A Remarkable Find

It seems to be the season for rediscovering long lost things for me at the moment. As I described in a previous post, I recently had returned to me a little book which I thought I had lost for good. Then, this evening, another discovery from the past came my way, of a different nature.

My hubby and I were watching “The Antiques Roadshow” on BBC TV this evening, and someone brought along a rather intriguing picture from the Arts and Crafts Movement, of a seascape in enamel, surrounded by a repousse frame made of silver, depicting various forms of marine life, and a circular-shaped piece of mother-of-pearl inlaid at the bottom. Embossed in the silver were the first two lines of a poem, “The sea hath its pearls/The heaven hath its stars,” which rather intrigued me for some reason, so on the spot I decided to google this and see if I could find the entire poem.

The first site I visited was “Writing and Ruminating: One Children’s Writer’s Journey.” I discovered that the poem was Das Meer hat seine Perlen by the German romantic poet Heinrich Heine, translated into English by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as follows:

The sea hath its pearls,

The heaven hath its stars;

But my heart, my heart,

My heart hath its love.

Great are the sea, and the heaven;

Yet greater is my heart,

And fairer than pearls or stars

Flashes and beams my love.

Thou little, youthful maiden,

Come unto my great heart;

My heart, and the sea and the heaven

Are melting away with love!

On the site, I also discovered a painting of the same name, which had been inspired by he poem, by William Margetson, an English artist who lived from 1861 to 1940. On another site I discovered that the painting was purchased from the artist by The Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1897, where it still resides.

As soon as I saw this picture, my heart leapt. I had completely forgotten about it, but many years ago my grandmother had a reproduction of it in her home in Cambridge, where we spent many happy holidays. She came to live with us in 1963 when I was 10, and I don’t remember seeing the picture after this, so presumably it was among the many things she had to sell when she moved.

It was always said in the family that the young lady in the picture bore a striking resemblance to my grandmother when she was young, just after the First World War, probably because of the colour of her hair. Looking back, I remember now that I always believed that it actually was a picture of my grandmother!

I decided to make a new desktop wallpaper with this. Using a combination of Serif PagePlus (my desktop publishing software) and PhotoPlus (photo editor), I created a blue background on a layout to match the proportions of my computer screen. I took one of the texture overlays I created ages ago, from a photo of some tree bark with interesting swirling patterns on it:

and overlaid this on top of the blue background using the “screen” blend mode, and adjusted it until I was happy that it produced a subtle wave-like pattern in the blue, which would not interfere too much with the visibility of my desktop icons. I added the painting as a new layer, resized it and moved it to the right-hand side and added a vignette effect to it so that the edges would fade into the background. I exported the whole thing as a new image and set it as my desktop wallpaper.

Now I can enjoy it every day.

To stumble across this picture out of the blue like this, is amazing, and I feel as if a long-lost treasure has been restored to me. Isn’t the Internet wonderful? It is such a beautiful picture, and it ties in with my love of the sea, and my own lifelong delight in finding treasures on the seashore – maybe not actual pearls, but certainly many beautiful shells and stones, sea glass and driftwood, and it links me back to the past, with happy childhood memories.

This has quite made my day.

A Brief Visit to Babbacombe

After my final chemo yesterday, I wasn’t feeling at all bad today, and well up to a short outing this afternoon. We had arranged to take our neighbour out for a little run as she needs a lot of cheering up at the moment, so we went back to Babbacombe sea front and had a wander up and down looking at the sea, and then we went for a coffee. Again, I used my new small buggy and it was a doddle trundling about, and it is small enough to go in the cafe too. All very satisfactory – so lovely to be able to get it in the car, so we can go further afield and we have a real sense of freedom.

I love the sea in all its moods. Whenever we visit, it never looks the same. Today, being a slightly cloudy day, the sea was an azure grey. I hope I have managed to capture the subtle colours – I had to do a bit of editing in my photo editing software (Serif PhotoPlus) to get back a little of the blueness and I think I got it as I remember it. I am getting a bit more confident using the camera on my phone now, and had little difficulty in transferring the photos to the laptop this evening – after all the hassle I had yesterday!!

In the first picture, you can see that there has been further landslip from the cliff that collapsed so disastrously a couple of years ago in the winter storms, taking a house with it. There is some fresh red sandstone colouring the slide which my hubby pointed out to us.

The azure sea!

Looking back to the buildings on the sea front, I saw the moon through a gap in the clouds. Despite my best efforts, I cannot get back the outline of the moon – only the brightness through the clouds! It’s quite impressive, though!

