MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS THE HORNIMAN MUSEUM... AGAIN...

The Horniman Museum is situated in south London and I've been before.  This great place has been named as one of the coolest top ten museums in the world by the New York Times, and I can see why.  I thought the SuperDean would quite enjoy it and I wasn't wrong.  We decided to visit on a rainy day, which wasn't too much of a problem as most of what we wanted to see was indoors.

History recap:- The museum was founded in 1901 by Frederick John Horniman, a tea merchant who inherited his father's successful business.  The cash generated by his livelihood allowed him to travel extensively and develop his passion for collecting musical instruments, cultural artefacts and anthropological items.  He obtained some 30,000 pieces, including a massive collection of stuffed animals.  The museum was designed by Charles Harrison Townsend in the Arts and Crafts style and is free, with a couple of paying, optional, add-on exhibitions.  There was plenty to see, including the recently refurbished World Gallery.

This is not going to be a massive blog (mind you, I've said that before, and usually end up uploading w-a-a-a-ay too many photos) for two reasons...

I've blogged about it before, after my visit last summer, and here is the link:-

http://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2018/06/miss-elaineous-visits-horniman-museum.html

My photos did not come out that great.  Some of this was due to the fact that a flash wasn't allowed, although flash photography rebounding from glass cabinets can sometimes cause problems.  But I also seemed to have a bit of a shaky hand that day.  One thing I will do is look into getting a better camera, with a manually adjustable lens and shutter speed variations.

The Studio is a new arts space and contained an exhibition called The Lore of the Land.  Artist Serena Korda worked with a Collective of local community members to create a multi-sensory, immersive installation.  This exhibition includes the Horniman's anthropology collection.  The items have been selected for the messages they carry about people's relationships with plants and water; both in a cultural and spiritual way.

The sculptures breathe different scents into the space and indeed, the gallery smelt pleasant! 😊  They are (to quote the museum) a 'primordial soup of encrusted barnacles, sea urchins and burgeoning fruits suggestive of a garden of earthy delights- or the kids' cult TV show, Fraggle Rock'.

I absolutely LOVED these artworks...  

They are a bit sinister and reminded me of bulging eyeballs and trolls' homes!

They offered up quite a pleasant perfume, which certainly made the olfactory senses smile.  I thought this one very phallic (I would!)

There is also the vibrant beat of apt music pumping through the gallery.  Here is another phallus...😉

This was my favourite piece, but this is a naughty PDF as my photo was totally blurry...

The sculptures are entitled Sensitive Chaos and take their title from the work of anthropologist Theodor Schwenk  He studied the spiritual relationship between all physical things.

Here's a cabinet of pipes...

Little Miss Macabre especially loved this skull pipe...

These looked quite terrifying, and reminded me of scare devils (amulets placed outside homes to ward off evil.)

Brick Wonders is a pretty good Lego exhibition and was in the gallery just opposite.  It consisted of Lego reproductions of sites such as Hoover Dam (I've seen it from a plane), the Grand Canyon (ditto) and Niagara Falls (ditto again).  The glare from the cabinets really interfered with my photos, so I'm just posting my favourite picture, which shows this colourful interpretation of the Great Barrier Reef.

The World Gallery was being refurbished the last time I was here.  This is taken from the balcony gallery, looking down onto it...

From up here, it certainly looks quite wacky, with this crazy car...

...And mad ceiling hanging...

Downstairs, all the continents are represented.  Here is a selection of curios from Asia...

Oceania.  The bags are woven from recycled plastic waste...

Europe.  This is called a Presepe and is an Italian representation of the birth of Jesus...

America.  This is a sealskin Eskimo's suit...

Africa.  Goods found in a Lagos market...

This little sign is perfection itself and was found in the above cabinet...

I'm kicking myself for not checking out the details of this lobster party setting.  I told you this place was wacky!

We moved on to the aquarium and Dean questioned whether these jellyfish were real or a 3 dimensional transposition.  I'm guessing the former!

Leopard-print stingray...

A real frog (this one's a poison dart and I apologise for the blurriness...)

