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Diary – 2019 January
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All my diary pages going back to 2009
DRAWING & PAINTING:
1 January
Today I took all the decorations of the tree. Then the lights are draped
over the window when the tree is dismantled, so we still have them to
look at for another week or two.
I just love going places by train. Today we went to the Bentalls big
shopping mall in Kingston which in the west of London, on the river
Thames.
Every column has the three Kingston fishes on it.
Then we took a bus to Hampton Court. In the Palace gardens we were not
surprised to see a few snowdrops. But we were amazed to see a few
daffodils out, several months early! They were under a big tree in a
sheltered part of the garden. It will be several months before the main
show comes out, so at present it is all muddy looking bare grass.
We watched the skating in the Palace forecourt for while until it got
dark.
6 January
Today is the last day of Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. There were not
so many people but it was still noisy. Tomorrow they will be taking
everything down and going off in big trucks.
My favourite stalls are the balloon lights, and this one with chocolate
covered cakes.
13 January
We went through Victoria Embankment Gardens, which are alongside the
river near Charing Cross Station. This camel is wondering where he is,
in London instead of Africa. It is a monument to the fallen soldiers of
the Imperial Camel Corps of the First World War.
We watched the last day of skating at Somerset House. The ice was very
wet, and between sessions the ice machine was sucking up water rather
than laying it down. I think the refrigeration was being reduced prior
to dismantling!
We then went on to the National Gallery. We started upstairs seeing the
oldest paintings, many of them altar pieces. I like to find the animals
in the corners, here is a dove, and two eagles.
This is my favourite painting, everything glowing at night. Top left is
a tiny white dot which is the shepherds' fire on the hillside to keep
them warm, and an angel about to tell them about the Nativity. Many of
the paintings have gilded backgrounds, which would make them shine in
the low candle light in the church or chapel.
22 January
The day was very sunny with blue sky, but the forecast was snow in the
evening and here is the bank of grey cloud coming over.
At about bedtime it did snow, we nearly missed seeing it because all the
curtains were closed. Just enough to say it snowed, but not the two
metres depth of snow we were hearing about from friends in another
country!
25 January
Today we went to the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London.
There are lots of carved slabs and fragments in long glass cases. More
birds everywhere here, a falcon and a quite mean looking vulture.
I was pleased to see a few painted scenes as well. More birds in the
writing, falcons, geese and ducks. It would be interesting to write like
this but very slow even if using a pencil on paper - which is what the
scribe would have done on the plain stone for the carver to follow with
the chisel. We saw some slabs where there were faint painted red lines
that had not yet been carved.
A wooden falcon with fragments of gold foil on, a bronze falcon and a beautiful duck with blue painted feathers.
There are thousands of items in the cases, and lots of pottery. This is
only a fraction of the museum's stock, and scholars can request items
from the store in order to study.
This dish is thought to be for baking bread in, so
that the bread has a pattern on it when it is removed. I would like one
of these with my name on it instead of the lines, but written in reverse
of course.
This is the Amarna collar necklace, set out on a perspex shape. The
individual beads have intricately carved surfaces to represent different
things. It is about 3,300 years old.
This linen garment is even older, about 4,800 years. The tiny delicate
fragments have been sewn to a very thin silk material in the correct
shape, a truly amazing feat of conservation. Less delicate are
these knitted socks from about 2,000 years ago. They are knit/woven with
a single sewing needle in loops, and they have two toe pieces so they
can be worn with thong sandals.
This is a colourful modern tapestry "Dahshur Lake" showing a marshy
river with plants and birds. It shows how the landscape would have
looked, which you can't really tell from the decorations and carvings on
the exhibits. Too many lights around the room to get a clear picture
through the glass, though!
If you Google "Petrie_Museum_of_Egyptian_Archaeology.pdf" you can download a free PDF from UCL Press, which has clear pictures of the lake tapestry (p8) linen dress (p21) and socks (p26).
26 January
This is the old signal box at Ruislip Station in north west London. It
is a listed building that has been restored in the Metropolitan colours.
You can see the old levers through the window. In London Bridge Station
we saw this sleeper/rail plaque for the official opening of the new
station concourse. It would be great to see a piece of real grimy
old sleeper and rusty old rail to put alongside it, but I don't think
that is going to happen!
We had half an hour to wait before our train, so we went to see the
river at night. The Shard lit up looks like white hot metal at the tip,
straight out of the blacksmith's fire.
30 January
Cold and frosty this morning. These circles are the
bits of snow that settled, melted slightly and then got frozen during
the night. The car windows were covered in frost flowers. The sun soon
came out and warmed everything up.
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