MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 56

The garden is beginning to look a bit tired now, a bit worse for wear as the plants begin to turn to seed, the leaves droop and the slugs are rampantly chewing the stems. But what a summer – the garden has been a delight. July was amazing, and though August was not as hot and sunny as it could have been, the combination of sudden downpours and – when the sun did shine – warmth, created humid conditions in which the flowers thrived. The bower has been so pretty, a mass of blooms this year, while the rest of the garden was a froth of lobelia, pinks, clematis, ox-eye daisies, antirrhinums, marigolds and pansies.  A gorgeous, golden coreopsis purchased earlier this year in spring, has been in full flower for months and is still going, as is the chocolate cosmos.

Once the buddleia came into bloom, its fragrant arched lilac, white and pink blossoms were busy with bees and butterflies, and though now most of the blooms have faded, the later yellow variety is just beginning to flower. So there will still be a ‘fast food source’ for late butterflies, along with the Michaelmas daisies and sedums. There has been quite a bit of controversy lately about buddleia, with some extremists insisting we dig it all up as it is blighting the countryside. While I can understand their point of view – just like the rhododendrons that also can become rampant, these plants impinge on the native wild flowers – the benefits that they bring to the insect population must surely be of great value. I can’t imagine my garden without its buddleia ablaze with small tortoiseshell, red admirals and peacock butterflies every summer.

 

Mottistone Manor

 

I spent a week on the Isle of Wight, one of my most favourite places, visiting such places a Osborne House, Mottistone Manor, Wildlife Encounters, Shanklin Village, and the Zoo. There I ended up with a meerkat on my head, and later was taken ‘behind the scenes’ to view the tigers. The gardens at Mottisham are particularly beautiful, while at Osborne house, once home of Queen Victoria, the Swiss Chalet has been revamped. This large chalet, built for the children to learn ‘housekeeping’ is surrounded by small garden plots – there was one for each child. Obviously, when they were on the Isle of Wight, they were expected to work, not relax as those of us on holiday were doing!

I stayed at a Seaview, with a large grassy area behind the chalet, looking over towards the nature reserve. The grass was alive with rabbits, geese, gulls and jackdaws. Magic! Always something new to see.

Last month I went to the Rutland Bird Fair, or the ‘Birder’s Glastonbury’ as it is sometimes called! Thousands of people go, to wander round the various marquees which are filled with books or photographic equipment or bird hides or outdoor clothing or bird feeders. There are stands manned by various conservation groups, and others by people who organise holidays with a natural world theme. My favourite marquee is the one filled with all types of art and sculpture. If you wish, you can spend the day just listening to talks by interesting speakers on all types of wildlife. This year, naturalist Chris Packham received a standing ovation for his hard-hitting, brilliant talk on the Malta Massacre, where, in spring, hunters take pleasure in shooting all kinds of migratory birds, many of them en route to Britain. Plenty of other celebrities and presenters from the natural world go along to Ruland too, such as Simon King, Bill Oddie, and the One Show’s Mike Dilger. I managed to chat to both Chris and Mike, two very friendly, interesting people.

With Mike Dilger

 

On the writing front I have been very busy with my book ‘Cornish Shallowpool Dolls’ which is published later this year. These small, 8” dolls, were made in the 1960s through to the 1980s by three ladies in Looe, and many of the dolls were made to resemble Cornish workers such as tin miners and fishermen.  I am also working on a sequel to my popular novel ‘Nelly’s Knickers’, to be called ‘Nelly Makes a Bloomer’. The doll magazine that I own and publish four times a year, Doll Showcase, celebrates its tenth birthday this month – when I began it in 2004, I never believed I’d manage to carry it through for so long. One of the best things about writing is that it can be done practically anywhere, so you can take advantage of a sunny day to work in the garden – the bower is perfect – or even on the beach or in a park.

Now, an Indian summer is predicted – I do hope they are right, because with planned breaks in the New Forest and Suffolk this autumn, I’d like to be able to wander around in the dry!

 

MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 55

 

Clematis around the Bower

 Well, firstly I am pleased to say that the bower has been looking beautiful, swathed in clematis, honeysuckle and passionflower, and with roses nearby. It’s very tempting to sit inside or nearby, gazing into the pond at the newts, listening to the trickling fountain and being soaked by bathing blackbirds. However, work still has to be done, so I try to ignore its lure!