...And a wooden frog.  He was in the Music Gallery, and I don't know whether you're supposed to hit him with the stick provided, or stroke him, to get a reverberation...😆

Outside it was raining and the only animals I didn't see before were these alpacas.  They were cute and came to pose- minutes after urinating.  I didn't manage to catch that on camera!

We ventured into the Butterfly House and here is the pictorial guide, with a Blue Morpho resplendent on it...

Dean absolutely loved it in here, and the attraction appeared to be mutual.  One of the little friends landed on him- that never happened to me! 

It really is a lovely experience, for all ages to enjoy.

Feeding time...

I tried to capture bluey in flight.  That new camera beckons...

We finished with a look around the Natural History gallery.  Here is a wild cat, which Dean described as, 'Bagpuss's dirty cousin...'

I have to say, that made me laugh out loud!  So I'll leave you with a picture of my Bagpuss.  He sits on top of my wardrobe...

TTFN

The Miss Elaineous

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MY LOVER'S LOVER by MAGGIE O'FARRELL

MY LOVER'S LOVER

BY MAGGIE O'FARRELL

THE BLURB:-

When Lily moves into Marcus's flat, she is intrigued by signs of his recently departed ex-lover. A single dress left hanging in the wardrobe, a mysterious mark on the wall, the lingering odour of Jasmine.

Who was this woman? And what exactly were the circumstances of her sudden disappearance? It doesn't take long for Lily's curiosity to grow into an all-pervading obsession.

THE REALITY:-

At just over 300 pages long, this was typical Maggie O'Farrell fodder- easy to get through and interesting and paced enough to be a page-turner. But... I don't know why but it didn't move me and wasn't her best offering. I'm a fan of 'big' words in novels as I'm all for expanding my already higher than average (so I like to think!😉) vocabulary and I make a point of learning anything I don't already understand, but it got to a point where too many were popping up. I don't know why that should irritate me- maybe it's because I haven't really had the time, at present, for any further self-educating. But I shall make the effort to schedule that. Even so, the prose seemed more mealy-mouthed than any of her later offerings. Oh well, it was Ms. O'Farrell's second book- maybe she needed to prove herself, too.

Lily walked into a tricky situation that she would have done well to walk straight out of, and she knew that. She just refused to listen to her intuition; silly girl. This book is a good study in what imagination can do versus fact. Without knowing the full truth, Lily thought up a really overblown scenario which led her down the route of playing detective. It was extremely unhealthy, and we then had to question whether she was seeing the actual ghost of Sinead or whether her overactive imagination was seeping into her time with Marcus (it was the latter). The reason Marcus's previous relationship permeated Lily's time with him is because he was a total shit- a person who couldn't be bothered to be faithful to- spoiler alert!- the 'love of his life'- Sinead, and who jumped into a new relationship with Lily way too soon, then referred to her in an extremely disdainful fashion. Both women are better off without his total cunt of a man. This novel perhaps clearly prescribes why we should get to know someone before falling into bed with them, and how a lack of communication can be the death knell of a love relationship.

This novel is supposed to be about Lily, and the imprint of her man's former lover, but it's also about Sinead too, and we learn a lot about her, her heartbreak, and also about the changeable character of Aidan. I love the idea of the warehouse where they lived, but found the descriptions a bit lacking.  It wasn't that easy to visualise, which is an important thing for me. Also, we know they lived in London, and some locations were mapped, but others a bit vague. This didn't harm the story, but I like to kind of tie loose ends up.

A strange ending. Maybe Sinead and Lily's lives are destined to be entwined or maybe the ending really was a full stop. Give this book a go, but I think the author has written better.

JANE AUSTEN AT HOME by LUCY WORSLEY

JANE AUSTEN AT HOME

BY LUCY WORSLEY

THE BLURB:-

Historian Lucy Worsley leads us into the rooms from which our best-loved novelist quietly changed the world.

