Friday’s Library Snapshot
My Friday snapshots from the library have become of late a little bit dreary ; I am wondering how I can incite a little more imagination on my part.
This one for instance, I found while researching this week’s nursery rhyme. These images are from The baby’s opera ; a book of old rhymes with new dresses by Walter Crane ; engraved & printed in colours by Edmund Evans ; the music by the earliest masters.
They are lovely but just a bit Walter Crane!!
So over the weekend and coming weeks I must rethink this vital spot and take advantage of my position in the library; and look at illustrators that are a little more sparky!!
Alphabe Thursday … U is for Upon Paul’s Steeple.
Upon Paul’s steeple stands a tree,
As full of apples as may be,
The little boys of London town,
They run with hooks to pull them down,
And then they go from hedge to hedge,
Until they come to London Bridge.
An apple tree on the steeple of St Paul’s seems to have been an old joke, or a popular imagery. In a ballad Tom Tell-Truth printed 1676 appears,
Atop of Paul’s steeple there did I see
a delicate, dainty, fine apple tree
The apples were ripe and ready to fall
and kill’d seven hundred men on a stall.
The origin of this and the nursery rhyme presumably predates 4th June 1561, when St Paul’s steeple was destroyed by lightning. The apple tree may even have been a real one for curious things did happen on the steeple. Strutt in his Sports and Pastimes (1801) describes rope dancing on the steeple battlements (1553), a Dutchman standing on one foot on the weathercock (1546), and an acrobat being killed while sliding down (1554).
Wednesday’s Wood Engravers …
As I prepare for my wood engraving workshop this weekend I search again for inspiration. While I am not particular about chickens, ducks or country cottages I do find the little images useful; even if they are a little out of my league.
Margaret Pilkington was a leading engraver taught by Noel Rooke and so respected she was the secretary and then the chairman of the Society of Wood Engravers from 1924-1967.
Millicent Jackson, too was another of Rooke’s pupils at the Central Technical School. Who, was with others praised by Malcolm Salaman in the series The Masters of modern etching and other journals of the time.
Weekly photo challenge … signs
We have recently welcomed the freshers to the university; it is always a busy time and organised to the finest detail. However, we have spent the summer refurbishing the library and in a bid to declutter our new look we have removed certain signposts. Nonetheless ; it remains very important to ensure the new students do not get lost and most of all able to find the books and facilities they need.
Even so bearing in mind most of the freshers will not have been in an academic library before they do need a lot of hand holding in the beginning … so not matter how many signs we have there is always a need for a human signpost.
So in the absence of a suitable selfie; rest assured I am a perfect signpost! I do not know much about quantum physics, mathematics or much else; but I do know where the toilets are and can find my way around the Dewey decimal system.
Monday and the weeks ahead …
For the coming weeks I have a series of weekend workshops. On Saturday, there is a two day course of wood engraving. It is a follow up to a session I attended earlier in the year. Wood engraving is difficult and I haven’t practiced as much as I hoped and anxious that I will look a fool among those who are skilled and well practiced. .
A lot has happen in my life in the last few months and I am not sure how this will affect my ‘performance’
My daughter’s accident, my lose of hair has been bitter, bitter … sweet the repeated ‘bitter’ is intentional. I would not recommended such a trauma, no matter how sweet the recovery and after effects!
Nonetheless, it all has made me feel that if I can cope with all this and smile at my bald shiny head each morning. Then to become obsessed about a weekend of wood engraving then it is foolish.
So while I may not become a fine wood engraver, I will have fun. So in preparation ; yesterday I enjoying sketching and drawing some teapots. Note also this exercise did include polishing the things before I started. So while, I spent longer than intended buying the polish and having the obligatory coffee these works are unfinished and need to be hone down to a drawing of 2×2 inches … so to the drawing board again!
Silent Sunday
Saturday … is fine
This week has been ok!
The weather has been kind, for those of us who cycle to work and have no hair. I know, we need the rain but this pleasantness is fine!
Work also is nice ; while still waiting to hear from the powers that been when my hours can be reduced the conditions are more than bearable. There is still plenty to do and it remains a joy!
Home also is fine even the balance of art and chores has been acceptable.
Communication between Brazil and UK has been good ; two parcels posted a little under a month ago arrived safe and sound. With no problems ; this has marked a significant improvement in the system that was previously negligent and corrupt.
‘Where is the ‘but?’ ’ I hear you ask, I am always blabbing about the swings, to and fro and ups and downs of my life. Even I am perplexed there is no end to this post … no desperate plea for an answer …
Seems I have it; live is good for now…
Thank you!
Novidade impressa!!
For my son-in-law promoting his first book … soon to be translated into English … gives a first hand account of life in Rio and its favelas … it is not as it might seem in the mass media and the Tabloids as seen around the recent World Cup and coming Olympics
O Morador de Ipanema e outros contos cariocas
Como a maioria dos que me conhecem sabem, estou me iniciando no mundo da literatura como autor independente, com o livro “O Morador de Ipanema e outros contos cariocas“. Mediante as dificuldades que todos os escritores e artistas independentes passam para produzir, divulgar e emplacar seus trabalhos decidi optar por esta forma de realização de meus afazeres no âmbito literário para não me submeter a exploração que é comum às editoras em geral.
Pois bem!! Estou buscando realizar um lançamento de meu livro de contos em Novembro deste ano e necessito de uma quantia razoável para adquirir estes exemplares, algo pelo qual estou tendo muita dificuldade, inclusive pelo fato de que como a maioria deve saber passei por um sério acidente de trânsito no início deste ano do qual ainda necessito ter gastos referentes à fisioterapia, hidroterapia entre outras coisas para…
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Friday’s library snapshot …
I came across this little book of verse this when researching for a ‘Tweet’ to celebrate National Poetry day on Thursday. The theme was ‘Remember’ so this one really fitted the bill.
When grandmamma was young : Victorian verses for young persons / collected by a great aunt ; with lino-cuts by William McCance ; published by Four Elms Press.
As Grandmamma I grimaced at the experiences she ‘remembered’ My mother didn’t punish us by putting us in the corner but our teachers did … it is cruel and degrading.
While it is interesting it really isn’t a book I will be buying or looking at again.
Alphabe Thursday … T is for Tom, Tom
Tom, Tom the piper’s son,
Stole a pig and away he run;
The pig was eat
And Tom was beat,
And Tom went howling down the street.
Children are often concerned about the stolen pig being eaten immediately. It would seem modern illustrators depict the scene incorrectly. The pig was not a live one but a sweetmeat model sold by a street hawker, as it is narrated in chapbooks.
The man would make pigs from paste and filled their bellies with currants and added two in the head for eyes.
Vendors of such pigs were common in the 18th century and their street cry became a nursery song.
A long tail’d pig,
Or, a short tail’d pig,
Or a pig without any tail,
A boar pig, or a sow pig,
Or a pig with a curly tail.
Take hold of the tail and eat off his head;
and then you’ll be sure the pig hog is dead.
Coat Hanger Doll's House 