Addison Embroidery
at the
Vicarage

T shirts with embroidered roses hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

A sudden turn in the weather has produced warmth and from time to time even sun, so this week, like the Lady of Shalott,  I sat back in my seat, stretched and turned away from my sewing … then, unlike the Lady of Shalott, I went out to do a bit of gardening. Out went the tulips we’d so enjoyed and into the zinc planters went geraniums. We’re away most of next week (with the U3A on a short tour of the best of Yorkshire churches) so if the fine weather continues as promised, the geraniums should cope with no watering and even look good for our return. To please the bees, for whom showy geraniums provide no nourishment (and to salve my conscience) I’ve also filled one terracotta pot with marguerite daisies and another with lavender. The foxglove that self seeds every year has come up again and already the chives are producing flower heads as I keep forgetting to add them to my salads. Fortunately our next door neighbours have a spectacular wisteria which rambles round from their garden’s back wall to generously cascade over the fence between us. Such a large wisteria plus the honeysuckle with which it intertwines, should definitely add to the happiness of  bees and butterflies. Unfortunately, the wet and windy weather of the last few weeks has swept a lot of the blossom away but perhaps more will come to replace it.

Rose pocket for a 1 year old (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Over the last year, while stitching and knitting away largely in blissful solitude, I’ve found diversion in podcasts and videos put online by the most innovative of museum curators and art journalists. As restrictions end and people go back to their everyday jobs these are coming to a full stop, so I want to celebrate the ones that have brought me joy. My favourite art talks are Cocktails with a Curator, from the Frick Collection in New York. These have been largely shouldered by the excellent Xavier Salomon wonderfully supported by the equally impressive and delightful Aimee Ng. Both talk fluently, fluidly and knowledgeably about a chosen exhibit from the museum and accompany their narrative with pictures of art both from their own museum and from collections across the world. An appropriate cocktail introduces each talk but the speaker is usually far too taken up with the subject matter to do anything other than to take one sip of the enticing drink at the beginning of  the twenty minutes talk which  slips by rapidly in their engrossing company. And it’s not just paintings and sculpture.  The alchemical origins of porcelain at Meissen are arresting, unexpected and enthralling – do read Janet Gleesen’s  The Arcanum of 1998, a page turning eye opener about a subject you probably didn’t know you wanted to know more about. (The NY Times review is a good synopsis of the book though not as enthusiastic as I am about it). Lacking opportunity or inclination to read Gleeson’s book, listen to Xavier Solomon in 2 talks as he opens up the phenomenon that is Meissen via the exhibits in The Frick (one of the world’s finest Meissen collections in private hands).  Both curators know their subjects back to front and inside out. My husband, raised in Suffolk, was very impressed that Aimee pronounced John Constable’s beloved River Stour properly. There are several Stours. The Suffolk one is Stour as in store rather than Stour as in our (Worcestershire  river) or Stour as in mower (Oxfordshire river) (Perhaps!)  She gets Constable absolutely right too.

Little rose on back of T shirt (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Xavier and Aimee also host Travels with a Curator in which they virtually visit mainly European destinations with connections to the Frick’s exhibits. For instance, Aimee Ng takes a walk through St. James’s Park in London, exploring it as the backdrop for Thomas Gainsborough’s “Mall in St. James’s Park,” (painted about 1783 for George III, now in the Frick).  In another Xavier takes us to the Château de Chantilly, one of his favourite places in France. Like the Frick, Chantilly began as an opulent residence and now houses a fine collections of European paintings in France as well as the world-famous illuminated manuscript “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.” Mention of Chantilly brought back distant and not so pleasant memories of my only visit to the town as wardrobe mistress to The Clerkes of Oxenford who, having performed The Play of Daniel in Beauvais Cathedral were invited to a civic reception in Chantilly town hall. All very lavish, splendid and rather wonderful but somewhat undermined by the food sickness that worked its way through our company on the bus home and which found us ending our journey somewhat precipitously in Maidstone Accident and Emergency!

T shirt with rose (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

In the Chantilly talk, however, Xavier gets full marks for not being upstaged by his little black kitten, who audibly, though invisibly knocks things over, darts back and forth across the back of a chair directly behind Xavier’s shoulder and looks far too interested in the earth in a potted plant but happily proves content just to pat the leaves in a one sided game of kitten table tennis. Xavier heroically resists any desire to turn round, twitches not so much an eyebrow and never veers even an iota from the task in hand. As a viewer, it was, however, impossible not to smile and even laugh out loud. (I have since learned the kitten is called Jadwiga.)

