Year of the Hare

Now playing: Al Stewart - Year of the Cat

Spirit of the water

Narcissus tazetta v. chinensis

Flowering carved narcissus bulbs

For the Lunar New Year, the Chinese have long believed it auspicious to have flowering  narcissus  in the house. The narcissus, or sui sin fah (which means water fairy), represents purity of heart and spirit and the hope of prosperity.

The old woman remembered a swan she had bought many years ago in Shanghai for a foolish sum. "This bird", boasted the market vendor, "was once a duck that stretched its neck in hopes of becoming a goose. And now look, it is too beautiful to eat!" Then the woman and the swan sailed across an ocean many thousands of lei wide, stretching their necks toward America. On her journey, she cooed to the swan, "In America, I will have a daughter just like me. But over there, nobody will say her worth is measured by the loudness of her husbands belch. Over there, nobody will look down on her because I will make her speak only perfect American English. And over there, she will always be too full to swallow any sorrow. She will know my meaning because I will give her this swan, a creature that became more than what was hoped for." But when she arrived in the new country the immigration officials pulled the swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory. For a long time now, the women had wanted to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her; "This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions. - opening narration, The Joy Luck Club (1993)


Now playing: Toni Childs - House of Hope

Two words:

John Lobb

It's a way of being.

Only great minds can afford a simple style. - Stendhal

  Now playing: Inner City - Good Life

Purpose built

Designed by Lord Snowdon for the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969.

Some 4,500 odd were produced for the event with invited guests being given first refusal of purchase.

Now playing - The Smiths - This Charming Man

Uncommon talents

HRH The Princess Margaret
photographed by Cecil Beaton on her 21st birthday

"PM spoke of the Royal Family with expectable reverence not unmixed with humour and the occasional surrealist note: "The Queen is uncommonly talented in ways that you might not suspect," she proclaimed. Suspecting nothing, I asked, "In what way?" "Well, she can put on a very heavy tiara while hurrying down a flight of stairs with no mirror." - extract from Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir by Gore Vidal

Now playing: The Smiths -  There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Idle hands, truly are the Devil's playground

The possibilities are endless.

Keep Calm and Carry On

Now playing: Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good

Imminent Spring

Blossom with Bird, 2009

 Drawing on paper

Blossom with Bird, 2009
Linocut on kezo paper

133.5 x 97.4 cm

Quince Blossom, 2007

 Linocut on Somerset paper

76 x 56 cm Signed and editioned (Edition of 30)

 by

Robin Duttson

at

Tag Fine Arts

Now playing: Air - Space Maker

As it is meant to be

Donald Urquhart

Now Playing: Marlene Dietrich - Live in London 1972, The Laziest Gal In Town

From a different time

Kerry Blue Terrier

Natural blue mink

1965 Lincoln convertible with suicide doors

Pierre Balmain's Jolie Madame by René Gruau

Now playing: Frank Sinatra - Summer Wind

Obssesion renewed

Ambiance, Cool Water and Amnesia roses with camellia leaves

Amnesia and Cool Water roses being a current obsession. Current, not new. Since first encountering  Sterling Silver in a florist's shop in San Francisco, some 30 years ago, I  have had a thing for mauve coloured roses. They hark back to a different time. A time when  blue mink and Kerry Blue Terriers were fashionable, and cars had suicide doors.

Scene from Vertigo 

Interior shot of  Podesta Baldocchi on Grant Avenue. It was a magical place, especially at Christmas.

Little Silver Spray, Cool Water and Amnesia roses with acacia, magnolia leaves, pinus and willow
Christmas 2010

Now playing: Hercules and Love Affair - Iris

Mantle so green

Vine Effect with Dutchman's Pipe and Clematis paniculata

from

A Practical Handbook Of Trees, Shrubs, Vines And Herbaceous Perennials 

by John Kirkegaard

Now playing:

Christian Ferras - Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47: II. Adagio di molto     
Zubin Mehta, conducting

The ordinary made extraordinary

5-7 Blyth Grove

Worksop

Nottinghamshire

This typical three-storey, semi detached house (No. 7 is to the right in the image above) which belonged to the Straw family remained unaltered for some 60 years. After their parents died in the 1930s, brothers William and Walter Straw remained in the house without altering any of its inter-war interior.

Today it is part of the National Trust and is open to the public as a museum dedicated to  inter-war life.

William senior, wife Florence and son Walter moved into Blyth Grove, built in 1905.

Florence decorated it in the style of the day, dark and heavy wallpaper, patterned carpets, dado rails holding portraits and paintings in ornate wooden frames.

