Negativity

Looking out at Boscastle

 

 

I’ve been feeling a bit sorry for myself just recently – I don’t often get ill but I’ve been suffering from a chest infection and accompanying cough and general lethargy. ‘Luckily’ it coincided with the Easter break and so my precious few days off work were spent trying hard to feel human and not too grumpy.

 

Anyway, to cheer myself up I sorted out some bits and pieces at home including some of my vast collection of camera equipment. During the tidy I found a couple of unexposed 120 films. How exciting! I still love the thrill of sending off film, not knowing what will come back – and this was even more exciting as I had no idea what was even on the film!

 

DS#1 looking cool at the beach

The negs and CD came back in super quick time and it transpired they were from holidays in 2013 and 2014… The rolls of film had been used in my Diana camera and then stashed safely. The Diana is a fun piece of kit is based on the 1960’s super low quality box camera. The poor plastic construction is part of the appeal as the resulting light leakage and soft focus effects give some interesting results. It uses 120 film which gives large sized square negatives and prints which several firms are now able to develop. It’s not a super cheap hobby but it is fun!

 

Not my most flattering shot but I just love the colours

Textures

Here are some of the better results – some of the shots were so ‘effected’ that you couldn’t really tell what they were of. It has rekindled my desire to get out there and take some more and to make sure I get the films sent straight off this time instead of sitting around for years…..

These two pics were taken at Sidmouth when I did my yoga retreat. Happy memories!

DS#2 being mean and moody (and small)

Fashion on the Ration

CC41 clothing was not all drab and frumpy.

Last Wednesday I got the huge honour of representing PrettyNostalgic magazine at the press launch of the new ‘Fashion on the Ration’ exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London. And I must just say a huge thank you to Nicole from PN for allowing some of us this amazing opportunity.

‘Fashion on the Ration’ is all about the role of fashion during WW2, how people coped with change in their lives, rationing and how fashion played an important part in the morale of the country. The exhibition includes not only some wonderful examples of clothing but also accessories, art, photographs and interviews. You can listen to the clipped tones of Oliver Lyttelton, President of the Board of Trade, as he announced the introduction of clothes rationing on 1^st June 1941. It apparently came as a huge shock to most people.

Some more examples of the beautiful clothing on display.

Highlights of the display for me included a range of scarves, many of them by Jacqmar, which included bright colours and patriotic messages – a way for women to show their support for the War effort through their everyday clothing.

Two examples from the scarves - this one features propaganda cartoons by Fougasse.

I was particularly interested in the section entitled ‘Functional Fashion’. This had some examples of luminous black out buttons and brooches and the most stylish Siren Suit, to be worn in the air raid shelters. It even had a discreet flap at the bottom for comfort breaks!

Personal appearance was an important weapon in the fight!

Gas mask handbags and luminous buttons.

I want this Siren Suit!

 This section also touched on the vast numbers of women who found themselves working in the factories (by mid war 1:3 factory workers were women). They had to combine looking presentable with safety considerations, hence the popularity of the turban style hat and headscarves.

Workers getting ready for their shift.

My Nan worked in a torpedo factory in Bournemouth so this had a particularly personal appeal to me. Many of the women continued to wear their civilian clothing beneath their overalls and I always remember my Nan saying how she wouldn't go anywhere without her lipstick – a habit she carried on with throughout her life.

My Nan during the War.

As I was looking around the museum, I heard one lady say to another “The war wasn't all about killing people you know, it was about living” and this exhibition definitely captured that – how people carried on living, demonstrating inventiveness and adaptability under extraordinary circumstances. Fashion clearly played an important role in all of this.

A Victorian Mystery.....

Miss Bella Pateman

It all started when I decided to face the horror of clearing out the space under our stairs! Dubbed ‘the computer room’ it was actually a hidey hole of hell. I rolled up my sleeves and dragged everything out to sort and tidy. Whilst in there I discovered a box of photographs and bits from my Nan’s house. I have dabbled with Family History over the years and absolutely love old photos so this was a double treasure to unearth.

In amongst the photos was an old newspaper cutting with a handwritten message across it. The cutting was the obituary of an old actress called Bella Pateman and the handwritten note was by someone who clearly knew her personally – here was a mystery. Who was Bella and was there a connection to my family?

Finding Bella the actress proved fairly simple – she was a Victorian actress who saw fame both here and in America in the late 1800’s. She was married to another famous actor of the day, Robert Pateman. But I wanted to know more and here is where the story got a little more difficult.

I have access to the Ancestry site and so following up births, marriages and deaths and other useful Census info is usually a time consuming but fruitful job. This one proved otherwise! It seems that Bella and her pre marriage records suffered from a catalogue of alternative spellings and without the magic marriage certificate (which I cannot locate anywhere so far) I cannot be certain I have the right family – but playing along with hunches and some matched details this is what I have so far....