A more regular view of the little statue of Countess Mount Temple than the previous picture I took, in silhouette from the slope which goes down to the left of the statue. She was a local Victorian philanthropist. Every day someone puts a fresh flower in her hand.

After our stroll along the sea front, we went for a drink in the Cliff Railway Cafe. You can see the sea view through the window. We didn’t go down the funicular railway this time as it wasn’t very bright weather and we needed to rest a bit. (Of course, as we got back to the car park, the sun came out! Typical…)

I had to take a photo of our three beverages because they looked so pretty and the china was such fun! Our neighbour had tea (not yet poured); my hubby had a latte with a very pretty design on the top, and I had a cappuccino.

It was only a short outing today. On the way back, my hubby took our neighbour into Sainsbury’s to help her do her shopping, and I sat in the car and did a bit in my puzzle book and then dozed off for 10 or 15 minutes. Compared with how I would usually be on the first day after a treatment on the full dose, when I would be pole-axed on the recliner incapable of anything, I did remarkably well today and haven’t had to have a long sleep! The peripheral neuropathy has been a bit troublesome so I’ve had the gloves back on, but apart from that I’m remarkably well. Last time, on the reduced dose, I did pretty well in week 1 of the cycle, but crashed in week 2 – if this happens again I shan’t mind because I know it’s only temporary, and this time there is no further treatment to follow, so I shall simply continue to get better as the effects of the chemo gradually diminish from my system. Roll on the day! I count my blessings every day and am so thankful that I am doing so well – my recovery is now well in sight, and everyone at the hospital is very pleased with me, and are sure that the cancer is all gone.

WOYWW 298

What’s on my workdesk this Wednesday? Again, nothing, I am sorry to say. Mr. Mojo and Mrs. Muse are still on their extended naughty holiday and are showing no sign of returning any time soon. I haven’t heard a word from them, not even a postcard.

Last time I didn’t have a picture to show you of my workdesk, it was suggested I put a picture of something else, so here goes.

This is a picture of some orange peel which I took several years ago and manipulated using my photo editing software (Serif PhotoPlus). Make of it what you will!

I now have a date for my surgery – Friday 27th February. I saw the surgeon last Thursday. For those who don’t regularly follow my blog, you can see full details on my Cancer Diary page (click tab below blog header), but basically it has been decided that I require much more radical surgery than originally suggested. I am having the whole of my large bowel removed, and an ileostomy created, so I shall be a gutless bag lady for the rest of my life. Although I felt fine about it while I was talking to the surgeon, I have become increasingly freaked out by the whole idea and terrified I won’t cope – although I keep reassuring myself on the stoma forum I have joined. Lots of people have this done, and once they’ve recovered from the surgery and learnt how to manage, they live full and active lives (not that my life is ever what you might call active lol!).

This is major surgery, and I shall probably be in hospital at least a week. They won’t know till they send the tumour for histological examination what stage the cancer is, or how aggressive; this will determine whether or not I require chemotherapy after surgery.

I am now trying to organise things at this end to be ready for when I come home. We are trying to find some respite care for Mum until my convalescence is well under way, but she is unwilling to go and we’ve been having considerable problems with her, and I have suffered a lot of stress, which I had been told by the anaesthetist to avoid at all costs, but that’s easier said than done! I am trying hard to keep a positive attitude and a sense of humour but today have failed miserably. I am now feeling quite desperate, and wanting to run away from the whole situation and hide.

Everybody is being very kind and supportive, and in front of me on the sitting room table is a wealth of beautiful flowers to cheer me on my way.

Recycled Mini-Album Pages–Tigers

As promised to my faithful followers, here are the Tigers pages! This has turned out to be one of my favourite sections of the album, not least because it is one of my earliest and fondest childhood memories. It might seem somewhat out of place to have a section on tigers in a book about my dad, and it was certainly an unusual episode in his life.

Sometime in the mid-to-late 50s, there was a wonderful vet living in Plymouth by the name of Fernley Slee. He specialised in zoo and circus animals and had been consulted by Chipperfield’s Circus, who had in their possession two tiger cubs with congenital cataracts. Not feeling up to performing the surgery himself, he asked Dad to do it, and he readily agreed. Lily and Rajah, the two tiger cubs, were certainly the most unusual patients he ever had.

