Digression

This by way of work in progress, or perhaps digestion in progress.

I am now taking my turn with the book at reference 2, first noticed at reference 1, and was interested to come across a painting by Parmigianino called 'Self portrait in a convex mirror', a painting which I have now looked up. Parmigianino being best known to me as a late Renaissance painter of ladies with rather long necks.

The painting was done on a convex wooden panel about nine and a half inches across - so comfortably fits full size on a desktop computer screen. It was also the subject of a long poem by one John Ashbery, a poem which can be found at reference 4. Ashbery is a big cheese in the world of poetry in the US and this poem was a big part of what propelled him to his present eminence. I have a download but I have yet to make much of it.

Instead, I have been worrying about the frame, with frames and the hanging of pictures being important to my mind. Pictures do not exist in vacuo. One version of the framed picture turned up by Bing is included above. 

Then another, rather different photograph from the late nineteenth century.

Then another, a presumably more recent photograph from the same stable, that is to say reference 6. Perhaps the inner core detaches from the background plate of the first snap. And then, fashions in such matters do change of the years. We must not forget the need to shock and awe the punters.

So a self-portrait taken from a convex mirror, rendered first on a circular convex panel and rendered here unframed on a flat screen, nowhere near the sort of wall on which it was presumably once intended to be hung. Perhaps a papal wall. Painted at a time when the artist was very young and perspective was new and exciting. The artist was also a noted draughtsman and etcher.

All in all a complicated conceit, of a sort that I believe rich or arty people of the time were fond. But for this person present, very much work in progress.

PS: I have now got as far as consulting Canaday of reference 6. Real name Francesco Mazzola, called Parmigianino for his birth in the cheese town. In later life became obsessed with alchemy and rather neglected what he was good at. Died fairly young (for his time) at 37.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/to-pictures.html.

Reference 2: Curtain Call - Antony Quinn - 2015.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-portrait_in_a_Convex_Mirror.

Reference 4: https://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/John-Ashbery-Self-Portrait-in-a-Convex-Mirror.pdf.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ashbery.

Reference 6: https://www.khm.at/. Kunst Historisches Museum Wien.

Reference 7: The lives of the painters: Volume One: Late Gothic to High Renaissance - John Canaday - 1969.

Stockman

A fortnight ago or so saw two outings, a short morning outing in the course of which I snapped the mushrooms above, somewhere on the Chase Estate. Presumably the tree adjacent is not in very good health.

A spot of early lunch. Sausage from Lidl (as previously reported at reference 1) and bread from Borough, still eating OK two or three days after purchase.

And then a visit to Epsom Hospital, by which time it was raining in a fairly serious way, so time to crack out the stockman's coat. Not sure what it is made of, but it is woven, water repellent, lined and reasonably windproof. Plus hood for those wheeling trolleys when umbrellas are not convenient. Just the thing for autumn showers. 

First stop, a fancy car in Meadway. Perhaps the builder come to check up on his workers on the right? Or the tree man came to check his on the left? Not that unusual, as we had one resident in our own road for a while and were treated, from time to time, to sight of the special panel lorry which came to collect it for its service. Car check agrees that it is an Aston Martin, more precisely a 2017 DB11 V12, silver with an 8 speed automatic gear box, capable of 200mph. The same number of gears as the BMW noticed at reference 2.

Back via Waitrose where I found some interesting plums.

Foreign and rather crunchy for a plum, a bit like a slightly underripe nectarine. Generally not the yellow inside shown on the label. Name of ruby crunch, to be found at reference 3. BH thought they were underripe, but I thought that they were rather good. I bought some more over the following days, during which time I discovered that it was not a good plan to eat too many at once.

A few days later, back on another errand to the hospital, thinking this time to snap what I take to be an overflow pit at the bottom of the housing estate right, built in the grounds of what used to be a small convent. Part of which was a girls' school and part of which became a Chef & Brewer, the latter only recently closed.

And then the back of the house established in 1717, just outside the hospital gates, which used to be called the White Horse, presently closed. Rather more parking space and rather more security than I had expected. Perhaps it will be swept away if they ever get around to redeveloping part of the hospital site, which might still be on the cards when they get around to the new hospital for acute cases at Sutton.

