Time for a New Kitchen no 4

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Time for a New Kitchen no 4

This has been another busy weekend but with a little help things are moving on. Finally all the walls have been stripped, washed down, filled and sanded. I was very grateful for help, some corners were just too awkward   for me to get into and a smaller person was defiantly needed. Some of the walls were in such a terrible state it was more like re-plastering than filling in the holes, but it’s done now and every thing is ready to start the actual decorating. I have begun painting the units and my new (reclaimed) shelf unit. They will all need several coats of paint but even after the first coat I can see it’s going to look quite nice.

Once the painting is finished the next thing on the list is delivery of the new sink, then the joiner needs to do his bit and then the wallpapering, tiling and finishing touches. There is no point in trying to get on with the wallpapering or tiling before the joiner has done his bit so I can take my time with the painting and try to make a half decent job of it.

BUT; I now have a major concern. My concern is the fact I didn’t make any effort to use eco friendly paint, paper and other decorating products. I even bought a small can of paint stripper, just about the most toxic substance you can buy over the counter. I am so conscientious about only using natural cleaning products, about saving electricity and water where ever possible and recycling anything and every thing that is recyclable. I don’t throw things away unless they have no life left in them at all. I use and re-use all the time, all my light bulbs are long life low power bulbs and I always buy local if possible. Sometimes I have a dilemma of conscience over if it is more ethically correct to buy fair trade, and increase the amount of air miles associated with my purchase, or to buy local produce that does nothing to help the fair trade movement. When planning my kitchen renovations I naturally gave a lot of thought to what I could keep and re-use.

I am keeping the majority of my units and re-painting them, I have the nice old red chairs bought last year from the second-hand market and my shelf unit salvaged from the shed is the ultimate in re-use and re-cycle.

But now I realise that wasn’t nearly enough. I should also have paid a lot more attention to the potential damage caused by the paint, wallpaper and other decorating materials. I didn’t give it enough thought right at the beginning and it was only after I had bought the paint and vinyl covered paper and began reading the labels that I realised just how toxic a lot of decorating equipment is.

Seems the no 1 nasty in all this stuff is the VOC’s or (volatile organic compounds). Volatile organic compounds are compounds that have a high vapor pressure and low water solubility. Many VOCs are human-made chemicals that are used and produced in the manufacture of paints, pharmaceuticals, and refrigerants. VOC fumes are slowly released into the environment from paint, paint thinners, paint stripper and newly painted surfaces. Other sources include vinyl covered wallpaper, new carpets, carpet underlay and carpet adhesives. The list doesn’t stop there; VOC’s are also present in vinyl floor coverings, blinds and wipe clean table cloths. These substances are thought to be the cause of ‘sick building syndrome’, they are linked to headaches and respiratory disease in affected people and are also know to cause major damage to the environment during their manufacture AND due to the continued 'leaking' of fumes into the environment. The VOC’s present in our homes cause just as much environmental damage as CFC’s or (Chlorofluorocarbons). These were developed in the 1930’s and are the main cause of ozone depletion in the stratosphere. CFCs have a lifetime of about 20–100 years and can therefore continue to destroy ozone for a long period. Another disturbibng little jem I just discovered; apparently people who have spent all their working lives in the ‘paint’ industry have a 20% higher incidence of cancer.
So………………you can see my dilemma, my major concern.
I have to admit to being more than a little upset about this; I just wish I had bothered to think about it all before going out and buying a load of toxic materials. Pragmatist that I am, I’ve decided I have no choice but to live with the consequences of my decisions in the kitchen, BUT….. I am already thinking about how I can decorate my living room using only the eco-friendly options. Hmmmm need to finish the kitchen first.

Three stories of The Brave

Three Stories of The Brave.

