motion

I'll be away for a week dear friends on a T'ai Chi retreat. So courtesy of KICKCAN & CONKERS, I leave you this beautiful piece of work to look at :


http://vimeo.com/4347460

What treasures ! I loved going to Brownies until enrollment day. My father for some unearthly reason had asked that we all had his name, Aubrey included in ours. This was fine for my brothers but I found it terribly embarrassing. It wasn't as if it was his first name - which was John ! But there were so many John Smiths in the services he became J. Aubrey Smith.

And so they called out Penelope Ann Aubrey Smith & I wished the floor could eat me up. This could be why when ever I phoned my friends & was asked who was calling I replied,
" only Penny " One dad called me this affectionally from then on. Another -a real Sussex countryman called me Tuppence which I loved. I really should have called the Blog...It's only Penny. Perhaps when I write my memoirs.....

Brownies clashed with Red Cross in our village hall ( probably the only night they put the heating on ) so I reluctantly left Brownies and its awful brown dress, leather belt & brown beret. Red Cross seemed so grown up in comparison. I went on a camp and got terribly homesick & wouldn't do sleepovers for ages afterwards. We had a regional competition and all our group won was singing. I mean I know that singing lifts the spirits & all that but it will hardly stem bleeding or resuscitate. Still we were proud.

I was a prefect in name only... there was hardly anyone to be prefect to as our school had been changing into a sixth form college since the year after I joined. It was great - more & more in the VI form every year for us to swoon over. Though it retained it's school title until it fully became a college, we felt like we were already there.

Dear little badges of honour and mementos of the past.

I've had these dear little pineapples for years. They were displayed in my printer's box but that houses my corks now and these have been put away for too long.

When I was at college I went a bit pineapple mad... drew them all the time & even made a plastic mould from one. I collected pineapple badges, earrings, ornaments for a while too.

Working in Antigua I saw my first field of pineapples growing - they were quite beautiful there standing in their rows.

I have a box of bits & bobs - small ornaments I've had since I was little. I like to think one day I'll have grand children to go through it and ask where they came from - their story. I did this with my grandmother. I particularly liked two wooden bears with shiny eyes.

When I tell my children this they roll their eyes...Oh please let me be a granny and a mad one at that.

This post is a little early but I have a busy week ahead and as the lovely MummyMad at TheMadHouse said that she couldn't wait for the next instalment ( I'm honoured )... here it is.


'Im out-of-doors and I met twenty years ago. You could say the hurricane brought us together... every one was certainly, " letting their hair down " after it - almost a bizarre party atmosphere - highly charged & exciting.


You could also say that our marriage has had a few hurricanes in between but we have er, weathered them all.


I guess we were the talk of the town - so " in lurv" in a place alive with " grotty yotties " out having a good time... " twofers Tuesday" and "Happy Hour" galore. But he & I were based in Antigua all year round and so we started to date.


It was terribly romantic of course and in this wave of emotion he proposed to me on Christmas morning. ( I thought he was joking...so he asked three times !!! )


...then he disappeared ! He did ! Christmas night... off on a yacht charter. His cook suggested to buy me a ring in St Martins & suggested emeralds for my red hair. I'm so very glad he waited and I chose a sapphire ring in St Johns Antigua.


Several months later we went home to meet the family. I had to giggle because I'd sent flowers for my brother's new baby... and they'd put love from Penny & Roody on the card... "She's coming home with a black man ! "... not that it would have mattered of course, but Roddy is a dour Scot, a sea dog through & through ( though he does like a spot of Mountgay rum !)


We returned to Antigua and spent a few more months there but I was not born to be a charter cook and he couldn't teach in a pre-school. We decided to leave this magical place to somewhere we could both pursue our careers without visas & permits getting in the way. We married two years later.


This little coral heart was found on a beach back in Antigua when my husband briefly worked there again. He found our daughter her initial too and she wears it round her neck. They are rather sweet and very, very special.

Twenty years ago this Monday, 21st September 1989 I experienced living through a hurricane. Hurricane Hugo to give it it's name.

I was nanny for two little boys aged five and three and I was just as excited & scared as them. We had time to " baton down the hatches " and prepare as much as possible. My employer had just finished masterminding the building of a primary school and she was desperately worried it would be damaged. We had all lived and breathed the project and just finished painting the building. But we had to get to safety so made ourselves a temporary home in the stone fortress that was a hotel her husband managed.

I thought the idea to camp out in the bar was excellent & helped myself to a stiff drink. We told stories in the dark and giggled hysterically. There were teachers from the school and marooned guests whose romantic Caribbean holiday had just turned into a nightmare. One of the teachers played the clarinet softly in the background while we chattered nervously and tried to reassure the boys.

The wind turned into a roar ...wild and angry but there was nothing to do but sit it out. We made a makeshift meal in the hotel kitchen with pots & pans flying around. It was surreal and very eerie. Needless to say, no one got much sleep that night !

