Dr Sunbird

I wasn't feeling well today so I was lying in bed with the curtains almost fully closed, just a small bit of curtain was open at the very top. Suddenly a male yellow bellied sunbird flew and perched for a second on top of my window frame and then he disappeared. The next moment his wife flew to the same spot and sat there. She looked at me for several minutes while I held my breath in delight. She was really studying me, turning her head from side to side and peering in at me. Both my cameras were out of battery. Can you believe it?! She was so lovely with dark eyes and tiny spindly little black legs and such a bright vibrant yellow tummy. From the underside of her beak to her tail she was all bright yellow. She really cheered me up and I felt much better afterwards. The birds must have decided to pay a visit to my sickbed to check on me. Sunbirds are good medicine :)

The boy looked like this (image from here)

The girl looked like this (image from here)

This is not the first time I've had little birds come to look in my window and stare at me. I guess they find me just as interesting as I find them!

I deal the 9 of hares

I came across this collection of round playing cards on a blog and ventured over to the British Museum's website to take a look. The set of cards has five different types: parrots, hares, carnations, columbines and roses and there are ten numbers and four people: king, queen, knave and valet. They were made by the mysterious PW, a monogrammist of Cologne in around 1500. The British Museum has 39 cards of the set.

The Nine of Hares (from here)

Is that hare at the bottom about to lick his paw?

The King of Parrots (from here)

Valiant and brave, the king with his faithful parrot at his side!

The Ace of Roses (from here)

The latin inscription reads " PEPVLIT VIRES CASVS AIO Q TULIT EQVO" and says something about defeating or overthrowing your enemies with vigour and receiving a horse! Yes, this is my bad translation from a latin dictionary.

The Ten of Parrots (from here)

I like how the parrots are depicted in realistic poses such as preening their outstretched wings and biting their tail feathers.

Babette's Feast

The elderly guests enjoying their meal (image from here)

For some reason I was sitting at work the other day and the words 'Babette's Feast' popped into my head. So I did a little searching and discovered the 1987 film Babette's Feast was available at my library for borrowing.

Lets just say I loved the film and it was amazing. To fully appreciate the film you need to watch it. But it is a testimony to the power of food to heal and mend broken relationships, hearts and minds. Babette's meal has not just physical nurturing power but also spiritual and emotional. The film is a love story about friendship, family and good food. The actors were all amazing though I felt sorry for the cute little quail who were to become 'Cailles en sarcophage' and the turtle who was to become soup.

The story is different from other films about food in that it is not about greed or sensuality. Here food is a spiritually uplifting experience to be enjoyed and not shunned as a base physical experience. Babette prepares the food out of love and as a true artist. From the richness of her art she creates an extraordinary experience for all those dining, even if they don't quite know what they are eating!

The guests are members of a strict religious community who seek spiritual rather than physical pleasures. They vow not to mention the food at all during the meal...watch the film to find out why!

Babette at work (image taken from here)

I'm Still Here

One: Tired birdy

Two: Cute new pink-necked green pigeons to watch out my window

Three: Continents in one week

Four: Currencies in my wallet

Five: Outfits to wear to work - living out of a suitcase (again) makes dressing a challenge

Six: Repeats made on my tatted lace piece

Seven: Million things to do

Eight: Days back in the land of hot weather and cold soyabean milk

Nine: PM and I'm already sleepy. 6:30am starts and jetlag are not a great combination.

Ten: PM is when I watch Spongebob (if I can stay awake that long!)

The Project

My studio project was to design a picnic. I was inspired by my research on the history of the picnic. I looked at how picnics were held, what people ate and what people did for entertainment at picnics during the Victorian & Edwardian periods.

This text was one of my chief inspirations:

“A picnic, to serve its true end, ought to be a season of healthful recreation ; but seemingly, in the general acceptation of the term, a picnic means an occasion for a big dinner composed of sweets and dainties, wines, ices, and other delectable delicacies, which tempt to surfeiting and excess. The preparation necessary for such a dinner usually requires a great amount of extra and wearisome labor, while the eating is very apt to leave results which quite overshadow any benefit derived from the recreative features of the occasion. It is generally supposed that a picnic is something greatly conducive to health ; but where everything is thus made subservient to appetite, it is one of the most unhygienic things imaginable.”

