Home again! And flowers

We have been back for some while, in fact, but as usual Alice has been "awfully busy" so she's ony just beginning to catch up. "And that's just with you two," she grumped.

Once home again, Ba was delighted to find this remaining crocus still blooming on the interior window ledge in the kitchen. She was quite upset we missed seeing the other ones in flower. Having an evening photoshoot, however, cheered her up, especially when she saw that taking pictures at night with flash can produce quite a dramatic look. [ Don't forget to click on images to enlarge them. ]

Later, one of the little Iris came out. It lives in the kitchen internal window ledge as well, but we brought it out to view. On the right, it's being inspected by both of us from a different angle.

In daylight, we looked at the outside window boxes, but from inside, where it was warm. But Ba insisted we had to be "in Nature" to give the bulbs encouragement. So it was hat and scarf for the chilly night air.
Noses

Meanwhile, we were waiting for Red Nose Day. Here are the different Noses from this year. You could buy them in some of the supermarkets, each sold separately in a sealed package - so you didn't know which you would get until you'd paid.


These are the two Alice picked from the sort-of-Lucky-Dip box. I'm holding Sniffer a clever hound, and Ba's one, wrapped up in bandages is Snootankhamun. Alice says they're not bandages as such, but his mummification wrappings, like the famous Tutankhamun.You can learn all about how to make a mummy at National Geographic Kids.

 Alice first had to take a separate photo of the two noses against a black background, in order to put them (digitally) right on our faces! Our real "noses" just weren't the right shape to do it any other way. Quite a fiddle that was, and accompanied by some swearing, I'm sad to report. The BBC Comic Relief event was highly successful raising money for the cause, too.

Eddie and a Birthday Party
During one of our visits to the grandchildren's place, and just before Angelina's Birthday Party, we met with Eddie the Elephant, who was all dressed up for the event.

He got photographed in a bit of a hurry, head-on, so his trunk unfortunately doesn't appear at its magnificent best. But his hat and bow-tie had just been created by the birthday girl herself, and we wanted to show off her creative skills.

Angelina was having a sleep-over party with her best friends, so she and her mother made this sleeping-bag cake. It's really good, isn't it?

Here she is blowing out the candles.

On a later visit,  we caught Eddie all ready for bed, so Alice took another up-to-date photo.

She made sure this time that his lovely trunk was clearly visible against the darker background of Monkey's fur, so you can admire it properly.

Click on it to see it in its full glory.

Flowers again
We were sorry that the solitary tulip had died before the daffodils and hyacyinths came out, as it would have made a much better show.

Alice decided she was fed up with the street in the background of our window-box photos, so she draped the muslim outside the window. 

Well, it's really nylon, but has the same effect - just much more tasteful.

We've put this one in here out of order, as it was actually taken ten days later, but we thought it would be good to be able to compare the progress of the hyacinths with the photo before this. Just to confuse you, however, I should point out that the box was turned around by 180°!

[ Don't click or tap the picture below this if you have a phobia about arachnids: it will get bigger, bigger even than life-size. You have been warned. ]
 

Horace
Here is a rare photo of our only pet, as such: Horace the spider, who lives in a corner of the bathroom. He's hanging upside-down (resting?) in his web, and the film of dust is actually stuck to its relatively extensive reach. If he's disturbed by vibrations, Horace scuttles back inside the tiny hole you can see behind him. See, he's more scared of you than you can possibly be of him.

Alice used to be afraid of spiders, but last year made friends with another one who lived in the same space (Horace's mother?) and found it helped her anxiety if she talked to it, so now she has discovered this one's name and does the same again.

What's up?
What is Monkey doing perched high up in the ivy plant in the kitchen? 
 
He's taking a good look at the fly-paper we had to put up after being plagued by a swarm of nasty little black flies. We think they're attracted by the food waste recycling bin, even though the lid is kept closed. Lots and lots of flies have met a sticky end! We were lucky to find a good old-fashioned hardware shop that sells the special paper.

Click the double-image below for the gorey details . . .








 

A trip to Ocean Terminal

We were in Edinburgh's Ocean Terminal complex recently, where there's a super view of the harbour and the distant Fife coast.

The ship whose prow you can see to the right, is the famous Royal Yacht Brittania, which is very expensive to look around, so we haven't been, as Alice is being careful with her pennies right now.

