frost, fish, Film Farm

Tuesday 7th saw me on my travels once more, this time to lecture near Aylesbury. As noted the snow on my side of Kent had melted away, but come Sevenoaks it was all snowy again which finally gave way to the most beautiful hoar frost I think I've ever seen. Thence across to Bristol area for the night and the following day a drive down to Truro for another lecture - again fabulous frost sparkling in the low sunlight - the sheep were snapped during this trip (reminds me of a dreadful painting my grandfather had above his fireplace, always struck me as odd, the miserable looking half frozen sheep marooned above a blazing log fire!). Stayed the night with a lovely lady in St Agnes, an old tin mining village.Thursday a Reyntiens research day, first to see the five amazing Piper/Reyntiens windows in St Andrew's, Plymouth (the fish are a detail from the Trinity window in the south transept). And on to Devizes to see the spirited Piper/Reyntiens panel in the Museum of Wiltshire Archaeological Society, from which the pots are a detail. Night at a B&B north of Oxford and then the following morning a drive to Film Farm arriving in time for luncheon of scallops wrapped in pancetta (a FF Favourite).Charles' friend Alan had been delighting himself night fishing off the east coast beaches (must be barking!) and presented the director with a cauldron full of whiting (see photo). Luckily Charles undertook the fiddly filleting process whilst I faffed around putting together tomatoes, spinach, carrots, celery, chilli pepper, grated cheddar, some prawns and smoked fish and mash to make a Jamie Oliver style fish pie. Followed by fish soup and Gruyere toasts the following day, and gallons and gallons of fish stock for the freezer.

And then it was back to editing work until Tuesday when I drove back to Kent. Wednesday went to Christie's to witness the auction of Brangwyn's Cider Press and Brass Shop, both woefully undersold to my mind, especially considering the prices some rather worthless pieces attracted. Hey ho, c'est la vie. Cheered myself up no end by then not only 'doing' the Glasgow Boys at the RA (wonderful except for the labelling, one room was decorated in gold and the writing was impossible to read) but also Gauguin at Tate Modern (he was one of my earliest artistic passions so interesting to note that I still found the work fascinating and compelling some 45 or so years later - my love of art started at a very precocious age you understand!)

Now to contemplate Christmas - and do some organising! Have a good one - we'll be back in the New Year.

the snow show must go on!

Well, although the footie briefly but tiresomely intruded on the news, you will all have realised that SNOW took centre stage this last week, not least in Lincolnshire and Kent (see photo of a table outside the breakfast room). When the snow falls heavily and drifts my house becomes completely cut off from the world, so I took the necessary precaution of leaving my car in the village 1/4 mile away. Conditions in Kent became progressively worse, the M20 motorway was again turned into a lorry car park c/o Operation Stack, roads were hazardous, normal trains not working, Dover completely cut off by rail, road or sea - but we do have one excellent advantage nearly on our doorstep - High Speed Rail, Ashford to St Pancras. So, come Wednesday's lecture in Theydon Bois, despite a hacking cough and redder nose than normal, at 7am I released my car from its blanket of snow in the village and drove to Ashford, thence the train to Stratford International, bus to Stratford tube and central line out to Essex. Not my best ever lecture but I did give it my all! Still shivering I then made my way to Finchley Road station to see a Brangwyn watercolour in a private collection, which cheered me up no end because it was one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. And the lovely lady gave me a warming cup of tea and some yummy lemon polenta cake which slightly revived my spirits (having had no breakfast or lunch). Thence back to chilly Kent and I was still shivering and shaking until the following morning.

Postscript: the day after I took the photo, i.e. yesterday, the snow melted overnight, as if by magic, but the weight of it on the poor old roof, and then the subsequent floods of water, infiltrated the tiling and and a few ceilings with the result that by morning all the clothes in the wardrobe were sopping wet, an old Mongolian carpet was similarly affected and huge lumps of plaster have detached themsleves. UGH!

2nd edit session

Returned to Film Farm 22 November for the next session which went pretty well although working with so many different format films, archival stuff and VHS is hurting the brain of the new system which decides to crash periodically. Have devised the time lapse chapter headings and progressed on to Oundle but realise need more footage of the school so am trying to organise that for early next year - at least it is just down the road from FF.Whilst in residence I wandered down to the greenhouses one day to check out the remaining tomatoes and discovered this absolute beauty which weighed in at 1lb11oz (the establishment works in old fashioned Imperial despite the modern technology) and tasted pretty darned good when sliced and teamed up with mozzarella, olives, capers, avocado and home grown chillies with a drizzle of unfiltered and balsamic.

