Monday, March 03, 2008

Mother's Day flowers - Quiet day

These are some of Y's Mothering Sunday flowers and I decided on the black background in dutiful homage to the 16th/17th century 'still life' painters, like the Picture 2 by Ambrosius Bosschaert the elder c.1600 for instance.

I recently heard a camera club judge describe a still life against a black background as passé. It is, but I don't think he meant 400yrs passé, more like NEMPF passé i.e. they had seen a few of them a couple of years ago.

After I'd collected Y from Sherwood we called in at Bulwell Morrisons for essential supplies. The bright yellow smoked-haddock looked nice so we decided on some for lunch accompanied by poached eggs (by my fail-safe method) small potatoes and tinned marrowfat peas. We had forgotten how nice they are and shan't leave it 20yrs till we try them again.

Comments..... Well done Jill, on several fronts..... Pleased about the 'mast'. A house point for changing the ink cartridge. Plasticky things are usually tougher than they look but younger people aren't scared of them like us oldies. Mind you we do know about polishing shoes. It seems you have to be over 50 to have even heard about it being done, let alone do it.

Re; the artificial-flower air-fresheners and their perfume replenishment. I would provide sachets to squirt them with. Or, as son David suggests, they could need watering with artificial water, which could be the agent for re-ponging!

Congratulations too, Mrs Richards, with The Hospital. Chairs, consultant re-jigging list, and pre-assessment tests sorted. You definitely deserve the little fella - You've made the correct decision re the op. 60/40 is reasonable odds and I don't think one-armed knitting would be possible.

AnonymousRob. Thanks for trying with the collective noun for mothers (and Bungus too) but a real standout one eludes us. How weird to meet such local people during your Italy holiday. So pleased about your work news, and another year is another year closer to actual retirement.

Nice to see you at tea-time and I'm actually quite pleased you have reclaimed your wide-angle lens. Absolutely no reason now not to buy my own. It has been a valuable learning experience. Glad you liked the Duchamp "Nude descending......." and btw it is in the Tate Modern Exhibition till 26th May. If you open the link click on room 3. You are right about flash used in the beeb's pictures of the warriors - there's obviously 'patrician photographer flash' and 'plebian flash'.

Bungus....... You are right about people's love/hate relationships with hyacinths. I'm a lover and am convinced you can tell the difference between varieties. Blue or pink? - is easy. Re flowers smelling of cat-pee. Flowering currant certainly does. BTW we have some out - surely early?

I've e-mailed you about 'neither'. You had raised it in a blog-comment a few days ago and have obviously forgotten. And I know your 'large' portrait photograph of your great-great-grandfather Strutt. I thought you were talking about a different one which measured 2½ " by 1½" which was roughly carte de visite size - the error is entirely mine - I misread you!

Quotation spot........ This follows on from earlier paragraphs......

"All art is contemporary, if it's alive, and if it's not alive, what's the point of it?

David Hockney

Sleep tight ...... catch you tomorrow. It is a Karen day and we'll probably nip off to Ikea for breakfast and have a further look at dining tables and things. I regret to say that, now we are not moving in the immediate future we need to re-purchase some things we got rid of. Ah well !








2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are some lovely flowers there - like the orchids in the centre - perhaps a close-up? I like the black background too. Not sure if I could tell the difference in the smell of different colour hyacinths - I think the only one I've ever had a bunch of is blue. And I always pick blue potted ones if I am buying.

Must tell you, I dreamed last night about you two, we were visiting you in your new bungalow, it was on a slight rise set back from road, with a canal in front of it, trees, ducks and narrow boats. Two seats on the bank, a bridge. You said how pleasant it was to cross the road and sit on the seat with your cameras and photgraph the ducks, boats, etc, and how handy it was to walk over the bridge to the pub for lunch. Then I woke up! it was such a vivid dream I can see it all now. Probably due to the cheese on toast I had before going to bed!

Anonymous said...

I am happy with bright yellow smoked-haddock but connoisseurs seem to prefer the undyed ones which are beigey.
I never, as a child, much liked tinned peas, which I suppose were marrowfats. But I shall have to try them again now. I believe that dried peas were/are marrowfats too.

Visit to King’s Mill Hospital today to see Mt Hinds the surgeon (but it wasn’t him it was the very nice Mr Kumar and my dedicated nurse, Sue Godber, who lives just down the road from us, next door to the crematorium).
Registering was not easy.
I arrived ten minutes early for my appointment and joined the obvious queue for registering and when I eventually got to the window I was told that I should not have queued but entered my details on a touch screen at the adjoining window (whicb I had become aware that other people were having difficulty with). But I did as I was told and entered my name, date of birth, and post code to be told at the next step that they did not have information on my ethnicity and therefore could proceed no further. I called a lady in a yellow coat (volunteer) and she said I would have to go to the first window again. I pointed to the queue and she then pushed in at the front and told the recepionist. She said to try the touch screen again. I did so with the same result. The yellow coat then called in someone else who asked me to try again. Guess what? Same again. The new woman said I would have to go to the first windw again. I said
“What? Join that queue?”
and she said what’s your name, I’ll book you in. By this time I was twenty minutes late for my appointment.
I was then misdirected to the appropriate clinic waiting space, but eventually got someone to lead me there. I borrowed a daily Express and read an obituary to Jeff Healey (whom I had never heard of until Dan emailed me yesterday to say that he was dead). Then Sandra, who had been queuing half an hour for a parking space, arrived and we were almost immediately called in.
I mentioned to Dr Kumar that because of toothache making it impossible to chew things, my diet was even more restricted and I had lost 4 lb in 3 weeks. Sue is going to speak to the hospital dentist and the chemo team to try and sort something out. Personally, I hope to finish the tablet chemo (another 3 months) rather than delay it by having dental treatment. We shall see. It was a useful discussion anyway.
Then Sandra and I went to Lidl and bought loads of stuff (spending nearly ten pounds) and the Bargain Shop where I think we spent more.
Upon arriving home, having driven both ways, I consumed a bottle of delicious pink grapefruit juice (only 5p from the bargain shop) then immediately fell asleep.
On waking I had a bowl of just as delicious ham and pea soup (ham stock from last night’s dinner, some left over bacon, yellow and green split peas) which gave me the energy to do this blog comment.

I thought your dream last night was lovely, Jill. I’ll bet G and Y did too and would welcome it becoming reality!

I see that Lidl are offering cycling shorts at a good price; also a unicycle. I don’t think I’ll bother.
And I am not rushing to buy a rubberwood bathroom shelf unit for £64.99 either.

Does AnonRob have an irresistible urge to flash in the British Museum. It takes all sorts is my uncensorious opinion. But perhaps he should await his Dukedom first.