another gem and free of charge. Did my friend enjoy herself? I am guessing so because she was talking about going back again before we'd even left!

Arilx

 

A White Duck Sort of Day

 

[Image from Pixabay]

Yesterday was one of those very ordinary days which pass by in the slipstream of our everyday lives unremarkable and unnoticed. David carried on painting the TYM's old bedroom and I grumpily wrote Christmas cards [honestly I only have to do a few every year, but I give my inner Drama Queen the floor and make very heavy weather of it😜] in the morning. We chatted over lunch about what we might do exercise wise and my gentle running of late isn't happening for now as am recovering from the usual November sniffles. In the end we decided to go to our local nature reserve which has become a calm oasis in our lives this year. This is something we do quite often so the only thing of note was that we walked the 40 minutes there rather than drove.

In a nutshell that was our day....except it wasn't we decided because later on we chatted through what we'd enjoyed and not enjoyed about our day [and yes I moaned about the cards and yes I still haven't finished them]. For me it was listening to some of the Secret Sussex podcast episodes which a friend recently recommended, seeing a cormorant diving for fish on the millpond for the first time, hatching holiday plans for next year, meeting the chap on his first visit to the reserve who was so excited to have got his first photos of a pheasant and a woodpecker [he shared his beautiful photos he'd taken over at Newton Abbot with me] and yes a white duck. I've never seen a white duck on the pond before. It would seem that it is 'just' a 'white domestic duck' except that it wasn't....instead it was a beautiful snowy white with a zingy orange bill and it looked completely at ease swimming around in the middle of its gang of mallard mates. Whether it'll be there next time we go who knows...that's the joy of being in nature. You never know what treats she has in store for you and on that note we're are hoping to volunteer with searching for the eggs of the Brown Hairstreak Butterfly next year. Not everybody's idea of a fun day out, but it will suit me down to the ground. Hope you find the richness in your day today. Have a good one.

Arilx

Preston Manor

 We're heading back to the age of Edwardian Elegance today. Preston Manor was in the hands of the Stanford family for over 200 years. Following a major refurbishment and update in 1905 it looks every inch the Edwardian Manor house, but parts date back to the 1200s. It came into the possession of the Brighton Corporation in 1932 and remains in the council's ownership today. Under the strapline 'To the Manor Reborn' the house was reopened last year after a five year closure. Today it's presented as a single day in the lives of Ellen and Charles Standford during the week following the Titanic disaster and shows you life both up and down stairs. If ghostly encounters are your thing then I can also confirm that it's the city's most haunted building with reported sightings of an excommunicated nun [shortly afterwards a woman's skeleton was found by workmen and secretly reburied in the nearby churchyard], the predictable Grey Lady and a single phantom hand. 

As ever a few details for you which captured the essence of my time spent there. I hope that these give you a feel of the place.

Next stop Walthamstow...slowly catching up!

Arilx