Horatio

Recently I spent a few days in Devon; my Husband had an ‘experience day’ – riding on the footplate of the Horatio steam engine between Paignton and Kingsweir. I was able to travel in the luxury Pullman Observation car – why can’t all train travel be like that?! It was wonderful looking out across the glorious countryside and the sea; what a pretty county Devon is. I thought that my husband would be covered in soot or enveloped in smoke when we went through a particularly long tunnel, but no, he was fine – and he was in his element when he was allowed to pull the handle to sound the whistle at the end of the trip! Whilst in the area, we decided to venture on the enormous wheel that is at present in Torquay, giving a fantastic, birds-eye view of the town and the marina. One day I should like to go on the London Eye; that must be a very exciting experience.



Avocet at Cley Marshes

My daughter and I had a short break in Norfolk, visiting our favourite places such as Sandringham and the nature reserve at Pensthorpe. There we heard cuckoos – there aren’t so many around nowadays.  Twenty years ago, we would hear cuckoos from our garden, in fact, once, a calling cuckoo flew over really low. We saw avocets too, those graceful, black and white birds with stilt-like legs and long curved beaks, and also discovered another reserve at Cley where not only did we see avocets, but watched sedge warblers calling from deep among the reeds. Another trip was to Anglesey Abbey near Cambridge; the gardens are beautiful whatever time of the year you visit. At the moment the rose garden is lovely, and I also saw some vibrant pink peonies. One of my favourite roses is the shell pink ‘New Dawn’ and at Anglesey Abbey it grows well against a sun-warmed wall.

New Dawn climbing rose



Mepal Church

I’ve been tracing the family tree for years and years, and a cousin and I decided to arrange a get-together for relatives on our mothers’ side. It was a huge success; we descended on a small village in the Cambridge fens and visited the places where our ancestors lived, visiting the church where they were married, baptised and buried. We exchanged photos and stories, and copied my findings onto memory sticks so that everyone could add on the dates of their children’s births and marriages, to make it even more comprehensive. How on earth did we manage our family trees before computer and the internet arrived? I remember how, years ago, I had to travel to Somerset house and lift enormously heavy dusty volumes from the shelves to find ancestors’ details, and then go back a few days later to collect the certificates. Nowadays, there is so much information available and it makes things much easier.



On the beach!

I’ve been taking some fun pictures of some of my small dolls, for a doll magazine that I publish called Doll Showcase. I gathered together all kinds of props – it’s surprising what you can find/make/adapt. Sanded sheets intended for pet birds make wonderful beaches, and, with the fashionable trends for tea-light holders and the seaside look for bathrooms, shops are filled with wonderful things. I found a boat tea-light holder, a beach hut box and many other useful accessories. It was great fun setting up the scenes – they took hours, yet the actual photo is just one click of a button.

 

 

 

 

I mentioned recently my latest novel, ‘Birds, Beasts and Ben’, a light-hearted look at what goes on behind the scenes of an imaginary wildlife programme. I’m pleased to announce that it is now available in both paperback and Kindle. This is a link to its mention on Books Go Social - http://bit.ly/SQADkP

And here is a link to a Kindle version - http://tinyurl.com/olau54k  

 



Peony at Anglesey Abbey

MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 54

 

Sorry the blog musings dried up – I wasn’t being unproductive, far from it. I was writing my latest novel, and when you have a dozen or so characters running riot in your head it makes it difficult to think of anything else. Hopefully the paperback version of the book – Birds, Beasts and Ben – should be out at the beginning of May, and there may be a kindle version to follow. The book is a light-hearted look at a fictional team of presenters of a television wildlife programme, the creatures they feature, the people they meet and the team’s feelings when the programme is threatened with closure. It also takes a peek at the complicated love lives of the presenters.  Here is the front cover:

 

 

 

and the back cover:

 

However, I am now – I hope – back on track, and delighted to report that already enormous clematis buds are appearing over the bower, while the honeysuckle and passion flower are in full twine, so to speak. In fact, the whole garden is looking pretty at the moment, with plants in bloom far earlier than last year, when we still had snow and ice in late March. As well as the daffodils, snowdrops and crocuses which were beautiful a couple of weeks ago, we now have cowslips, oxlips, wild violets – both scented and dog – spring snowflakes, polyanthus and pansies. Best of all is the blossom; hopefully it will be a good cropping year. The apple blossom is coming out, while both crab apples – white blossom and red blossom – are fully open. Also open are plum, greengage and nectarine blossoms. Apart from the main apple tree, all the others are pot grown but do exceedingly well. The trick is to feed them regularly and keep them watered.