In fact we went there after a Sunday morning dancing Five Rhythms, in order to go to the Vue cinema, which has good facilities for our wheel-chair dancing friend. We decided to have a spot of escapism watching the new Disney version of Beauty and the Beast.

It was absolutely lovely! It was so very romantic that Ba was even a little tearful in places. Alice was too, though she won't admit to it. I thought the Beast was much more handsome before he turned back into a Prince. Alice said she'd felt the same about the beast in Jean  Cocteau's wonderful, pioneering La Belle et la Bête, (1946) - one of her favourite films of all time.

Sunshine along the canal
This post has been pretty long, and our recent celebration of Spring includes quite a lot of photos, so this note is just a trailer for our next posting, which will come along quite soon - honest. 

Here we are again!
[UPDATED WEDNESDAY15th MARCH 2017]

A little reminder: please follow at least some of the links (they're in green type) in our posts, as Alice can't resist spending the time (rather too much, I think) finding interesting stuff online.

Yes, it's been ages, I know, but we've been away again, and since coming back Alice has been even more busy than usual, setting up a new group with her U3a. That stands for University of the 3rd Age, but it's not just for oldies: anyone not working full time is able to join.

It's something about singing for people who can't sing, I think. Oh dear, she got very annoyed here and said it's called Body and Voice and is far more subtle than that. But she's been endlessly filling out forms, writing a blurb and going to meetings and NOT getting on with catching up here.

Above is the photo we should be starting with. Before we went on our latest trip "Down South" again, Alice decided to paint her toenails this dark crimson colour [ It's actually called Vixen Red 3. ]

She was going to go to Five Rhythms Dance in London, and wanted to look the part for the big city.

But first of all, We visited Colet House, where they do the Whirling Dervish dancing. Alice says the proper name for it is Turning. This photo comes from an article about the Turning in London in the Londonist.

A friend of Alice's has been doing this practice for a while, and he suggested we come to a special evening when you can be there as a witness. Ba found it so tedious and boring she went to sleep, and I was frustrated, because my only view from where I was sitting on the floor was like the one below, mostly just the feet. The original photo was taken by one Lori Henry, who wrote this article about her visit to Colet House on her blog. You can see a short video of parts of the Colet House ceremony, with an interview as well, on Vimeo.

Alice said she was at times feeling a bit bored (as it went on for so very long) but also at times quite mesmerised by the Turners' steps and the beautiful whirling skirts. She kept thinking of this quotation from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, one of her favourite pieces of poetry, so she couldn't resist adding it to the image. Typical of her, of course, and in my opinion it took up far too much time with all the fiddling about instead of just getting on with typing up the blog.


There's an "official" account of the different phases of the Turkish ritual here, and a different explanation of the rite, more with tourists in mind, on Turkey Travel Planner. One tourist has given his own extremely vivid account in Istanbul Life.

Alice's friend told us later that it can take several years to learn how to do it correctly, so that you don't fall over, but can reach the sought-for mystical state. Not quite my cup of tea somehow, if you know what I mean, and I don't have the right sort of feet either.

There aren't any more photos from this half of the trip, and we didn't take part in the Five Rhythms bit, so we'll pass straight on to our second stop.

When we went to stay with Alice's friend in Hassocks again, we just had to pay another visit to Mama Ghanoushe: the food is so delicious - and pretty to look at too. [ Click on any image to see it enlarged. ]

Ba of course was attracted to the rose petals, which I suppose were quite becoming. "But becoming what?" you may well ask. It may seem a strange use of the word, but the etymology is actually quite interesting.

She said I was just being silly with the carrot swirl. She's not usually as forthright as that, so I let it go.

We passed a super shop on our way back, and Alice fell in love with this red dragon, which reminded her of one of Dany's dragons in Game of Thrones.

Anyway, I climbed in with him, and tried to persuade him to run away with us. But he refused, and said he would rather get bought by some-one who can afford him.
Snooty, eh?


And yes, we are still watching G-o-T, and waiting impatiently for Season Seven. See HBO's Trailer. Winter really is coming, but not until this summer: 17*7*17. Spooky numbers, eh?

The next day we went for another lunch out at this gigantic garden centre. They sell all sorts of stuff there, not just plants: so everyone enjoyed a good look around.

We finished our lunch off with coffee and some totally scrumptious cake. Ba was very puzzled by the "Table Tracker" sign.

