I visit Christina of Denmark

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/hans-holbein-the-younger-christina-of-denmark-duchess-of-milan

Please follow this link to see my favourite painting. I know there is a way for me to do this with my photo program but I don't seem to remember how.

I did catch up with Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan, just a few days ago. When I look at this work of Holbein's I want to hold my breath for a very long time.

The English are kindness itself, letting all of us see the collection without charge, presented beautifully and in such good condition. I salute this country for what is offers every visitor, so quietly and without fanfare. Of course, there is a problem when you offer all of this for free on a grey, drizzling winter Sunday between Christmas and New Year. Lots and lots of visitors! Not all of them are here because they love a painting the way I do this one. No indeed they are here because it is on the 'list' of things to do. Let's not forget it is free, perhaps the biggest atttraction of all. As usual the gift shop is packed even tighter than the picture galleries.

I am interested to see on the website (as you will if you follow the link), that this painting is the focus of some project of people writing about the subject. This is what I will write .......

This is so beautifully painted. The artistic skills, the use of the paint, the placement of the figure in the picture frame. The slight tilt of her head that changes the way we perceive the subject. Holbein has managed to depict the black gown so that is not only sombre but also rich. I want to walk into the room and finger that fabric. This subject is so much a real person that I feel I just might know her in another life.

I love the painting, but I feel angry at the reason for its existence. This young woman, perhaps 15 or so years of age, is being traded on again. Look at the story - married at 11 years of age by proxy, a widow at 13. What to do with here? Was she a virgin widow and would that add to her value? Within another few years she is again married, this time to the future Duc of Lorraine. Four years of married life is all she has before she is widowed again. For the rest of her life, until 1590, she lives as the Regent of Lorraine.

I like to think that Holbein used his extraordinary talents as a portrait painter to carefully show Christina in such a light as to not appeal to his patron Henry VIII. I think I am being fanciful here. He was a great portrait painter, and in this work he is able to show us that she is no simpering pretty girl, but a sad woman of strength, who feels powerless in the world she finds herself in.

Christmas meets Colin the Caterpillar

Colin the Caterpillar

These photos show you Colin the Caterpillar - described as "extremely chocolatey...chocolate sponge roll filled with chocolate buttercream, covered in milk chocolate with a decorated white chocolate face and sugar coated chocolate beans:. Colin contains no artifical colours or flavourings.

Colin has joined me for Christmas Eve in my lonely little room. I found Colin in the Marks and Spencer shop on Charing Cross railway station, reduced to 3 pounds, on my way back from.....well there is where the story lies really.

I decided that I was a boring old f**t. Here it was Christmas Eve day and what was I doing? Wandering around the Sainsbury's supermarket in Forest Hill, just down the hill from the flat. On the spur of the moment I jumped a train and decided to visit my favourite Holbein portrait in the National Gallery. I have chosen one of the few times when the National Gallery is not open. It must have shut at lunch time. But, goodness me, where am I? In Trafalgar Square. What else is there? St Martins in the Field church of course!

A family Christmas service was about to start in this beautful and very recently refurbished building. The gold leaf shimmered. There were mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers with lots of small children. How warm and fuzzy it felt. This was a quite different London to the one I had just left south of the river. This congregation was no multicultural London. This was white and middle class. 99% white, with two non-white people, who it turned out where not regular attendees - one was a carer for a very elderly infirm lady (and left before the service began) and the other was a tall and handsome man playing the part of one of the 3 wise men. Who was wise here??

Let me shudder now.

This service was more like attending one of that strange breed of English stage productions called the Pantomime. Yes we were coached in calling out " Ba Ba Ba" (we were being sheep at the manger), and "No No Follow the star".

I kid you not.

The actors were the Rev Richard Carter and the Rev Rosy Fairhus. Their talents extended to playing Mary and Joseph complete with costumes. Joseph's line for a laugh was "Jesus Christ" when Mary tell him she is pregnant and he asks who the father is..... and she answers "Whgy yes, how did you know his name"..this was truly truly truly bad stuff. How could they do it?? To give you an idea of the rest of it, here are the lines for one of them playing a 3 wise men part......