We had a frantic few weeks regarding the health of our elderly rabbit, Moppet. He is eight years old, and the vet said that he needed his front teeth removed as there seemed to be an abscess underneath. For almost a month he ate very little; we had to syringe feed him with pulped up rabbit mixture, but very, very gradually, he progressed to taking normal rabbit pellets and to greenstuff. Now his eating is almost back to normal, though he needs to have his cabbage and greens chopped up as he can’t bite off pieces. The main thing is that he is now running around the house again, and has his grunt back! Most people think that rabbits don’t make sounds, but Moppet has a loud grunt that he makes when he is happy or excited.

Last week my husband and I (gosh, I sound like the Queen!) celebrated our sapphire wedding – 45 years of marriage. Yet it only seems yesterday that I was wearing my beautiful gown (which cost £20 and I was horrified at spending so much on a dress), trotting up the aisle with my three pink-frocked bridesmaids trailing behind. We walked up the aisle to the glorious sound of ‘Nimrod’ from Elgar’s Enigma Variations – I was determined I wouldn’t have ‘Here comes the bride, all fat and wide’ played at my wedding!

I’ve also been creative in another way over the last few weeks – I have been making various ‘props’ for dolls. I decided a bakers’ shop would be fun, so have made cakes, tarts and pasties from salt dough. Then I fancied making a dairy, so, using Fimo air-drying clay, butter and cheese appeared. I made a butter churn, too, from wood and card, and also a three-legged stool. It’s very relaxing making models, and I love it all, from the moulding of the items through to the painting and varnishing. Once the photos have been taken, I will put some up on this blog. I think, too, a florist’s shop would be fun, or maybe a fish stall. For now though, the models are all packed away until I’m ready to assemble them into a whole.

 Meanwhile, the most pressing job is to clear out the bower – because though it may look pretty on the outside, it is a mass of flowerpots, bird feeders and garden canes inside. Scarcely room to sit and write my blog!

MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 53

 

Have you had any snow this winter?  Nor have we, though apparently it’s on its way.  I like snow, I like the way it hides all the ugliness, transforming litter, cars and wheelie bins under a glistening white blanket. I must admit, though, I am not so keen on going out in it – oh, I’m fine walking through snowy parks or fields, but I don’t like walking on slippery, mushy pavements.

What I do love are snow globes, those glassy balls that incorporate tiny flakes of snow which can be transformed from a gentle flutter to a positive blizzard depending on how hard you shake the globe. Magical, enchanting and very tactile, these little transparent snowy globes have intrigued children and adults for years. It’s virtually impossible to pass a display of snows globes without picking up at least one and shaking it, to watch the snow whirl madly around before it gradually settles. Sometimes they are made from glass, though nowadays the globes are frequently moulded from plastic, and each contains an ornamental figure which becomes hidden amongst a flurry of snow or glitter when agitated.

Yet, although these toys have enchanted people for generations, no-one seems to know for sure exactly when snow globes were first made. Certainly the Victorians enjoyed them and collected them as souvenirs of their travels, while some of the earliest were displayed an ‘all nations’ exhibition in Paris in 1878, but they must have been manufactured for several years beforehand. Nowadays snow globes, or snowstorms or snow shakers as many people call them, are becoming extremely sophisticated, and many contain musical movements, animated figures, glitter, lights or even a mechanism to do the shaking for you. Some hold tiny fans to whirr polystyrene snow from within, but that really is the height of laziness!

At one time children often found a snow globe in their stocking at Christmas, but now they have gained a new lease of life and can be found in gift shops and tourist attractions, sometimes with glitter replacing the ‘snow’. Have you ever wondered what the snow is made of, and why it doesn’t fall straight to the bottom of the globe when it is shaken? Well, before the advent of plastic, globes were made from glass, using various substances for snow such as ground-up bone, ceramic dust, sand or ground rice, but today both globe and snow are often plastic. Apparently, the correct technical term for the snow is flitter! The liquid inside is usually water mixed with glycol to thicken it slightly, thus keeping the snow in suspension a bit longer.

Snow globes aren’t always round - in the 1940s a German manufacturer experimented with various shapes and decided that a compressed oval shape was less likely to break than the traditional globe. Before then, the majority of them were spherical and could be viewed from any angle, which meant they needed to contain a three-dimensional sculpture or figurine. With the advent of the new shape, half of the dome was painted (normally blue) to create a back drop, and because flat-backed figures could be then used, it lead to a saving in labour. It meant that the backs of the figures didn't need to be painted and the figures could easily be stamped from plastic.  Although globes are still made, the oval shape is very common, especially for the cheaper plastic ranges. Rectangular, bullet, cube, bottle, octagonal, cylindrical, conical, lantern and egg-shaped are just a few of the other shapes encountered. Interestingly, many other designs inside snow globes go back several decades – only recently I saw one on sale containing the figure of a little angel with a fawn, identical in every way to one which I was given (and still own) in 1957.