This new telling of the story of Jane's life shows us how and why she lived as she did, examining the places and spaces that mattered to her. It wasn't all country houses and ballrooms, but a life that was often a painful struggle. Jane famously lived a 'life without incident', but with new research and insights, Lucy Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom. A woman who was far from being a lonely spinster in fact had had at least five marriage prospects, but who in the end refused to settle for anything less than Mr. Darcy.

THE REALITY:-

This book was my treat to myself whilst visiting Bath. I didn't buy anything else as I'm not a lover of shopping, and the only shops we popped into during our three day stay were charity shops (apart from Poundland and Tesco, to pick up snacks!) We visited the lovely Jane Austen Centre and picked up a good deal of information about this lady's life and work. I always enjoy watching Lucy Worsley's historical television offerings, and have seen her programme dedicated to Jane Austen. As books conjure up a more detailed perspective than any televised biography ever can, I decided to give this a go.

I'm so glad I did! During my lifetime I've read all but one of Jane's six novels and will make a point of checking them out again, as it was a long time ago. The Jane Austen Centre was up the road from one of Jane's four Bath residences, but the Centre kind of glosses over the fact that, although two of her novels strongly feature the city, she wasn't actually very happy here. I get the impression that she was a real country girl at heart and possibly associated Bath with the death of her father. It's interesting that someone who devoted her work to the whole prospect of finding a husband and making a financially advantageous match never married, and we learn that that's probably because she didn't want children. She did, after all, see two of her sisters-in-law die following childbirth and, in those days, with marriage came babies.  But, maybe, she also was happy and content as she was, living closely with her beloved sister, Cassandra.  Maybe Cassandra was the love of Jane's life and maybe she was the reason there was no room for a man?  Or maybe Jane simply didn't meet the right man?  These options are all discussed here.  The point of this book is that it goes into detail and delves into the whys of Jane's life but- as Lucy Worsley has pointed out herself- history is expressed via the point of view of the writer, so we are really only getting her opinions. Even so, it is nice to know them.

The main point that came across for me was that Jane's work is rather tongue-in-cheek and must be read with a sense of humour. She cleverly described situations that were very real to her, as she witnessed them and, like many writers (myself included) based her novels upon real life. But we mustn't regard them with too much seriousness and, with a little education and reviewing them on this note, they can come across as almost satirical.

I love finding out about social history- in other words, what people got up to on a day to day basis, what they ate, what they wore, etc. This biography delves into that and paints a good portrait of what life would have been like for Jane during Georgian times. As a lover of history I certainly enjoyed reading this, but we must always remember that no-one will ever know the exact truth. As to what Jane was thinking, we might learn that by reading her novels.

A rich and detailed book, tailor-made for Jane lovers. Am I one such a person? Not really. I like her work but prefer something a bit darker. BUT, if you delve beneath the pleasantries of her work, it is all there- you just have to dig deeper and separate and define what is reality and what is an eyebrows-raised, crafty dig. And we must not forget that Jane paved the way for later female writers to 'come out' and write and have a profession- as they are still doing today. The book makes the point that we women owe a lot to Jane- and we do. This was a very detailed biography, offered up a rounded description of Jane's life, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Up the road from the Jane Austen Centre is 25 Gay Street, the house where Jane lived for a few months after her father's death.

Here is my Bath review blog link:-

http://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2019/02/miss-elaineous-visits-bath_18.html

MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS PAINSHILL (FOR THE FIFTH TIME...!)

Yesterday was a gloriously out-of-character February day- as it was warm!  I visited Painshill exactly a year ago and it was sunny but super-chilly, at -1⁰C, and ice crystals could be seen floating on the water.  Yesterday was 17-18⁰C and I got a bit annoyed with having to carry the winter coat I'd worn around with me.  Here it is- I suppose it wasn't that bad, as it's lighter than it looks...

As last year, TFL trains were not running.  We had to take a bus to Gants Hill, take the Central Line to Bank, then the chop-chop, super-quick Waterloo and City line to Waterloo, the train from Waterloo to Cobham Stoke d'Arbernon and then a 2.6 mile walk at the other end.  We didn't exactly hang around, and flattened the walk in thirty minutes, but for some reason I didn't feel my normal, lively self and the day began to lose its sheen early on.

