Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Sisley's "inondation" - Nat Trust Social - Nails Day

The discussion of Picasso's "dove" and the "olive branch" and the "flood" sent my mind racing back to a favourite picture "Sisley's 'L'Inondation á Marly' 1876.

Hence my fairly pretentious use of the word 'inondation' for which I apologise. I agree Bungus, that sea water is implied in the Bible story.

The visitor responsible for the 'Fromaldi' story was Y, and it is a good tale isn't it? with the advantage of being absolutely true.

Super 'thread' folks about the cobs and I cannot really add to it. Great addition to the 'record of the times' aspect of the blog. The National Trust Social Evening went very well. We had an NT quiz organised by Frank who had 25 pictures of NT places and things and the winner was Dorothy who scored 18, which was truly amazing. Most folks hovered around the 7-10 mark. I scored 4 ! Then we sang Carols (old ones where people knew the tune - we had been given hymn sheets) then Y's raffle (a great success) and finally bingo with playing cards ( a smashing way of doing it - you have 7 cards and then, from other packs, the caller shouts the card) - The evening was a real success and people had put in so much work ! Oh. and I nearly forgot, there was food - lots of cobs and things !

Picture 2 is a hangover from WoW at Hardwick. I wanted the short depth of field, so the blurry front duck is semi on purpose; what really attracted me was the Millais type background foliage. I don't expect it to be a popular picture and I shan't be entering it in anything. It is for me, and t'blog.

Bungus has google-mail storage problems and I'll have a go with him tomorrow and try and fix it.

If there are other matters which I have omitted to mention please excuse me. It is now 12.15am and kip calls.

Quotation........Time for a quote though...

"Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them"

Franklin P Adams

It was Y's 'Nails day' so we did our regular run to Carlton HillTop. I managed two charity shop acquisitions. A Pyrex 'Cafetiére' and an 'Encyclopedia of Classic motor-cycles'. Pictures will almost certainly follow. Hope you are all sleeping comfortably. Catch you tomorrow.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i never thought to refer to my Franch dictionary! I do not think your usage pretentious as it has a good reason, now explained, but it would have helped if you had included the 'l'' (if I remember correctly, the French never use a noun without an article?).
(I did not think it looked like a spelling mistake a la 'brining').

I love the ‘Fromaldi’ story and feel I should share a seasonal one told to me some years ago by my other Monday visitor who was proprietess of a nursey school for several years.
The nursery school was putting on a nativity play. The teacher thought it was fine but needed a bit of added ‘reality’ and suggested to the senior king that he should indulge in a bit of ad lib.
“Say something when you come in. About the weather perhaps. Or talk to the baby; that would be nice.”
Being a bright lad, he did it just right and the performances in school went down really well. So well that they were asked to put on an extra show in the (unheated) church hall on the Saturday night.
Enter kings in order of precedence.
The boss one looked around, went over to crib, looked down at the baby, and spoke.
“Jesus Christ!” he said, “It’s bloody cold out there.”

Seamless segue to:
Afro-Caribbean version of well-known carol (‘from one of the soaps’ this week)
“We t’ree king,
Bring well wicked bling.”

We used to play card bingo at the Welly after the Sunday night quiz but it was all too serious. We had 13 cards each though (so neeyah!).