" I'm hot and sore what a fool
I should have stayed by the swimming pool
Watching X Factor ont he box
Instead of all this sand in my socks
I don't need to follow this star
I'm already following Borck Obama"
[we then come in with "No No Follow the Star".

We were taught a Christmas carol/song before the service began...all bouncy and loud and meaningless. Thanks be to God we were allowed to sing some of the all time favourite childrens carols. Tears began to run down my face when we sang 'Away in a manger'. It was if I was a child again, remembering the wonder and the specialness of Christmas when it was much simpler. I had thought the whole service might be a bit like this.

How could they have done this in that beautiful beautiful church, where the choir (or a very small part of it) sent a few soaring notes to the heavens, but otherwise had to belt out the bouncy stuff.

I am glad I went. It was my one Christmas thing....one reminder of what all this was supposed to be about.

So Happy Christms all

Christmas eve day at Taymount

The snow is just about gone. Washed away in the night.

Ah! This is more the London winter I remember. No white snow. No blue skies. No sunshine for sure. Here is is grey, overcast and dull. It rained all night and the fine drizzle is still coming down.

The snow was an inconvenience in the end. It looked so pretty out the window but it made it near impossible to get around easily. The English behaved as if snow had never come down in this city before. They had special news programs telling me nothing of any use at all. The Eurostar was stuck in the tunnel all one night and suspended services for three days in the run up to Xmas. You can imagine how that went down.

I wanted to go walking and looking at how beautiful things looked. Although in the end they gritted the roads, the footpaths became largely impassable as they were like ice rinks. The buses would pull to a halt and out you would step, not sure if you slide or not. In the end I did what they told me to do, and really didn't go out much. I am a abit stir crazy and will go for a long walk today, rain or no rain.

All this excitement about snow has meant that everyone has had their Xmas preparations upset. Flying was uncertain, people told not to go in their cars unless necessary.So many people return to families at this time of year, and London is a city of people who come from somewhere else. Today they are all loading their cars and driving off, setting off on all the trips home that have been delayed by the snow and conditions on the road. I am relieved, and will now have no problems getting around for Xmas day to my aunt and family.

Last night I turned the hot plate on under the egg I was about to boil and then realised 5 minutes later it was not working. My cooker has packed up it seems! I unpacked the microwave that has been waiting to be installed. This might push forward the work on the shower and the re-design of the kitchette I think.

It seems a little strange doing so little preparation for Xmas, but very relaxing. I have to leave cooking the bread and butter pud until I get to my aunt's place tomorrow. I have little token presents wrapped and ready. I am responsible for the deserts, so it is the bread and butter pud, rapberry cheese cake, merangue cases with blackberries and cream. I am helping with the veg, that will include sweet potatoes, pumpkin, potatoes, onions etc, hopefullyd one with lots of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, garlic and parsley.

I have 'chatted'with my son on Skype. He didn't have headphones or microphone so it was a funny chat. Anyhow I hope my son and the grandsons enjoy Christmas in the bush, with a swim in the pool. They will have Xmas lunch with my sister and family in the city. This will be an outside BBQ and roast veg. Quite informal and simple. If I had been in Oz, it would have been Xmas lunch in the bush at my place.

Snow at Taymount

How exciting for me! It has snowed at Taymount. I am watching the workers as they tread carefully through the snow on their way to work.

I sat up until 1.00am in the dark watching the snow fall. It didn't fall so much as swirl in quite a violent way. I saw people coming home late and ill dressed for such weather. A young couple ran out of the building and started making snow balls and throwing them at one another.

Now the sky is clearing and the sun is struggling to come out. Will this happen for Xmas Day as well?

