Thursday, July 24, 2008

I of W Research - Monet - Bromley House

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Pleasantly warm, by nearly 10 degrees than in I of W - so we must take gansies.

As we have been talking railway-station roofs, and curved ones particularly. I thought I would share these paintings. Just a pitched roof I'm afraid, no curves.

Pictures 1 and 2 are both Monet and form part of his series of the Railway Station at St Lazare. The one on the left is in our own National Gallery but the one on the right is my personal favourite because I love the Hogarth's 'Line of Beauty' curve, of the piece of track in the middle foreground.

The smoke and steam are superb as, of course, are my beloved 'tonal recessions' to the buildings outside the Station. They confer such a 3 D effect don't they ?. One of my major gripes against photographs with over dramatised skies is the lack of recession .... No depth dear boy, no depth !

Picture 3 is a Hollyhock, or more accurately, a detail therefrom. Why is nature so disgustingly 'phallic' all the time ?

My day has been spent pleasantly, researching the I. of W. and I've printed off lots, and maps and things. Plus of course, I am taking my laptop plus dongle.

Tomorrow I must download some BBC podcasts onto my Sanyo for middle-of-the-night listening if I can't sleep. I s'pose I can always slip on a pair of trousers and sit in the corridor with mi' lappy

I took Y to Bromley House to change her books and, nearly opposite, a Tesco Express has appeared. I nipped in for some 'bits' and was most pleasantly surprised. The store size suits me personally, better than a full size supermarket. Only a limited range of choices but to me that's a plus point. The shop is bound to do well, given its proximity to Old Market Square. And, knowing Tesco, things were competitively priced. A tray of Sushi, for my tea, with all the gubbins i.e. sliced pickled ginger, wasabi paste, and Soy sauce. Just eaten it! - 'twas delicious at £2.26p.

Comments

Jill ..... Glad you enjoyed the Powis pics. I promise lots of I of W similar. Miniatures can be very interesting and Nicholas Hilliard is probably the best known and the most skillful. The portraits are amongst the earliest known in England and, by reason of their use, portrayed a most accurate likeness of the subject. Similar work continued until giving way to photography and the Carte de Visite but that will have to be another lecture - sorry, I sounded as if I'd accidentally slipped into 'dog-collar' mode !

I don't know if Y watched the drama about oil - she hasn't mentioned it.

Tim Draper, the holiday coach people, say hand-luggage is fine. As is my 'wheeled walker' but they were glad I'd rung because the type of picking up vehicle is contingent on transporting the 'walker'. It isn't that big - honest !

Thanks also for the fascinating info. in your later note. Dervla Murphy sounds quite a girl. I've made the name a live link to her Wikipedia page. Also Y says she watched the oil drama and thought it excellent and part 2 to look forward to.

Bungus .... I'm sure you are right about the orientation of the Evening Primrose but I didn't like the look of the correct version.

Your 'enhanced' ham in black bean sauce sounds delicious - I would love to have shared it. I must remember to label this blog-post 'Cooking' because I might need to retrieve it.

You paint a vivid picture of me in travelling mode ! And so accurate too. I think I might have some Sherpa blood. I did consider the kitchen sink but it wouldn't come off the wall.

So, Robin Williams is out. He might have rejected the part anyway, as too demanding !

Re - Miniatures. I think it is necessary to see them 'in the flesh' to appreciate the delicacy and accuracy of the work (see note to Jill above). Their craft grew out of 'limning' (the illumination of manuscripts) not much called for nowadays.

AnonymousRob .... hasn't yet commented ...... My publication time and his reading time are not in synch. It's one of Elaine's days at the pub and theye are no doubt out eating.

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.... A special 'smiley' just to wish Brian S well, and to hope that he is still recovering steadily (after his knee op). . I hope we shall see him soon. If he wants to come on a limited WoW I'm sure one of us would be delighted to pick him up. I would, for a start.

Quotation time ...... One of life's truisms I think .....

"You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in"


Woody Guthrie's lad .... and from his Wikipedia page he sounds 'one of us'.

Sleep tight all. I hope to catch you tomorrow. After that publication might be intermittent or not-at-all.




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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't choose to have either of those paintings on my walls, I like something more colourful.....

We have a newish Tescos Metro opened up right next door to M & S Food-only store, apparently it has hit their trade, M & S were the only supermarket/grocer in that stretch of the High Road (all cafes/clothes shops). Our Woolworths is now shut, being turned into the first Waitrose Metro-type shop. I think that will do well, our nearest one is West Ealing or Richmond.

Am sure you are busy today - if not active, supervising....fingers crossed you enjoy good health next week, and have sunshine and fun...I enjoyed a visit to Osborne House a few years ago. We went in a horse and cart thingy round the grounds.

