Sunday, November 27, 2011

Haiku, some orange things I made, looking up in St Brieuc...

~
Tending to curse darkness,
it takes two matches, then
the beeswax kindles.
~

The clementine marmalade potted up last night still looked runny, but when I opened a jar, it had a reasonable soft set on it. No need to pour it all back into the pan.


And to match the marmalade, I finally sewed all the corners and the ends in on this rather quaint garment, knitted in one piece on a circular needle from a pack of yarn from a cheap supermarket of German origin which will remain nameless.


Not the most elegant or flattering item of clothing, but I worked the pattern out myself on squared paper, and it is very chunky yarn, so that's hardly surprising.  The big old Bakelite buttons which I found in the button tin, came, I think, from an old coat of my mum's.  I do like wearing warm sleeveless things in winter, down the back seems to be the coldest part.

~

First Sunday in Advent, time for the first mince pie of the season and to listening to the Advent service on Radio 3, perhaps the moment I feel happiest about Christmas. 


I went into St Brieuc the other day where they were putting the Christmas lights in the trees with a crane vehicle thing.  


A number of people, like the woman on the bike with the child on the back, and me, stopped to watch and remark on this, which may indicate a lack of sophistication or much else going on, but I prefer to think it shows a curiosity and pleasure in life.

~


I'd taken the camera because of late I've got out of the habit rather, and then now and then I see something I'd like to snap and regret not having it, and there are also certain things I've meant to record for a long time.  One of them is this frieze on the pediment of the post office in St Brieuc.  It features a topless classical kind of god and goddess, of benign rather than fearsome aspect, but the god has a quill pen in one hand and an old-fashioned telegraph machine, like the one in 'Lark Rise to Candleford', in the other, and the goddess, naked breasts akimbo, is chatting on the phone and leaning on a mail box, with a telegraph pole and wires in the background.  I've long loved this bit of municipal sculpture, which I now notice is signed 'Le Goff'  and probably I ought to find out more about it; I can't quite work out how much conscious humour it contains.


8 comments:

Dale said...

Can't stop giggling at the relief: that's marvelous! I really can't imagine the artist playing for straight, can you?

Roderick Robinson said...

St Brieuc, or rather its airport, gives me a quiver. It was there until very late in the day I expected to meet M. Kervoaze ("You would have waited a long time for me", he said gaily). That would have been the perfect C-U after a string of C-Us. Could I commission a photo from you? A St Brieuc symbol of M. K's absence.

Lesley said...

I think the proper name for those crane-like things is "cherry-picker". A lovely word for an everyday ( I almost said down-to-earth) machine.

Fire Bird said...

goddess on the phone is fab!

Julia said...

The relief must have been designed with humor in mind, but what I keep imagining is the town council meeting where the artist sold the design to the city.

Anonymous said...

I think that when a jam or marmalade doesn't set properly, you can just call it a conserve, then everything is fine. Works for me!

Glenn x

Crafty Green Poet said...

that relief is wonderful!

Ilike your chunky knit waistcoat thing too, lovely vibrant colours

Lucy said...

Thanks all, glad you liked the relief.

BB - a good way of presenting an photo-essay on St B - places where M Kervoaze was not to be found - could cover everything really...

Lesley, thanks for that, what a pretty word it is indeed!

Julia, similar fantasies have floated, half-formed, through my mind. I kind of wonder too who the models were... the préfet of the time and his wife, perhaps?

Glenn, you are so dear to me; I remember your gift of lime marmalade and the perfect set it had...

CGP, happy to get a vote on the cardie!