Charlecote Park
March sees the start of a new
season at Charlecote, Nature is waking up in the Park and from 4th
March the house will be open. Conservation staff were busy during the winter
months, working through all the rooms with special attention to the unique
collection of books in the library. The gatehouse bells are being rehung and
will soon be ready to chime. Scaffolding on the gatehouse will be down by the
beginning of March but a viewing platform will remain at the top and at certain
times it will be possible to look at the surrounding countryside from that
vantage point. Scaffolding will continue to be in place around parts of the
house and a viewing platform on the south wing will enable visitors to see the
work in progress. The house will be open from 11am to 4.30pm 5 days a week
(not Wednesday or Thursday) but until 30th April the first hour will
be restricted to people on the (free) conservation tours. Just ask for the tour
when you get your ticket. The park and the restaurant are open every day, and
the shop on the same days as the house.
For further details, please contact Charlecote Park on 01789 470277 or visit:
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-charlecotepark .
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Ryder Street, Wellesbourne
An interesting question arose
recently when a resident googled an online mapping website and found an
entirely fictitious “Ryder Street” on the Dovehouse estate.
He assumed it was one of the following:-
- In the original plans but they changed their mind;
- The builders made a mistake and didn't leave room for it;
- It's a totally fictitious “trap
street”, inserted by the online mappers (Google in this case) to catch
copyright infringement.
Apparently the A-Z of London
contains about 50 totally fictitious streets put in to catch people who
infringe copyright and use them in other publications.
We had a look at the map on
the website and it's obviously a crude alteration to the map purporting to show
a street off Lincoln Close going through a garage and ending at the back door
of a conservatory to a house in Lancaster Close.
If the people who produce satnavs use maps like these no wonder there is confusion.
Are there any more out there I wonder?
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Compton Verney hosts
Alfred Wallis and Ben Nicholson
26 March – 5 June 2011
The work of legendary naive
artist Alfred Wallis reflects both the Cornish port of St Ives and a
particularly exciting moment in British art history, while the ‘discovery’ in
1928 of the untrained Wallis by established artists Ben Nicholson and
Christopher Wood has now taken on an almost mythical significance.
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Wool work: A sailor's art
26 March – 5 June 2011
This is displayed alongside Alfred Wallis and Ben Nicholson, exploring the links between sailors, art
and craft through the history of the embroidered wool pictures made by sailors
in the 19th century. Inspired by such images in Compton Verney's own
Folk Art collection and others from key maritime and private collections, the
exhibition will reveal how a wide range of sources – ship portraits, flags and
cartouches, carte de visite photographs - portrayed with great individual
expression, produced remarkable personal tributes to the ships on which the men
sailed and to their own maritime histories.
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Alfred Wallis
Small Boat in a rough sea
Wool work: A sailor's art
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Tailpiece
AAADD - KNOW THE SYMPTOMS..........
Thank goodness there's a name for this disorder.
Somehow I feel better, even though I have it!! Recently, I was diagnosed with
A.A.A.D.D. - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is how it manifests itself:-
I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over
at my car and decide it needs washing.
As I head towards the garage, I notice post on the porch table that I picked up
from the postman earlier. I decide to go through it before I wash the car.
I put my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the recycling box under
the table, and notice that the recycling box is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the recycling first.
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the post box when I take out the
recycling paper anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.
I take my cheque book off the table and notice that there is only one cheque left.
My extra cheques are in the desk in my study, so I go into the house to my desk
where I find the cup of coffee I'd been drinking. I'm going to look for my
cheques but first I need to push the coffee aside so that I don't accidentally
knock it over.
The coffee is getting cold, and I decide to make another cup. As I head toward
the kitchen with the cold coffee, a vase of flowers on the worktop catches my
eye - the flowers need water.
I put the coffee on the worktop and discover my reading glasses that I've been
searching for all morning. I decide I'd better put them back on my desk but
first I'm going to water the flowers.
I put the glasses back down on the worktop, fill a container with water and
suddenly spot the TV remote control. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I
realise that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote,
but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back
where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So,
I put the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then
I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day:-
The car isn't washed; the bills aren't paid; there is a cold cup of coffee
sitting on the kitchen work-surface; the flowers don't have enough water; there
is still only one cheque in my cheque book; I can't find the remote; I can't
find my glasses and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because
I know I was busy all blooming day and I'm really tired...
I realise this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it – but
first I'll check my e-mail...
(Oh, I know exactly how he/she feels. Ed)
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