When birds do sing

Have you heard the chorus of birdsong in the morning and evening? Maybe it's because we've all been huddled indoors waiting for the rain to stop, but now the sun is shining the birds seem to be singing their socks off!!!

This is my new linocut 'When birds do sing', it's inspired by our beautiful English songbirds and – as Shakespeare is just everywhere this summer (on the telly, and the radio, at the BM, in Cambridge and most likely also in a garden near you) – by a pastoral ditty from Shakespeare's comedy 'As You Like It'. If you don't know the tune – here's link to a rather jolly 1978 production; the madrigal setting was composed for Shakespeare by Thomas Morley, who was the son of a Norwich brewer (which is nice!) who went on to be choir-master of Norwich Cathedral before he went to London. He lived in the same parish as the popular playwright of the day, Will Shakespeare; I like to think of them chatting in a local tavern 'Hey Tom, will you do a tune for my new song?' ''Twill be a pleasure, Will!'

 I've based the style of the hey ding a ding dings in the typeface in this book . . .

 

It's one of two very battered and crumbling, leather bound books I bought about 25 years ago for a few pounds in a second-hand book shop in Cambridge. Apart from being old volumes of Shakespeare plays, I knew nothing about them but as soon as I picked them up I knew I had to have them!

I think they must be from the second edition (1714) of Nicholas Rowe's multi-volume edition of Shakespeare's works; the first edition (1709) was the first printed version of the plays to include stage directions and a 'Dramatis Personae' at the beginning of each play. The books were published by Jacob Tonson, a very interesting character and pioneer book publisher.

but back to my print . . .

'When birds do sing' is a limited edition of 50, but I'm doing an 'Edition Varie' which is a printmaking-speak is basically using the same blocks and printing in different colours and on different papers. The image size is 21 x 21cm. The first batch (and we are heading for that big patriotic weekend!) are 10 red and 10 blue prints on lovely crisp Kitakata paper, which coincidentally has a similar feel to the pages of my 300 year old book.

And . . . yes, there are cards too!

There's a little detail of a chirrupy Wren inside . . .

And the detail on the back is different  . . . a Blackbird and Warbler on the blue card

and a Chaffinch on the red one . . .

Celia
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Now in Liverpool

Over the past couple of years I've got to know Liverpool a little better; the reason for our frequent visits was not a happy one  . . . Cliff's aunt suffered a serious stroke and we were helping her to move to a nursing home; eventually we had to clear her house and sell it. Although the visits were never easy, I got to know the area where Cliff had spent his early years and where his family had lived for generations. Gradually we built in time to explore places in and around the city.


One of my favourite places, just five minutes walk from Lime Street Station where the high speed Pendolino from London arrives, is the Bluecoat; it's just off the main pedestrian shopping street, go down Church Alley opposite M&S and down the side of Primark and at the end you'll see the gateway into the front courtyard.

Look up as you pass through the gates and you'll see a Liver bird (you see, Liver bird spotting is what I do when I'm in the city; what's more the sky is blue, the sun in shining and there are newly opened leaves on the trees :-)

Look, there's another Liver bird on the broken pediment above a doorway . . .

We've discovered that Upstairs at the Bluecoat is a haven of calm and the perfect place to have lunch before we catch the local train up to Waterloo to see Cliff's aunt. We can relax and eat scouse or fish and chips . . . it's friendly and spacious.

So, imagine my surprise when a week of so back I received an email from a shop in Liverpool who were interested in stocking my cards and when I checked to see if it might be feasible to call in on our next visit I found it was Nook & Cranny, the exciting new shop I'd spotted in the Bluecoat courtyard right next to the stairs up to the bistro!

I'd sent a parcel of cards (including the new vintage-colour hare cards) and I knew that they were already on display, but imagine my excitement on Saturday morning to see my cards laid out on the table just inside the door (apologies for the quality, I must have been shaking!). We met Leigh and had a chat about all the things she has planned for the shop.

Nook & Cranny have a lovely blog where they showcase artists and designers whose work they stock, as well as art events in Liverpool and quirky craft ideas. So even if you can't visit in person you can visit their virtual world.

I'd spotted a chalkboard in the courtyard advertising Liverpool's Big Vintage Fair, maybe there would be time for a very quick visit on our way back to Lime Street to catch the train home, and fingers crossed that there would be nice things left at almost closing time?


There was :-) and I found a bargain that hadn't been snapped up . . . vintage Laura Ashley cotton lawn orange roses :-) and it fits perfectly!

So here we are again, walking up the steps into Lime Street Station, the new pleached limes are just coming into leaf . . .

Here's the view from the train as we cross Mersey once again heading South; in the crystal clear far distance we can see the mountains of North Wales.