Bella was born in 1846 to Caroline and Robert in Reading. She appears in the 1851 census in Chatham Street as Isabel Radborn living with her parents and siblings. Mr Radborn was an engine cleaner and supported his wife and four children, William, Thomas, Jemima and little Isabel.

By 1861 Mr Radborn had passed away leaving his widow (now documented as Radbowin) with two teenage girls. Jemima is now listed as a 17 year old comedian and Isabel is 15.

I could now link to facts from her professional career, she met and married Robert Pateman in 1869. Robert hailed from Ireland and so far I cannot locate any further information on him. Later that year the newly married Pateman’s set sail for New York. They remained in America touring some of the major theatres for the next few years, returning to the UK in 1876. There are tantalising clues as to the plays they appeared in and some of the famous people of the age that they mixed with. These included their friend Edwin Booth, actor and brother to the notorious John Wilkes Booth who assassinated Lincoln.

Robert Pateman - Google Image

By 1881 the Pateman’s were living in Hammersmith and it was here in 1886 they had a daughter, Isabel Roberta ‘Robbie’ Pateman. They continued living in Hammersmith and then Barnes while taking a number of prominent roles on the London stage. Bella is listed at the Adelphi amongst other places. She carried on as a significant actress until 1902, her last role being that of Lady Ridgeley at the St James’s. Bella died at her home in Barnes on 30^th January 1908 at the age of 64. Robbie followed her in 1910 at the young age of 24. Robert continued acting, travelling to the USA for further roles before he, too, passed away in 1924 at the age of 83 leaving the not inconsiderable sum of £11000 to his nephew and another acquaintance.

My Ebay find!

There is still much I do not know. The link between Bella and my family is intriguing. I do have connections to the Reading area and so I assume this is where it might be – but until I can prove Bella’s early details I cannot go further here. An interesting aside, while I was searching for links to Bella I found a signed photograph of her for sale on Ebay. It came as a pair with a signed photo of Hermann Vezin, a well-known American actor of the same period whom Bella had acted with at the Adelphi in a production of ‘Amy Robsart’. Of course I had to buy them! I will continue the search in the hopes that new details come to light and the mystery is finally solved.

Loafing Around

Ok so it was a bit heavy - I could have injured someone with it!

Oh my goodness, I have been doing so many things just recently and blogging has taken a bit of a back seat I’m afraid. And now, sitting down at the computer at last I’m not sure which exciting adventure to share first  :)

So, I’ll leap in with my sourdough and save the rest for other posts....

My friend Helen and I decided we were ‘of an age’ and took the leap in joining a local WI group to see what it was all about. Forget all the stereotypes you might have heard, the WI are experiencing a bit of a revival and many of the groups are seeing huge increases in numbers. This is great news, especially as the WI are celebrating their centenary this year. The group we chose to try out call themselves the ‘Folly Dollies’, they are a really friendly bunch and host an interesting range of talks and events . The night we went a lady was there talking about Sourdough Bread – if I’m being honest this one didn't strike me as the most interesting but it was in actual fact a really good evening! Judith (bread lady extraordinaire) spoke about the history of sourdough, some of the benefits and then talked through the process of making it. Clearly she couldn't show us the whole thing in one evening but we saw a range of highlights from the starter bubbling away to a batch proving (rising) to the finished product ready to try. It was delicious! 

Once home, I read up on sourdough and decided to treat myself to one of Judith’s starter kits so I could have a go myself. It duly arrived looking beautiful and slightly scary. I had to transfer the starter from a zip lock bag into a jar and then feed it regularly with flour and water to get it to grow. Judith had sent three different starters so I labelled them carefully and spent the next week tending my jar babies and watching as the amount of starter grew and grew and grew – a bit like a scene from the magic porridge pot I was half expecting the mixture to take over the whole kitchen! DH was a bit worried I was becoming obsessed when he caught me feeding my babies at 5.30am :)

The kit arrived looking very exciting!

 This weekend I had set aside time to actually make the bread – a lengthy procedure involving kneading (lots of) and rising (lots and lots of) and then baking.

I discovered it's quite hard to take a photograph of yourself kneading bread.

Arise Sir Oxfordshire Starter - clearly I didn't arise for long enough. Note the clever labelling system which fell off at every given opportunity :(

I won’t bore you with all the details but I really enjoyed the whole process  - I was a bit worried the kneading would be hard work and a bit ‘mysterious’ (how do you know when it’s done?) but it was actually really therapeutic and mindful. I was too impatient with the proving bit – the first rise was very successful but I was in a hurry to get it into the oven and I don’t think I left it long enough and so my resulting loaves were a bit dense but vaguely edible. Still, it’s a learning curve and I can’t wait to have another go!

