Look what I got yesterday! These are Gilbert and Josephine, a couple of barn owls I first saw and fell for, in the Gallery run by Joseph Maxwell Stuart.Gilbert and Josephine, by Catherine Rayner
Joe came round to the flat in the afternoon to deliver them, beautifully framed - thanks Joe, you're a star! - so they are sitting in my living room just waiting for the right place on the wall.
I think I'll wait till the alterations I am hoping to have done are done and I have a brand new living room with French windows onto the recessed balcony, and the gas stove that looks like a coalburning one installed in the corner! I know exactly where Gilbert and Josephine will go then! They'll hang on the long wall to the right of the stove and above a small sideboard that is in use as my desk right now!
Joe's own painting, the watercolour of Tweed Bridge and Peebles parish church will also be hung in the new living room, I think on the opposite wall. It is lovely too.
I have been a fan of Joe's paintings for about 20 years -since I first came to Peebles and long before I got to know the man himself - and always planned to get one one day! So this is it!
I love that view! How many photos must I have taken of the same view? A few at least! I even designed a cross stitch picture some time ago, though I have never got round to stitching it!
Joe, you might be amused to know that before I knew it was you, I had the impression JMS was quite an elderly gentleman!
(He's not though!)
Well now, I hope you enjoyed the photos of Taranaki. Thanks for your great compliment Mary! Professional looking? I'd like to think so!
So, having driven on to New Plymouth, I found a backpackers' hostel for the night - chosen from the Lonely Planet Guide for its description of rimu wood timber interiors and a stain glass window of Mt Taranaki.
I thought I had other photos of the rimu interiors but I must have deleted them - probably because they weren't much good! By the way, that's not one of those industrial metallic tubes on the right but a glass-panelled door leading to the conservatory. The light just happens to have caught it!
I think this vase of flax flowers would make a nice painting! It was standing in front of the stain glass window. I thought it a pretty arrangement!
The next day the mist was down and the rain had started, so I didn't explore the town too much. There was a museum called Puke Ariki which was interesting, and outside it some sculptures including the windwand by Len Lye. Just to show it does move in the wind I took the following two photos!
See?!
The Sugar Loaf Islands are remnants of eroded volcanic rocks just down the shore, where you can see seabirds and fur seals pretty much all year round. It was too wet to take a boat trip though, and I really had to move on to get to my next destination!
Next stop was at Stratford after a no-view drive further round Taranaki. The streets are named for characters in Shakespeare's plays. Click the map to enlarge and see it more clearly!There is a monument to Shakespeare;
a glockenspiel that, according to Lonely Planet, "thrice daily...doth chime out Shakespeare's greatest hits..." (I don't quite get that! Anyway I was just too late to hear them, so I'm still in the dark! ).....
.....and there's also a half timbered Elizabethan (II, 1991) clocktower that is built round an older one. The original built in 1924 was demolished as an earthquake risk!
But something that amused me was the carpeted pavement outside a row of shops!
At home a pavement being resurfaced would be cordonned off and you'd either have to walk around or cross the road! Here the sand was laid down to take the setts that were being put in, but a carpet enabled you to walk across the part that hadn't been done yet! It was the same idea with road surfacing. Here it would be cordonned off on one side while the workmen worked on that half, but I encountered roadworks where the surface had totally been lifted and traffic just drove over the untarred road!
Well, this is as far as we travel today! Next time we'll travel the Forgotten World Highway and visit a tiny Republic!
Talk again soon.
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