We sat back and watched the West Midlands basking in beautiful evening sunshine, a respite from the dreadful weather we've had since Easter; we could see people walking their dogs, sitting by shiny silver rivers and children swinging on gates waving as our red train swooshed and swerved and leaned along the track back to London.

I'll be back there in July . . . can't wait!

Celia
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Freshly cut

I'm writing this little blog post to test out the Blogger iPhone app . . . fingers crossed!

This evening I cut asparagus for our supper, I used the asparagus knife that's been in our family for three generations. It's cut a lot of asparagus!

I think a number of crowns are missing from our asparagus bed . . . in the winter I'd seen small burrows along the side of the raised bed - I suspect hungry mice have eaten them. But the remaining crowns are healthy and the spears are plump and sweet :-)

There is nothing as delicious as freshly cut spears of home grown asparagus!

Celia
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Now is the month of Maying . . .

Fa-la la-la-la . . .

If you're about to go a-skipping round a May-pole this Bank Holiday weekend in England, you'd better wear your wellies! I won't go on about it, but if you live here in the UK you will already know that it's been the wettest April on record, May has so far been a deluge and night frosts are forecast for the holiday weekend! Never mind, eh?

So, I thought I'd do something to cheer you all up . . . in fact it was a case of "necessity being the mother of invention"! I'd received a trade order for a selection of my cards, including the 'Magical Hares' cards but supplied as single, individually packaged cards. But then, my laser printer which I use to print my cards, decided that it didn't like printing black onto the parchment card stock (what!!!!). I was rapidly wasting precious card blanks and getting very stressed! the stupid machine was printing the red 'Birds' wedding' and brown 'March hares beautifully, but the black was rubbish.

Then I had a brain wave, I'd discontinue the black version of the Hare designs (and apologise to my new customer) and introduce new colour versions . . . and here they are . . .

The colour choice was inspired by my collection of vintage embroidered linens and book jackets.

olive

fuchsia

tangerine

teal

You can buy single cards or a pack of each of the four designs . . . and there's another reason to smile . . . yes!!! FREE SHIPPING to UK mainland addresses on ALL purchases from Magic Cochin's Emporium.

I'll keep the price of cards the same until 12th June 2012, then I'll review things. I might increase the prices a little, but shipping to the UK mainland will still be included in the price of each item  . . . no add-ons (except for an overseas shipping sur-charge).


I hope you all have a lovely May Holiday . . . forget about the weather forecast, in my experience the weather reports always err on the gloomy side and it actually turns out to be not bad at all.

Celia
x

PS I'm planning to send out my next studio newsletter after the holiday weekend, so if you haven't subscribed and would like to, please click here.

Oh, to be in England now that April's there . . .

When Dinahmow planned her trip back to revisit the country she left many years ago, I suspect she had in mind – like Robert Browning – blossom and a chaffinch singing on a bough. Unfortunately the jet-stream has delivered England's much needed rain, and lots and lots of it!

Today's plan was a rendez-vous with not just Dinahmow but also Lizzie-made; the selected meeting place was the brand shiny new Harriet's Café Tearooms in Cambridge . . . and jolly nice it is too!

Fortified with tea/coffee and toasted tea-cakes we ventured forth down cobbled lanes shiny with puddles; there were no tourist groups to jostle with, just the occasional student on a bike. The only person in the view from Magdalene Bridge was a man baling water out of the punts.

Bloggers are hardy souls . . .

and the sunflowers looked happy!

We were on our way to Kettles Yard to see Alfred Wallis: ships and boats. The elderly Cornish sailor took up painting to fill the void in his life after his wife died. He painted on scraps of card and board using paints from the hardware store. He painted his memories, he painted what he knew well . . . ships and the sea.

And that might have been that, but Alfred Wallis lived in St Ives and it was 1928 . . . two artists from London were in St Ives planning to establish an artists' colony by the sea . . . they were Ben Nicholson and Kit Wood and as the saying goes 'the rest is history'.

On the way back into town we passed a shop full of bright things . . . it drew us bloggers in like wasps to a jam sarnie! Some of us couldn't resist buying things!

What with all that art and designy things and choosing, not to mention the incessant rain, we were in need of sustainance and there was only one place to go for a true English comfort food experience . . .

Fitzbillies!

Feeling satisfyingly filled up with delicious warming tastiness on toast, we were ready to face the rain again. But first I needed to buy a couple of Chelsea buns (you can't go into Fitzbillies and NOT buy Chelsea buns, that would, be . . . well . . . just wrong!) I nearly panicked when I couldn't see any CB's under or on the counter. But there was no need to fret, the CB's are now held in a stainless steel cupboard – nick-named 'the dalek' – it's there at the back against the blue tiled wall, with the stack of bun-bags on the top.

