Autumn Cottage Diarist

Venetian Knobs and Knockers

My head deep in my books and glued to the computer screen, as I write my first module essay for college. Who would believe that I have already completed Module 1? It seems as if I only started a week or two ago! I have learned a tremendous amount - now all I need is another few months to assimilate that learning.

So as a mild form of avoidance tactic, I thought I would take a few minutes to share with you all some of the knobs and knockers that I spotted around Venice and the islands as I wandered through the backstreets.

Mostly visuals today – but I still hope that you enjoy their variety. I especially love the delicious textures - of bronze, peeling paint, weathered wood and rusting iron. How about you?

 

My Little House Half-Painted

Autumn Cottage is undergoing a face-lift - but the weather has been so
atrocious for the last couple of weeks that progress has been slow. My
heroes,

Darren & Bert (pictured here) and Anthony, have done as much as
they could to battle the constant heavy downpours - this is what they
have achieved so far. (Darren has been careful to do all the filling
with lime based mortar, appropriate to an old house like this, whilst
the timbers will be treated only with a wood preservative, so that it
will fade back in time).

The weather, on the other hand - warm and VERY wet - has achieved the
abundant, lush growth seen in the front garden - which actually prevents
the new, clear "Country Cream" wall colour from being seen to its best
advantage. Just as soon as the blossom has fallen from the bushes, they
will be cut back - and then it will look even better. Work on the front
garden is "on hold" until the painting is done - they don't want me
under their feet lugging plants around! (Darren has offered to cut back
the old lilac tree that was badly damaged in the winter storms - so nice
to have obliging and co-operative workmen. These men are a pleasure to
have around).

This is the part of the wall that has not been painted yet - I think the
paintwork is a definite improvement, don't you? (Notice self-appointed Project Manager sitting on the step!)

Soft Rain and Good Company

Back from a sojourn in South Wales, where I was invited to join my cousin Brenda and several of her friends for a "ladies evening" on Saturday night.

We stayed at a wonderful Welsh farmhouse, deep in the countryside, just outside the little hamlet of Llandegveth in Monmouthshire, at Ty-Capten Farm, in the sort of accommodation that most
people dream of finding, and very few do. Brenda had discovered this haven of peace and hospitality on her last visit home, and for me, certainly, it will not be my last visit there.

The interior of the house was an architectural history trail (we had the
use of a sitting room, kitchen, ensuite bathroom and two bedrooms!), the
friendliness and hospitality of Susan, (our smiling hostess below), far above and beyond the call of duty and the farm itself seemed still wrapped in the byegone golden aura of the 1950's.

 

That was a time when I partially grew up on a farm - and where I would also wander around, entranced as I wandered through old barns, finding baby lambs and newly hatched chicks with their "cuck-cuck"ing mother hens. How many memories this magical time-warp brought back for me.

Brenda and I spent Saturday afternoon on a magical mystery tour of the
local villages - after lunch in "The White Hart" at Llangybi we explored
the church of St. Cybi there.

I was thrilled to find 15th century
wall paintings inside, and some interesting gravestones outside - though
we were both incensed to see that many gravestones had been cleared to
the side of the churchyard and some had even been used to build a step
up to a stile into the pub carpark.

Maybe this was done a while ago - but it is still, in our eyes, an affront!

(Brenda decided to take my photograph "in the place where you are happiest" - the graveyard! - I must admit, I do look quite contented, don't I?)

Brenda's friend Julie arrived to join us at about 4.30,, more tea was consumed and a goodly amount of time was then spent in applying paints and potions in a girly session upstairs before we departed for the New Bridge Inn where several more of Brenda's close friends were waiting -

 

I suspend my judgement on one comment that we were a "pretty good looking bunch of broads" only because I am in the picture - but for the rest of the attendees, I cannot but emphatically agree. The fact that at least one of these lovely women, (in her 8th decade), can still give a showbiz high kick with skill and exuberance - (in shoes with three inch heels!!), might give you some idea of the vitality (both physical AND mental!) of the assembly gathered there.

Apart from looks, we women had a huge amount of life experience between
us, and it was so good to be able to speak to them all and enjoy their
company for an evening. In fact, I enjoyed the whole evening so much
that I felt moved to propose the toast of the Worshipful Company of
Dyers - "For Good food, Good Wine, and Good Company, God(de) be
Thanked!"