This time last year we had thick snow, and I took lots of photographs in the garden and park. The bare trees against a wintry sky looked bleak and cheerless, and the ice was thick and treacherous on the paths. I remember that the only thing to break up the white and grey of the scene was a perky little robin, red breast glowing defiantly against the element, singing his heart out. I am sure that someone, somewhere, will have produced a robin in a snow globe; I must keep a lookout.

 

MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 52

 

Now that the decorations have come down, the baubles carefully wrapped in tissue and returned to the loft and the last of the Christmas pudding donated to the sparrows, it’s time to look forward to a new year. I was watching the news showing thousands of people crammed into stores, determined to buy new clothing, furniture or ‘white goods’ – and it set me thinking. 

!970s' Kenwood Mixer



English Electric Cooker 1969

When I was younger, in the 1950s, 60s or even 70s, people didn’t seem to feel the urge to rush out and replace their goods regularly. They bought only when something didn’t work, was shabby or damaged. Even today, I tend not to buy an item unless it needs replacing – and so items such as my fridge, washing machine and tumble drier have been in use for many years. In fact my cooker, an English Electric, has been in use since 1969 – we purchased it when we got married. At that time it was a top design – it even had a double oven, which was the height of kitchen sophistication! My 1970s’ Kenwood mixer still makes great cakes, too and the Russell Hobbs percolator still percs! In the 1960s we tended to be better informed than those who had set up homes in the immediate post-war years and through most of the 1950s. No longer did you need to be posh to follow the latest trends, or even to hear about them.

 

 

 

 

 

1970s Russell Hobbs Percolator



Ridgway Potteries Homemaker plate

Admittedly the 1951 Festival of Britain had introduced many exciting new designs and concepts, though the majority didn’t filter their way into the average home till the mid to late fifties, such as the ubiquitous Homemaker plate, designed by Enid Seeley and made by Ridgway Potteries for Woolworths in 1957.This black and white crockery was decorated with stylish pictures of coffee tables, lamps, chairs and cutlery. But with the sixties came excitement, colour, change, and beautiful sleek designs. Mixing with my fellow students at art and design school opened my eyes to the stimulating new ideas which were pouring from the studios and workshops, changing the way we looked at conventional objects. We were taught to view everything from new angles and to lose our traditional concepts, even if this did mean suffering the embarrassment of walking round a shopping centre wearing a face-covering helmet of red, blue, green or orange cellophane in order that we saw things in a different light.  However, it wasn’t just us art students who were made more aware – everyone was. People all around were doing exciting things; it was as though the air was supercharged, causing people to break free from their safe world and dare to try something new. A teacher from my school suddenly upped and founded a pottery, Tremaen, in Devon, while an acquaintance found a job helping sculptor Henry Moore at his studio. Everyone, it seemed, was into art, music, fashion or ‘doing their own thing’ – and people were discovering that however ordinary you were, you could still have a fashionable home.



Ercol Rocking Chair 1969

 Design was a buzzword, and newspapers and magazines were packed with adverts. By the time I married, Ercol, G-Plan, Meakin, Viners, Midwinter and Russell Hobbs were just a few of the must-have manufacturers that brides turned to for their first purchases. I was no exception. My first significant buy was a small Ercol rocking chair, which I saw in a sale for just over £6. A bargain!  After queuing for a couple of hours one January morning, the chair was mine, and stored away as a rather large part of my ‘bottom drawer’. Yes, we all had them then; mine was filled with orange and purple tea cloths, a bright blue Spong mincer, colourful melamine plates, Poole cookware and a set of Pyrex casseroles decorated with assorted motifs. It also contained some stunning black and gold Portmeirion mugs and a couple of circular pink-edged tin trays adorned with animals; the latest thing in style!

