Progress

Well, since the last posting Libby has more or less written two articles for the Japan Society and Charles has done one of his many and variegated VAT accounts and sorted magazines.

I arrived back at Film Farm 17 January, and from then to my departure Thursday 21st we recorded my Bruges words and edited the film section for same - pretty good going since the film lasts some 20 minutes.

In between times we had brief interludes and despite the fact that Caroline Conran famously declared that life is too short to stuff a mushroom, Libby persevered and stuffed numerous calamaris - and very yummy they were too.

Charles lives in a not insubstantial house (a mere 13 rooms plus 2 kitchens, 2 bathrooms, 2 extra toilets, a shower room, a darkroom and a workroom) but he finds himself continually pressed for space, hence the magazine sorting and the arrival on Wednesday of a second load of very useful boxes in which to store same.

Personally - I despair!

PS The shadowy figure in the 1st floor right hand window is me, waving and nearly drowning because my bed is being subsumed by magazines - a la Day of the Triffids!

I've started so I'll continue ...

Well, I said we'd get on with FBSG, and as soon as I had taken my mother back home, I whizzed down to Film Farm, arriving 3 January. We recorded my words for the Dublin section and started editing the following day, actually managing to complete the film before I left on the 7th, so not bad going because it was quite a lengthy script.

Meanwhile on the 6th I helped take down the Christmas decorations - that is after we'd take a photo of same - a very minimalist soul Charles with exquisite taste!

PS If anyone can translate the Chinese comment on my last blog I'd be grateful - looks suspiciously like SPAM to me!

2010

Goodness, here we are at the close of 2009 - what has and has not been achieved in the last year?
POSITIVES: Well, I revamped my Brangwyn website at the start of the year using Dreamweaver, Ferens Art Gallery launched their From Victorian to Edwardian book and exhibition in June (all Brangwyn stuff by MOI), the Piper film was VERY successfully launched on the 27th September, Manuel Auad's beautiful publication of Brangwyn's Way of the Cross with a commentary by MOI (replacing G K Chesterton's original - walking in the feet of the gods here) came out in November, the article Gareth and I wrote for the Journal of Stained Glass appeared in Volume XXXIII and I've given countless Gourmet Art lectures which have been rather fun and certainly got the audiences laughing. Meanwhile much time has been spent writing an essay and cataloguing works for the forthcoming Japanese exhibition.
NEGATIVES: Unfortunately FBSG is still awaiting completion! However it WILL be finished next year - PRIORITY! Didn't get back into cycling and swimming but have been jogging regularly (although my hip won't let me get beyond about 2 miles at a time) and started an out of date Canadian Air Force fitness regime which I discovered amongst my papers!
NEXT YEAR: As stated FBSG will be completed (come whatsit or high water), Charles and I will hopefully be making a film about Patrick Reyntiens, hopefully I won't have to take a job shelf stacking at Tesco and hopefully I won't let the oldies drag me down - keep smiling and Carpe Diem!
HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

lateral thinking

Arrived at Film Farm late afternoon Monday 14th after another lecture. Tuesday we recorded my sound for the Elveden film and Charles did his Brangwyn voice again, then we buckled down and got yet another section of the film completed - we're positively racing through editing these days - without loss of perfection I hasten to add!
On Thursday it started to snow and by Friday we were surrounded by a veritable winter wonderland (unfortunately I'd left my camera at home, silly girl). Also unfortunately this was the day I had to drive up to Thornton to collect my mother for the Christmas festivities. Lincolnshire was pretty snowed under but once I got to the A1 it was fairly clear. By the time I neared York it started snowing again and the windscreen washer froze. Arrived at my mother's house to discover that not one, but TWO cars had slid off the hill into her not insubstantial stone front wall the previous evening. The wall didn't look too happy - heaven knows what the cars looked like.
It snowed even more overnight. Friday morning I cleared the drive of snow and ice pulling a muscle in my back in the process (not on purpose you understand), loaded up the car and we set off at 10.30 for what is usually a 5 hour journey. The windscreen washer still wasn't working despite my filling it up with de-icer and the roads were throwing up slushy grit mix. A filthy windscreen combined with a bright low sun makes for hazardous driving conditions and necessitated frequent stops to clean said windscreen. The roads weren't too awful but everyone was being cautious and taking it fairly slowly. Finally arrived at Cambridge Waitrose an hour later than anticipated for a re-fuelling (us, not the car) and a quick shop for fodder. We set off again as the sun started to set, making the snow covered fields glow warmly, and dusk wasn't as bad as usual because the white countryside lightened everything. Delays on the M25 due to roadworks, slow moving traffic on the QE2 bridge and then back to Kent where there were huge problems. The radio had alerted me to the fact that parts of the M20 were closed for Operation stack (when they use the motorway as a lorry park when ferries are delayed or not sailing), and as a result the A20 was congested. Minor delays were reported in Dover. So I decided to take the M2 and the A2 down to Dover and back home on the M20 northbound. However as we approached the outskirts of Dover we were gridlocked. Nothing moving, cars and lorries solid on a dual carriageway with no way out - not even a hard shoulder to drive down illegally. Drivers were walking along the road comparing notes, some locals caught in the queue reckoned we could be stuck for at least 4 hours if not overnight. By this time it was back down to freezing and I obviously had to get my 91 year old mother out of this predicament.
So I thought up a cunning plan - I put on the hazard warning lights, told my mother to lie back and look grey, and then approached the drivers of cars ahead of me explaining my anxiety - they all kindly moved over so I could drive past, then I approached the drivers in front of them etc etc and it worked like magic until a white van man was sceptical about my passenger and plan. At this point the traffic moved marginally enabling me to squeeze off the road at the next junction. It transpired almost every road in Dover and Folkestone was blocked, stationary - after many illegalities (U-turns on roundabouts, driving the wrong way along a dual carriageway, weaving in and out of parked lorries) we finally made it home exactly 10 hours after setting off. And half an hour later I'd cooked roast smoked salmon, couscous and broccoli served up with more than a dash of much needed warming red wine!
Now to put up some Christmas decorations and prepare 4 festive meals for 12 people before we set off for the west country on Christmas eve where I'm chief cook (but hopefully not bottle washer)!
Have a good Christmas - and next spring we WILL finally complete and publish FBSG!