- A Batch of Dinners: Picnic Dinners. In Mrs E.E. Kellogg, A.M. Science in the Kitchen: A Scientific Treatise on Food Substances and their Dietic Properties, together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a large number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes. Modern Medicine Publishing Co, Chicago, 1893.

So I held a healthy and wholesome picnic, taking the recipe prescriptions and instructions for appropriate behaviour.

I wanted thus to have a 'proper' picnic set - plates, knives, forks, teacups & saucers, teaspoons, tablecloth/placemats and jars. The picnic set worked out well except the jars turned out too small to use and the cloth I was to wrap the bread in was too small! (hence the nice plastic bag and jam jars you see in the pictures!).

The picnic set was crocheted, fulled and then those items that needed to be waterproof or sturdy were dipped in paraffin wax. I wove the placemats and bread cloth (that ended up as another placemat!) from mercerized cotton. The lines you see on the placemats are a map of the city.

Everyone getting their hands on the picnic set. A cuddly cup or a plush plate is a curious thing indeed.

I made everything white and absorbent to show the traces of use - the history of the picnic. Here the picture shows the 'after' effects of the picnic. The map of the city (placemats) and the buildings of the picnic (picnic set) have been thoroughly inhabited. All that remain now are traces, memories of a picnic past.

(and I made my own blackberry jam for the first time for the picnic and it was AMAZING, I am totally going to make jam again!)

Rooms with a View

I was browsing the MET's website and came across this exhibition of paintings and drawings of 19th century rooms. Many of the rooms in the exhibition feature open windows and the light captured in the paintings is extraordinary. Here are some of my favourites all taken from the MET's website as the url linking of images is not working for me today:

Martinus Rørbye (Danish, 1803–1848)
View from the Artist's Window, 1825
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

This is the window I want in my room: pet bird, tasseled curtain and flowers.

Georg Friedrich Kersting (German, 1785–1847)
Woman Embroidering, 1811
Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Goethe Nationalmuseum

Both this image and the next are basically my life too. Making things by open windows or lamplight. 200 years and nothing changes.

Georg Friedrich Kersting (German, 1785–1847)
Young Woman Sewing by Lamplight, 1823
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung, Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774–1840)
Woman at the Window, 1822
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Alte Nationalgalerie

This is me too - watching the traffic out the window. In her case it looks like the boats in the canal. In my case its the traffic jams and fire trucks/ambulances/police cars roaring up and down the street (I live near a hospital, a police station and a fire station, its not that my street is particularly unfortunate!)

Carl Gustav Carus (German, 1789–1869)
Studio in Moonlight, 1826
Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe

A painting of moonlight. What's not to love? Carus captures the strange thick/thinness of moonlight where light slides in like honey but cuts sharply everything it touches.

Chubbs has a new girl!

After a mourning period of approx 2 weeks, Chubbs has found a new wife to replace the magnificent Beaky. The new girl is almost identical to Beaky in that she is also all black and exhibits a plucky attitude. She also grunted at me! I've named her Bella, cause she is beautiful.

Chubbs brings Bella in for a visit. Chubbs is on the left, he has one spot of white on his back.

Bella is not yet brave enough to eat out of my hand, but picked up the bits Chubbs dropped. Chubbs is not really one to share food, so he must really like Bella. Normally he chases all other pigeons away (sometimes this even includes his own kids!).

Side by side they gobble up seeds as fast as their beaks can manage. Oh yes, Bella has an appetite!

Chubbs, Bella and the two kids, Spotty and Ariel.

Two days ago I saw Chubbs with a large twig in his beak. I think it was a gift for Bella who must be building her nest upstairs somewhere. This can only mean...more chicks are on the way!