After stopping off at the Cobham Farmers' Market and scoffing a lamb and mint sauce scotch egg (most delicious- I think I'll attempt to make some myself! 😁) we pressed on to Painshill.

Just to re-cap on the history...

Painshill is an 18th century landscaped garden, created between 1738 and 1773 by the Hon. Charles Hamilton, who was the 9th son and 14th child of the Sixth Earl of Abercorn.  He embarked on two Grand Tours before acquiring the land of Painshill, and his vision was to create living paintings, inspired by the art and architecture he had seen in Europe.  The result was a series of magical follies in a breathtaking landscape vista.  Everything you see here has been created (during faithful restoration of the garden since 1981- it had been allowed to fall into ruin) and works with the natural landscape to surprise and delight.

This isn't going to be a big blog, as I've blogged about it twice before, and included loads of photos.

Here in the link to my first visit, in September 2017:-

http://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2017/09/miss-elaineous-visits-painshill.html

Here is the link to my third visit, in February 2018:-

http://elainerockett.blogspot.com/2018/02/miss-elaineous-visits-painshill-again.html

The majority of the photographs I took were of the Grotto, and I honed in on this man-made and mysterious crystal and stalactite chamber as this was the first time here that I could use the flash on my camera without the batteries dying.  My camera used to eat batteries- until I used my common sense (duh!) and bought stronger, industrial Duracells.

Here is an arched peep out onto the water.  It's a simple view of beautiful, dappled sunlight...

The limestone surround's distinctive holes were probably caused by burrowing molluscs, when it was formed on the seabed 150 million years ago.  Incidentally, they came from quarries near Bath, which is where I was last week.  I think they resemble impacted skulls, which, I am told, was the idea.

The walls are lined with calcite, gypsum, quartz, fluorite and other minerals and stones and are decorated with crystals...

 The tinkling water feature usually makes the whole cave very relaxing, but yesterday there were too many people at Painshill, which made for over-crowded follies.  To me, the usual beauty of Painshill is that you can often walk forever without coming into contact with another human being.  You know me- I'm never going to win the prize for being a people person...

The Cascade.  It is nothing more than a small dribble of water but again, it's very pretty and relaxing...  

I've never photographed this view of the Five Arch Bridge before.  Stunning reflections, but I didn't see much in the way of wildlife.  A few ducks were out but no swans.  The heron likes to put in an appearance, as does the odd mutjac deer- but not on this day...

The Waterwheel was working, and you could walk right up to it.  One of the problems I found was that a lot of the attractions have been cordoned off- like the Amphitheatre, which contains the Sabine Statue, and the Ruined Abbey.  You used to be able to walk right up to these, but now it's not possible...

Watching the blades twirl...

I realised that we'd skipped visiting the Mausoleum, visible in in distance, so we popped over on the way out...

The Ice House had a light in it, which is the first time I think I've seen this.  Usually it's dark...  

Why I'm fascinated with ice houses I'll never know, as there's not much to see- still, at least it was refreshingly cool...

On the pathway beyond the exit and back to the main road, I quite liked this picturesque ivy-covered tree...

Painshill was still lovely, but to me it seemed to have lost something.  There were too many people, too few animals and there was too much cordoning off.  Having said that, I'm sure I'll return- I just need to pick my timings carefully...

TTFN

The Miss Elaineous

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THE BAD MOTHER by AMANDA BROOKE

THE BAD MOTHER

BY AMANDA BROOKE

THE BLURB:-

A good mother doesn't forget things.

A good mother isn't a danger to herself.

A good mother isn't a danger to her baby.

You want to be the good mother you dreamed you could be.

But you're not.

You're the bad mother you were destined to become.

At least, that's what he wants you to think...