As correctly predicted by the weather men the snow fell on Thursday and the house grew progressively colder (they didn't predict that consequence) - by Saturday morning my bedroom windows were iced over INSIDE! Aaaargh! Returned to Kent Sunday (almost coincidentally) with a burgeoning cold which does not bode well for Wednesday's lecture. UGH!

PR in London

Since I had to go to Christie's, South Ken, to advise on a couple of possible Brangwyn works, I decided to catch up with some more Reyntiens, so skipped round to the V&A to see the Piper/Reyntiens Christ between Saints Peter and Paul (located in room 88, sacred silver and stained glass). Smaller than I expected but beautiful jewel like colours. The other work I had hoped to see, Brittany Beach, was, according to the website, in room 222 but such a room does not exist. Anyway, I'm trying to fix up to see all the JP/PR and PR works in store so maybe I'll get to see Brittany Beach at the same time.Thence for lunch with younger son and see his Cuban photos - not quite as exciting as I'd anticipated and he said the food was disappointing, but I'd still love to go there before the Castros pop their clogs.

And then on to St Margaret's next to Westminster Abbey, windows by JP/PR in 1966. 8 triple lancet windows in the south aisle, abstract design and muted colours. I thought it worked exceedingly well.

I would then have returned to the V&A to do some research in the Library but since I was on the slow train (the high speed train fare having risen to a whopping £49.50) I walked along the embankment to Charing Cross and got back to Kent about 6.30.

PS Was amused to note in St James' that an elderly Big Issue seller was attired in smart suit and long black coat and looked just like a city gent!

First edit session

Having had a mere week back in Kent scaring the living daylights out of the spiders which had taken up squatter status and clearing all surfaces of the Miss Haversham style dust covering, I returned to Film Farm for the 1st edit session. We reckon that we are going to need at least 7 week long sessions and in between my lectures and Charles' other commitments we have booked ourselves for editing purposes almost every other week until mid March.
This first session, in the brand new edit suite (see above) went very well. We tried out one of crumple-pops split screen devices for the opening and their new bottom 1/3 captions. Being Patrick, the film is already shaping up to being both humorous and instructive.

Survival - fittest?!

Yorkshire is wonderful, don't get me wrong, after all it's 'God's own', but was I glad to finally return to Kent, the garden of England, yesterday. And that's a rhetorical question. Emotional blackmail, complete lack of appreciation, absolutely nothing I did was right and towards the end there was some serious nursing for which I am just not cut out (yes I do have some failings!) - rubber gloves (which I've always previously abhorred) and hospital style alcohol hand gel became two of my 'favourite things' - Lady Macbeth had nothing on my anal hand washing routines!
Anyway, suffice it to say that my mother is now happily ensconced in The Hall and I am again free to continue with my life. I did actually manage to transcribe and write the scripts for both Gordon Russell and Reyntiens films whilst 'up north' and the latter I think is quite light hearted and should be fun - how I managed to think chirpy in those conditions I know not!

Beautiful Basingstoke

Now the title may sound like a contradiction in terms, but bear with me!
Libby (feeling rather less irrepressible after her incarceration in Yorkshire), having worked on Gordon Russell and Reyntiens came to the conclusion that we needed more furniture images for the former. Additionally it had not slipped her attention that Cecil Collins kept on creeping into Reyntiens interviews and that perhaps the best way of indicating the relationship between the two men might be to include one of their joint windows. Since Basingstoke is only 2 hours drive from Broadway this appeared to be a good option.
The financial oracles were consulted and came to the unanimous conclusion that there was no budget left to undertake such journeys - so we went anyway!
That's the trouble with us - we're so determined to produce the absolute bestest of the best - at whatever cost!
I managed to get my mother into The Hall (a high class residential home literally next door to her own house) and 1 September saw us roll up at All Saints', Basingstoke, not a modern church as I had anticipated (actually dated 1917) to meet the immensely jolly and helpful Rev Rosalind Rutherford. There are two small angel windows in glowing yellows, but the highlight is the great west window with a face representing God the Holy Spirit/sun in the centre surrounded by concentric circles of flames, soaring hearts, stars, wheeling angels. Being late afternoon the sun shone through the window, dappling the walls and ground, and it was just BEAUTIFUL! And that face - mesmeric!
So we were NOT disappointed but charged and inspired and hugely delighted.
The following day we did our Russell filming and photographing and thence back to Film Farm to organise the new edit suite, do some scanning, editing - all the usual suspects before Libby returned once again to the mind-numbing ordeal in Yorkshire.
P.S. If anyone finds some stray marbles perhaps they could send them because I seem to be losing mine!