And look, I've got a lovely present! One of Lizzie's beautiful hand-bound books and a linocut of Spanish lemons :-) A lovely way to remember our meet-up day.


Celia
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Grow your own

Well, I'm no longer a member of the RHS (the stack of un-read copies of The Garden and unused membership card just didn't warrant the sub) and I only rarely watch Gardeners' World (sorry all you Monty fans but he just doesn't inspire me to garden) BUT apparently it's National Gardening Week, so why not? Let's go for a little tour of my plot . . . I've been beavering away with renewed enthusiasm this year!

It's that time of the year, twixt cold frosty nights and very warm sunny days, when there's not room to move in the greenhouse! I daren't risk putting those tender plants outside; the tomatoes are getting bigger every day; I need space for more seed trays and modules; and when that chill wind is blowing I need a place to sit and have a cup of tea ;-)

I've planted the potatoes . . . International Kidney in large pots which will be topped up with leaf-mould as the shoots peek through the soil (thanks for the tip Fiona). Juliette and Ratte in the new bed along the side of the greenhouse.

The 'fairy-fences' (Fiona's term) or 'slug-hotels' (Cliff's term) are looking good . . . whatever they're called they stop the soil falling onto the paths, the planting area is maximised and they are made from pruning and cost nothing. And I had fun weaving them and they look pretty.

The pea wigwams this year are made from home-grown miscanthus grass stems and dog-wood prunings. I am waging war with the pigeons, I know that they plan to wait and lull me into a sense of security before they strike and peck my precious pea plants. I have wrapped the bottom half of the wigwams in wire netting – it's not visible from a distance but is protecting the young pea plants as they get established. To deter those pesky pigeons without compromising on style, I've made yards of APB (anti-pigeon-bunting) from coloured plastic mail-order packaging and scrap bias binding – again this cost absolutely nothing. Cliff says they look like prayer flags. I'm praying that the pigeons are scared of APB.

Now this is a good sight :-) Aspargus poking their fat little noses through the soil!

The Artichoke survived a -16C freezing and is looking good; and yes, more APB!

The recent rain has refilled the Dragonfly Pond; and there's a new dragonfly sculpture – Cheep the cockerel jumped onto the wooden chain-saw sculpted dragonfly and snapped off one of the rather rotten wings! So I bought this new metal one when we went to Belton House at Easter.

Yep! The Orange 'chicken-proof fence' is still in situ and it's worked pretty well. The Round Garden and Box-hedge Border are beginning to look good again. When will I take the fence down? Er, pass!

The view through the severely pruned Hazel Arch across the Round Garden to my studio. I've planted Sweetpeas around the metal obelisks and sowed seeds of Gypsophila, Amaranth and Ammi Majus – all flowers for cutting. The seeds are from Ben aka Mr Higgledy (his excellent web site will make you want to grow flowers and smile all at the same time!)

Happy gardening . . . let the growing begin!

Celia
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Lessons from the little water buffalo

Yesterday afternoon I took break from carving a woodcut and glanced across to my computer screen, I spotted a Tweet from @CambridgeNewsUK "Works of art stolen after break-in at Fitzwilliam Museum in #Cambridge - more details soon" – I felt a lump in my throat . . . if it's 'my' little buffalo, I'll cry!

The news was out that last Friday, 13th April, at round 7.30pm thieves had broken into the Fitzwilliam Museum and had taken 18 carved jade objects from the oriental gallery (on the ground floor just behind the atrium café) one of them was this green jade buffalo . . . 'my' buffalo.

Fitzwilliam Museum id object 167886

I remember the day I first met the little buffalo, it was a school visit to the museum with Mrs Slade, the pottery teacher. She pointed out the carved green jade water buffalo . . . she got us to look at his round tummy and serene face, the folds of soft flesh under his chin and the little whorl of hair on his forehead. I fell totally in love with him.

For nearly 40 years the little water buffalo has been part of my visits to the Fitzwilliam Museum and my visits home; he was there when I was on my way to my holiday job in the museum one summer (shuffling card indexes in the coins department); I took Cliff to meet him; I've stood in front of him when I was sad; I've shared a moment with him when I felt happy; and he was there when I went to see the Vermeers a few weeks ago.

But today . . . who knows where the little buffalo is? I hope he's not damaged. I hope he's safe. I hope I'll be able to see him again . . . but there's more I can learn from my buffalo . . .