Back of T shirt with rose (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

The podcast Waldy and Bendy’s Adventures in Art has also been very good, thought provoking and often took me right out of my art comfort zone. Waldemar Janusczcak, art historian and art critic for the Sunday Times and Bendor Grosvenor, historian, writer, former art dealer and televison presenter make good sparring partners with frequently opposing opinions about what constitutes good art. I love Waldemar, think he’s a very clever intellectual thinker who writes brilliantly and makes enlightening films about artist and art movements but I do hate his over-lavish introduction of Bendor at the start of every podcast  – such things makes my toes curl and I have the feeling it makes Bendor’s too, but trooper that he is, he takes it in good part and gets on with the show . I also find the silly jingles unnecessary, but then I suppose it’s not really the likes of me they’re hoping to attract. Jingles apart, there’s much to be learned and even more to think about … and  I may even have changed my mind about some things!

Sleeveless T shirt with rose (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

rose on sleeveless T shirt (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Both the Frick team and Waldy and Bendy wound up their innovative online programmes recently as they go back to curating, reporting, gallery visiting and programme making. I hadn’t realised how much I looked forward to a new video/podcast until they announced they were finishing. Not many of British art institutions have grabbed my interest with their online presence. The National Gallery’s videos are of a very varied quality and one of the main problems for me seems to be the speaker’s delivery. I know it’s felt elocution lessons are a step too far nowadays but the odd lesson or two in clear speaking and proper delivery wouldn’t go amiss. Few speakers seem to be able to talk about art without verbal ticks, meaningless phrases (‘at this moment in time’, ‘in a manner of speaking’, ‘and so forth’ – yes, David Addison, with that last one I’m looking at you, though you are in general very good!). Many gabble, swoop, stress adjectives, and say things like ‘amazing’ far too often. However, Susan Foister, Deputy Director at the National Gallery I could listen to on Holbein until the cows come home. (See videos of The Ambassadors & Christina of Denmark.)She talks to her audience without notes or irritating mannerisms in a natural way just a step up from conversation, so though she’s speaking to a crowd it feels quite intimate. (There’s also a terrific Waldemar Janusczcak programme on Holbein on You Tube, which together with Susan Foister will tell you everything you need to know about Holbein’s Ambassadors.) Today, content is often overwhelmed by style but thankfully there are still outposts of excellence where the two happily work together to complement and even enhance each other.

Little rose on back of sleeveless T shirt (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Closure has also come for Eric Carle, author and artist of children’s books, most notably ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ who died recently aged 91. His most well known book was first published in 1969, has never been out of print and has sold more than 50 million copies  – not bad for a book inspired by a hole punch!

Janet Gleeson: The Arcanum

Footnote: talking about wisteria and honeysuckle remind me of the glorious Flanders and Swann song ‘Misalliance’ about the honeysuckle and bindweed falling in love. The honeysuckle winds clockwise while the bindweed twines anticlockwise. This made me wonder about the honeysuckle and wisteria which do their twining just outside my window and it seems it all depends which wisteria you have, for the Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) winds clockwise while the Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) winds anticlockwise, all because over geological time Japan has moved from the southern hemisphere to the northern. Plants in each hemisphere wind differently because of the effect of the earth’s rotation.

Honeysuckle, embroidery and all, was also the subject of my first ever blogpost.

This week, just a few tiny roses for T shirts for a 1 year old and a 4 year old.

Jumper with Fair Isle band Knitting pattern, Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Book 5 (2013): Two colour raglan sweater.
Fair Isle Pattern: 200 Fair Isle Designs by Mary Jane Mucklestone (Search Press 2011) Design No 193

Well, now I think about it not all of the jumpers I’ve knitted to this pattern have Fair Isle bands. But, doing a brief count I think there were no more than 4 that were plain – the first one certainly was, – a sweet sugar almond confection in pale blue with pale green sleeves, made in late 2014 for the toddler that is now a strapping 7 year old with second dentition incisors to prove it.  Lockdown, a great bonus of gifted time, has enabled me to think about, design and make presents for friends whose past kindnesses I may never have been able to mark in this way. This jumper is for one of the grandsons of a very good friend who was extremely kind to me a few years ago. I shall start on one for the younger grandson soon and then send them together – possibly in time for her birthday. (Not so odd a present for a doting granny, though I will send her something for herself too!)

Detail Jumper with Fair Isle band Knitting pattern, Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Book 5 (2013): Two colour raglan sweater.
Fair Isle Pattern: 200 Fair Isle Designs by Mary Jane Mucklestone (Search Press 2011) Design No 193

Daughter No 2, part on holiday from land mine clearance in Cambodia and part distance working (there’s a lot of paperwork), has also caught the knitting bug but, much more adventurous than me, is knitting something for an adult. The experience has not been without its challenges and from time to time I’ve had emergency late night phone calls asking if I can explain some abstruse instructions of a pattern I haven’t seen, can’t imagine and can’t even work out what part of the garment the overactive decreasing might refer to. Fortunately she was/is just a short jaunt away from a newly reopened Loop and there all was explained in no time at all by the sort of staff that remind one how shopping online has its limits.