Anonymous said...

NEWS:
I went to the dental unit at Queen’s Med on Wed.
It seems the head of department is called Maxie Lo Fayshul but I didn’t see him, I saw a young woman dentist who was lovely. She is going to remove one of my few remaining teeth but I have to arrange for new partial dentures with my own dentist who will see me next Monday. That’s good, but taking moulds will require FOUR visits – I’m sure they used to do it one day and you had your plates back two days later (nearly as good as the Aldi photo service). So it looks as though I shall not be eating in comfort or without embarrassment for some months.

On Thursday I was at City for chemo.
My transport arrived here 2½ hours before my appointment and 3½ hours before that of the next pick up who was just having her lunch when called for. But, although I arrived an hour early, I was lucky enough to be taken straight in for treatment.
I did have to wait an hour for the return trip but that gave me time to purchase a 20p book of insults from the shelves.
Sandra was at King’s Mill on Wed for X-rays and Mansfield Community Hospital for bone scans on Thursday.
At the latter she was lucky to see a friend who happens to be the radiographer and who was able to tell her the results immediately instead of having to wait a week or more. The news could have been worse.
Cheese would do her good but she cannot eat it because it causes problems with her eyes. But exposure to sunlight is also beneficial so the news came at the right time of the week (breakfast on the terrace this morning).

Can any reader help me?
I am trying to obtain detailed information on air to water heat pumps. All the firms I have contacted on line have failed to respond with what I need.

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BLOG COMMENT

Love the Monet’s. Less detailed than Cuneo but far more atmospheric (and quite colourful enough for me). I very much like almost all his work apart from the water lilies which I find boring.

Nice hollyhock pistil too. But nature is not phallic (fascinating rather than disgusting, I’d say, in a totally non homo-erotic way) all the time.
Just think of mussels.

I am surprised you like sushi as I had thought that you prefer your fish overcooked.
On that theme: I don’t know whether I told you but, as a treat for Sandra, I bought a frozen lobster (Canadian, encased in a block of ice) from Lidl some weeks ago. She allowed me a little-fingernail-sized sample and it was delicious. Just enough for her to have on a decent sized cob with salad.
At a fiver it is probably not something you would buy every week but, as an occasional special, a very reasonable price we thought.

I finished off the black been sauce on Thursday with easy-to-find-in-the-freezer crabsticks, oriental mushrooms, onion, garlic, red pepper and noodles which worked very well except that I couldn’t bite the peppers.

If, Sherpa Six-and-a-half-sing, you really feel a need to take the kitchen sink I think you might need a screwdriver

I find that if I need to illuminate a manuscript a flashlight is adequate.

Arlo Guthrie is quite right.

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Comment on Comments:

Reg:
At the risk of labouring a point (one of the reasons I loved my Staffie was that he would not let go of things) – you say York Station was opened in 1850 but not by how many years Newcastle preceded it.
I urgently and desperately need to know this in case someone asks me.

Jill:
Thanks for the methane info.
What is ‘taiga’?
Could be ‘Taiga, taiga, burning bright’, I suppose?
As RG says, Dervla Murphy sounds quite a girl.
Not like me to say “I told you so” to all the optimists but, almost from the beginning, I thought that the passing of Russian Communism might not be an entirely good thing. Long term modification of the system would have been a better solution I am sure, but some people won’t be stopped. Once Gorbachev had been disposed of … If only they had learnt something from Cuba.
It will be interesting to see what happens with China - if we can live long enough.

It must have been a few years ago when you went to Osbourne if they were still using horses and carts.

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From my newly acquired ‘Bumper Book of Insults’ (I’m glad I didn’t pay more than 20p for it – there are very few gems and I’ve heard or seen most of them before).

“Vain Nashe, railing Nashe, cracking Nashe, bibbing Nashe, baggage Nashe, swaddish Nashe, roguish Nashe… the swish-swash of the press, the bum of impudency, the shambles of beastliness … the toadstool of the realm …”
(Gabriel Harvey, 1545-1630, on Thomas Nashe )

“This dodipoule, this didopper… Why, thou arrant butter whore, thou cotqueane & scrattop of scoldes, wilt thou never leave afflicting a dead Carcasse… a wispe, a wispe, rippe, rippe, you kitchen-stuff wrangler!”
(Thomas Nashe, 1567-1601, on Gabriel Harvey)

Anonymous said...

Sorry I did not proof read 'wot I rote' Necastle station was opened by Queen Vic in 1850 and York station finished in 1877, 27 years later

Anonymous said...

Didn't read that either Newcastle

Anonymous said...

the god love a trier, Reg.
Thanks for clearing up the dates.