I had thought that Guild Living were interested, people with an address near London Bridge Station, but the only location I can find at reference 4 is Siena, across the water. Puzzled of Epsom. Clearly need to check reference 5 a bit more carefully.

And then today, back yet again. And it was raining hard again, so out with the stockman's coat. But despite all the rain over the past few days, still no sign of water in the overflow pond.

After which, for the first time for what seems like weeks, there are now no medical dates in the calendar until next year. But I can't see that lasting long.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/09/lidl.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/titbits.html.

Reference 3: https://gradilis.com/rubycrunch/.

Reference 4: https://www.guildliving.com/en/.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/11/trolley-446.html.

Yachting

I learn via a recent copy of the Metro that the upcoming America's Cup is going to feature boats like that snapped above. Known to cognoscenti as AC75s. From the snaps turned up by Bing they seem to carry a crew of about a dozen and I read at reference 2 that on a good day they can manage 60mph, held aloft by one of the two fins. Fast enough, one might suppose, to be dangerous - I remember being told by a kiteboarder that hitting the water at 30mph can do serious damage.

Not the sort of thing that a gentleman would sail back in the heyday of the Royal London Yacht Club, noticed at reference 3.

The days when they sailed proper yachts with keels, wooden masts and canvas sails, like that snapped above. This one is Shamrock III, actually built for a grocer, but he counted as a gentleman as he was rich and he had good manners. I recall Dr. Slater (from reference 3) reporting a squabble from those days concerning the then new-fangled spinnakers, aka balloon sails - apparently a derivative of the top sails of proper yachts, the idea being to help catch the tricky winds of the Thames Estuary. On that occasion, new-fangled won.

I guess that what has not changed is that, other things being equal, the team with the most money to burn wins.

PS 1: Google Images does rather well on the snap above, turning up a good selection of photographs of yachts of the same class. Including the very same snap at reference 5, from 2008. Taken from the collection of photographs to be found in the book at reference 6. With my copy having once been the property of my artistic uncle, who also liked to mess about in boats on the Medway. While Abebooks turns up lots of copies of reference 7, one of reference 8 and others from the same series. Including the one we started with, at reference 6. Prices very mixed. Perhaps Chatto & Windus brought the whole series out, more or less in one go.

PS 2: all of which came to an end with a memory failure. To wit, I put Mrs. Muff of reference 9 at Chatto & Windus rather than at Heal's, where she belongs. Perhaps the link is Aldous Huxley, another arty eminence from the same era who was, I believe, published by Chatto & Windus. Snap above from eBay.

PS 3: I have now found out what all the cyclists were doing at reference 1. The rules of the race are that all the sail hauling has to be done by muscle power and it seems that the legs of serious cyclists can deliver more power than anything else. So they work what I think are called the grinders. Furthermore, the rules allow electric power below decks to work the computers, but not above decks to work the grinders. Not yet clear whether the same legs have to charge up the batteries. In any event, the rules are different for the ladies, who get more use out of their batteries.

References

Reference 1: https://www.ineosbritannia.com/#.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC75.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/07/shanklin.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/08/last-knockings.html. Not to be confused with the rather older (and presumably more illustrious) Royal Thames Yacht Club which turned up last year.

Reference 5: https://intheboatshed.net/tag/shamrock/.

Reference 6: Sailing - A Courtauld - 1935. Chatto & Windus. Volume V in the series 'Life and art in photograph'.

Reference 7: Life and art in photograph II: The Polar Regions: An Anthology of Arctic and Antarctic Photographs - Scott, J.M (edited with an introduction by) - 1935. Published by Chatto & Windus, London.

Reference 8: Life and Art in Photographs: Wild Animals - Helen Sidebotham - 1935.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/02/mr-muff.html. 

Beethoven & Bayes

A fortnight ago to St. Luke's for some Beethoven from Cloë Hanslip and Danny Driver. A day which started with some difficulty with the usually helpful National Rail Enquiries service denying the possibility of getting to Old Street from Epsom via Balham. It was if it had been told that Balham was shut on the day, which it was, as it turned out, not.