Christmas preparations at Taymount

Christmas is certainly in the air here in London. The shops are overflowing with all those things we can very well do with out. I am on a charity shop or free Christmas this year. You can see my modest Christmas decoration on my window ledge. The holly complete with red berries was free and wild and picked on Sydenham Hill. The baubles were 1 pound in the charity shop. The red pot plants were saved from the 99p reduced shelf at HomeBase. I have bought and am loving back to health, a few other indoor plants for presents. Bit by bit I am gathering small, interesting and hopefully enjoyable presents.

The weather is very cold, although the mornings are bright, blue skies and sunshine. We are all rugged up well. It is enjoyable to walk briskly at this time of year, and it makes me feel quite like I must be getting fit.,

Finally the communal hallways are nearing the end of the refurbishment. I have included a photo to show you the carpet, just laid this afternoon. All will be finished well and truly by next week. You can see the wonderful art deco life doors in the top photo. I have to say when I saw this lift I knew I wanted to have a flat here!

Bathroom and getting out and about

The bathroom is soon to have a modern addition of a shower over the bath! Don't laugh all you Australians and Americans. This is progress here in the UK. Even 10-15 years ago it was unusual to have a shower over the bath let alone a stand alone shower. All is changing and the Brits are all moving across to showers.

Having said that I love the bath - it is just the right shape and just the right size. Having a central boiler in the basement here, I can have unlimited hot water. In Australia, every drop of water has to be collected from the roof, drained to large water tanks and then pumped back to the house when you need water. After 6 years of drought every drop was precious, and a bath for anyone was out of the question. When the water runs out, then it is a matter of trying to pursuade Luke and his water carters truck to come up with a load or two. It costs, and it is no longer that pure rainwater straight from the sky. I will still really appreciate a shower just the same.

In the communal hallways it is still a work in progress. The caretaker told me to take a look at the 3rd floor where it is finished except for carpet. I think the 'Ivory' colour of the walls looks a lot more like lemony white to me and to most others, but never mind. The doors and the carpets to be are what we Aussies call Brunswick Green. I will give you a look when it is done.

At last I have been getting out and about. Wonderful but pretty challenging concert at the Wigmore Hall on Monday night. A young and very very talented violinist, Sulki Yu and pianist Chiao-Ying Chang performed the premier of Roxburgh's Sonata. The composer was in the audience and it was pretty exciting for a girl from the bush, that's me, to be there. Not only is it quite an intimate performance area, it is stunningly lovely and the acoustics are very good. I know little about contemporary music, but I loved the whole experience. I was in Piccadilly today - very much a London early December day with rain and rain and a bit more rain. The Xmas lights were up, the double decker buses were rushing red-ly everywhere. The architecture along Piccadilly is so interesting.

The Royal Academy had an unexpected treat in an exhibition that included some Eric Gill (Portland stone and Bath stone) carvings of mother and child - a number of variations on the theme. I had not appreciated how lovely Gill's work is, somehow I had not understood his importance. There were Epstein's as well, and I know it didn't include his monumental works, but Gill stood up very well against him. I thought both of them fell down in their graphic work. I understand these were drawings for the sculptures but compared with Henry Moore's wonderful drawings they lacked excitement.

There is no further excuse for not getting to a lot of exhibitions and concerts. Watch this space!!

Horniman Museum and Gardens

Finally I have made the effort and started to explore and revisit parts of Forest Hill. I am including the link to Horniman Museum and Gardens.

www.horniman.ac.uk

This is very close to me here, down the hill and around the corner. It has always been one of my favourite places in London. I have had to adjust to change, from the intact Victorian museum, complete with all those old fashioned cases of animals, birds, but specially musical instruments. It was an experience to visit. Slowly they changed it bit by bit to better reflect 'culture mix' of this part of South East London. I am nostalgic for the old I have to say. We now have 'interpretation' of every blessed thing.

However, it is so popular, as they have school groups and today mother and toddlers (not forgetting the occassional dad and quite a few grandparents). It is not just making it 'relevant' to children, but making it interesting and interactive. There is a free Christmas carol concert coming up in a few weeks, and I will make sure I attend. It isn't just the organised activities that are so popular with toddlers it has a small collection of live farm animals, and you can see this is what the little ones love.