Birthday Celebrations (for old people)

Blue Skies and Tall Masts

I haven’t really been up to anything exciting recently. It’s been too cold to do any allotmenting, I’m too crafted out to be creative and it’s that bit of the winter where the enthusiasm of the New Year has passed and I just want to hibernate for a while.

But – January sees my birthday and a reason to celebrate (if being a bit greyer and a bit wrinklier is a reason to celebrate). DH and I took the day off work and had a trip out to Gloucester. He was tempted by the wonderful industrial architecture of the docks and I had heard tell of a fabulous Antique Centre. A win-win situation!
 

So we set off on what must have been one of the wettest and most miserably cold days of the month but determined to have a good time.

We parked up and began the day with a hot chocolate which seemed like the best decision. The antiques then beckoned. I was most disappointed to not find anything that really drew me. An Enid Blyton book entitled ‘Mr Pink-Whistle Interferes’ caused some sniggers and I was tempted by a beautiful wooden Victory puzzle of kittens. We spent some time looking around the docks and admiring the wonderful restoration they have done. There were lots of artefacts around the place, giving a sense of the history of the setting and I was filled with longing, looking at the rows of colourful narrowboats all moored up (we used to own a narrowboat and I still really miss it)
 

Detail from a stone carving

We lunched at a small place called Hubble Bubble and both enjoyed some fab burgers. Hubble Bubble is conveniently located right near Gloucester Cathedral so we decided to look around that too.
 

Gloucester Cathedral

Cathedrals are awesome places – the scale, the history, the architecture! I had absolutely no clue that this particular cathedral had been used famously for filming some of the Harry Potter films. There was nothing inside to advertise this fact and I didn’t find out til afterwards – but it did explain why some of it seemed so familiar! The day we went they had film crews in again, setting up to shoot some scenes for Sherlock.

Gloucester Cathedral dates from 1089 and its other claim to fame is it houses the tomb of Edward II. Edward was alledgedly murdered at nearby Berkeley Castle and was buried at Gloucester although his heart is at Newgate Church in London (I just love a gruesome detail!). The tomb is pretty impressive and typically covered in graffiti from schoolboys in the 1700's. I didn't purchase a photography permit and so have no actual pics from inside the Cathedral.

 

Detail from outside the Cathedral

 

A final visit to some shops and the purchase of a suit for DS#2 (hang on, it was MY birthday!) saw us finish off the day before heading home.
 

Rain on the Cobbles!

I reflected afterwards on how grown up I must be now, cathedrals and antiques rather than mad drunken debauchery for my birthday – but then I don’t think I could keep up with the debauchery any more. I’d probably be asleep before it really got going!

Handmade Hats

The second post this week! It’s got to be a record!

All ready to get knitting!

I just wanted to update you with my attempts at spinning – as you may remember I borrowed a wheel from work over the Summer and have been enjoying teaching myself to spin wool from a mixture of trial and error (mostly error) and some helpful Youtube videos. Hurrah for technology.

I was determined to finish something from fleece to knitted item before Christmas. In my head I had the lovely idea of presenting DH with a hat and scarf on Christmas morning. In reality I had not taken into consideration how I would secretly card, spin and knit when he wasn’t looking. A spinning wheel is not the most easily concealed item in the world and my knitting is not something I can do without tons of concentration and regular reference to the pattern. So, my plans were reduced to just a hat. And a reasonably small hat at that!

I got the wool spun and the threads were spun into something resembling yarn. I still have sadly not got a Niddy Noddy and so had to use the back of the chair! I was unsure of how much yarn I would need for my hat. The ‘recipe’ in the knitting pattern doesn’t work in handspun lumpy balls and so I had to just go with it and accept that I may well have to be spinning more as I needed it.

Knitting the hat was a case of a few rows as and when. So, I took it to work, out and about and gave up my gym sessions in order to knit (ok, this is a slight lie – I didn't need an excuse to not visit the gym).

It was all worth it when I finally completed my first ever handmade hat! I even added a label and gave up a vintage button from my collection to give it a stamp of originality. I was thrilled! Even DH looked impressed.

The finished article 

 It’s not the most beautiful hat in the world. The wool is lumpy, the knitting a little uneven and in fairness it could use being a bit bigger in size. But I made it myself and it was the gift that I had the most pride in handing over this Christmas.

The new project - it's a fleece not a wig!

Now, I was given a new fleece to work on as a Christmas present – a Hebridean fleece (yes, thank you Helen, you do get the prize for most random gift!!) and so endless new possibilities present themselves. Well, endless new hat possibilities anyway!

Back to reality.....

Well, that's that. Back to work tomorrow after a week and a half of chilling and relaxing. I had lists of things I wanted to do, sewing to catch up on, crafts, blogging, reading and allotmenting. Instead I have pottered about and not done very much at all. Oh, I did reorganise the larder - does that count?

Anyway - here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks and a belated Happy New Year to you all!