Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Deco Debrief

On Saturday Lord and Lady Raglan hosted a magnificent deco debriefing.  Also in attendance were El Valentinos, other deco devotees (and expert swing dancers) who had enjoyed the experience with us.  Really this amounted to an excuse for us all to share our photos and spend a happy evening oohing and aahing at them all.  The fact that we had three sets of very similar shots mattered not one jot because we were happy to gaze repeatedly at them and relive our former triumphs in Napier in February.  We also sallied forth to the local club where there was a band playing, and attempted to swing dance to the not entirely suitable music, which gave the locals something to wonder about.  Poor Lady Raglan will be having to explain for weeks now what we were up to, I hope her good name is not damaged forever. 

What a beautiful day Raglan turned on for us.  We went for a walk round the town,


out to the harbour and then to the wharf and played that ever-popular game along the way where we would each select which house we would have for our very own (should we ever unexpectedly come into a large fortune and be able to afford such a luxury).  Ruthless criticism of anything not coming up to our high standards meant that we were able to narrow down the field very quickly but there were still enough desirable residences to go round. 
My all time favourite - a deco house and what a beautiful position

But this one would be hard to fault in the cuteness department
Then it was out to the surf beach where the surfers were putting on a brilliant display for our delectation.  How skilful and daring they were!  


How agile and fit they must be to control their boards in that way, we were very much entertained and only dragged ourselves away when we remembered our delicious picnic, which we devoured high up on a hillside by the sea so we could still watch the surf rolling in and see the sea birds wheeling in the air.  
This garden fascinated us.  The assortment of objects hanging in the tree and around the garden is astonishing

But I have to say that a personal highlight for me was when Lady Raglan bestowed the great honour upon us of taking us to the local dump, where there was a fabulous shop.  What an excellent idea this is, I think all councils should have a dump shop because there were some wonderful things there which would otherwise just have been destroyed and not reused.  About 35 years ago I read The Good Companions by J B Priestley and have always wanted my own copy to see if it is as good as I remembered, and here I found a lovely edition for $1.  The original owner’s name was in the front (1953 was the year she obtained her copy) and this made me value it all the more.  Also there was a knitting pamphlet with six (yes, six!) art deco twin sets and instructions on how to knit them.  Each twinset had a name ("Headliner", "Tourist", "Wayfarer", "Mosaic" "Preview" and "Talisman" ) and I am captivated by them.


Lady Raglan pointed out to me that even if I had the twin sets I do not possess the pointy bosoms of the ladies modelling them, but I am sure that is not a major setback.  Going to the bother of trying to reproduce 1930s lingerie is above and beyond the call of deco duty, even for a devotee such as myself I fear. 

 Magnificent Max the Wonder Dog demonstrating his "noble" expression beside a statuette

My obsession with all things avian continues.  I was very jealous of this beautiful bird's nest Lady Raglan had in her garden.  The construction of this nest is so skilful - it really can't be compared with the couple of twigs the pigeons deposit on the bridge near Shoestring and use as a nest!

And here is this week's "frugal challenge".  These botanical images were found in a bargain bookshop years ago and clever Mr Shoestring has cunningly used them to create a headboard at the apartment where we formerly only had a blank wall; we will get a lot more pleasure from them displayed in this way every day.