Spring in winter

Sometimes, there is a day in the middle of winter that gives a hint of spring. Things springlike are starting to move.

"Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said 'Bother!' and 'O blow!' and also 'Hang spring-cleaning!' and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat."

(Mole gives up on white-washing  in The Wind in the willows)

Grandad

This is my grandad. It is 1914. He is 19 years old and a new recruit in the Royal Horse and Field Artillery and he is having his photo taken professionally, in a studio, with an aspidistra on a stand. He is a gunner, the lowest rank, the artillery version of a private in the infantry. He looks bemused and scared. As well he might.

I went to a talk the other day by a woman who works as a volunteer at the local Familysearch, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints genealogical archives, about their website and resources. It was very interesting, and has inspired me to do some searching on my own family history. I have attempted this before, only to be discouraged by the sheer hugeness of the project and the difficulty of getting access to family records held in the United Kingdom, but the Internet and digitisation of records has changed that.

I thought I'd start with my grandad, since he was a soldier in the First World War and there is so much being added to our knowledge of this period of history right now. 

I did a simple search on Familysearch and came up with his birth details and details about his service record. Unfortunately, Grandad's service record was one of the "Burnt documents", service records destroyed and damaged by a fire caused by bombing in the second world war, but I also looked at the British National Archives "Discovery" the catalogue of archives held in Britain. Some things have been digitised. I found and downloaded his medal card, just like that! Not only was this interesting in itself, it also gave me the names of other members of the wider family who were serving at the same time.

There are some great online sources of information about WW1. "The Long, long trail" is full of useful information, as are regimental websites. Regiments also kept official war diaries, noting events and deployments and I hope to get hold of these from the NA as well. Mum told me that Grandad was gassed in France; I would like to find out where and when this happened. He must have returned to the Front though, as he was not in receipt of a pension during the duration of the war. To make matters more complicated, another Edward A. was serving in the Royal Horse and Field. This man was probably a cousin, five years older than my grandad. He was a driver, responsible for the care and deployment of horses. The family name is an uncommon one, which should make searching easier, but they were also uncommonly fertile, and the boys were all called by ordinary names - Edward, Thomas, William and George, which makes telling the generations apart quite difficult too. ("Was this William Edward the father or William Edward the son?") It's all very interesting, not least because it takes you into areas of history that you would not have looked at before to provide context for what you are finding out. I now know more that I ever thought I would about the composition of the Royal Artillery's brigades and batteries, how they were numbered and why the men's service numbers changed. (Some bureaucrat just decided to). So, on with the research.

Synchronicity

I'd just started reading this book when the publicity about Queen Elizabeth as a child giving the Nazi salute to her father came out. I don't want to comment on how true or not this was, but this fascinating book by Deborah Cadbury gives an insight into the activities of the Duke of Windsor (him what abdicated) and his brothers during the Second World War. My mother, an Englishwoman who lived through these events, always held that it was a lucky thing for Britain when the King abdicated, as he was rabidly pro-Nazi and would have handed the whole country over to Hitler, as long as Hitler promised to make Wallis Simpson queen. This book does agree with that. The Duke was a playboy whose only thought was for himself and his wife. While Europe went through the agonies of war, the Duke and Duchess were swanning around the Caribbean on a friend's yacht, spending up big at the Waldorf-Astoria, and adding to Wallis' collection of jewellery. It's no wonder that the Duke and Duchess were roundly hated by ordinary people in England. Before the writer can be accused of bias, and me of bias in reporting same, these things are a matter of historical record. The Duke and Duchess were kept under surveillance by MI5, MI6 and the FBI, and the Nazis, who hoped that the Duke and Duchess might be used as a lever to victory over England. 

I have read another of Deborah Cadbury's books "The lost king of France" about the sad history of the little boy who was the son of Marie Antoinette, and next in line to the throne after his father's execution. She is a very good writer, who walks the narrow line between factual history and popular history. You feel as if you are reading a thriller, but an educated and well-considered one.

Cold and miserable

Not much to report really. Today is one of those cold, overcast, getting-ready-to-rain days that we have a lot in winter here. The cats refuse to go out and so do I.  I've been cheering myself up with this book of John Singer Sargent's watercolours:

The book documents the watercolours in the Brooklyn Museum and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, both having large collections of Sargent's works. I've put in a few of my favourites, but all of them are wonderful.

Sargent was a great traveller, and loved to paint plein-air. These expeditions gave him a pleasant release from his bread-and-butter work of oil portraits of English and American high society.

Loch Moidart, Inverness-shire, 1896 

Statue in the Boboli Gardens, Florence. I think this is the same statue that I photographed there (but I think my viewpoint is a better one)

Fountain at Aranjuez, 1903. He makes it look so easy to do, but...!

Corfu: a rainy day, 1909. Captures well the boredom of a rainy day on holiday.

He painted many pictures of his family on holidays. This was painted in the Simplon Pass, and is titled "The tease".

Gourds

Violet sleeping

These are just a few of the delights of this book. A useful essay "Bringing back something fine" details his working methods and makes interesting reading for anyone wanting to know more about Sargent's watercolours.

Images from "John Singer Sargent watercolors"/ Erica E. Hirschler and Teresa A Carbone. Published by The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Brooklyn Museum.

Poor peoples' double glazing

Very cold for the last two days. Jiro and Thomas stayed inside all day yesterday, even used the poo-tray which normally they disdain.

I spent today installing what I call "poor peoples' double glazing"- bubble packing stuck to the single-glass windows with blu-tac or double- sided tape. Although my living-room windows are double-glazed, they are retrofitted glazing, which leaves a narrow band of aluminium around the window that is the opening window. This lets the cold in, so I stop it up with doubled bubble-pack. I also completely cover the smaller windows (which are not double glazed) right over. It usually keeps the hot air in a little better.

It doesn't look very attractive, but if it saves money then that's good. Indoors amusements are the order of the day now. I watch movies on youTube and DVD, and have a whole stack of books to dip into and out of, especially gardening books and magazines to help me plan the new bed in the front garden, just rescued from the tyranny of giant pittosporums growing up into the phone lines. Dinner tonight is Leftover Casserole, a mix of chili mince, chicken soup, lamb hocks and various vegetables. It smells good, I hope it will taste good too.

Rapaki

I went over to visit Rapaki this afternoon. Rapaki is a small Maori settlement in a bay of  Lyttelton Harbour. The name rapaki means "waist-mat" and refers to the tradition that the chieftain Te Rakiwhakaputa placed his waist-mat there to claim the bay for himself and his family.

Recently, a magnificent new whare-whakairo (carved meeting house) has been built to replace the very old meeting house that stood here. This is the outside, with (I think) the figure of  Te Rakiwhakaputa up at the apex. The name of the house "Wheke" commemorates his son, Te Wheke, who stayed behind to found the settlement while his father continued his exploration of the South Island. Maori have lived here for hundreds of years, with abundant sea-food readily available. It is a lovely peaceful place, one of those benevolent places that feel good to be in. Here is a link to Christchurch City Libraries' website article about Rapaki:

http://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/ti-kouka-whenua/rapaki-marae/