The morning brought a devastated picture... palm trees unearthed, buildings splintered into a million pieces, boats in the boat yard fallen like dominoes... debris everywhere. We drove with baited breath to the little wooden school but there she stood magnificently in tact and looking splendid. The little pre-school stood beside with her rainbow colours all happy & bright against the grey sky.

Our house was a different matter...the roof had gone and everything floated in a foot of water. It was bizarre - I saw the book I'd read the boys a few nights earlier floating face down & plastic toys were swimming around.

People rallied, washed mouldy clothes, cleared, dried, restored. The whole Island came alive with re-building. It took months to get the roof fixed so we kind of " camped out " here & there. Things gradually returned to normal and Hurricane Hugo became added to the list - a statistic in the records.

I found the lovely coral encrusted bottle washed up on the same beach I found my Calabash. It's my treasure the sea threw up that violent night.

Have you ever seen the sea this brown ? Of course, it's not the sea but the field behind our house which been plowed....but I like to call it the brown sea. The seagulls are hovering around which adds to the effect quite nicely.

I'm feeling quite earthy today as it was my first T'ai Chi class this term. We embrace the five elements; Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Metal. We learn in the perfect location - an old wooden guide hut with a metal roof, near a pond with a lovely garden - soft mossy grass and a huge tree. There's usually someone having a bonfire nearby to give us the fire ! I find an inner peace doing T'ai Chi - a time to banish thoughts and to breathe deeply & let go of stress.

Tomorrow I'm going with my mum for a trip on the Waverly paddle steamer which is here in the Solent for a while. It's a trip to the needles but we will pass Brownsey Island - home of the red squirrels and nicely linking me back to what this post started about....the brown sea !

...so here is another treasure from Antigua, my Calabash. I found it washed up on a deserted beach at five in the morning as the sun rose and before my little charges awoke ( I was a nanny then ) I've had it for twenty years and I love it.

A Rastafarian woman living down the road from us used to pick calabash from the trees, halve them while still soft, scrape out the flesh, carve patterns on the side and sell them to tourists. She made pots & bags out of them but she also used them in her home. They were lovely and I brought some home as gifts but I do love mine just natural and beautiful.

It sometimes seems a lifetime ago that my husband & I lived and worked in Antigua. It is a very special place for us. Of course it's changed so much in the years but it'll always be our place. We never had a honeymoon after we were married but it didn't matter - we'll always have Antigua.

Wee Man lugged this beautiful stone back from the beach at Bude. We were staying in a caravan on a farm - just us as it was a new venture for the farmer's wife and she had just one caravan. So it was idyllic for us....

... idyllic 'til 'im-out-of doors developed a stomach pain. It got so bad we left him resting while we went back to visit the donkey sanctuary - a favourite for the kids. But in the end we went to the local doctors.

The nurse saw him and did wonder about appendicitis but the doctor popped his head in and muttered " virus " & prescribed pain killers & sleep. We returned two days later & the diagnosis was the same.

I don't know how he drove home ( how guilty did I feel that I can't drive ? ) The next morning he took himself off to Bournemouth hospital where they didn't know what to do with him either. By this time, appendicitis was a real possibility so they wrote " nil by mouth " and prepped him for an operation. Then they changed their mind and put him under observation. Then they changed their minds again up went the nil by mouth sign and so it went on !

Meanwhile the In laws arrived to stay locally to see the grandchildren. They spent most of their holiday driving backwards & fore wards to hospital !

Eventually my husband was discharged with a bag full of strong antibiotics. He still has his appendix ! They decided to bombard with pills rather than operate as it could burst & develop peritonitis. Needless to say, he has never forgotten that particular holiday !

PS ...on a brighter note, before he got ill, we visited Morwellham Quay - went deep into the tin mines, dressed up in period costume, made rope & sat in a lesson in a Victorian school ( what would they have done with two dyslexics ? )

It's a wonderful place and if you get the chance try to visit.

At the risk of being boring,.. I wanted to show you these lovely sea urchins again. They are part of my treasures from Antigua.

They are so delicate once dried out but so vicious in the sea. If you are unlucky enough to tread on one and get one of the black spikes stuck in your foot, it is extremely painful. I've heard that an immediate remedy is to get someone to pee on the wound!! (or is that for jellyfish sting ?) Luckily I didn't have to try !

My children & I collected these lovely sea urchins last winter on a magical beach with the perfect picture postcard palm tree bending towards the crystal clear sea. We went snorkeling and I found that I was quite relaxed and quite good at it. DD exclaimed, " I'm going with mum, Dad's too scared to swim over the coral ! "

We were on the beach early in the morning before anyone else ventured over from the other yachts out at anchor. We left footsteps in the sand and collected driftwood ready for a night time fire.

We saw stingrays, squid and a turtle. The fish were stunning and made me giggle - not a good idea while wearing a snorkel !

When we worked in Antigua several years ago, we took a holiday before we came home and explored the island. One of the actors who has played Bond was on the same beach as us & my husband got chatting with him about their boys playing in the sand. It was very amusing because we didn't gush & ask for his autograph... just two dads on the beach talking about their boys. He was on holiday... and so were we.

