Spring flowers etc

Just over a week ago, to Hampton Court to catch up on the spring flowers in the wilderness. Seemingly, our first visit since last November when we went to look at a dress, a visit noticed at reference 1.

Who?

But the day started with peering at this card from Livi, picked up from somewhere. A company which provides access to general practitioners over your smart phone, and which is signed up with our very own doctor, that is to say the GPHP Ashley Centre Surgery, where GPHP seems to be a consortium of what we used to think of as GP's. A company which has a Swedish parent, Kry. As far as I can tell, a north European operation, not the thin end of some US wedge. And despite being a firm believer in the NHS, with both father and father-in-law having been enthusiastic founder members, I don't have any difficulty with this remote working option, which seems to be a useful addition to the face-to-face and telephone services. Does being signed up mean that they have access to my records? Would they bother to look at them if I consulted them? Is there payment at the point of delivery? Would it work from my laptop? Maybe I will get to find out in the years to come.

Once we were on our way to Hampton Court, lots of daffodils on the way. Parked in the station car park, quiet with the station closed for Sunday engineering works. A cold north wind going over the bridge, over a very full river, with quite a bit of flooding of landing stages and tow paths to be seen.

Rose garden supplemental

Aliens from Ventnor - echium pininana

A side line in mistletoe?

Through the rose garden, which seemed to be the subject of some refurbishment, with various new departures in the form of plants which were not roses. We were not sure that we approved, with the rose garden having been quite something through most of the middle of the year as it was. But the mistletoe was in the next plot.

The pottery

On to the Tilt Yard Café for tea, coffee and tea cakes. New décor quite successful - and I remember I like the overhead lights, quite small, not dominating - certainly not in the unpleasant way that they do at Westminster Abbey. The tea cakes were nicely presented but not very nice, possibly because they were too fresh out of the freezer. On the other hand we were impressed that the tea came in only a moderately chunky cup (centre in the snap above), rather than the very chunky (and heavy) cups they see fit to serve coffee in these days. No idea why; I'm sure it wasn't the thing when I was young.

Hellebore with camelia

Curious back of one of the surviving old houses in Hampton Court Road

Laburnum Walk, as we very occasionally catch it

Wilderness doing very well, with lots of daffodils, some crocuses and some other stuff. Some weeks to go yet. Down the Laburnum Walk to notice a bit of ancient wall and shed, probably something to do with big old house just to the east of the new town houses called Lion Gate Mews. Quick foray down into the privy garden, far enough to check on the fish in the round pond at the bottom. Where we found just a few, but visibility was not very good and we probably missed most of them.

From there to the Cumberland Gallery where there were various items of interest.

Zuccaro ex Royal Collection Trust

Zuccaro ex blog

Zuccaro ex Bing

Noticed, for the first time, a large painting by Zuccaro (aka Zuccari), the Calumny of Apelles, with the colours in the first two snaps (possibly derived from the same photograph) being much richer than I recall from life. While the print has been made rather narrower than it should be. The painting struck me because as well as being in a large an ornate frame, the painter had bothered to include a virtual frame. A nice point, whether one should include the real frame in a reproduction, with something being lost, to my mind, by leaving it out. This despite its hanging in the Cumberland Gallery not being that great, it not being given the space it deserved.

An elaborate allegory, with a full description to be found at reference 5. All terribly complicated, with Apelles being a painter from Ancient Greece, who painted the unknown original, known to us through the similarly ancient writer, Lucian. Much later, an important subject for Renaissance types in Italy. See reference 7.

Must go back for another look.

Spent some time with the Canaletto sequence of the Grand Canal, this time making some use of the diagram which told one from where each painting of the sequence had been painted. Must remember to take my Fleximap of Venice next time we go - which I promised myself last time, and failed. Not for the first time, wondered how much of a premium you would have paid for a garden with your town house in the Venice of Canaletto's time.

Out to inspect the corridor which used to be hung with a sequence of Restoration portraits of important ladies and which have now been mixed in with the set of paintings by Giordano about Cupid and Psyche, lately occupying the Canaletto room just mentioned. As I recall, a famous love story told in a sequence of paintings. I thought this mixture unsuccessful; the unmixed portraits did better by themselves.

Into the Georgian department to inspect Pythagoras of reference 9. Which on this occasion struck us as being badly lit, with it being hard to find a place to stand where it was not infected with reflections. But it remains an interesting picture.

Out to take a look at the chapel, where we find that a lunchtime recital was to follow, so we went off to the pie shop in the old kitchens. Brown pie with mushy peas for me, with gravy on the side, in the way of Wetherspoon's, rather than having too much of the stuff poured over. Pie satisfactory, but the dining room was pretty cool and I think they would do better to serve the food rather hotter. Keeping it under lights is not hot enough, at least not in the winter.

The concert in the chapel

Back into the chapel for a short concert from a couple of young musicians, one a alumna of the Yehudi Menuhin school down the road from us, violinist, the other a former child prodigy from Moscow, pianist. The main item on the programme was Beethoven's first violin sonata, Op.12 No.1, backed up by a Scherzo from Brahms, for which see reference 10. We were sat in a high sided box pew just a few feet from the musicians, near enough that it seemed tactful to shut our eyes so as not to seem to be staring. Music very good; an unexpected bonus. The Brahms very much reminded us of his first piano quartet, which we know quite well and which was written nearly ten years later.

Altars shrouded, as is proper, for Easter. Red sanctuary light lit.

After all of which we decided that it was time to head for home.

PS: I mentioned enthusiastic founder members above. Which reminds me that, back in 1948, there were plenty of medical people who were not keen on the NHS at all. And lots of medical charities who ran small hospitals who were not at all pleased to be swallowed up in the NHS for the greater good. From where I associate to the present opposition from a lot of the health establishment in this country to assisted dying.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/11/conspicuous-consumption.html.

Reference 2: https://www.livi.co.uk/.

Reference 3: https://www.kry.se/en/about/. The parent of Livi.

Reference 4: https://gphp.co.uk/. The parent of Ashley Centre Surgery.

Reference 5: https://www.rct.uk/collection/405695/calumny. Royal Collection Trust.

Reference 6: https://spenceralley.blogspot.com/2017/07/walter-friedlaender-on-late-mannerism.html. The art blogger. An elaborate blog containing a great deal of material - but I have yet to put my finger on what it is for or how it came to be.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apelles.

Reference 8: https://www.rct.uk/the-story-of-cupid-and-psyche-c-1695-7.

Reference 9: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/01/texture-nets.html.

Reference 10: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-A-E_Sonata.

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