Last night the wind was so strong that it blew all the pollution out of the Thames Valley and I stood in the wonderful gardens at Horniman and could see the dome of St Pauls and the Gerkin (that strange looking modern building close to where I used to work in Algate). The grass was an intense green in the sunlight, and sky a blue that was bright but not as intense as an Australian sky. I meant to walk through the gardens, but was sidelined into the museum itself.

The cafe was full and is in part of the new building. The architecture here is so mixed, and I am not sure it all goes together. You have the original arts and craft rather over-decorated building -a lovely reddish colour, then the extravagent Victorian conservatory moved from the Horniman family home to the museum grounds some later time. In more recent years the Lottery Fund has paid for the significant modern sod roof building that houses the education and library facilities. More recently again, they have made a new entrance, all glass and jazz and this is where the cafe is.

Now, just an hour later the sun is gone, and the clouds are scuttling across the sky covering up the blue. Suddenly it feels like a different place.

The caretaker here has told me I can have a smoke alarm fitted by the local firebrigade for free, and as soon as he puts the leaflet through my letter box I will follow this up. He tells me that he has a spare door knob as my front door knob is damaged. He is kindness itself.

Do check out the website for the Horniman, particulaarly look at the gardens.

The new shelf joins Taymount studio flat

The new shelf

The new shelf has arrived! As you can see it is proving very useful. Not only have I shelved the TV, I have shelved my small collection of kitchen crockery, and in addition my books (mostly library books), plus my papers on the bottom shelf, Very handy indeed!

You can also see the wardrobe and the end of the bed. This bed, if necessary, can sleep two people, as underneath is another single bed that opens up to either extend the existing single to a double, or acts as a separate bed.

Cousin Mark has been along today to start work, so you will see coat hooks behind the door now. The studio room still is waiting for my lovely Norwegian chair/s (correction to my earlier description as Finnish).

What you can't see is that I have a new door lock, and very soon I will have a shower over the bath. The microwave will also be fitted on shelf in the kitchen.

What do I do all day in this small space? Today I woke up when the workmen arrived around 7.45am. I walked down the hill to the London Road and bought a paper, fresh milk and orange juice and climbed back up the hill. As usual I had my coffee, toast and juice reading the paper and keeping an eye out the window to see who comes and who goes.

The workman were busy today, although I only heard the occassional drill going, I think they working on another part of the building. I was watching out for the men delivering my shelf, and when they finally arrived I was able to see it in place (as you can).

At lunch time my aunt and cousin arrived and while cousin worked on a few small jobs in the flat, I took aunt down to the Weatherspoon pub for lunch. Another walk back up the hill, with me huffing and puffing and she telling me she would carry the shopping as I seemed to be having difficulty. At 90 years of age I told her it would be embarrassing for me to let her do this.

I watched one of my property programs 'Escape to the Country', then the news. I warmed up a quiche and a small pudding and now I am listening to Radio 4 and some wonderful music.

I really must get out a bit more and have something more interesting to tell you.

Looking out the window at Taymount

Looking out the window at Taymount.

This is the best part of the studio flat - the huge window that allows me to watch not only the weather but everyone coming and going.

You can see the small table I use to both eat off and use my laptop at. I have everything I need handy on the window sill. If you look carefully you will even see the woggle/toggle or what ever the thing is that I plug in to this laptop to get the internew.

Looking out you can see the skip where the workmen dump the rubbish from the renovation work. I took this picture when they were having a day off on sunday, otherwise all you would be able to see is vans everywhere!

I sat here today, looking out, and refusing to admit it was really quite dark at 4.20pm. When my typing became inaccurate to a point where I couldn't see the keys at all, I gave up, pulled down the blind and turned on the light.