I have had the radio playing away in the background as I continue with the mammoth task of decorating the kitchen. News bulletins interrupt the music and chat every half hour or so and during these regular news bulletins I noticed three stories of incredible personal bravery; these stories were repeated in brief, throughout the day and then shown on TV in full at the end of the day. They are three very different stories but each is an example of the bravery human beings are capable of. They were introduced as stories of people showing incredible courage and bravery in the face of personal tragedy.

As I methodically sanded my walls, up and down, backwards and forwards, I began to ponder the meaning of bravery, what is this thing we call bravery??


My thoughts drifted away…………I began by considering, in a general sort of way, the fact that bravery was one of the ‘’Virtues’’ written about by the ancient Greeks. The Greek concept of virtue and morality had a number of core assumptions which all Greek thinkers and philosophers shared. The notion of a ‘’Virtue’’ was tied up closely with the notion of ‘’Morality’’, (to be a virtuous man was to be a moral man) and ‘’Morality’’ was the hot topic of the day for any self respecting ancient Athenian. Any decent Bath House conversation would include references to; Moral motivation, or ‘why be moral’? Moral obligation, or ‘who says we have to be moral’? And moral epistemology how we can be certain what is right and what is wrong. This general line of thought was usually followed by the really BIG question…. Can virtue (and therefore morality) be taught?

Socrates

Virtues were more than a basis for morality; they encapsulated the essence of what it is to be human. The Greek word for virtue is 'ARETE'. For the Greeks, the notion of virtue is closely linked to the notion of function (ERGON). The virtues of someone are what enables him to excel at his designated function and often the debate would arrive at the question of if mans function was to be a moral being.
At the time of Socrates the general assumption was that there were 5 basic virtues. These were Wisdom, Temperance (moderation), Justice, Piety and of course….  Bravery (sometimes called courage).

The common belief of the time was that a person could possess all of the virtues, some of the virtues, one of the virtues or none of the virtues. But the greatest thinkers of them all Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all believed that the virtues were completely inseparable, for them it was black and white, a person either had them all and was a moral man, or a person had none, and was not a moral man.
Back to sanding the walls of my kitchen and the three stories of bravery………………………..Time for a tea break and to gather my thoughts. 

Aristotle

Therefore, I thought, if we apply the philosophy of the ancients to these three stories, and if these people are truly brave, according to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle they must, by definition, be also moral people.

The first was the very sad story of John Suchet, TV newscaster and personality and his wife Bonnie. John began to notice small changes in his wifes behavior about six years ago, it took three years of odd little incidents, all gradually getting more bizarre before they finally had a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Bonnie was diagnosed with this horrible disease three years ago and has probably been suffering from it for a total of about six years. It struck her when she was very young, in her early 60’s.To listen to John describe the loss of his beloved Bonnie, the woman he loves so much is heartbreaking. He talks of how he is grieving for Bonnie because she is effectively lost to him, and yet he continues to care for her. He talks of the dreams and hopes they had for their retirement, of how they were going to travel the world and go to the Opera and the ballet. He talks of the loneliness of not being able to share things with her. He talked of the Bonnie who was bright and engaging and beautiful, and of how hard it is to reconcile that person with the person she has become. His devotion to her is obvious and painful to listen too. I have to agree, this man is quietly, heartbreakingly brave and courageous.

The second story to be broadcast today was an update on the story of Patrick Swayze and his fight against pancreatic cancer. I listened to bits from the Barbara Walters interview of him and his wife Lisa. What an incredible couple they are. This man insisted on carrying on working, he went off and filmed his TV series The Beast; he did his own stunts and worked mostly without pain relief while on set and he did it several months AFTER the doctors thought he would be dead!! This man lives through sheer determination.  Patrick and Lisa are two remarkable people, childhood sweethearts, they have been together since she was 16. She is obviously totally besotted with him and he loves the bones of her, describes her as his soul mate. He spoke of how his cancer was at stage 4 by the time it was diagnosed. This makes a cure impossible, his cancer is not going to go away, and while he and Lisa accept this, he remains determined to live with it as opposed to dieing from it. They exude bravery and courage.

