Wednesday 28 September 2016

Dogs Etc.

Are you settling down to autumn?  I'm reluctant to, as I love spring and summer, but there's no doubt it's really on its way, with its seed heads and the the falling leaves. The rosebay willowherbs (those pink flowers in the picture below) are just about over, but at least it's still warm enough to sit outside in the sun.  I haven't had much time for blogging lately but I've taken every chance to keep in touch with nature, and I've seen some strange things.  Like, the other day I was on Hampstead Heath (below) picking blackberries, when I kept hearing bangs.



I looked around and eventually saw this - a woman throwing balloons into the air.



Her very clever dog was chasing the balloons and heading them onwards



but every now and then he got too excited, took a snap at the balloon and - bang!



I spoke to her just as she was packing the balloons away, to her dog's disappointment.She explained that he gets so excited that she has to give him a break - so now, they were off for a nice, quiet walk!

I am not sure you can call stuffed animals "nature".  In fact, they're almost the opposite. I saw lots of them, though, when a historical society I belong to made a trip to Quex Park, in Kent. The house belonged to a Major Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton, who was obsessed with hunting, and, like many dedicated hunters, was also very interested in the animals he shot. I never understand why someone who loves animals would want to spend their life shooting them, but there we are. And he did want to share his fascination with the folks back home. The specimens are beautifully stuffed and set against carefully researched and painted backgrounds and if you like that kind of thing they are really wonderful examples. More information on their website, here.


In his travels to exotic locations, the Major had really quite "Boys Own" type adventures and barely escaped alive at times from tribesmen - in whom he was also very interested.  (To be fair, he wasn't also trying to kill them, like the animals - but they certainly tried to kill him, on occasion.)

So the museum also contains all kinds of ethnographical curiosities, and altogether it is a very interesting period piece. The gallery shown below not only displays lots of antlers and dismayingly large numbers of elephant tusks, but there are also native spears arranged on the ceilings, and glass cases of objects reflecting a way of life which has almost entirely vanished - certainly for Westerners who travel abroad.

T6his particular room was used as a ward for convalescent soldiers during the First World War.  Imagine recovering in here!  Through the archway you can see a lion and its prey, although to be fair I imagine all the floor space in those days was given over to soldiers' beds.


Two of the Major's daughters shared his passion for faraway places. Both were highly intelligent women, and they devoted their lives to doing medical work among Africans. They also catalogued and recorded the way of life of their patients, (who were also their friends) so that now we know what they made and did and looked like.


There really is some splendid stuff to see - I particularly loved this bowl with six heads from Nigeria. 

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In search of a bit of my own history I have been sorting out some old albums passed down in my family.  For a hundred and fifty years, one branch of the family worked to bring the wonders of the electric telegraph to far flung places ranging from Afghanistan to Pakistan, and their families followed along - only a minority of my grandparents and great-grandparents were born in Britain, and neither of my parents were.

Some of the albums are very interesting.  Here is HMS Renown - the original battleship, built in 1895, pre-dreadnought.  She was scrapped in 1914. My relatives were pretty bad at labelling things but I'd guess this was probably somewhere in the Indian Ocean.


Here is a snap with the following title.  It looks like "Becalmed Boat in Mediterranean"....but I think that must be wrong...


because no way is this the Mediterranean, surely. Anyone got any ideas? The robe looks a bit Turkish to me.


And a more homely note, here is "Tinker on the Horse" was taken in a farm that was very likely at in Tolleshunt Major,  Essex, about 1920.


I'm still wondering what this picture represents. It dates from around 1910, and seems to show women from all nations.  But which nations? The one in the centre could be Marianne of France. I don't think she is Britannia because she doesn't have a Union Jack.

The girl in tartan must be Scotland. I see a pre-war Japanese flag and a lady who might be dressed in a kimono.  Perhaps an Afghan lady in the centre.  An Indian, and a Russian in that white hat, do you think?