I ate at the Wetherspoon pub again today, a sort of very late lunch coming very early evening meal. I was rewarded as there was a mid afternoon special of fish and chips and coffee for 3 pounds 25p! Beats trying to prepare anything in the tiny kitchenette. I have had two comments saying that the cooker looked quite good and why was I taking it out. So I am rethinking this one.

Until next time

Kitchenette at Taymount

Taymount Grange kitchenette

Here you can see the tiny kitchen area. We are looking from studio room, with the door to communal corridor on the right (out of sight) and the door to bathroom on the left (also out of sight).

It is to be redesigned, with a small microwave to go on a shelf on wall, the cupboards stripped out. A much smaller stove/hotplates hopefully will fit on toip of the exisiting fridge (still not fixed).

The workmen have been moving fast on the communal corridor and there is now another coat of undercoat on walls and the new lighting is movement sensitive - quite jazzy. The new door security system is now installed but not yet operational.

Bye again

Planning a revamp of the kitchenette

Hello to everyone,

Here at Taymount I am settling in and starting to plan how to make the tiny kitchen work a bit better. I still haven't managed to organise the fridge man to come and repair the fridge, so it is still a matter of keeping things on the bathroom ledge by the outside window, as the coolest spot.

I have discovered a small 'table top' oven and 2 burner top. I will buy one of these, and hope the fridge (tiny tiny) will fit under this on bench. I have bought a microwave, also small, that I want on a shelf above the sink. It is coming together in my mind, and I hope to get the work done within a few weeks.

The 'pay as you go' broadband mobile (wifi) is not functioning as it should, it is very slow and as I explained earlier in the week, I can't upload pictures. I need to deal with this, but with a pay as you go mobile phone as well, hanging on to wait for technical support would cost me huge amounts of money. I know reception is poor, so perhaps that is it. Any suggestions welcome.

It is busy around Taymount from 7.30am when the workmen turn up to work on the common passageways. I sit at my large window watching them come and go. This will go on for some weeks, right up until Xmas. At present there are lights strung up along the passageway as the electric cables have been stripped out. The wooden floors are very noisy, and I will be glad when the work is finished and carpets are down. As I am right next to front door, I hear everyone come and go. I have earplugs, and this helps.

I am currently waiting for the workmen to come and install my new system for door security. the caretaker, who I finally met this morning, has told me he will suggest they do mine first off.

The day is windy, grey and looks cold. I am of course not cold in here with this amazing central heating. I am in my light top, with the window open to keep the temperature down a bit.

Once the door security is done, I will be off by bus to check out if the secondhand furniture shops have a deep shelving unit, so I have somewhere to put things. There is really nowhere to put anything, and from experience I know that is the highly frustrating business of living in a small studio flat in London. I am also trying to get to the fridge repair man, and I may try to do that by bus as well. All this bussing around takes far more time than I am used to, but then again with no where to park, it is not a bad option.

Until next time

Second night at Taymount Grange

FINALLY ARRIVED AND MOVED IN TO TAYMOUNT GRANGE


Hello everyone,

It has been a week since my last post. I am telling everyone it is jet lag - the older I get the longer it takes to bounce back after that long hall flight. I rested up at a friend's place. Lovely autumn days, even blue skies some of the time. The colour of the leaves is wonderful. I spent these days walking gthrough woods and wandering around the Dulwich village.

It has also taken the week to try to organise the basics so I can stay here......not having a car is hard to get used to. I rely on the goodwill of friends to pick up and deliver the bits and pieces to make life possible on a rug. Cars here tend to me smaller as well, so that moving my lovely Finnish leather chairs is proving difficult. I have hopes that they will arrive within the week.

The surprising and interesting thing to discover was that my claims that the rug in Australia was the same size as the studio room here has proved wrong! It seems the real estate agents made a mistake and misread 16 feet for 10 feet. So I now find the rug needs to be stretched to 13 feet by 16 feet.....terrific to find the space that much bigger.

The size of the studio room was a positive as is the largely intact art deco bathroom. A few other aspects were not so good. There are things that need fixing, pretty important things like one of the locks on the front door doesn't work properly.