Getting on the train at Balham was complicated by a lady of middle years pushing ahead through the knot made by a party of women and children in foreign dress and ourselves, complete with rollator, managing to fall over in the process. But she recovered herself and proceeded to hold one of the women in conversation all the way to Moorgate, where she got off. I think the ladies came from Afghanistan, were living in Croydon and fancied a day out at the zoo, together with an infant and a small child with special needs, I think of an autistic variety. They appeared to have no idea how London transport worked or how far (Regents Park) Zoo was from Croydon. We thought that the whole expedition looked rather ambitious and that they would have done better to settle for some attraction a bit nearer home. 

Old Street turned out to be far from step-free  but we managed and got ourselves to our café at Whitecross Street in good time for a bacon sandwich (him) and toasts (her). Bacon sandwich as good as ever.

Onto a reasonably full St. Luke's. We would have liked the 12 variations (derived from Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro'), except that the piano rather drowned the violin. Things were rather better for the Kreutzer Sonata, either because the music gave more scope for the violin to assert itself or because they had warmed up a bit. While according to the programme notes, the pair play together regularly and she plays a violin which is near 300 years old by Guarneri del Gesu (aka Jesus), a maker who, according to reference 1, is up there with Stradivari. I think that the piano was by Steinway, although the lettering on the side was barely legible.

After the concert, to Pasta Nostra of reference 3, a restaurant we had found and liked back in May, as noticed at reference 4.

Carafe of something red. Something soft for BH. Olives and garlic bread to start. Crab flavoured black pasta for him. Truffle mushroom penne for her. Followed by a spot of orange flavoured ice cream for him and green tea for her. All good.

Washed down with a spot of grappa. Rather less of it than on the last occasion, despite being very reasonably priced.

Walls livened up with various Lucien Freud or Francis Bacon inspired paintings.

Cheerfully served by a young lady called Tabitha, a name we thought might be found in Alison Uttley or Beatrix Potter. Inquiry turns up one Tabitha Twitchit, a shopkeeping cat invented by Beatrix Potter. Not sure that I knew about her beforehand. Plus the Tabitha Paige of Texas of reference 5 who illustrates children's books, whom I certainly did not know about. Nothing on the Uttley front, although I have learned that she was a teacher of physics before she became a writer of stories. There is also a Tabitha (aka Dorcas) mentioned somewhere in the Acts of the Apostles, a devout lady living in Joppa (aka Jaffa), now absorbed into Tel Aviv.

However, at the time, my thought was that I would not be able to keep up such a friendly manner, all day with all comers. Maybe she takes a lot of black coffee to carry her through.

Lunch done, we headed south to inspect the tomb of Thomas Bayes, the low church parson who gave his name to an important branch of statistics and who spent quality time in Tunbridge Wells. I last paid my respects nearly ten years ago, as noticed at reference 6. He was from a family which made its money from knives and forks in Sheffield. Mixed up with the Cottons, in whose family vault he ended up. For all of which see reference 7. 

Rather more prominent was the vault of the water lady noticed at reference 8.

Various buildings important to either Methodists or Quakers nearby, which we shall have to take in properly on a further visit.

We also managed a glimpse of the curious crane noticed at reference 9. After which we dived into the tube at Moorgate and headed for home, with the rollator prompting welcome offers of seats.

The day closed on the platform at Epsom Station with a serious looking young lady - in a blue uniform - hauling a large flat package about on a little trolley. She explained that it was her portable massage table, all 13kg of it. Quite a lot to be hauling about. Google revealed that there is lots of business in articles of this sort, although I was unable to find one which matched the name I had remembered in part, something to do with feet.

References

Reference 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Guarneri.

Reference 2: https://www.chloehanslip.com/. A one-time child prodigy from Guildford who went through the Yehudi Menuhin school not so far from us here at Epsom.

Reference 3: https://www.pastanostralondon.com/.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/05/bacon-lite.html.

Reference 5: https://tabithapaige.com/. Cunningly organised to deter theft of her pictures.

Reference 6: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/09/bayes-1.html.

