Frank Mason again....

I have made a smaller than original reproduction from my newly aquired old print by Frank Mason. (more on the arrival of the original print here)
Fitted in appropriate in colour frame and bordered with the fresheness of the Somerset Velvet background.
It depictsSt. Michel off the coast of Normandy, France with the Abbey towering over it.
The print shows boats and people standing in a fairly shallow water - must be when the water is low.
Alas, there is a bridge now, or rather a board-walk, much to the loss of the scenery...

Autumn vs. Fall

Fall and autumn are both accepted and widely used terms for the season that comes between summer and winter. Some who consider British English the only true English regard fall as an American barbarism, but this attitude is not well founded. Fall is in fact an old term for the season, originating in English in the 16th century or earlier....(grammarist.com)

I had spent the Thanksgiving afternoon at the Arboretum and on the grounds of our modest Botanical Gardens at the Experimental Farm.
We rested enjoying the vernacular, beutifully weathered gazebo.

Horse Power

Filling a gap after the theft of the original, perhaps this could do in a pinch...

A replacement piece for my father.

Majuba Dawn

I have been reading Pierre Bertons "Marching as to War".
It is an absolutely great read, that satisfies both my interest in History and in the images of War Art.

The book was released about 15 years ago and probably everyone read it then. After years of too much work and raising kids, I enjoy this book now.
It gives accounts of Canadian military and political involvement in the major world conflicts, starting with the Boer War.
I did not know nearly enough about it, so the details are captivating.
The description of events surrounding the capitulation of the poor Dutch farmers.
The "Dawn of Majuba Day" was one of those mornings he brings up.

Several years ago I had created an impressive in size and appearance reproduction of a painting by Richard Caton Woodwille, Jr, an English painter, known for his battle scenes.

The Boer War was a terrible one, and really not a "Canadian War" and the presence of our armed me (albeit volunteers) was cunningly orchestrated by the press.
The battle ended with the British defeat, but the civilian atrocities were most serious, and as I learned later, almost too hard to mention.

It was Arthur Connan Doyle who passed the message to Chamberlain.
This was a story of Lizzy, a girl of Dutch descent who was dying of starvation in a lazareth managed by the British stuff. Unable to speak English, week and confused by the ravavges of war she was mistreated by doctors and nurseds as nuisance when calling for her mother.
Lizzy died at the age of seven.
The subsequent coverage by the press brought the to focus the civilian cost of the military conflicts.
We learned more of Concentration Camps in subsequent wars.

Irresistable memories

Myott, Staffordshire, and a new old dessert plate

In my grandmother times those items were the indispensible attributes of respectable household - impeccable table linens and table service.
This would be the pride and the status symbol of women.
In Europe, in regions where the destruction of war changed the social rituals most radically those objects became often merely symbolic family reliquia and memorabilia of times gone by.
For my grandmother, a pre-war bride, hardly anything survived the Nazi expulsions of 1940.
Definitely not porcelain.

After the war she had purchased some to mend emotional wounds, the longing for a sense of normalcy. Hers definitely featured Antique Roses
I had seen those lovely service pieces and admired them with a distance.
They, however, were not used for consumption, not in my time definitely, they became props.

I lived my adult life already in Canada, in much more modest, contemporary model of tea or coffee service.
However, I have been given some old pieces of what it not a porcelain, but rather  - ironstone. A successful improvement of fine stoneware by the 19th century Staffordshire potters
This is just a fragment of the "Blue stage".

Appearing amazingly fresh atop pristine white linens (gift of an older friend... Thank you!)

Oh, just last minute find:
Mini tea service, most likely Royal Copenhagen...