Blue Peter (take 2)

Life is becoming somewhat frenetic - Sunday 15th November I drove down to Ramsbury for a lecture in Swindon Monday morning. Tuesday up to stay with my mother in Thornton-le-Dale and then give a lecture for the Scarborough NADFAS group Wednesday, another lecture in Huddersfield Thursday and on to Film Farm Friday to complete the educational 'How to make a stained glass panel' film. Which we succeeded in doing by the time I left on Monday morning (23rd). We also had great fun putting together some 'glass music' to separate the different processes - we mixed sounds of broken glass, chimes and rubbing the top of wine glasses with varying amounts of water inside (unfortunately not wine - that would have made the process FAR more fun but might have got out of hand!)
23rd I left for Leicester Museum and Art Gallery to catalogue the Brangwyn works and then drove back to Thornton. Tuesday a lecture in York, Wednesday another in Leicester, followed by a further couple of days at Film Farm during which we made the Miscellaneous film section - which includes the memorable wet suit incident! (see blog dated 19 November 2007)
Now for an entire week at home followed by 3 lectures in 3 days - Southport, Nottingham and Bisley. A mere couple of days at home and I'm off once again, this time to Norfolk followed by another editing session. No rest for ....

Here's one I made earlier ...

Returned from another week's editing session yesterday. Didn't get quite as much done as hoped, but we were waylaid by a new project.
Monday 12th:
Visited 3 churches in Buckinghamshire which have Piper windows made by Patrick Reyntiens - this for my first ever Reyntiens lecture in Swansea 6th November. Then called in at the Goldmark Gallery to collect 50 Piper DVDs to be distributed to those who helped with our Piper film and the galleries which allowed us to use their works. Arrived at Film Farm late afternoon.
Tuesday 13th:
Made freeze-frames from our filming of Reyntiens, John Burder's film and Shell's Crown of Glass using Charles' new software - DV Kitchen. Excellent except that it doesn't include the facility of finding a particular frame from a time code, so the time I spent last week finding the exact time codes was rather a waste! And I don't have time to waste! Also put the Manaton section of FBSG on the web, again with DV Kitchen using H264 compression, uploaded to Vimeo - you can find it by clicking here: http://vimeo.com/7086441. What fun!
AND we started editing the 'How to make a stained glass panel' section of FBSG. So all in all a productive day.
Wednesday 14th:
Finished editing our session at English Antique Glass (see entry 13 December 2007) and rather wonderful it looks too. Started work on the first stage of filming Gareth actually making the stained glass panel.
Worked out logistics and budget for a possible new commission.
Thursday 15th:
More work on editing Gareth. Great progress, only 2 sections to complete - hopes high that we might finish this sequence before I leave on Saturday.
Friday 16th:
Spent most of the day reviewing the budget we had worked on Wednesday and wondering how we could trim it without making a loss - which we definitely did with the Piper film - where we were on a fixed budget but kept on wanting to make the whole package better'n'better! No-one can claim they don't get value for money with our films!
However, did succeed in filming the intro for the Elveden film (Libby pretending she likes Guinness again - see above) and also the 'Making stained glass' sequence (Libby driving along a country road - see below)
Saturday 17th:
Wonderful news! We are going to Cochem, Germany for the unveiling of Patrick Reyntiens' and Graham Jones' new windows in St Martin's church - which is hugely exciting, so the morning was spent booking flights, working out how much baggage would need to be checked in, if there will be space for 2 toothbrushes; organising car rental; booking a hotel etc etc. Got this all sewn up by 1pm, quick espresso and Libby was on the road south once more, leaving Charles to pack for a film session in outer Manchester tomorrow - people drawing canines at a dog show! For some strange reason all funded by Mandy's department. You know, the chap who hasn't been elected but runs the country.

finito!

Yesterday I received a photo from Gareth - the panel is complete - and isn't it just beautiful?! Gosh I can't believe it!

Having signed off on the Piper DVD I'm now concentrating hard on FBSG - this morning I finished transcribing the first of our interviews with Gareth. Charles and I have only got 4 sessions booked before the end of the year which is when I wanted to finish the DVD - but quite honestly I can't see it happening because we've still got Elveden, Dublin and Bruges to edit plus the FB bio and the 'how to make a stained glass panel' section and a brief extra about the music. Ugh, I need more time!