As for the event itself, goodness knows what it can have been.

I also visited the area where my parents spent most of their retirement, in West Berkshire/East Wiltshire.  The weather, as you can see, didn't really cooperate but I enjoyed the trip, anyway.  The photo is taken from the steps of the antique arcade in the centre of Hungerford.



While I was in the arcade I bought someone else's family photos, an album dating from the early 1940s.  I don't usually buy other peoples' family photos, but this album, although damaged, wasn't that expensive, and it was so carefully laid out,  with photos that were worth seeing. The owner listed all the places where he had served with the Army. 


 There is no name on the album, and I was rather sad to think that there were no descendants who wanted to keep it, because he was a good photographer.  I liked the way that the camels and people in the foreground here seem to be making no effort to escape what I suppose is a sandstorm approaching in (according to the caption) Khartoum.  Looks mighty scary - have any of you ever been in a sandstorm? I wonder how quickly it would typically move.  Do you think this was about a minute away, or half an hour away?  


Here is an air raid over Alexandria, Egypt, with searchlights criss crossing the sky. Or could it be a time exposure of tracer bullets?  

 Alexandria is where my father grew up.  I didn't notice Dad in any of the photos though!


And here are a couple of our anonymous soldier's colleagues at El Alamein, in the Western Desert.


I don't think I would have liked living then at all, but looking at this album I do sense that this owner felt a certain wonder that he had gone to so many places and seen so many things. The final picture in the album shows troops marching in a VE Sunday parade through the streets of Melton Mowbray, photographed by Heawood, a local photographer.   I wonder if the soldier did anything interesting with the rest of his life, and whether he was glad to back home in Leicestershire.  

My cousin lives near Melton and drove down to see us in London last weekend. I don't know why it always seems like the ends of the earth to me to go to where they live from here. It's actually only about two hours in the car.  I was glad she came though as they've just got what must be the nicest dog in the world.  He's a bit of a crossbreed I think, mainly a Pom.  Such a good tempered, friendly and altogether delightful dog.   He loves having his tummy stroked. 




He seems to have a lot of cats in his life, which he is on the whole pretty good friends with.  But then he seems to be friends with everyone.  Definitely my No. 1 dog of the year!

We stayed in a friend's cottage in East Anglia, and I was impressed by a couple of cars I spotted in Raveningham, Norfolk. The one on the left is surely a hearse, but its front seats are upholstered in gold, so there is obviously a story attached.   Both were looking a little dusty, as if they hadn't been driven recently. I don't suppose their original owners ever thought they'd end up in the depths of the Engish countryside.


I plan to visit everyone's blogs over the next few days, I am sorry for my absence and lack of comments. I seem to have a lot of work to do at the moment.  It all seems to be to do with art, so I hope I'll have a lot to tell you about it in due course.   One thing is sure at the moment though - and that is that I certainly have a lot to learn!



67 comments:

  1. Hello Jenny

    Like you, I prefer Spring and Summer. I find Autumn to be a sad season. It is my least favourite. So many love this time and I generally keep my opinion quiet.
    Your family album looks very interesting and I am sure you are learning a lot about your family's history.
    Hope the sun continues to shine and the flowers bloom for some more weeks.

    Helen xx

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    1. I like autumn better than I did because I do appreciate the leaves, fungi and particular misty melancholic atmosphere. And I can kind of put up with it because I like Christmas. The period after Christmas is the real low time, but by then I guess it's not long till the snowdrops..... :) Yes, I think the country is due for a warm autumn.

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  2. Oh my word that dog is damn cute, and I don't like dogs much!

    You seem to have been very busy again. I love the shots you captured of the dog head butting balloons. Gosh I'm sounding like a dog lover now!

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    1. He sort of reminds me of a cross between a cat and a dog with the good points of each and the bad points of neither!