....so as I was saying over in the hen house, my children speak very literally. I love it but it can be frustrating for them....and everyone else !

They both attended a specialist tutor for dyslexia. Darling daughter did very well but Wee Man resented it - felt " babied " However he loved playing the word games.

One time the tutor was trying to get him to find words by giving him clues.... the word in this case being Library. She said, " Where are the books kept in your school ?" ... He answered, " In the classroom "... " Oh yes, but the books that aren't in your classroom - where are they kept ?" ... He said, " On a shelf "

Can't argue with that. I snorted with laughter and the tutor didn't.

This is my bronze sculpture. Ha ! He is about an inch long and I've had him for ever. He used to lie in the printer's box which is now full of corks. I unearthed him in a box of tiny ornaments. I've been unearthing a lot recently.He is rather elegant - a Greyhound I think.

My eldest brother used to take me greyhound racing... I would put a fifty pence bet on a name I liked... and usually win ! My brother has a bit of a gambling problem. It's in his nature - " in his genes " says our mother. Her grandfather was a gambling man and lost the value of the house three times over until Great Granny put a stop to it. There is a marvelous photograph of him at Epsom races looking prosperous and in control - which of course he wasn't. He has a gold watch in his waistcoat pocket. I expect it was at the pawn brokers the next day !

I haven't inherited the gambling streak - I've inherited the home making, nesting, animal loving and artistic side. I had to be dragged out of the pet shop yesterday having seen a new litter of kittens - related to our own lovely Franky. My husband stayed outside and sent a message in with our son, " Dad doesn't want another cat. " I shall remember that when he wants his next boat....

I picked these seed pods from a tree in Antigua last Christmas. If you've followed The Hen House you will know that I worked in Antigua about twenty years ago and met my husband there who was skipper of a charter yacht.

We have returned twice through work the last time being to meet up after the Arc race and have use of the boat over Christmas. It was the most incredible holiday I have ever had.

I'm ashamed to say, I don't know what the tree is called. It has fern like fronds & flame coloured flowers.

The seed pods are bright green but dry out this lovely brown. If you shake them the seeds inside rattle. They are sold locally painted up in bright Rastafarian colours and coated in varnish but I love them in their natural beauty. I have more treasures from Antigua but I'll post about them another day...

Have you ever had a good look at the cork from your wine bottle ? ( no, not when tipsy trying to squeeze out the last drop ! )

They have the most marvelous designs on. I especially like the Rioja ones ...well I would I did live in Spain !

I display mine in this printer's box which I bought in Brighton when I was a student. I used to keep teeny ornaments in it but put the corks in when I was looking for some way to display them.

That day I also bought a dark grey Fedora & wore it with a black & white check dress & huge chunky necklace to my interview for a summer job on Brighton pier. I got the job but lost the hat when I realised how silly I looked wearing it. It wasn't quite me dahling !

You know that feeling you get when you are pleased with something you've done ? This photo gave me that feeling. I was so pleased with it I put it in the sidebar.

These beautiful bottles are made across the water at Isle of Wight Glass. They were birthday gifts from my husband. The iridescent marble effect is simply stunning.

I love the reflection the bottle makes on the picture behind. It's like a third bottle is there in the shadows.

The print behind is Black Brook by John Singer Sargent. I was given it on my twenty first birthday. The colour of the water in it is exactly like the stream running through our village which is lovely. I also have a framed print of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by Sargent which is very pretty and one of those paintings where you wish you were there in it.

The photograph has helped me decide what do do. I'm going to improve my photography skills ( need a new camera ! ) I always enjoyed this at college and took some good pictures which I still have. One showed a row of feet belonging to people on a park bench in Worthing. " Old Lady " shoes and Dr Martins ! Such was the weirdness of being at art college in Worthing - a well known retirement town with the odd punk thrown in ! It was great.

These lovely little shoes were bought in 1903 for my grandmother Molly. She wouldn't have been walking yet so we think they are soft slippers for crawling around in. They had little buttons to fasten them up but my mother cut them off when she was a child so they would fit her doll. Perhaps I'll find some little buttons to put back but maybe not as I love them as they are.

I had a good look through the old button box yesterday and found these lovelies. They are made from slate and very heavy. I think they may be weights for sewing into coat hems. I'm not sure but I love them.

Why the linen shelf ? I like all things natural; wood, stone, slate etc & natural materials like cotton & linen & especially natural colours.

I went to art college after school long long ago and did a foundation course specialising in textiles. I then went travelling and later raised a family both of which I love doing. Apart from making a lovely home, I haven't done much artistically except hand made cards for the past year.

I have been inspired by the creative bloggers I've found ( or should that be Kreativ ?) and I want to start dabbling again myself - hence the shelf. My art materials have sat on the shelf ( in the loft ) for far too long.

So this is a journey I am beginning to unearth my creative side. I will need your help and expertise and patience.

Thank you

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