A last goodbye........

Since yesterday we've been away to attend PP's nephew's funeral.  His family live deep in the Cambridgeshire countryside, in the midst of flat, featureless fens.  It's an area of the country I've never visited before and I was astounded at how foreign it felt, in comparison to the gently rolling  green hills and woodlands of East Sussex.

I'm sure that on a warm, bright, summer's day, the fens feel very different, but in the bitterly cold and bleak, dying days of January, they presented a rather desolate vista.  With few trees and hedgerows, there is little to deflect the force of gales blowing in from the North Sea.  The occasional hardy trees which dot the landscape bear the brunt of the winds and seem to be vainly struggling to cling on to the rich, peaty soil, which is a startling, universal black.

This landscape seemed to reflect the universal sadness felt by everyone who attended the service yesterday.  By their very nature, funerals are always immensely sad occasions, but I have rarely experienced such an emotional and deeply moving ceremony, perfectly judged, simple and heartfelt.  

A fitting valediction for a kind and gentle man who was so obviously loved and held in high regard not only by his family, but by his friends, neighbours and work colleagues, so many of whom packed into the crematorium to celebrate a life well lived, and say a final goodbye........

The clock is ticking......

Work continues on our preparations for the Thame Fair in just under three week's time.  Due to the sad events of the last two weeks, my schedule has, inevitably, gone slightly awry, but no matter.

There are far more important things in life than work.

I'm aiming to get back on track this week and I'm hopeful that I will have at least one new mini kit ready in time for the fair.

We're also working on the next Home Workshop Pack, details of which will be announced in February.

Lastly, time is running out on our January Sale which expires on Tuesday.  There are still a few bargains to be had.....

Microwigging........

I've been working on a new kit today, aimed at demystifying the process of wigging tiny microdolls.  As a result I am covered from head to toe in a fine layer of viscose. 

It's on my eyelashes, up my nose, in my mouth.....the fine filaments seems to get everywhere.

However I've managed to amass a tray full of a variety of different wigmaking sections, which will go into the kits, hopefully in time for Thame.

In other news, it's Burns Night tonight.  Sadly we won't be tucking into the traditional dinner of haggies, neeps and champit tatties, although I may well succumb to a wee dram of a very acceptable single malt before the night is out.

Meanwhile, Small Dog is doing a very good impression of a wee sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, having been hunting up the garden, under the hedge and in the long grass, getting cold and wet in the process.  She is most upset that I won't allow her to use my lap as a heated towel.

 

January sale......

My tidy up today has turned into a full-scale clearout, so I've listed some old stock or discontinued toy dolls, books and games on the website HERE at up to half price.

These sale items will be available until the end of January but it seems that the word has already got out and things are going quickly.

I also have some bigger items for sale which can't be posted, including a 1/12th scale conservatory, a doll's house basement kit, and an 8-roomed display mounted on a turntable. These are only available to pick up either from my home or alternatively can be collected at the Thame Fair next month. I'll sort out details and photographs for those tomorrow.

I've still not finished sorting out the workroom though, so more 'surplus to requirements' treasures may yet come to light.

Sisyphean task.......

As a child I lived in the world of fairy tales and myths.  I still have a book which belonged to my mother when she was a small child, Tales of the Arabian nights, and even just looking at the coloured plates can instantly transport me back to being curled up on the sofa in front of the coal fire, following the exploits of Sinbad or Aladdin.

Similarly I was fascinated by myths and legends, particularly the Greek myths, where a miserly king could turn his beloved daughter into gold, and gods and goddesses plagued the lives of mortals.

I must have had a maudlin mindset though, as the myths which particularly captured my imagination were ones where the hero was set an impossible task which they would invariably overcome, or even more to my liking were the ingenious punishments meted out in Hades, such as the one eventually endured by King Sisyphus, who spawned his own adjective.


He had a long-running feud with the gods which was bound to end in tears.  First he angered them by telling Asophus that Zeus (who admittedly did have a reputation for such things) had carried off his daughter, Aegina.   Not content with that, when Death came for him, Sisyphus chained him up, temporarily granting immortality to all of humanity.  When he was finally brought down to the underworld he instructed his wife to leave his body unburied which served as an excellent excuse to travel back up (primarily in order to punish his long-suffering wife) and live for a long time before dying again.  However, by that time, inevitably, he had built up a lot of bad blood in Hades, so when he finally arrived he was given a cruel and unusual sentence.


His punishment was to endlessly roll a massive stone up a hill.  As soon as it reached the top it would fall all the way back to the bottom and he would have to start again.

He must have been a bit of a tourist attraction in Hades, as Homer wrote:

And I saw Sisyphus at his endless task raising his prodigious stone with both his hands. With hands and feet he tried to roll it up to the top of the hill, but always, just before he could roll it over on to the other side, its weight would be too much for him, and the pitiless stone would come thundering down again on to the plain.

The Greek myths are littered with cracking stories like this, such as the daughters of Danaus whose task was drawing water in a sieve, or poor Tantalus  (who gave us the word 'tantalising') who had to stand in a pool, his chin level with the water, eternally thirsty, as if he bent his head to drink the water immediately drained away. As if that wasn't bad enough, he was also surrounded by fruit laden trees but if he tried to pick any, the winds whirled the branches high above his reach.

So, the moral of these tales is fairly obvious...... don't aggravate the gods.

But I digress.

This morning I am tackling a similar ordeal.

Namely.....

There is not a single square millimetre of useful space on any surface anywhere in the workroom.  Likewise the floor, which is piled with boxes, bits of display stand etc.  A bit of mess is to be expected in the run up to a fair but this is ridiculous.

So I intend spending the next few hours attempting to restore some semblance of order to the chaos.

My very own Sisyphean task.......

*sigh*

How small is too small.......?

Having moved down a scale, from 1/12th to 1/24th, I can appreciate the extra effort which goes into the smaller micro scales. 

I spent several hours yesterday working on the kit of a very elaborate 1/144th scale 'Tower House', for hopefully obvious reasons, so I can only imagine the trials and tribulations of this 'uber micro' artist.....




Absolutely amazing work and such a modest, self-effacing genius.....

Creative endeavours........

I just can't seem to get warm today.  My hands are absolutely freezing, which makes working on my 1/144th scale Tower House a bit tricky, so have abandoned that until the heating comes back on later and have been concentrating instead on some new Alice in Wonderland toys.

My carefully planned work schedule for Thame has gone right out the window so I've decided to work on things I actively enjoy doing, rather than those I feel I should be doing.


At least for this week.


I had also been intending sorting out our February home workshop pack project but in the current circumstances, and with the Thame Fair also in February, I may not have time.

No matter, I have plenty of ideas to be going on with........