The third story is one I find quite difficult. A young woman of 27, a mother of 2 young boys, is dying of ovarian cancer. She has been told the disease is now terminal and she can only expect to live for another couple of months. The reason I personally find this one difficult is because I never had any time for the woman. I didn’t like seeing her on TV, she irritates me, she is loud, vulgar, ignorant, foul mouthed and has definite anger management issues. Her name is Jade Goody, she was first seen on TV when, as a complete unknown, she entered the reality TV show Big Brother. That was a while ago and since then she has become a bit of a ‘celeb’ (what ever that means). She periodically appears on TV, in magazines, on the radio and just about any where else that will make her a quick buck and get her noticed. She went back into the Big Brother House last year and was thrown out for her angry racist abuse of another house mate, (a charming and gracious young lady who is a Bollywood actress). Jade Goody was so ignorant and bigoted she didn’t even realise her behavior was racist!!
And now the woman is dying and I cringe at all the awful things I have ever said about her. She has a film crew following her around and the saga of her dysfunctional family, her very strange mother, her prisoner boyfriend and her terminal illness is all being played out in front of the world on TV.
She is marrying her boyfriend next week in one of those ‘’footballers wives’’ type glossy magazine weddings. She has an exclusive deal with one of the magazines; she has been given a Harrods wedding dress and intends leaving her hospital sick bed to walk down the aisle and marry her (newly released from prison) boyfriend. Except now I have some sort of creeping admiration and respect for her.
I have watched some of the footage of her, she IS loud and ignorant, but she is also a completely natural mother, no false airs and graces, she loves her boys and is doing the best she can for them. She seems to smile and laugh a lot, she is very loud………….but it doesn’t seem to irritate me the way it used to. She doesn’t have a lot of time left and the time she does have is being spent with her boys. She is doing as many deals and making as much money as possible. She wants her boys to have a better life than she had. She says of herself ‘’I am ignorant but I want my boys to have the best education money can buy’’. I can’t remember ever hearing humility like that.  It was reported that she intends getting her boys baptised soon. She reasons that if her boys are baptised they will grow to known Jesus and if her boys know Jesus they will have more chance of keeping in touch with her. Her cancer was missed by her NHS doctor and diagnosed by a private doctor her friend finally took her too. She is frequently asked if she will sue the NHS, her response is……….’’how will that help the NHS??’’. She has no desire to blame any one for her illness and rather than sue the NHS she wants to find ways of allowing them to offer a better service. She publicly asks young women to get them selves regularly checked out. She supports charities for ovarian cancer. One web site reported a massive increase in ‘hits’ once her diagnosis became public. The spokesperson claimed that prior to Jades diagnosis the web site had 3000 visits per week and after her diagnosis became public they had a massive 30,000 hits in one day. I have listened to and watched Jade and now I admire her, only 27 and dying, every day she tries to be brave for her boys, every day she hugs them as much as possible she laughs with them and above all she loves them. This story I find very sad………and she is incredibly brave, I can’t imagine how a Mother of 27 begins to say good bye to such young children. She doesn't seem bitter, sad sometimes but not bitter.

And then this conversation with myself did full circle, I remembered sitting in a vast lecture theater and listening a lecture on the Virtues, reading about the Brave, the Courageous and the Moral. It’s all very interesting stuff but what I didn’t think about then was how Socrates and Plato arrived at their assumptions. The way they thought and rationalised was alien to the way we rationalise, but I can’t help thinking their observations of the human state must have been pretty similar. How they interpreted what they experienced was a product of their own intellect and their own specific time and place in history………….but WHAT they observed in human beings, these gut wrenching examples of human bravery and courage must have been as mind boggling  then as it is today. I always suspected Plato & co were right about an awful lot but now I am convinced they were right about the Brave

Poetry Wednesday; Spring

1789 - Songs of Innocence

Spring

by William Blake

I thought this was appropriate for the season, despite the heavy snow last week I found three tiny snowdrops poking up through the ground, a sure sign spring has  arrived and another hard, cold winter is almost behind us. I was so pleased to see these snowdrops, as soon as the first flower has arrived the others follow, next it will be the spring daffodils and then the bluebells.