THE REALITY:-

The only problem I had with this novel is that I worked out that (I would label this a spoiler alert, but I think it's just too obvious) Lucy didn't have a memory problem, or baby brain, very early on. I could easily spot the subtly shifting character of Adam moving into the role of perpetrator before page 100- which didn't exactly make me look forward to the next 300 pages, as I could see exactly what was going on, therefore ruining any real element of surprise. Or maybe that's just what the author intended- I wanted to reach into this novel and shake Lucy into realising what was happening at her horrible husband's hands, so this story obviously aroused some kind of feeling in me.  I think her friend, Hannah, wanted to interfere, but she knew she had to choose her words and her moments carefully.  

Lucy was the victim of gas-lighting: where someone tries to make their intended victim doubt their own sanity. Adam did a very good job of doing just that, and you can see where his controlling behaviour begins; and how Lucy initially fought it, until the point where she just has to record him. Which the poor girl does- initially to prove to herself that she was in the wrong. I have no idea what Adam's motives were, but I can only say that he's one sick, mentally ill, human being. I have seen this behaviour (on a less vindictive and smaller scale) in real life, although thankfully not in my own relationships. I'm glad that nobody else in the novel (apart from Adam's brother Scott, and that's only when Scott was a child) was taken in by his antics. Even his own mother had her reservations about him, as did Lucy's mum.

I did feel really sorry for humiliated Lucy. Pregnant with her first child, it was a vulnerable time for her, and her shitty husband chose then to strike. Maybe he was having an affair with Naomi, and simply wanted out via the medium of constructive dismissal? I found the end scenes confusing, especially with regard to who was sitting/ standing where, in both the car and cliff scene. I'm glad Adam (this one is a spoiler alert!) got his comeuppance and died, and I'm glad it was Lucy who gave him that kick that sent him tumbling down the cliff face.

I read this during my downtime during a short break in Bath, and finished it on the train home, so it can't have been that bad.  It had a good storyline and believable characters.  It's just that the predictability got on my nerves a tad.

MISS ELAINEOUS VISITS STONEHENGE...

Whilst I was at Bath, I embarked on a half-day tour to Stonehenge, visiting for the very first time.  We travelled with Scarper Tours.  Their distinctive purple minibuses are easy to spot and the whole trip took four hours.  It allowed two hours at the site, which was ample time to see the monoliths and the museum.  The whole trip cost £40 per person, which included entry.  As we don't drive, this made our trip easy and hassle-free and, I think, was good value for money.

We picked up our bus from outside Bath's Abbey Hotel...

Our tour bus was punctual and our guide, John, very friendly, taking the time to point out significant landmarks to us.

Here is a PDF of the Westbury White Horse- I couldn't get a decent photo whilst on the move!

The first Stonehenge, consisting of a circular ditch and bank, with maybe some timber posts or stones, was built over 5000 years ago, in a period known as the Neolithic age.  It was a temple- a place of burial, ceremony and celebration.  In 2500 BC more and much larger stones- huge sarsen stones from north Wiltshire and smaller bluestones from west Wales- marked the beginning of over 800 years of construction.  This would have seeped over into the Bronze Age, when the first metal tools and weapons were made.

Salisbury Plain is vast and covers 300 square miles.  The Ministry of Defence owns roughly half of that land, and it is used as a military training area.  Some of the area is agricultural, and we saw both pigs and sheep being farmed.

Burial mounds in the area, such as these on the horizon below, date from around 2300 BC and contain an individual.  Some were buried and some were cremated, but they were accompanied into the next world with a variety of personal possessions; such as jet, amber and gold jewellery, and tools of stone, bone or bronze.  These people would have been considered very important during their lifetime.

The museum and shop are right near the car park, then you have to take a five minute bus ride to the site.  Here is our first glimpse...

Although an admission fee has been charged since 1901, members of the public were allowed to roam freely for many years after this.  In 1963 the area was gravelled to reduce erosion.  But by 1978 there were so many visitors that a decision was made to restrict access to the stones during the normal opening period and the centre was grassed over.

You can walk around the stones, behind the fence, in the recommended clockwise direction.  We, of course, didn't realise this and set off in an anticlockwise direction.  Oh well, whichever way you go, it's still the same!