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  3. Well, you certainly come to your love of travel honestly! How fascinating!
    Your pictures of the dog and the lady with the balloons made me wonder if you've ever read my friend Steve's blog. http://shadowsteve.blogspot.com/
    He often walks his dog, Olga, on Hampstead Heath. I would love to see a picture of the two of you together! Or is that ridiculous?

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    1. I haven't read Steve's blog although his picture looks familiar. Maybe I've seen him posting on other peoples blogs. Looks as if he lives about a mile from me. Maybe one day we will be photographed together, by accident or design :) or perhaps we already have been without noticing it! :)

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  4. Love the lady and dog with the balloons.
    The photos were so interesting. If I was in the photo with the Haboob I would take my camels and stand by the wall with a wet towel around our faces. Or try to get into a shelter.
    And yes I have been in several dust/sandstorms and they are horrible.
    The ones around Palm Springs can take the paint off a car and pit your windshield. And they move fast, somewhere around 30 + miles and can be very deep lasting hours.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. Hm, so it IS as threatening as it looks then. I thought the blokes leading the camels seemed remarkably unconcerned. Not running for cover even!

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  5. A fun read, and that dog is painfully cute.

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  6. I went to a wedding reception at Quex Park a few years ago. There were lots of children present and they had a wonderful time. Of course today a place like Quex Park is considered to be rather non pc, but I understand that DNA from some of the animals at Quex which are now extinct is proving to be useful for research in many of the countries that they came from.
    What a dear little dog, I can see why you like him - it is nice to see you back again.

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    1. Thanks, Rosemary! Yes, I think they are focusing on the conservation aspects, and the specimens really are beautifully stuffed. And there aren't just animals, but all kinds of things. Still, I did feel I mightn't get on tremendously well with the Major all the same!

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  7. And you have a lot to teach, at least to me!

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  8. You have a wealth of information in this post. I will say that people have told me a sandstorm is the worst. You cannot even breathe the air in the shelters after a while. If we do not study our history we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors.

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  9. We're just back from Japan and Cambodia, so I'm really behind on reading blogs. Enjoyed yours, as always. How lucky you are to have a 150 years of photo albums. Love the antique arcade in Hungerford, have spent many a pound there.

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    1. Glad you know the Arcade. Yes, it is hard to resist isn't it? I would love to visit Cambodia, and am getting ready for a trip to Japan.

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  10. Good to hear from you again....though those stuffed animals were too much for me!
    But of course, was seduced by the little dog!

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  11. I'm glad you rescued the album from the unknown soldier and traveler. Your ancestors lived quite adventurous lives, too, it would appear. Intriguing photos. Glad you have been busy, doing your traveling with time to enjoy nature. Welcome back to the blogging world.

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    1. Thanks Teresa. And it is lovely that nature is cooperating, and there have been so many nice sunny days!

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  12. Fantastic post! Thank you
    I don't get why the dog owner uses balloons since they're bad for the environment, and the dog could swallow a piece. Strange.
    The ship I think could be in the Mediterranean at an Egyptian port perhaps? The group photo might be for a geography celebration for different countries? Thank you for rescuing the family album. They are such precious records of life its important they are appreciated with a own home to belong in. The sand storm from what I see on television is seconds away. Thankfully, I've never been in one that big. Dust storms in New England haven't been that big in my life time. They're dirt road gust of wind size.
    Dog cousin! Uber adorable!

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    1. Thank you - and yes, I had not thought about the dog swallowing a piece. I think he tended to catch them with his paws or butt them into thorn trees rather than snap at them, though, the plan as far as he was concerned seemed to be to "head" them. I didn't notice if she was picking up the bits though she seemed quite a conscientious type. I don't think that Egyptians wore clothing like that - the men look African don't they, but the one in the white outfit looks almost Turkish. I wish I knew more about costume.

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  13. A very interesting collection of thoughts, activities and pictures in this post!
    Like you, I don't "get" the whole shooting animals bit, but I understand the fascination with faraway places and cataloguing/wanting to keep what we see.