Reference 7: The Reverend Thomas Bayes, FRS: A Biography to Celebrate the Tercentenary of His Birth - D. R. Bellhouse - 2004.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/09/water-tablets.html.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-bent-crane.html.

Bricks off

Walking bricks up and down our garden started out as a way of getting some exercise in during the COVID lockdown, before I moved onto the Jubilee Way cycle run. 

A walk which ran from the compost bin at the top of the garden to the road out front, a round trip which I computed to be 133m in length, involving a climb in one direction of 3m.

Part of the walk involved carrying one of 16 bricks either up or down the middle third, with walks totalling 32, 16 or more usually 8 bricks. One advantage of this being that a walk consisted of so many bricks and one did not need to keep count or keep time. The bricks counted themselves.

A habit which survived the end of lockdown and ran for another three years or so - until our holiday in the Isle of Wight this year. After which back troubles stopped play for a couple of weeks. Then away again in Devon for a week. And now, although back troubles have gone away, I don't feel like restarting and the graph is flat-lining right. Walking down to town and back seems a better option, albeit one which takes out a larger chunk out of the day.

So yesterday, for example, I got to see the finished paint job on the Screwfix passage, with rather less than half of it being snapped above.

It seems to be a time of changing habits. Another being my taking to eating red grapefruit at breakfast. Another being eating less cheese. Another being taking ice cream in restaurants, something I have not done for years. Another candidate being switching from wine back to beer. I associate to my rather abrupt finishing with allotments.

PS: I had thought that I finished with allotments shortly after I retired, back in 2006. Checking turned out to be laborious as the finishing was silent, without notice or announcement - but the thought turned out to be a false thought. I was clearly still busy on the allotment through April 2008. The blog is silent on the subject during May but the allotments are in the past by early June, as recorded at reference 3. I suppose I just woke up one morning that May and decided to pack it up. Maybe, in the words of a former boss at OPCS, someone else who once had two allotments, I had suddenly became conscious that it had become a chore rather than a pleasure.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/mid-year-report.html. What seems to be the last report on this matter.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-home-run.html. Previous notice of the red grapefruit.

Reference 3: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2008/06/moss-side.html.

Wellingtonia 115

Two more Wellingtonia just along from No.114; one large in the foreground and one rather smaller in the background. Tilehouse Lane of Denham of Buckinghamshire, for which see reference 2.

From which I learn that before Denham Grove was a hotel it was a training and conference facility for BP. I guess converting the latter to the former was not such a big deal. From where I associated to the hotel in the grounds of Canterbury Cathedral, which I think started out as an ecclesiastical facility now, as it were, outsourced. For which see reference 3.

Also that Denham appears to have had more than its fair share of celebrity residents. And appeared in no less than four episodes of 'Midsomer Murders'.

This snap gives an idea of the diameter at the base of the trunk. The buildings may be the lodge and associated outbuildings from the old Tile House, as set out in reference 2 of reference 1. They have been updated, but they still look old in parts.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/10/wellingtonia-114.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denham,_Buckinghamshire.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/03/canterbury-close.html.

Group search key: wgc. 

Wellingtonia 114

Spotted from the car park of the Denham Grove hotel and captured just inside the entrance to the Tilehouse of Tilehouse Lane.

One of a number of similar houses along the lane, most of them with a decent number of mature trees, presumably a good deal older than the houses. With a truly massive concrete yard for a chunk of the HS2 just a few yards further up the road. That is to say, a little to the north. But more of that in due course.

In the meantime, from the Scottish National Library, the original Tile House, presumably the planter of the trees. More detail to be found at reference 2, from which I learn that for a while the house was owned by a Drummond of the banking Drummonds. Burned down and completely demolished in the 1950s to make way for the hotel.

Tilehouse Lane - past and present - runs up between Great Halings Wood and Northmoor Hill Wood, lower right in the map above.

Notice also the Union and Rural District boundary running across the top - where the Union bit was recently parsed at reference 3.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/09/wellingtonia-113.html.

Reference 2: https://bucksgardenstrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Denham_Grove.pdf.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/08/church-one.html.

Group search key: wgc.