Brenda was, of course, thanked wholeheartedly by us all - for without
her motivation, the whole weekend would not have happened. How rich is the company of interesting women!

Everywhere a Garden

Venice and her islands touch the British heart in more ways than one. Their love of gardens and their ability to make one just about anywhere cause my own heart to smile as I turn a corner in one of the back
streets or come upon a gateway on a remote island.

Into every nook and cranny, flowers and verdure have been insinuated and  encouraged.
Balconies, window-boxes, pots, patios, courtyards...all are given up to a blaze of colour or the serenity of many shades of green.

Come take a walk with me through the gardens, great and small, of Venice
and Torcello.

Doesn't this gateway call you to muse awhile with me about the possibilities of this neglected cloister garden? - (of which more later)...

And say goodnight to Venice along with me, as dusk falls upon the Grand Canal.

Miniatures and Murano

I took a new camera to Venice with me - I'm delighted with it, but the images are four times as big, so they are taking me four times as long to edit. So I thought I would show you something small instead!

Many of you know that I am a committed miniature enthusiast - and my trip to Venice was a perfect opportunity to indulge my tastes. I was particularly enthralled when I visited last year, to discover a cabinet
of antique miniature glass upstairs in the little museum in the church of St Peter Martire on the island of Murano,

(At the back of the church and through a door on the left hand side if you visit. When we first went this time, the door was closed and there was no sign at all of any museum. I thought I had been hallucinating on the previous visit, but later in the afternoon, we returned - the door was open, and there was the sign to the museum - so don't give up if you don't see it at first!)

We also visited the Glass Museum on Murano, where I was totally overwhelmed by the huge (12-15 feet long?) miniature glass Italianate garden (a little bigger than 1/12th scale) and garden centrepiece that were on display there. I have included large photos of these, so click on the image to see them in better detail). The green parterre markings on the "ground" are made of crushed glass, and look a littel like table-mats on which the pedestals and pots stand. After seeing all these mini items, I had to have some for myself - particularly little pots of glass flowers - so I was on the hunt for those for the rest of the week.

I brought a number of very tiny pieces of glass back in October - and more this time. If you keep looking, you can find some wonderful mini items amongst all the admitted "tat" in Venice - but if you look in the picture below, you will see four mini pots of glass flowers - quite crude, but exactly like those in the museum, which I had seen and so wanted. Other shops in Venice were selling large glass flowers in pots, but I kept hunting, and finally found these four being sold by a souvenir stall keeper on the little island of Torcello.

They looked as if they had been there for ages, were covered in dust, but cost only 2.5 euros (about 3.5 dollars) each - and the touch of crude vulgarity amused me. If you look in any Victorian dolls house with
original furnishings, you will often find something quaintly out of scale - I like to imagine these little pots to be just the sort of thing that "The Ladies" would have brought back with them in 1906 - and they will certainly find a place inside - or outside - the Venetian house that I am currently making.

Enjoy this mini view of the museum pieces and the tray of items that I brought back. Again, click on the photo for a bigger view. (The blue mosaic box in the centre of the tray is 1" - 2.5 cms wide, to give some idea of the scale). Can you see the elephant, the ghost, the three little birds, the teeny weeny snail, the white cat (difficult to see), the two miniscule mice, the snake and the octopus, together with the delicious painted vases and the orange waterjug?

The two figures at the back of the picture are of Pantalone and Columbine - paper sculpted characters from the Commedia del'Arte, hand made at Ca'Macana, one of the craftsmen mask makers who also make these figures. All the other little items were finds that I hunted down in various corners of the city and out on the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello. Precious souvenirs - now they all need a tiny palazzo to live in!

Where Else but Venice?

Home yesterday from another week in the beautiful city – very tired and exhausted, but once again, I have "filled the well" deeply as Julia Cameron urges in "The Artists Way" – and now I need time to digest and absorb what I have seen (and recover from the flights - which I still think is the the foulest, most disgusting, uncivilised way to travel - how much more enjoyable was the journey that Liz and I took by train - and how much more delightful the view on arrival!)

Nearly 700 photographs taken with my new and wonderful Kodak Easyshare 2710 camera – never before was I able to capture roundels high up on the sides of a church, lizards under stones, or other fine specimens (such as these on the right - ahem!) with such ease and clarity.

I will share a selection of them with you over the next few weeks – but for now, here is just the tiniest taste of some of the sights that I have been lucky enough to enjoy over the last week....