He took us as a family to see the tigers at Mr. Slee’s house. They were wandering freely about, and even at my very young age I was impressed by the unusual way they walked, with their shoulders moving up and down, and although they were about the size of a large domestic cat, their gait was quite different. They were very friendly, and very interested in everything.

My mother owned a white pigskin handbag at that time, and she put it on the floor beside her chair. The next thing she knew, one of the tiger cubs had got hold of it and was chewing it! When she rescued it, the corner had deep tooth marks that remained in the bag ever afterwards! People would often look a bit oddly at it, and she would say, “Oh, it was bitten by a tiger” which was certainly a conversation stopper!

I am so glad my dad never threw anything away. Going through his study when we had to sell my parents’ house, I was delighted to come across an envelope marked simply, “Tigers.” Inside were the photos which I have scanned and used for these pages.

I recently came across an online image of an art journal where the edges of the pages had been cut back at different lengths, and I decided it would be nice to incorporate this idea into my book. After cutting the pages, I painted the cut edges with black acrylic paint.

A couple of years ago I painted the face of a tiger for my art journal, to go with the William Blake poem “Tyger tyger burning bright.” This painting went across the centre of the book so the photo has a line down the middle.

This is how the tiger painting ended up in the book.

I took the original photo of the painting and edited it in Serif PhotoPlus to get rid of the central join, and printed it out to fit my page. I could have done a fresh painting of a tiger for the book, but decided to use the one I already had, to save time, and also to keep the thickness to a minimum.

After sticking the printed image into my book with regular matt gel medium, I went around the edges with pan pastels to soften and darken the background, to help it blend into the page background. I used more pan pastels to create the dark tiger-skin effect background. This design did become darker and less visible after spraying with the Rustoleum spray seal, but this is what it was like at the beginning.

Starting to work on the tiger picture border.

Working on the Tigers title.

The background for the second page – again done with pan pastels.

Working on the border for the second tigers page, using acrylic paints. You can see the borders I painted on the curving cut-away pages on the right.

The photos stuck down with regular matt gel medium, and work beginning on the border. You can see the operation taking place in the right-hand photo.

The completed title page. Acrylic paints and a combination of black and white pens, and pan pastels. I am very pleased with how the tiger appears to be emerging from behind the border. I photographed these final shots using my new scratch paper as a background. I Use a scratch paper to clean my brushes and rubber stamps onto. It’s amazing how much paint would otherwise end up in the water pot! This way, you get to save paint (money) AND get another piece of art into the bargain!

The finished second page, with journaling to describe the family’s encounter with the amazing little tiger cubs.

Finally, the third page completed.

I think this unusual episode makes a fitting addition to the book, and it’s a nice opportunity to add a bit of richness and colour. I really enjoyed working on these pages, not least because I love tigers so much!

Recycled Mini-Album Pages–Cars

I have now completed the Cars pages. I began by printing out some “Cars” text in various sizes, and at the same time, to fill the page, I printed some material for the Professional Life pages.

Fussy cutting the cars text.

I applied the text to the page using soft matt gel medium. The pieces were rather delicate and I thought they might tear if I used regular medium.

Once they were dry, I made a wash with titanium white acrylic paint and acrylic polymer and roughly painted over the cars text.

I had a rummage in my card strips box and made a selection, for some “go faster” stripes for this page. I was rather pleased to find the offcuts from the recycled Christmas cards that I used for the pages of this album! Seemed fitting somehow. Recycling the recycled.

I thought the page looked a bit dull so I added a small suggestion of colour with white and brown pan pastels, which also had the effect of muting the brush strokes on the page. I fixed it with my Rustoleum spray sealant (great stuff, but it really stinks!!).

Now for the fun part. I had printed and cut out several car badges and stuck these down with regular matt gel medium, and then cut the card strips to form the “go faster” stripes which were laid down with a suggestion of randomness. You can still see the “cars” text echoing the title and forming a subtle background.

I completed the first Cars page with the addition of a border – I was pleased with how this turned out because it looks almost suggestive of car tyres!

The second “Cars” page shows the cars my dad owned during his life (with the exception of the first one, a Riley, which I do not remember, and have no photo). I wanted to keep the look of the page consistent, and also to introduce a somewhat vintage appearance, so I edited the photos in Serif PhotoPlus, creating a duplicate layer which I desaturated, and then erased away the actual car, so that the colour from the bottom layer popped. Unfortunately when I printed them out the colour balance wasn’t quite right and I had a bit of touching up to do. I fixed the photos first, with Rustoleum clear sealant, and then used various distress inks as watercolours to alter the colours somewhat. The MG Magnette (second down on the left) had no colour added because it was dark grey anyway. After this came the first MG sports car – an MGA in red. This car was, in my opinion, the most attractive of all his cars – it had such beautiful lines. The MGB sports cars (top right) had to be printed from a downloaded image because for some reason I have no photos – he had two (if not 3) of these, all in British Racing Green. He loved his sports cars!