The tiny kitchen needs a redesign, and I will work on this over the next few weeks. The oven and hot plates are too big and take up too much room in the tiny area that has to deal with preparing food, storing kitchen things, cooking and washing up. I have found a small stove/hotplates that will plug in. The tiny fridge, only a few months old appears not to work and I am trying to find out why. Let's hope it is simple, otherwise it is a new fridge as well.

It is an interesting and challenging experience to prepare a meal with a non functioning fridge (I am using the tiled ledge next to the bathroom window as a cold space). So far I haven't managed to do more than a simple scrambled egg dish, and tonight is even less work - a Sainsbury's ready prepared fresh potato soup. It is having no where at all to put anything!

I've made my breakfast toast and coffee twice and enjoyed eating it under the big window watching everyone leaving for work. I look out over the trees and lawn area. it can b e noisy as the workmen are renovating the communal hallways, and they congregate outside on the portico for a smoke.

The wonderful thing is with winter approaching, I can look forward to being very warm. I have to keep the window open as the central heating is so efficient. The endless hot water and the comfortable and large bath mean I will be clean and warm.

The other problem for me was to organise my internet connection. No internet no blog.
This took me out to test the public transport from Forest Hill to the nearest large shopping centre and the internet shop. It was an interesting trip via 2 buses. I am now able to access my pay as you go broadband. If i can find 'hot spots' I will get free access. All this is new to me, and let's hope I can make it all work.

I will now try for 2nd time to up load a few photos. ...........and failed again......just keeps on telling me it is uploading but never seems to quite get there. I'll try tomorrow again.

The TV is working but tending to 'drop out' as reception isn't the best. I must sort out myTV license or else the TV license police will be after me. Here they send a letter addresssed to 'The occupier' threatening all sorts of nasty things as they say they can tell you haven't paid your 140 pound fee. All of this is a city where dogs require no license and young kids train killer dogs as the latest scary fashion statement for hoodies.

Off to eat the potato sout, and to do so I need to pack up this computer, as this is the table for eating as well as working!

Introducing Taymount Grange

TAYMOUNT GRANGE





Hello. I'm still in Melbourne but wanted to introduce you to the building where my tiny studio flat is. One large window belongs to the studio room and a small window belongs to bathroom. That is is except for the 5 foot square entrance that contains the former coat cupboard, now a kitchen. I've seen a photo but the reality will be something different I imagine.

:ovely Art Deco Grade II listed building on top of Taymount Rise in Forest Hill.

I'm also trying to get confident enough with the technology to do this alone after tomorrow. So here goes as I try to send it into cyber space

Wendy

On a rug in the Bend of Islands

Hello friends, family and all of you who are logged in!

This is post number 1of Life On a Rug.

I am standing on a rug at my home in the Bend of Islands near Kangaroo Ground, Victoria, Australia. Why am I standing on a rug, and why is my blog named Life On A Rug?

This rug is the exact size of the studio room in my flat in Forest Hill, London, United Kingdom. It is 13 feet x 10 feet. This blog is about the challenge of living in such a tiny space after the expansive space of my large mudbrick home on 12 acres of bushland on the outskirts of Melbourne, in the Environmental Living Zone.

This rug, as you can see, lies on the floor of part of my living room. The living room would fit three rugs this size, the kitchen one rug and the breakfast room another rug again. The house has three bedrooms, a very large studio and two attic rooms. You begin to understand the challenge.

Outside space will be another challenge. Here in the Bend of Islands I have a deck about 30 feet x 20 feet looking over the swimming pool, as well as all those acres!

Today is a beautiful late Spring day, the sky is that bright blue, the air is clean and the light is bright almost harsh. It is to be around 30 degrees C. today. Tomorrow I leave all of this heading for the late Autumn and a different life.

This blog is a learning experience for me, I have never done one before, and I am learning about uploading photos, and all that goes with putting a blog together.

Until my next blog from London, I will say goodbye.

Wendy