Flutterby Patch

Plain sailing on a fine day, outdoors and in.

There's nothing better than a day of sunshine to lift spirits and put a spring in your step. You will be pleased to hear that it put me in just the right mood to place my bits and pieces of freshly washed china and glass back into the cupboards that have remained empty for so long whilst we made alterations to the study.

First to go back was the glass ship that I showed you last week. With its sparkling clean dome I positioned it centre stage and alongside placed its companion, a little Victorian boy wearing a sailor suit and sitting on a large cockle shell.

On another shelf a hand painted Victorian cup and saucer, my granny's cut glass biscuit barrel and a 1920's child's mug that I found discarded on a bonfire. What sort of silly person disposes of china on a bonfire I wonder?

This little boy in his pony cart was one of my mother's favourites. It came to me when she passed away in 2006 and I will always treasure it.

Also a favourite, his little sister who has her own pony cart and sits alongside her brother. Both children will live safely in the cupboard until Christmas when they will come out and trot along the mantle, their little carts loaded with greenery for the festive season. My mother did this for many years and I like to carry on the tradition.

When I'd at last finished refilling my shelves with china I had time to make a swift visit to Holehird, a nearby Lakeland garden that I have taken you to before. What fun it would have been to travel there in a little horse drawn carriage on such a fine November day. Imagine pulling up in style outside this big country house that forms part of the estate.

The house enjoys magnificent views over the gardens and surrounding countryside.  

Sadly I didn't have time to explore the wonderful walled garden

and I stopped only briefly to admire the way the autumn sunshine filtered through the ornamental grasses

and then I reached the area I had come to visit....the holly garden. I love holly and would like to plant more in our garden but there are so many varieties to choose from these days that I decided the best idea would be to make a note of the types the experts had planted at Holehird (I will use any excuse to visit this garden!) With their variegated leaves in all shades of green and gold and berries of red, black and vibrant yellow I made hasty notes of the hollies I liked best and (returning to my make-believe pony cart) made the journey home.

On the return journey I noticed a few people were on the lake in their sailing craft enjoying the fine weather but concluded a pony and cart would remain my choice of transport!

In this area I'm surrounded by wonderfully large expanses of water but I'm afraid I wouldn't make a good sailor. The nearest I have come to steering my own craft was as a child when playing a similar game to this pair on the stairs in Robert Louis Stevenson's poem 'A Good Play'.

 
We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of soft pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.

We took a saw and several nails,
And water in the nursery pails;
And Tom said, "Let us also take
An apple and a slice of cake;"--
Which was enough for Tom and me
To go a-sailing on, till tea.

We sailed along for days and days,
And had the very best of plays;
But Tom fell out and hurt his knee,
So there was no one left but me.

.....I had great fun playing 'make believe' games with chairs and pillows when I was young.... Happy days!....Do today's children still play these sorts of games I wonder?

Have a good weekend.

Books, boxes and even more books

On 19th October I showed you pictures of our study and the work that was being done. After several months of upheaval I had hoped to have all the furniture, books and other bits and bobs back in there by now. Frustratingly chaos continues to reign and our dining room is still a very untidy storeroom piled high with the entire contents of the study.

Heaps of cushions...

 
...and a new cushion nearing completion.

Boxes containing china and glass that I will hopefully return undamaged to...

the the newly painted cupboards.

Here is a sample of the other items that are waiting patiently for their return to the study. Books! Everywhere books!

On window sills...

...on shelves...

...and on more shelves....

...and in more heaps. I adore books and have been buying old and new ones since I was in my teens. Above is a selection of my oldest. All leather bound and all well thumbed by previous owners.

This enormous bible, seen at the bottom of the pile, was printed in 1715

The paper is thick with a texture resembling blotting paper. There are sets of illustrations accompanying each chapter.

Many books from the 17th and 18th centuries concentrated on religious and moral subjects. This is my oldest. It dates from 1689 and is written for 'The Holy, Serious, Diligent Believer'. The owner in 1791 was R Baxter and by time he wrote his name in the book it would have been 102 years old. I wonder if the books printed today will still be in use 102 years from now or will books be obsolete by then? I can't imagine a world without them.

I wonder how many people have owned it over the centuries?

This book is entitled 'The Essays, or Councels, Civil and Moral of Sir Francis Bacon with a Table of Colours of Good and Evil' (what a title!). Date of printing 1691. I particularly like the bookplate which dates from the 1700s and reads 

This book belongs to
JH Hogarth

If though art borrowed by a Friend
Right welcome will he be
To read, to study, not to lend,
But to return to me.

Not that imparted Knowledge doth
Diminish learning's store,
But Books I find, if often lent,
Return to me no more.

Read slowly, Pause frequently,
Think seriously,
Keep cleanly, Return duly
with the corners of the leaves not turned down.

The inscription under the bookplate is written in red and reads
Percy Smith
July 25th 1914
Bought Bradford Market

'The Spectator', which is part of a set that I have, is dated 1767 and like the others in this group has a charming illustration facing the title page.

For fear of boring you with my shabby old books I will make this my last.  'Punch Vol. X' contains bound volumes of Punch magazine January to June 1846.

There are hundreds of satirical illustrations relating to topical subjects of the time, many of them political. Perhaps not surprisingly some of the topics under discussion are still being debated today 162 years later. The following made me smile.


This picture entitled 'Designs for Dwarf Houses' accompanies an article written in 1846 regarding Sir Robert Peel's suggestion to Parliament that England should seriously consider offering asylum to the world's smallest people, namely dwarfs. He had the wonderful idea that a series of tiny homes could be purpose built for these 'shorter than average' people and the dwellings could bear the name 'The Royal Lilliput Quadrangle'. Punch magazine reported this and the article was accompanied by this amusing illustration. Judging by some of the subjects that get debated by today's Parliament I think this ridiculous idea could easily be debated again. I wonder what the result would be!

Ship-shape and ready to sail

On my desk this Wednesday is just one item. It's something we've had for over 30 years and we all look at it but rarely touch it. Its a ship made of glass.

This delicate vessel dates from the late Victorian era and has spent the last 100 or so years since its creation under a glass dome. They were very popular ornaments in Victorian homes but it isn't difficult to see why few have survived to the present day. Whilst in our care it has always lived on a top shelf well away from harm's way.

Today I carefully removed the glass dome for its annual wash. Its always a 'hold your breath' moment as it would be so easy to damage the delicate masts or their rigging.

One more photograph before replacing the dome for another year. This view reminds me of pictures I've seen of Ernest Shackleton's ship HMS Endurance when it was stuck in the ice during his 1914 expedition to Antarctica. What an adventure that was.

I don't know who owned the vessel before us or how many journeys it has made. Thankfully we have only moved house three times since owning it because its transportation always causes a few problems and has to be well planned. Each moving day I have placed it in a strong box cushioned by all manner of soft objects and then, when the time has come, the box has been given prime position in our car for the journey to the new abode. The glass ship is always last to be packed and first to be unpacked as I should hate to damage it. It is now safe once again under its dome and will sit on my desk until I place it back on its shelf for another year.