Swatches of Fair Isle design No 193 from
‘200 Fair Isle Designs’ by Mary Jane Mucklestone (Search Press 2011) Design No 193

We in Cheltenham are equally glad our local John Lewis has reopened and, desiring it shall remain open at a time when several well established branches are closing, we have only been too happy to go in and do a physical search for what we needed. Hats – well caps – have been a great problem recently for my husband. That is, they have been a great problem for me. With eyes sensitive to light he needs something. Sometimes sunglasses work, sometimes they don’t. He had a perfectly nice cap which his elder son bought him but then he lost it.  Floppy sun hats bought at Lords (the cricket ground) are ok in the back garden and around a cricket pitch but look ridiculous on the high street and anyway after years of wear are pretty disgusting. During outings to the shops on his own he came back with a) a baseball cap (! aged cleric in baseball cap – No, No, No) and then b) a rather oddly shaped cap which I would call flat except that the fabric rose to a button-topped summit suggesting the head beneath might be alien rather than human.  All ghastly. A new shop on the Promenade devoted to race-goers’ tweed outfits (closed for lockdown almost the minute it opened last year)  offered a single possibility in a window display of patchwork tweed caps but tweed is very limiting as to season and we (I) would much prefer something less shouty and more … er, plain. (The same shop was previously mentioned in this blog as having been broken into in order to get into the jewellers next door). With hope in our hearts we went to John Lewis and there was indeed the hat that Goldilocks would have chosen. Navy, study cotton, well cut with not too much peak, it fit the head perfectly, could be folded easily to go in the pocket and wasn’t at all expensive. I may even buy him the one in black when they have his size in. A few days ago while out, he bumped into a fellow retired art historian/curator friend and was pleased to see they sported similar understated tasteful headgear.

Fair Isle Pattern No 193 200 Fair Isle Designs by Mary Jane Mucklestone (Search Press 2011) Design No 193

I don’t have the head for hats, which is strange as my mother was a great hat lover and when I was little I remember would buy one or two new hats a year. I don’t suppose she was in the habit of rushing out of the house at a minute’s notice as we tend to do nowadays for she went nowhere without a hat and the hat putting on would take some minutes standing in front of the hall mirror while little side curls and waves of hair (of a hair style very like the queen’s) would be teased out over or under the hat to be worn that day.  If Russian style fur, most hair would be tucked under while velvet swathed turbans called for much tweaking with a tail comb to ensure just the right amount of curl was visible. Hats had to match coats but were also worn with what my mother called costumes –  suits of skirt and short jacket. Hat pins were necessary and were also called into service in the kitchen to test sponge cakes (forks or skewers which I tend to use would have made holes far too big to countenance.)

Fair Isle Pattern: 200 Fair Isle Designs by Mary Jane Mucklestone (Search Press 2011) Design No 193

I think my mother did try me with hats when I was very little, but very little evidence of this remains. All my family photographs have been lost and now all I have is a vivid memory of a few showing me in head coverings. Winter scenes with lots of snow had  a distant me sitting insecurely on a sledge enveloped in camel – coat with leather belt buckle and big knobbly buttons and a pointy hood – which rendered almost everything about me practically unrecognisable. Another memorable photograph showed me visiting Father Christmas in a Nottingham department store. I’m in another serviceable coat, this time a navy gaberdine mac, all buttoned up and belted (once again, none of this flapping coat business) and standing very starchy and stiff like Watteau’s Pierrot. My hat is also similar to Pierrot’s  but worn more horizontal in the manner of Father Brown. There may have been a jaunty sailor style hat to go with a very smart blue and white coat, which I have vague memories of admiring, turning it round on my fingers and patting it onto my head but I can’t remember ever actually wearing it outside. May be to church – once! For some years at primary school I had machine knitted hood/bonnets which clung tight to the head on an Alice band and usually had some sort of pom pom at the back. I quite liked these, enjoyed going to chose a new one each autumn in the local hat shop and probably wore them because everyone else did and because they did keep you warm. Otherwise, In the 1960s, I thought longingly for a while about one of those fur bonnets with pom pom ties worn by people like Lulu or Sandie Shaw but in the end I saved my money and bought a Mary Quant coat from Richards Shop coat instead.

Knitting Pattern: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Book 5 (2013): Two colour raglan sweater

Fair Isle Pattern:  200 Fair Isle Designs by Mary Jane Mucklestone (Search Press 2011) Design No 193