Here is one of the said devices: you put it on your table, and it magically broadcasts its whereabouts to the waiters, who don't then have to look for silly little flags. The dining area is huge.

Alice here is  enjoying her "disgusting" cake. She means that metaphorically - it's quite the opposite, but doesn't fit in with her aim of losing weight. "We're on holiday!" she protested.

Don't forget you can click these smaller images to see them in their full glory. Or tap or press, we must now learn to say, for those of you looking at this on your phone or tablet or other amazing new digital thingy. Maybe even a pair of "smart glasses"?

In a courtyard area beside the restaurant was a statue of a magnificent boar, being admired here by ourselves. We kept to a safe distance, as Ba was just a bit scared, despite reassurances.
And above is the boar from the opposite direction.

Alice had to reconstruct his eye from the one on the far side, as this one was annoyingly obscured by a leaf in the foreground. She spends just hours getting these details done to her satisfaction. It's Virgo rising.

The sign says it all, and was very tempting indeed, but Alice said we must be already full up with other goodies. Spoilsport!

[ See the origin of the word here, and for information on the book mentioned there, go to good old Wikipedia. ]

Our next stop was to this interesting ecological burial ground. See contact infomation on their website.

Further information about Natural Burial Grounds in the UK can be found here.

Alice said that in Frank Herbert's wonderful novel, Dune, the Bene Gesserit buried their bodies vertically, and planted a fruiting tree on top, to create a productive orchard. She'd like it when her time comes, and fancies Binning Wood, which looks lovely and is close to us. Nothing morbid about that, is there? Good ecologically sound thinking, if you ask me. Oh, and we've just found a great article about Dune and its influence in a back copy of The Guardian that's well worth a read.

This is a view across a new plot, towards the South Downs ridge, with the Jack and Jill windmills just visible on the horizon.

Here's the "Jill" windmill as Alice photographed it back on our October 2016 visit: but she only got round to the editing in February 2017. Sigh.

That's us on the steps up to the actual windmill hut. Ba is such a sensitive wee soul, she was too scared of the height to look up at it, so I gave her a reassuring hug.

Before setting off for home again (on a plane, this time!) we stopped to say goodbye to another friend in the garden of the house where we'd been staying. We'd had a very mixed yet very enjoyable time "Down South" again. I know, I know, it isn't down at all. Just a figure of speech.

There's more to tell you about how things have been going since we got back, but that will have to wait for another update, or more likely, for a new post altogether.

Catching up backwards. [ Part Three - final one! ]
[UPDATED THURSDAY 2nd FEBRUARY 2017]

The plan
Alice has a birthday coming up quite soon, and intends to finish "catching up" before then, even if it means missing out some details, or including fewer photos. We'll see, won't we.

How old is she going to be? Well may you ask. She didn't want to spell it out for the general public, but consented to giving you the number in Binary notation, so if you really, really want to know, you can easily look it up. It's 1010010. Oops, no no, we got it wrong and it should be 1001000, so the candles are wrong too . . .

She thought of putting seven candles in two colours on a cake to indicate her great age accurately, but as she's unsure about whether there will actually be a cake on the day (the plans are still uncertain) we'll have to wait and see. Ba, however, who found the binary stuff totally bamboozling, but simply loves candlelight, was so disappointed at having to wait for something that might not even happen, that we just had to have a mock-up. And Alice, of course, thoroughly enjoyed organising the whole photo-shoot too.

Binary systems, by the way, are found in the ancient I Ching which goes back simply millennia.

The first time Alice tried it, years ago when visiting a friend, she was impressed enough that when she got home, she bought a book, chose three coins, and threw them six times again with the same question. She threw exactly the same hexagram. Wow! Goodness knows what the odds are on that. Jung also thought it was a very useful psychological tool. So she's used it, with discretion, on and off ever since.

There's a great site with good modern interpretations, if you want to give it a go. We could write reams more, but we're supposed to be catching up.

Introducing Fredrick
We have a new friend, Fredrick [ not Frederick! ] whom you would have seen if you read our belated Christmas blog. He arrived by Royal Mail, quite unexpectedly, last November. It turns out he was an Un-Christmas present from Alice's friend Down South, just before she finished packing up her old house to move to the new place where we visited her recently. We told you about that in our November post.

An Un-Christmas present is rather like an Un-Birthday present, which item we explained way, way back in June 2012, as Humpty Dumpty told the original Alice in Alice Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 6.