    I love spring and summer, too, but somehow this year I am enjoying autumn particularly. Maybe it's because I get to spend my weekends in the beautiful area where O.K. lives, and we go for so many nice walks, bike rides or hikes there in the mellow September sun.

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    1. I can understand this, the area looks really lovely from your posts. And when there is a "special" person involved, everything seems better, including the time of year. In reality all seasons have their merits, except perhaps Jan and Feb.

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  14. Love that dog! Interesting post, Jenny, although the thought of killing those beautiful animals made me squirm. I could no more kill one than fly. I couldn't even watch the slaughter of an animal. But each to their own, as they say.

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    1. I would find it very hard. I don't even like dead birds.

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  15. Art work sounds interesting - and a change of thinking for you?? And I love the woman and her dog playing with balloons - it feels much more fun for both of them than just throwing a ball.

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  16. What an amazing, fascinating, post, Jenny. You take us from balloons in the park through hunting tigers (etc), family history and the sadness of an unknown soldier's forgotten unwanted photo album. They are VERY impressive shots too. I came away feeling thoughtful about human endeavour. I'm sure the answer is 42...

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    1. Not only Douglas Adams but Lewis Carroll thought so too! (I mean, about 42)

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  17. Happy to find a post by you this morning. I like old photo's a lot. My family photos of course but just about any old ones I come across. You have some real gems. Can't wait to hear what has been keeping you so busy.

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    1. Thanks Darla. All will be revealed in due course! :)

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  18. What fun it is to see these pictures. With everything being digital today and being enhanced and changed from their original look, I wonder what is real. People seldom keep photo albums now and what a loss that is. Everything is stored on our electronics and can be lost so easily. However, with all the selfies that are taken, that may be a good thing.

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    1. I often think that. Emails I could read only 5 years ago are not inaccessible to me, as my computer is too modern to read that ancient software that lingered on for too long. One solution is to make those photobooks, they're really cool. I might do that next time I go away with family members. They're so nice to look through.

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  19. Being too busy for blogging is surely a good thing. There is very little in my feed at the moment, so you are not alone and it looks like you have been visiting lots of different places in the UK recently. The dog looks adorable, and ideal for a town dog too. Ours are both country dogs with long legs for all the walks my husband takes them on - keeps them all happy!

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    1. I think it is rather nice being too busy to blog too, at least sometimes. Actually I always bear the blog in mind, and take pictures that I might be able to use. Probably we all do.
      A country dog would not be happy around here, although people do have them. Oddly enough the little dog is not a Londoner, although he does live in a country town, and I doubt he does many long hikes.

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  20. +Oh, you have been busy. It's a good time for it -- I, too, have been trying to wring the last bits of summer out of life. So far, few signs of fall here until now -- no color yet, but rain and falling temperatures, so that's not far behind. I loved the travels you took us on today.

    The museum reminds me of a place in Northern Michigan called Call of the Wild, which has diaramas with large stuffed animals and buttons to push so you can hear their sounds. When my nephew Mark was small he wrote a theme that is now at the cottage on how his parents took him to a museum with a whole bunch of dead animals! Ah, yes.

    I'm so glad you bought the album. Things like that are a treasure and it always hurts me that someone doesn't want it. Those photos are history in themselves. Thanks for sharing some of them.

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    1. I am glad you enjoyed the post, Jeanie. The idea of buttons to push is a good one, and Mark's comment cracked me up - though, well, I guess it is true :).

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  21. Oh wow! I loved all of this--and there was a lot, but I was sorry to see it end. Feel like I was on an adventure. Old photo albums can be an adventure in themselves. Thanks for sharing all of this. :)

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    1. Pleasure, Rita. I feel quite excited sometimes looking at old photos in an album, very often you think they must be pretty well unique (unless someone's kept the negatives somewhere unknown, LOL)

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  22. Fascinating photos. What an interesting find that photo album was.
    Your cousin's little dog is so cute - such a lovely little face.
    And the dog chasing balloons - we had a boxer who used to love balloons which solved the problem of what to do with all the balloons after Christmas or a party as he'd spend a happy few minutes bursting them!