Some sarsens are grouped in threes, consisting of twin vertical stones with a horizontal boulder on top, and are called trilithons.  Each trilithon consists of a well-shaped stone paired with one that is rougher.  This appears to be deliberate, but what's its significance?  Maybe male and female?  We will probably never know.

The trilithons graduate in size: from the shortest, which face each other across the open horseshoe, to the tallest, which was the Great Trilithon (the stone with the point on the top) which faced the enclosure entrance.  This was the only trilithon which had a back as smooth as its front.

The horizontal stones of the trilithons are called lintels.  The single standing part of the Great Trilithon clearly shows the tenon on top of the upright.  This peg would have fitted into a corresponding hole- or mortise- dug into the lintel.

The Altar Stone lies under the wreckage of the fallen upright of the Great Trilithon and its lintel.  As no attempt has ever been made to move these stones, it is uncertain whether the Altar Stone always lay flat or once stood vertically.

We walked around and took in the view from a bit of a distance.  There are Aubrey Holes close to the inner edge of the bank.  They originally held metal and stone markers and were named after antiquarian John Aubrey (1626-1697).  His ideas were taken up by William Stukeley (1687-1765), a doctor and field archaeologist who also coined the term trilithons (taken from Greek and meaning 'three stones.')

You can see a crowd to the left- although visitor numbers are restricted, the attraction receives more than 1 million people per year.  A henge is literally a circular or oval shaped bank with a ditch and a flat surface over the middle.  There is no evidence that henges were occupied.

We were very near the A303, visible in the background...

Flossie came over to say hello!😁

The stones outside the trilithons are called Station Stones.  There were originally four, but only two survive.  They mark the corners of a perfect rectangle; its central point the exact centre of the monument.

Coming round Stonehenge and the Heel Stone is now visible, to the right of the photograph. 'Friar's Heel' is its older name.  Most of the sarsens are thought to have been transported here, but the heel stone may have always been here and was simply raised upright.

This is the view from the Heel Stone...  

The Heel Stone is an unshaped boulder.  It is from behind this stone that the sun rises- assuming that you're standing in the middle of Stonehenge- on Midsummer's Day each year, in perfect alignment...

The Heel Stone and the rest of Stonehenge.  The Slaughter Stone can be seen, flat in the grass.

The Slaughter Stone originally stood upright and was flanked with other stones that are now missing.  This horizontal stone gets its name from the water that rests in its shallow depressions.  The iron ore in the rock causes it to turn a rusty red.  This was thought to be evidence of sacrifice; but that idea is really only the product of overactive imaginations.

The smaller, central bluestones include a variety of different types of rock.  Generally speaking they were unshaped, apart from two which appear to have been part of a trilithon.

It was very chilly, and time to return.  In the museum, you can stand in the centre of this large mock-up and experience the sun rising and setting over Stonehenge for yourself...

This skeleton was found nearby, and is of a man who lived 5000 years ago.  He would have known the area well...

A model of Stonehenge as it is.   It was once thought that Stonehenge was built by Druids- who were priests and soothsayers- but the Druids did not, in fact emerge until 1000 years after Stonehenge was thought to be abandoned.

...And maybe as it was?  It raises the questions: Why was Stonehenge built?  When was it abandoned and was it actually completed?  What was it actually for?  We will never know for sure, but to me it's some kind of calendar.  I also think that it could have been used as a place of worship at certain times of the year. 

Some of the sarsens weighed over 35 tonnes, and it was thought that they were transported on platforms like this, by up to 200 men at a time.  Sarsen and bluestone could only have been shaped using stone tools.  Round sarsen balls known as mauls or hammerstones have been found at Stonehenge.  They varied from the size of an orange, to the size of a football.

Outside the museum are a selection of huts.  The builders of Stonehenge probably lived nearby, and in homes like these...

Inside the hut...

Would I visit again?  Yes, but not in a hurry.  I'm glad I went, but what I would REALLY love to do is walk between the stones.  This is only allowed during Special Access visits, when up to 26 people can walk beyond the barriers and into Stonehenge, for one hour at a time.

Count me in!

TTFN

The Miss Elaineous

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