SPRING
Sound the Flute!
Now it's mute.
Birds delight
Day and Night
Nightingale
In the dale
Lark in Sky
Merrily
Merrily Merrily to welcome in the Year

Little Boy
Full of joy,
Little Girl
Sweet and small,
Cock does crow
So do you.
Merry voice
Infant noise
Merrily Merrily to welcome in the Year


Little Lamb
Here I am.
Come and lick
My white neck.
Let me pull
Your soft Wool.
Let me kiss
Your soft face
Merrily Merrily we welcome in the Year

Return to the tour

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Healthy Mondays with Kathy, Heart Matters.

Heart Matters.

I seem to have a few minutes at the computer today and thought I’d pass on some of what I found in a leaflet at the GP surgery last week.
 It is a little book called Heart Matters and it’s produced free of charge by the British Heart Foundation. Apparently Heart disease is now the biggest killer in Scotland, scary thought.

www.bhf.org.uk

4 easy steps to protecting your heart

1.    Don’t overeat; Mother used to say finish what is on your plate and for people of my age who grew up with this philosophy stopping when you are full rather than when the plate is empty can be very, very difficult. But it must be done, most us of load more than we need on to our plates in the first place.

2.    Choose more fruit and veg; This one is quite easy for most of us ‘cos we DO enjoy our fresh food while those around us munch away on take a way fries, curry and processed pre-prepared food. But even I have my days when coffee and biscuits take over from a decent meal. When time is short temptation is high.
3.    Limit the fat; I thought this one was easy because I don’t eat meat and I only have low fat milk and yoghurt. Then I read the ingredients of what I thought were wholesome snacks, cereal bars and whole wheat biscuits. You may have guessed by now biscuits are my downfall, I was horrified to read how many grams of the bad, bad fats are in every biscuit.

4.    Go easy on the salt; Another one I thought was easy. I never add salt to my food and I don’t cook with salt. Then I began to think about my favourite meal, a huge bowl of wholesome veggie soup. Read the ingredients of the veggie stock cube and see how much salt is added. Even with out the veggie stock cube I do add salt to my soups, they just don’t taste the same with out. I thought it was ok’ cos I was adding sea salt or rock salt…………..apparently it’s all the same, salt is salt as far as diet is concerned. Salt intake should be less than 6 gm per day.
 
All of the above is especially difficult when eating out. The booklet suggests asking the kitchen how the food is prepared and asking for smaller portions if it is a restaurant known for the large size of its portions.

 And after the 4 diet tips there was a bit on exercise…………………think I probably get less exercise than most others but no matter how little a person can do any exercise is better than none.
I kept this little book and took it home  with me, most of what it contains is common sense and stuff we all do any way. But to have it all written down and to be reminded of the prevalence of heart disease is probably a good thing.



 

Art Sunday; Wedgwood

ART SUNDAY; WEDGWOOD

Thought I would keep to potters this weekend, hence one of the greatest potters……. Wedgwood. Also of course, a nice piece of Wedgwood has oft been given as a valentine gift which makes this quite appropriate for today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wedgwood_josiah.shtml

Josiah Wedgwood (1730 - 1795)

A designer and  manufacturer of high-quality pottery and a campaigner for social reform.

Josiah Wedgwood came from a family of potters. He was apprenticed to his elder brother Thomas when his father died. He contracted smallpox which led to him losing his right led in 1768, a horrendous experience in those days.

This made throwing pots difficult but he turned this disadvantage into an advantage by gaining more experience and knowledge of the other aspects of being a potter, he discovered a love of experimentation with in the craft.

His brother Thomas refused to enter into a business partnership with him which forced him to seek out other business opportunities. After several moves and different partners, in June 1769, he opened a new factory at Etruria, near Stoke-on-Trent, in partnership with Thomas Bentley. Attached to the factory was a village where Wedgwood's workmen and their families could live in decent surroundings.