A good number of years before he retired he bought his first Porsche. He drove this for many years, well into his retirement. The second Porsche, a Boxter, was the last car he ever owned, which he was still driving aged 89!!

I am quite pleased that the border on this page, which was determined by the page of the same size further back in the book, looks like a chequered flag! Although he wasn’t into motor racing, it seems appropriate with his love of sports cars.

The final step was to add the journaling and final embellishments to tie the page together.

This takes us up to the end of the second signature of the book.

Salisbury and Cotswolds Holiday Day 7–Charlecote Park

Fortunately I was feeling slightly better today, even after another really bad night, and sleeping a lot in the car helped me keep going. We went to a National Trust property today, Charlecote Park, a magnificent Tudor manor house in Warwickshire. I took loads of photos but won’t include them all here!

The place houses a fine collection of carriages. Here are a couple of them.

Some of the names were very familiar from literature (Sherlock Holmes etc.!) – Barouches and Broughams. It was nice to see the difference between them, and for what purpose they were used. This was a very wealthy family who could afford different carriages for different occasions – rather like having a garage full of Porsches and Mercedes today!

I loved these black iron hay racks on the white wall.

In the stable block area, there was a number of very attractive signs with simple graphics. I particularly liked the Kitchen sign with the servants’ bell.

Beautiful iron gates.

A large mangle in the laundry. You could put a lot of embossing folders through this!

A view of the main house.

The gardens were beautiful, with a mixture of formal and landscaped.

The Great Hall ceiling.

In the centre of the Great Hall was a large and magnificent Italian marble topped table. The workmanship was truly extraordinary.

A bust of Queen Elizabeth I, who had associations with the house.

Some stunning ebony chairs in the library, inlaid with ivory.

Also in the library was this exquisitely inlaid cabinet.

At the other end of the library was this beautiful pair of globes, one a terrestrial globe and the other a celestial. Both were mounted on delicate Chippendale bases. The guide explained that they were made of papier mache, and the printed map was known as a “gore,” being a strangely shaped piece of paper with curved gussets cut out, so that the pieces would fit around the sphere. I had not come across this name before, but it tied in with my dressmaking knowledge – a “gored” skirt is made up of narrow tapering strips sewn together to form the three-dimensional shape.

A bust of William Shakespeare, who also had connections with the house.

Doing the rounds of the house, we met a group of men from a photographic club in the West Midlands and I got into conversation with one of them. He said he’d found a staircase upstairs, and someone had asked why on earth he’d want to photograph it as it was so uninteresting – but he said he could manipulate it and make it interesting, with monochrome and the addition of some grain. He was a man after my own heart, photographing unlikely things like rust and manky old rope, and we shared the experience of our families thinking we were completely mad! I made a point of looking out for this staircase, which presumably once led to the servants’ bedrooms, and photographed it, determined to see if I could follow his lead and make my own grungey version of it. Unfortunately I was unable to capture the single, unshaded light bulb at the head of the stairs which would have added atmosphere. Here is the original:

I wanted to share my “grungeyfied” version but for some obscure reason I am unable to export the picture as a jpg or png from Serif PhotoPlus without losing the noise that I added. If anyone has a solution to this problem, I’d love to hear it! (I’ll edit this post if I discover a way of doing this.)

A beautiful gilded ceiling.

A lovers’ couch made of Burmese teak. I have a screen made of this, deeply and elaborately carved, and it weighs an absolute ton!

The kitchen fireplace.

In the kitchen region there was a large, impressive cast iron boiler.

I decided to give this the grunge treatment too, but again, the gorgeous grainy “noise” was lost on export. Very mysterious… It looks nice and steampunk in the photo editor.

Just as we were leaving, I came across this elderly gentleman resting his feet in the sun, together with the resident cat, and he kindly allowed me to photograph him!

A great day out, greatly enhanced by my feeling well enough to enjoy it! I went deeply asleep in the car on the way back and don’t feel too bad now. We are returning home tomorrow, and I just wish I had felt well all through the holiday as I feel I wasted several precious days, and also spoilt my hubby’s enjoyment, too, although he denies this, bless him!