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    1. Dogs are so funny the way they leap enthusiastically into things that they like. I think this dog was trying not to burst the balloons, as he had learned how to "head" them ... but he was not always successful, obviously!

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  23. Fascinating post, Jenny, with so much variety. You do have a really interesting life.

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    1. Thanks Jean. I am really glad you enjoyed the post.

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  24. The stuffed animals are amazingly realistic, but as you say, why kill them in the first place? And why the need for all those elephant tusks? Very impressed by the meticulous card index of patients' lives. It must make fascinating reading. I suppose the boat could be in the Mediterranean, if it's off the coast of north Africa.

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    1. The elephant tusks are hard to take, but I suppose there is not much else they can do with them. I tell myself that the point of a museum is that it shows past lives and attitudes. They're really quite conservation minded at the museum now, as Rosemary mentioned in another comment, and that is good.

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  25. I agree with you that it's odd that someone who loves animals, shoots them.

    I love autumn AND spring. The former is death and the latter is rebirth. I cant't wait to get on my bike at the weekend and go chasing for autumn colours. :-)

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    1. The autumn colours will probably be a bit later in the year, although I know it varies between trees. Coming up our road today I thought it still looked like summer, hardly a golden leaf to be seen. Long may it last!

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  26. Dear Jenny - In this post I was so attracted by the dogs. The too excited balloon-chasing dog reminded me of my late dog when playing with a ball and I agree “the nicest dog in the world” about the another one. I also like to see old photos which tell story and to visit the places where my memories are left. The women’s photo looks like women's session of mini UN.

    Your summer looks more comfortable than mine weather-wise. Today I can feel cool, crisp air but in spite of my mood for autumn, season hasn’t progressed so much since the beginning of September. According to one month weather forecast, the latter half of October will be mostly sunny with the highest temperatures 20-25 degrees C. See you in Osaka.

    Yoko

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    1. I have decided to make an effort to go through old photographs at home, I did inherit quite a few when my mother died. I've already been cataloguing my old photos. When I was young I was very disorganised and just put them in a large box without any attempt to label them. I wish I had done it now but if I photograph them on a light box and then change negative to positive, I can get a certain idea of what they are of, and when they were taken.

      I'm looking forward to seeing you too.

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  27. Thoughtful post with so many interesting things to stop by. Old photos are ao charming and tell us incredible stories.
    May everything goes fine for you Jenny!
    Happy October!
    Olympia

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    1. Thank you Olympia! I will look forward to your blog returning, it hasn't appeared in my feed yet. :)

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  28. I too was attracted by the title of your post, being a doggy sort of person. I like the way you start and finish with dogs! Those photos are fascinating. I cannot imagine where that rowing boat might be except somewhere exotic! They are wonderful images altogether. By the way, I mentioned you in my own blog today as I posted a few pics of Amsterdam houseboats. I've now started labelling my blogs and added a search term, so I hope that helps in future. Thanks for making me aware of that, Jenny!

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    1. Thanks, Val. I was going to message you, this reminds me. I'll do it now!

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  29. I miss fall...here in Florida the seasons are "almost summer," "summer," "still summer," and "Christmas."

    Old photo albums seem so intriguing, whether they are from your own family or any family. Judging from the picture of the sandstorm, I don't think I'd want to experience one.

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    1. Haha! I must say that I have always appreciated arriving in Florida during the winter or early Spring or late autumn and finding that summer has suddenly returned. I haven't visited in July and August. My Florida friends say that that's the time that they wonder whyever they live in the state :)

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  30. It made me feel rather sad to think that the amazing album had ended life in a shopping arcade. How lucky that you found it and were able to share some of the photos with us on your blog. The sandstorm one is indeed scary... why aren't they running?

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    1. That is what I wondered!!! they look really blase!