This was one of the earliest examples of social engineering and an example of his desire to better the lives of ordinary working people.

Wedgwood made vast improvements to the ordinary crockery of the day, he introduced durable but wares which has STYLE. His cream coloured earthenware was christened 'Queen's Ware' after Queen Charlotte, who appointed him queen's potter in 1762. Other patrons included Empress Catherine II of Russia, who ordered 952 such pieces in 1774.

Wedgwood experimented with barium sulphate (caulk), and from it managed to produce jasper.

Jasperware, which is still used for different ornaments, blends metallic oxides, often blue, with separately moulded reliefs, generally white. Some such reliefs were designed for Wedgwood by John Flaxman.

Other wares included black basaltes, frequently enhanced by 'encaustic' colours like red, to imitate Greek vases.

Wedgwood was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1783, primarily for inventing the pyrometer to measure oven temperatures. His social engineering didn’t stop with his immediate workforce, he was interested in efficiency within the factory and with the transportation of the raw materials he needed.  He improved transport via the Grand Trunk Canal, and by road.

In 1780, when Wedgwood's long-term business partner died, he asked his friend Erasmus Darwin for help. Darwin's son would later marry Wedgwood's daughter, and they were the parents of Charles Darwin, the naturalist who formulated the theory of evolution.

When Wedgwood died on 3rd January 1795 he left a thriving business and a fortune to his children.

 

Time for a New Kitchen, no 3

Time for a New Kitchen, no 3

Picture above, the oilcloth tablecloth I am considering ordering.

The bad news is, (maybe you’ve already noticed) I’ve not been spending as much time online as I used too, I’m beginning to feel quite guilty ‘cause I just don’t seem to be visiting the way I'd like. And truth to tell……………..I actually miss it. On the other hand......The good news is; progress is finally being made in the kitchen.

Guess the story of my kitchen is much like any other decorating story, as soon as you start one job you find something else that needs doing. Once stripping the walls began in earnest great clumps of ancient plaster began leaping from the walls, crashing to the floor, crumbling into dust and then enveloping me in a noxious cloud of debris. It’s a case of dust masks at the ready in my kitchen.

I think these apartments were built in the early 60’s which makes them 55+yrs old and what I have uncovered is obviously the original plaster. To add to my problems, at some point in the buildings early history someone thought it would be a great idea to cover the bottom third of the walls in something that resembles old fashioned lino floor covering. It has a beige and red tile pattern and is bonded to the walls with an adhesive akin to old black tar, most unpleasant. I tried to strip it off one wall, the result is a wall that has huge lumps of plaster missing but also small fragments of this ‘lino’ like stuff still stuck firmly in place, bits that refused to budge. It’s quite a mess; this one wall will need re-plastering. After that I decided not to take any more of it off but to try to put the new wallpaper and tiles on top of it.
My wooden ceiling

So……………state of the kitchen now is; no old wallpaper left, walls washed down and ready for the next stage, loads of plaster/filler waiting to be mixed and applied to all the holes, dents, bumps, lumps and cracks. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?? I have also been out and bought every thing I could possibly need. I have the wallpaper (decided on the one with the cafe theme), the tiles (mostly white with the odd black), the white glass paint for the old units, the filler for the holes, in fact absolutely every thing I could ever possibly need. My kitchen now looks like a demolition site.


Another development is my shelf unit that I’m in the process of renovating. I had some work done on my garden shed last week and during this work a very old and battered shelf unit was removed. It was going to get thrown out until I took a closer look. I think at one time it may have been an old fashioned shop fitting or something similar. It has a tongue and grove back and sturdy shelves.

