New paintings and regular art updates.
Staffordshire Pikelets, cousin to the Staffordshire Oatcakes. Made with the same oat batter, but smaller and thicker. With added dried fruit (currants, raisins, citrus peel).
Toasted under the grill then added butter and as it was shrove Tuesday yesterday I added some lemon juice from the lemons I got for my pancakes. All hot and tasty.
Different parts of the country have different special foods. This one is very tasty and filling!
Everything’s cleared up and tidied away….. Chairs stacked and put away, empty glasses and plastic beakers cleaned and disposed of. All the sweet wrappers and crisp packets that had been left on the floor were cleared up last night. The changing rooms (four garden gazebos) were taken down today, clothes will be washed and the ones that were rented will go back to their owners. At ten thirty last night the people we had hired the mikes off came to collect them, only to be told they would have to wait a quarter of an hour because we were doing an encore!
Comments made include our panto was better than the professional one held in the city centre at Christmas, and that out cast were good. The only complaint we got was that the radio mikes kept dropping out. The panto has been filmed so hopefully I can get a copy.
It was worth all the months of hard work. If you want to see one of the sketches we did look up “if I were not upon the stage” on YouTube. It’s not our version but gives you an idea of what we did.
X
I’ve been given a couple of these cat plates by a friend recently. I really like them. They remind me of Victorian illustration, but the sepia toned cats are on a nice blue background. The back stamp says PrintRun.co and made in China. Microwave and dishwasher proof. That doesn’t give you much information. I could investigate further, but I don’t think I will.
There is a thing which people who live in Stoke-on-Trent do, which is to look at the backstamp on pottery and see where it was made.
So anyway sorry to be quiet, busy trying to learn lines!
Oh yes it did! All my hard work seems to have been appreciated with the scenery. The panto is a hoot, with compliments about how good it is. The songs were OK. I almost remembered them! I only forgot one line, but non of us were 100%, but that doesn’t matter as the audience haven’t read the script! We even seemed to dance well. All the cast were enjoying themselves and the audience were appreciative, even with a delayed start due to a parking issue. They laughed all the way through and there was some brilliant clowning about.
Well, only three more performances. I’m shattered, but too tired to sleep.
X
Sneak peek of the washing machine front I’ve painted. Today was the dress rehearsal, one person had a problem as her trouser elastic snapped and they fell off as she was trying to make her entrance. I was practicing part of a song, and forgot to go on stage to sing that song. We got a lot of feedback on the mike’s. One of the helpers or cast got a parking ticket even though they were arked correctly… I still can’t remember all my lines, and in one scene the person before me completely forgot his so I didn’t know where I was! And breathe….
But on the whole we are getting it. There are lots of songs, dance, sketches, a nice story, an evil villan and lots of fun.
X
Saw this in the pub a few days ago. I’m not sure if it’s antique or a reproduction but it has a feeling of something from the start of the last century. I liked the main shade surrounded by three smaller shades all held together by solid but delicately shaped metal. I wonder if it’s converted from a gas mantle?
I imaging its a considerable weight, so I guess it’s screwed into a ceiling joist. I didn’t think to look at the lights in the rest of the pub so I don’t know if it’s the only one there. Perhaps it’s from a reclamation yard? There are a few round here. Anyway it’s good to see old things about.
X
I like to try and sketch things when I’m visiting places, and this is my attempt at a steam engine when we were visiting. Middleport pottery in August 2018.i don’t know why I thought it was bad, it doesn’t look too awful now in hindsight. I can be too critical of myself sometimes. It’s a bit wonky but when you are trying to draw a moving bit of machinery it’s not easy. Anyway I’m publishing it, so I’ve forgiven myself for my mistakes.
Black ink pen on cartridge paper, it’s probably in one of my numerous sketchbooks, somewhere in the pile of drawings and sketches I have built up over the years.
X
Leap up and fly
In the sky
Searching round
About the grounds
Of ancient house
Or garden, green
Faries fly.
They’re rarely seen…
They find the flowers,
Chase the wasps
Feed the bees
Have fairie tasks
Grooming beetles
Catching frogs
To ride around
The lake and ponds.
Never seen by mortal men.
They live in a fairie glen.
Enough of whimsy
My tale is done
The story, flimsy
But lots of fun.
(sculpture of a Fairy at Trentham Gardens, Stoke-on-Trent)
So what is a pantomime. Its a crazy comedy with characters that have been portrayed on stage for years. Some panto(mime) characters include :
Aladdin, The Genie of the lamp and the genie of the ring, Princess Jasmine, Abanazar, widow Twankey and the Sultan and Sultana in our panto.
Jack in Jack and the beanstalk, the giant, Jack’s mother and the panto cow, usually called Daisy.
Robin Hood and his merry men with Robin, Marion, the sheriff of Nottingham, Sir Guy, King John, little John, friar tuck, Will Scarlet.
Sleeping beauty and Cinderella are also pantomimes. So basically they are fairy stories or children’s stories that have been adapted for the stage. Various other characters are added. Like the principle boy, who plays the hero but is often played by a girl, or the ugly sisters and widow Twankey who are played by men. A lot of cross dressing in the panto is traditional.
Pantos are played for laughs, modern ones can be quite commercial and include product placement. In our case we are amateur and just have fun.
If you live nearby to Stoke and want to come along let me know.
A cold sunny day until the breeze blew clouds across the landscape. Ducks, geese, pigeons, moorhens and swans looking out for food, so we got two bags full to grain to feed them. I thought we would just go round the small lake which is a quarter of a mile, but instead we did the mile walk round the large lake. We’ll it was more of a slow dawdle. My hip is not right yet after pulling a muscle, but we did extend the walk into the maze that Staffordshire wildlife Trust have made on the area of hedging at the far end of the lake. The paths were muddy and difficult to get out of when we tried to regain the main path.
When the sun went behind the clouds it made a fantastic and dramatic picture. I took numerous pictures of the birds and trees and landscape around the lake. I feel much better for the walk, though I was very chilly when we finished. I need to be able to walk much further than this, but it’s a start.
Mallaband-Brown