Pondering In Decreasing Lines

One of the lucky ones.

On the way to Kew Gardens we approached the river via Brentford. The overwhelming opinion in the car was: why on earth did we all buy those awful nylon sheets in the 1970s? (Remember Brentford Nylons!?) FYI, the conclusion we came to was that in the 1960s our sheets were sent out to be laundered every week. The nylon sheets didn't need ironing so it was a big saving in either money or time. I'm not quite sure what happened since as we now use cotton sheets that certainly don't get ironed and they're fine. Maybe it's the polyester? Who knows?

On the way home from Kew, and just outside the gardens, we went round a large roundabout - I think they call it a gyratory system - with lots of trees on it. I felt so sorry for those trees for if the boundaries of the land donated to the gardens had been just slightly different, these trees too would be in the beautiful Kew Gardens instead of in the middle of a noisy and polluted gyratory roundabout. It seems there's a location lottery for trees just as there is for people.

After all the decluttering (>1500 items out), if I had to stay sealed in my home with no internet, would I still have enough reading material to last a couple of years? I think the answer is yes, however I'd die of starvation long before I ran out of books. A more pertinent question is do I have enough clutter left to get rid of another 1500 items. I think the answer is sadly, also yes.

We passed a load of rubbish accumulating in the street around the base of a tree. It was old cigarette boxes and other wrappers wantonly disgarded. DD was shocked: "Well that's a serious amount of pollutination!" I think we have a new family word. 😁

Why is it that every film I look for on Netflix appears on that list of films they don't have but here are a load of other random films I have no interest in, that you might like instead?

I've been awol and even considered giving up blogging. But I can't. I love my blog.

Dale Chihuly And Me

I'd said I'd come back and give Chihuly a post of his own so here it is. 

We were in London in April and my cousin offered to take us to Kew to see the Chihuly exhibition.

I once had a long and sometimes traumatic relationship with Dale Chihuly. Let me explain.

About 17 years ago there was a Chihuly exhibition in Jerusalem. At the time I was working for one of the sponsors of the event. I worked from her home. One day an enormous box was delivered - a thank you gift from Chihuly himself.

The box wasn't heavy, just huge, and I was asked to unpack it.

It was filled with shredded paper and polystyrene bits. I had to dig around and eventually I found a large glass plate and eight long and twisty glass fronds with flowering glass ends. I searched and searched for the stand, or the instructions to put it together but there was no stand and no instructions. In the end I left all the pieces on the dining-room table and didn't dare throw out the box in case I'd missed a piece of priceless glass art.

On my next visit to the house I saw all the pieces artfully arranged on the table. There was no stand and no instruction sheet - you could arrange it how you liked. I largely left it alone but I was asked, as a special favour, to dust it during my visits as the cleaner was too scared to touch it. I didn't mind dusting the Chihuly and I even sometimes arranged it differently.

The trauma arose when the lady of the house had a dinner party, or any type of gathering that involved lots of food on the dining table. The Chihuly had to be moved. The only other place large enough to display it was a large window shelf half way down the staircase. Reaching it necessitated a step ladder on the half landing, bringing each piece of glass down the stairs, climbing the ladder, and arranging it whilst still on the ladder.

People who know me will confirm that I'm not a climber. Not even without carrying thousands of dollars of glass. I never had to move the Chihuly myself but as the other responsible adult in the house, I was always asked to help. I didn't sleep the night before the moving of the Chihuly, nor the night before putting it back. I was so traumatized by the whole double operation that I didn't even go to see the exhibition in Jerusalem.

Fast forward almost two decades and I jumped at the offer to go to Kew Gardens by car on a mild spring day. What could be better? I love Kew Gardens. The Chihuly - meh? I'd 'lived' with his bits of glass for long enough way back when.

Reader I was wrong. We spent about six hours walking around Kew Gardens and I could have stayed for more but for the fact that DD was tiring and we wanted to miss the London rush hour. Kew was spectacular, as always, but the Chihuly was magical. Every time we turned a corner we all three of us gasped in wonder at the sheer beauty and magnitude of the glass glittering in the sun (and sometimes rain). It was a truly cathartic experience, giving me closure on all my Chihuly trauma. Dale I forgive you and worship your amazing vision.

The exhibition is open until October I believe. I would definitely go again and again. Plan to stay all day - we didn't get to see a number of things on our list. I hope you enjoy the photos - they represent just a few of the hundreds we took. 

On The Seventh Night Of Hanukkah...

.... my true love gave to meeeeee. Well not my true love actually. My cousin and his wife took us, Mum, DD and me, to see the Christmas lights at Kew Gardens. Hanukkah is also called the festival of lights and I'd say we did the Seventh Night proud with the magnitude and wonder of Christmas at Kew.

Can you believe I'd never been to Kew Gardens before? I suddenly realized that I'd missed out on Kew a few years ago and I put it on my list of things to do when in London. And then of course I never got round to it. So this time we went. We went in the dark so obviously I'll have to go again, but now I've seen how easy it is to get there I surely will go again.

Back to this visit. It was magical. I don't know why all those Winter Wonderland attempts are such rubbish? Kew Gardens managed it in spectacular style.

There was a walk into Narnia, carol singing trees, Santa Claus and his grotto in pantomime, a fairground, roasted chestnuts, roast your own marshmellows on an open fire, mulled wine and hot cider, a magical bridge over the lake with swans floating in the lamplight, bubbles, tunnels, fairy tale forests, woodland creatures, and lots of Christmas trees.

The tropical pavilion provided a spectacular backdrop to musical fountains in the lake with holograms dancing around them.

You get to see everything as you follow the trail, stopping as much as you like. We took a short break at the fairground to ride on the carousel. All in all we were there for just over two hours but you can do the trail in an hour and a half. And of course you can go around again if you want to. We didn't but I'd definitely do it all again another year.

These pictures are a mixture of mine (the rubbish ones) and my cousin's wife's which are much better than mine. I don't understand why - we both pointed our phones in the same direction and mine is not  rubbish phone.

Thank you Doreen and Jeffrey, we loved it!