When I looked at the Fitzwilliam Museum website yesterday, I read the 'History Note':

Taken from Qianlong’s Summer Palace by a Scotch subaltern,
when it was sacked in 1861.
At his death he left it to his sister, who died in 1907.
Oscar Raphael bought it at the sale of her effects.
Bequeathed: (Raphael, Oscar C.; 1946)

I thought about the 'life' of the little water buffalo; he began as a small boulder of green jade about the size of a man's foot, in a Chinese river . . .

photo borrowed from Friends of Jade

Then 500 years ago a craftsman sat the boulder on his work table, looked at it and saw a little water buffalo, sitting down and turning his head to sniff the air. I wonder how many hours work it took for him to 'release' the little buffalo's form form the rough stone?

In China, jade was precious, more special than gold or silver . . . where did the little buffalo spend the next 300 years? In a temple, a garden or palace? Who did he calm and inspire?

What is known is that in the early 1800s the little buffalo was one of the treasures in the Gardens of Perfect Brightness, Yuan Ming Yuan . . .

 

This beautiful complex of gardens and palaces was the Emperor's retreat from the summer heat of Beijing.

The next chapter in the little buffalo's life is dramatic and distressing . . . it was during the Second Opium War, it was 1860 and the French and British armies had marched on Beijing. Two British envoys, a journalist from the Times and their escort of troops went ahead to meet with Chinese officials for peace talks . . . it went horribly wrong and the British group were imprisoned and brutally tortured.

The British High Commissioner to China was Lord Elgin (the son of Elgin of 'The Elgin Marbles' fame) here he is arriving in Beijing . . .

Outraged by the atrocity he ordered the destruction of Yuan Ming Yuan . . .

3,500 British soldiers attacked the palace and set it on fire, one of the soldiers was 27 year Charles Gordon (later to find fame as General Gordon in the Sudan), he wrote in his diary:

We went out, and, after pillaging it, burned the whole place, destroying in a vandal-like manner most valuable property which [could] not be replaced for four millions. We got upward of £48 apiece prize money...I have done well. The [local] people are very civil, but I think the grandees hate us, as they must after what we did the Palace. You can scarcely imagine the beauty and magnificence of the places we burnt. It made one’s heart sore to burn them; in fact, these places were so large, and we were so pressed for time, that we could not plunder them carefully. Quantities of gold ornaments were burnt, considered as brass. It was wretchedly demoralising work for an army.

There was much disapproval, Victor Hugo the French author, wrote:

Two robbers breaking into a museum, devastating, looting and burning, leaving laughing hand-in-hand with their bags full of treasures; one of the robbers is called France and the other Britain.

 

One of the objects stolen was a little green jade buffalo.


The last 40 years has been a short chapter in the life story of the little water buffalo. Who knows what the next twist in the tale will be? Where will the the next scenes take place? Will he return to China or to Cambridge? And what lessons will he teach to those who look?



Celia
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Memory flotsam

It's hard to miss the coverage in the media about the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, and most of the documentaries and dramas have been anti-climatic to say the least.

Here are some memories – some recent, some that bobbed to the surface after being submerged for decades . . .

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

Last weekend we were briefly in Liverpool and had time to call in to the Maritime Museum to see their Titanic exhibition. It was very dark and claustrophobic, invoking a sense of panic in me –  I started thinking about being trapped in a dark corridor full of people – probably not the intention of the exhibition designer.

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

I must have been about 8 years old, at school we had to learn a song about a big ship called 'Titanic' that sank and lots of people died. My Granddad explained it was a true, the ship really did hit an iceberg in the middle of the ocean and sink with lots of people still on board. I found that very scary and troubling. This was the song and it's been my 'ear-worm' all week.

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

 On Cliff's Aunt's spare room beds were blankets embroidered with large swirly initials W. S. L.

"Who's WSL, were they a relative?"

"No! White Star Line. Father worked on the ships"

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

In a drawer of photos and letters, a song book . . .

I wonder if the passengers on Titanic had song books?

"My Bonnie is over the ocean" and "Oft in the stilly night"

songs for travelers to a new life in a new country.

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

Celia

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The Primrose Egg

On Easter Monday evening I painted my Easter Rhea egg . . . I used acrylic paints and the egg shell was a beautiful textured surface which took the paint perfectly. I didn't draw a design to follow or use a pencil to draw the shapes first – I just had an idea and dived in with my paints.

This morning was perfect for a photo shoot in our primrose-filled gravel garden along the side of the front yard.

Here's a closer view . . .

I've signed it and painted 'EASTER 2012' on one side . . .

The Rhea egg was already Primrose coloured, so I just needed to add the tiniest shading and paint the green background.

Maybe I should make this into my Easter tradition and paint a Rhea egg each Easter?

And thank you to one of the Rheas at Oakview Pork and Poultry for the beautiful egg.



Celia
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