It was riddled with woodworm (now treated), but seems very, very sturdy. The ceiling of my kitchen is also tongue and groove and I was considering painting it, but now that I have this shelf unit I’m going to keep the ceiling as it is. The plan is to have a black and white kitchen, as originally planned, but to keep the tongue and groove ceiling and the tongue and groove shelf backing and use it to break up the black and white. I also thought I could keep the rest of the kitchen very minimalist with only black and white bits left out and use the shelf unit to display a variety of bright and colourful objects, a sort of focal point. Well anyway…………..that’s the plan.

The horrible lino like stuff stuck to the walls

Like I said…………….a work in progress, I’ll keep you informed.

Song Saturday; a valentine special

This has to be the greatest love song of all time immortalized by Demi, Patrick and the famous potters wheel.

Snowing in my Garden

At last the snow has found us.We seemed to escape the worst of the weather for so long but for the last few days the snow has found us. We had one day where it snowed a little and then stopped, the next day it was like a blizzard and then this morning.................snow every where, all shining in bright sunlight.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593)

Giuseppe Arcimboldo
(1527-1593)


Giuseppe Arcimboldo was famous all over Europe during his lifetime but became a virtual unknown after his death in 1593. No one had previously painted his type of abstruse, fantasy Art. Most of his original paintings have been ‘lost’ over the years but those we do have are now regarded as the masterpieces they truly are. His work underwent a ‘revival’ toward the end of the 19th century and has been gaining in popularity ever since. Apart from these unusual fantasy pictures, he probably painted many more traditional ones, but most of these are among the ‘lost’ European works of art, they have simply disappeared.

Art Sunday; Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Giuseppe Arcimboldo
(1527-1593)

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was famous all over Europe during his lifetime but became a virtual unknown after his death in 1593. No one had previously painted his type of abstruse, fantasy Art. Most of his original paintings have been ‘lost’ over the years but those we do have are now regarded as the masterpieces they truly are. His work underwent a ‘revival’ toward the end of the 19th century and has been gaining in popularity ever since. Apart from these unusual fantasy pictures, he probably painted many more traditional ones, but most of these are among the ‘lost’ European works of art, they have simply disappeared.

In 1562, Giuseppe Arcimboldo became a court painter of Emperor Ferdinand I (Habsburg) and set up home in Vienna, after which he moved to Prague. During his 2 years, service to  Ferdinand I, he painted several portraits of the Imperial family as well as the first series of his Four Seasons. The artistic concept of these pictures of 1563 was unique and laid the foundation of Arcimboldo’s success as a painter. It is well documented  that the Monarchs of Europe and most of  his contemporaries were enthusiastic and appreciative of his unique style. His uniqueness made him a favourite of several Habsburg Emperors.

When Emperor Ferdinand I died, in 1564, he was succeeded by Emperor Maximilian II (1527-1576), Arcimboldo continued as court artist for Maximilian.
A large number of pictures were painted between 1564 and 1576, but only very few of them are known to us: Water and Fire (1566), The Lawyer (1566), The Cook (1570) another series of the Four Seasons in 1572, two series of Four Seasons in 1573, including Spring (1573), Summer (1573), Autumn (1573), Winter (1573).

In 1575 Arcimboldo was commissioned to paint several works for the private chambers of the Emperor, in addition too painting, Arcimboldo also had other Court duties at the Imperial court. He acted as architect, stage designer, engineer, water engineer and art specialist. Due to his extensive knowledge he was able to influence Emperor Maximilian II on a variety of issues. After Maximilian II, Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612) also took Arcimboldo into his service. The eleven years Arcimboldo spent with Rudolph II became the best and most productive of his career.


Comparatively little is known of Arcimboldo’s activities as an artist at the Imperial court, we know he painted The Four Seasons twice in 1577, he dedicated a red leather folio containing 150 pen-and-ink drawings to the Emperor in 1585, and that he organized a number of festive processions and tournaments during that same year. He is a completely unique, original and multi-talented man whose genius was forgotten for many, many years. The rest of his amasing paintings are in an album here;
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/220/Giuseppe_Arcimboldo_1527-1593