  We chose Meakin for our china, just as did most of our friends. Meakin – characterised by the ‘Bull in the China Shop’ advertising logo – was made by J & G Meakin, who were based in Staffordshire. Amongst the designs which poured forth in those heady sixties’ days were Poppy, Capri, Rondo, Aztec, Palma and Filigree, which was the pattern we chose. I loved this understated, delicate design of pink flowers, such a contrast to the more vibrant patterns of the time, and one which was perhaps reflecting a newer side to the sixties – a more gentle, low-key, softer feminine approach. We used our Filigree for years, but eventually the pattern began to fade on a few items, so it has now been safely put away, to be brought out for special occasions. The cutlery we chose was Viners – we went for the new ‘Love Story’ range, with tiny daisies embossed around the handles, and collected the whole lot, even the fish knives, items rarely used today. Viners cutlery was the in-thing at the time, and had quite a long history, as it was founded in Sheffield in 1901.

 My parents had embraced sixties style earlier in the decade by throwing out their old utility, heavy wood sideboard and hefty, thick-armed padded armchairs, settling instead for an Ercol three piece suite and a modern dining table and sideboard. Ercol was cool, light, curvy and airy, and a complete contrast to that heavy utility look. Their suite had green textured woven covers, and looked stunning. The Ercol company was founded in 1920 in High Wycombe, by a designer called Lucian Ercolani, who perfected the technique of steam-bending wood into ‘bows’ to form chair backs, discovering how to work with elm, a wood with a beautiful grain but notoriously difficult to tame for furniture. The company was particularly renowned for its Windsor chairs, which featured a bent wood frame and an arched back, and I remember that this type of chair was later used when I was at secondary school. It was in the sixties that Ercol really came into its own. My parents’ suite was later given to my brother, and then a few years ago he gave it to me, so it’s in daily use and still as comfortable as ever.

A 1970s photo of our G-Plan when it was still new!

When we had chosen our new flat, my fiancé and I made a trip to Waring and Gillows, a renowned furniture stockist in London’s Oxford Street. The company dated back to the late 1800s, and we went there to choose a dining-room suite. We already knew that we wanted our table to be circular, and soon chose a G-Plan model which we loved, not only for the superb teak wood grain, but because the table was impressively solid. It looked as though it would last. The accompanying chairs, with their circular seats, were padded with a pineapple-coloured woven fabric, while the six foot long, low sideboard featured a two-door cupboard at the left and a drop down cupboard at the right. In the centre were four drawers. We were spot-on with the assumption the pieces would last – we still use them every day! The sideboard looked super in our flat against the pale orange walls, and the table was attractive, its centre graced with a Poole pottery Delphis bowl which had been a wedding present. The Ercol rocking chair looked good too, but we had no money for other furniture so we utilised an old white-painted single wardrobe which we laid on its side, padded with foam and covered with orange fabric to match the curtains to give us a bench. Yes, you’ve guessed – we still have that, too…

One of our wedding presents was a super orange fibreglass lamp supported on three dark wood legs, vaguely resembling a blunt-nosed rocket. At the time it cost just under £10, and these Scandinavian inspired lamps are once more finding favour, both the floor-standing lamps – ours is 41inches high – and the smaller tabletop versions. Although people used these coloured lamps to cast a warm glow, in most houses in general the ‘main’ lighting was from a single ceiling light, not the multiple lights we so often see today. Lampshades were often made from paper slotted together, or woven from raffia, or perhaps colourful geometric shaped shades moulded from thin plastic. Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that, if the average person wanted to buy fittings, furnishings or china, we were very much reliant on the chain stores – we bought lamps from British Home Stores, (it wasn’t BHS in those days!), curtains and bedding from Marks and Spencer and everyday china from Woolworths.

 Department stores such as John Lewis were good for the best china and special items, but, on the whole, there weren’t the huge warehouse type stores we are so used to, today. Most people did their own interior decoration, buying paint from their local ‘wallpaper shop’, or choosing the paper by browsing through the large books of patterns which were on the counters. When we bought our new flat in the late sixties, the living room floor was just concrete and so we stuck down grey Marley rubber floor tiles, interspersing them every so often with green, orange and yellow tiles – very fashionable, and perfect with our Nordic long-pile rug. Of course, we couldn’t take the floor tiles with us when we moved into our house, but we took the Nordic rug and – yes, yet again, it’s still in use today.  I am sure manufacturers must loathe people like me, but my policy is ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

Poole Bowl 1969

Naturally, I do still buy new things – I’m an avid mug collector and the kitchen reflects this, and only last year I invested in a new kettle! (The old one coughed and died.)  Modern electrical technology needs to be updated regularly too. And I know that styles and tastes change. Luckily, however, at the moment the retro/vintage look is in vogue, so I’m once more living in a fashionable house, enjoying my Ercol, G-Plan, fibreglass lamp and orange Nordic rug!