They lived a quiet, well-ordered life until the day in 1932 when Walter's father died suddenly at the age of 68. In their grief, the family decided nothing would be changed. 

Bygones: Mr Straw's House Frozen In Time In 1932  by Dlowe

Now playing: America - Tin Man

Banter

An art form in itself.  And, something which the British are particularly adept.

Cockney saying: Mate. You've got two hopes. Bob Hope and no hope. 

Camellia japonica Bob Hope

Large, very dark, semi double flowers on a neatly compact plant approximately 5'

Now playing: Billie Holiday - A Foggy Day

Worthy of admiration

Mount Stuart

Isle of Bute, Scotland

Like its creator, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, this sandstone palace is profoundly 

inspired by history, astrology, art and mythology.

The ever enchanting Lucinda Lambton conducts a tour of the astonishing
Victorian Gothic palace Mount Stuart.

The Purple Library

Now playing: Aztec Camera - All I Need Is Everything

Past the Ernst and right at the Arp

 Forgotten Horizon 

Salvador Dali, 1936

Oil on wood, 222 x 267 mm

Dalí’s disturbing, imaginary landscapes often contain references to his own life. Forgotten Horizon is a typical example, drawing upon memories of childhood holidays on the beach at Rosas on the Costa Brava. The striding woman in the distance is his cousin, Carolinetta, while the dancing figures in the foreground were inspired by a picture on a postcard. Dalí intended the effect to be hallucinatory, with the figures appearing as if projected onto a prepared background or theatrical set. - from Tate Modern

Now playing: Harold Budd/Brian Eno - Against the Sky

Egyptian revival

Could this have really ended any other way?

I think not.

Elizabeth Taylor in the title role of Cleopatra (1963)

Egyptian revival

Always Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, never The Mummy's Curse.

A mid 19th Century French ormolu-mounted mahogany, ebony and ebonised bureau-plat 

by J. Muller of Paris

 

An ormolu-mounted, ivory and ebony inlaid mahogany and fruitwood console

Late 19th/ early 20th Century

Egyptian Avenue, Highgate Cemetary

London

 Egyptian Halls, Glasgow

by architect Alexander Greek Thomson

Now playing: The Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian

Egyptian revival

Sophia Loren as Aida

The Sophia Loren Archive

Aida, the 1953 Italian film adaptation of Verdi's opera directed by Clemente Fracassi starred Sophia Loren in the title role. Her vocals were provided by the great lyric soprano Renata Tebaldi. Lois Maxwell (later known for her role as Miss Moneypenny in the Bond films) appeared opposite Loren in the role of Amneris, with her vocals provided by mezzo-soprano Ebe Stignani. 

Aida opening sequence

O patria mia aria from Act III

Aida is torn between her loyalty to her country and her love for Radames, longing for her homeland and afraid that she may never see it again.

Aida, closing sequence

Sentenced to death for treason,  Radames (played by Luciano Della Marra and sung by Giuseppe Campora) has been entombed alive in the Temple of Vulcan's vault. Thinking that he is alone, he hears a sigh and then he sees her. Aida has hidden herself in the vault to die with him. They accept their fate and bid farewell to earthly sorrows. Above, in the Temple of Vulcan, Amneris prays to the goddess Ftha. Below, in the vault, Aida dies in Radames' arms.

Inspired

While Madame Ganna Walska rather famously said, I am an enemy of the average. 

She also opined, More is better.

''More is better,'' she said, and where traditionally one or two plants would do, Madame, in signature profusion, would place a hundred of the same species. She loved minerals. She adorned herself with jewels and her garden with amethyst crystals, lava rocks and seashells. Her sense of romance (it's hard to imagine being married six times without having some sense of the romantic) comes alive in her unique Blue Garden, which shimmers under a full moon. - Sean K. MacPherson 

Enemy Of The Average
April 14, 2002
The New York Times

Her legacy Lotusland,  beautifully captured by  Karl Gercens (via gardenvisit.com), is  living testament to her unique expression of spirit and perspective.





Now playing: Dead Can Dance - Toward the Within

at Home

Edward R. Murrow

Person to Person  developed out of Edward R. Murrow's belief that human beings are innately curious. That curiosity was intense regarding the private lives of public people, or visiting the extraordinary in the most ordinary environment - the home. 

Some of the original at home interviews available on YouTube:

Marilyn Monroe (1955)

Elizabeth Taylor & Mike Todd (1957) 

Lauren Bacall & Humphrey Bogart (1954)

Sophia Loren (1958)

Bette Davis & Gary Merrill (1956)

Gisele MacKenzie

Edward R. Murrow - The Best of Person to Person (1953)

Now playing:  Billie Holiday - Moonglow