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  31. I'm late in reading this post but I thoroughly enjoyed it. You never fail to be interesting, Jenny. Autumn has definitely arrived here in Tennessee. I love this time of year but dread the prospect of winter.

    The animal displays of the Major (what a long name he has!) are very impressive, although I am completely opposed to hunting for sport.

    The photos from your family album and the one you purchased are fascinating. That photo with the camels looks like a Haboob - the exact kind of dust storms we used to get in West Texas. I don't miss them....

    The two cars in the photo (with the hearse) are Cadillacs. My parents used to have one exactly like the car on the right, only a different color. The year of the one in the photo looks like a 1966 or '67.

    I love your cousin's dog - what a sweetheart!

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    1. Yes, the dog is actually like a cross between a cat and a dog. he is happy to sit on your knee and have his throat and ears tickled like a cat, he is about the size of a cat and he is smart and alert although doesn't jump on the furniture or sharpen his claws like a cat. He's also as affectionate as a dog, (though many cats are tremendously affectionate) I am basically a cat person but if I were to have a dog, I might get one like him! Thanks for identifying the Cadillacs and even the likely year. I wonder why the hearse is upholstered in gold though. A rich person's funeral director's vehicle? or is that normal. British hearses are usually awfully gloomy, all in black inside and out.

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  32. I'm in possession of all my family's (all now deceased) in my possession, and when I step off the edge of this world there is no one who will be interested in them...so they probably will end up on some uncaring, uninterested stranger's bonfire...sad, but true.

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    1. Oh, Lee, give them to a museum. They will be pleased to have the records of your family's life, even if they don't put it on display. this kind of material will help scholars of the future.

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  33. Soldiers uniforms & cap badges would indicate the regiment this man came from. It does require an expert to read them of course. The details of his travels help. He was a good photographer and I suspect he was not one of the PBI but a specialist, engineer or the like.
    It is strange to look at the view of Africans held by the nation a handful of decades ago. These Africans appear to be mere mud hut dwellers while today I have met African lawyers, mathematicians and brain surgeons! How quaint the pictures appear today.
    The boat in the Med looks full of Africans to me, possibly coming through the Algerian/Morrocco area if they are African but possibly they could be Indians and many were used by England in Africa.
    East Anglia is full of strange cars which appear regularly at get together's during the summer.
    Ah summer, I sit here with the heating on and winter apparel at the ready, O joy!
    Another top post madame.

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    1. He posted some pictures of his pals but mostly they seemed to be wearing string vests and shorts. I haven't tried to find out which regiment he came from but I will look for clues. My dad was in the army so I am sort of vaguely familiar with a lot of stuff like that.
      I think the people in the boat look as if they come from Africa, if only because they are not wearing the costume that most people wore in the Med and Middle East at the time and are also darker, as far as I can tell.

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  34. What an interesting post. The boat in the Med is 'becalmed' not reclaimed. They look like North Africans to me.. My father was at El Alamein and has lots of notes, photos etc and also in those places in Italy. He was in the Wiltshire Yeomanry, Eighth Army.

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  35. It would be very interesting to do a post about them, although I know it's not the kind of thing you usually post. When you read obituaries of very old men now you often find that they had lives of similar excitement, and probably fear and pain and loss too.

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  36. That dog is a charmer, but Tinker on a horse is the boy for me!

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  37. I so enjoy the variety in your posts. Unfortunately, there is no settling down to autumn here, it is still very hot and we are still in hurricane season which ends November 30. Your cousin's dog is adorable and the album is quite the find. Thanks for sharing some of the photos.

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  38. The Haboobs come quickly and yes, we get them here in the Arizona Desert, tho' probably not as often as Egypt. They are a sight to behold as they roll in and one must just stop safely and wait for them to pass as visibility is zilch while you are encased in one. You can see them coming from a long ways off tho' since they are enormous! Great Image of that one in Egypt. Dawn... The Bohemian

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