Ba wasn't around then, so we had to read her this copy of the relevant page, slightly revised. See above and click to make it clearer.

Mostly Fredrick just sits quietly on the arm of the settee. He doesn't say much at all, though he did communicate his name to Alice when she asked. Very occasionally it seems he has changed position, though we've never actually witnessed him doing so. He looks quite alert in the lower image here, doesn't he? And he consents to be put in position for special occasions.

Please do admire Alice's two-in-one photo. She spends forever fiddling with compositions like this, although she knows we must get on and catch up! What is she like! [ Sigh. ]

Trip "Down South" [ Another part two . . . ]

A wedding
Back in October (don't forget we're catching up backwards) we set off on yet another train to visit a different friend of Alices' as they were both invited to the wedding of an old University friend.

Here is an old photo of Alice on the left, plus the friend whose wedding it was, and the good friend we stayed with. [ Click it! ]

This last pal is responsible for the very existence of our blog: back in May 2012 she said "I think Monkey should have a blog." And here we still are: thank you!

She was also the very one whose necklace rack inspired Alice's own. We showed you our one in August. Here is the original.

We didn't take much part in the wedding itself, though Alice has dozens of photos and some video still to edit. Here we are looking after Alice's wedding hat, and some pieces of jewelry, before she got dressed and ready to go.

Up to London to "do art"

First we stopped at this fabulous (in both senses) Ev Restaurant.

Alice and her friend had coffee, while Ba and I had a great time looking around.

We got quite friendly with the band, despite Ba almost cutting off this player's vision. We also admired the beautiful old flask. I gather the Menu is pretty good as well.

Apparently Jeremy Corbyn dined here some while ago, too. The Vimeo video of the event shows something of the restaurant, as well as shots of this controversial politician.

Alice took lots of photos of the decor, which was most unusual. Here are just a couple. She especailly liked the curved roof beams, the chandeliers and this mirror. You must click these, if nothing else!

Her friend requested a photo of the utensils (bottom half of the one on the right) to base a drawing on it. But we've not seen that yet. Hint.

Tate Modern

Tate Modern was our main objective for the day. The first photo shows the original Boiler House area on the left (with the the entrance to the famous Turbine Hall) and the new Switch House to the right.

The other image is one of the viewing plaform from the restaurant in the Boiler House section of the building. See also an article in the design magazine de zeen, with numerous photos.

The viewing platform is open to the air, with no glass to hinder photography, though the public are also very carefully protected with a well-designed barrier.

There's a super view of St Paul's across the river, not to mention the boats, the bridges, and the people looking ever so tiny indeed. In fact you can walk all the way round and see in every direction. 

Alice made a video of this, and it's on her friend Joy's YouTube channel.

But we had come intending to see the Georgia O'Keefe exhibition. Ba said she didn't want to bother with it, because she didn't like paintings: she liked real things. But when we told her the artist was famous for some gorgeous paintings of flowers, and really huge ones at that, she agreed to give it a go.

The exhibition included some stunning photographs by O'Keefe's long-term partner (later her husband) Alfred Stieglitz. This is his Hands and Horse Skull (1931). Next is a reproduction of her Oriental Poppies (1927) which is a generous 40 inches by 30.

These three are Dark Iris No.1 (also 1927); another Stieglitz photo of Georgia, focussing on her long fingers, and Shell No. 2, painted in 1928. Ba liked the poppies best, while Alice went for the slim Iris. I liked them all, in all sorts of different ways.

This bag in the shop said just what we'd been telling Ba. It's a quotation by O'Keefe. The full text can be found at Good Reads.

Here's another: Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.

And: I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to ... I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-- things I had no words for.

When we got down to the Embankment again, we found a hoard of children enjoying the products of a busker - making giant bubbles, with an extra large multiple loop device, which he dipped into a paddling pool full of the soapy liquid.

Very enterprising indeed. Alice gave him a pound.

There's a short video of this fun time on the faithful friend's YouTube channel.

Jupiter Artland - return visit 

The only other thing we haven't "caught up" on telling you about, is our return visit to Jupiter Artland, back last September. But Alice is far too tired and hungry to type any more, and I'm in need of a snooze, so we're going to give the details a miss, I'm afraid.

This time Ba also was introduced to the Weeping Girls, and found them just as disconcerting as I did the first time. That 2012 visit is recorded on this blog here.