Time for a New Kitchen no 8

Time for a New Kitchen no 8

As the weekend approaches I am feeling more 'utterly depressed and despondent', than stressed. I suppose I have developed some sort of grudging respect for the guy I employed, that's because he was so good about the mistakes that had been made in the tiling. He told the tiler to take out the tiles that were wrong and re-do it as I had originally requested, all at no extra cost to me. The tiler tried to argue with him, just as he had argued with me and tried to fob me off with excuses as to why his way was better, but I have to admit, the chap I employed was having none of it and insisted it all be re-done exactly as I wanted.  That renewed my faith a little, unfortunately it didn’t prevent the tiler doing exactly the same thing again on the other wall. This time I stood up to him and insisted he re-do it, which he did but only after telling me, yet again, why it looked better his way.

The kitchen is almost at the point where you can see what it is going to look like. My nice new shiny white doors are still covered in protectice blue plastic. The tiles are almost up on the back wall, the double sink unit is in and working, the washing machine is plumbed in and in the picture you can see the dishwasher waiting to go in next. On the left side of the picture you can see my black and white cooker with a shiny black ceramic top that is going next to the washing machine. That one wall will look rather nice.

 Now I can get some idea of how nice the back wall of my kitchen is going to look it makes me realise how shabby my other units are going to look no matter how well I paint them but there is no point thinking that cos no way can I afford to replace all the units. No …………they will be painted as planned, have new tiles above them and a new work surface on top. It will look a lot better than it does now so guess I should be happy.

But of course……………..not all is as well with this work as it should be. This morning I had a chance to inspect the work on my own in the full glare of the morning sun.
OH NO !!!!!!  My nice new black work surface is very badly damaged; it has terrible deep scratches covering an area of about 8sq inches (10sq cm). The tiler who arrived has just told me I can use a childs wax crayon to cover the scratches  !!!!.  AND………..then I noticed the ceramic top to my cooker (that I had left covered in a thick towel) is also very, very badly damaged. It is covered in very deep scores, it almost looks as if this guy has cut his tiles on top of my ceramic hob. I could never prove it of course but that is what it looks like . Ceramic top cookers do no come cheap as I am sure you know. The tillers response was along the lines of oh well it can’t be helped I suppose. Remember this is the guy who thinks kitchens should be completely stripped out to have any work done in them. Last night there was a bit of a rush to get the sink plumbed in and working which resulted in an old reused piece of plastic pipe being split. Of course it wasn’t replaced, for a start he doesn’t seem to carry any of the stuff he might need, and secondly……….well he has some tape which he says fixes every thing!!! Let’s hope it does. That is something else I have noticed about him, he doesn’t seem to plan ahead, every so often he says he just has to pop out for something, sometimes he has done this a couple of times per night,……….all at my expense no doubt. The final nightmare is the bill…………….I still don’t know how much they are going to charge for this nightmare.


I am trying very hard to be philosophical about this and treat it as an expensive (very) learning curve. In future I think I will have a check list before letting any one start work, it should go something like this

•      The one thing I have learnt is that if I EVER have to employ any one again it will be someone I do not know which will make it a lot easier to complain when things go wrong.
• I will always insist on an estimate for the job NOT an hourly rate. 
• At the first sign of something not being quite right I will say so. 
• The one thing I should have done with this guy right at the start,  was to tell him that he needed to make my house a priority and not try to fit in my work in the evenings, in the dark, without any one to help with the heavy bits. 
• He should have made sure he had every thing he needed to the job, including dust covers for my other kitchen appliances and the floors, pens pencils, note pads, buckets, brooms, brushes, measuring tapes, and all the other things he has ‘borrowed’. Pencils get lost and brooms brushes etc end coated in plaster and unfit to use indoors
  

     From now on business will be business…… what a shame cos I would rather be friends with people but now I see that is not always a good idea. In this particular case it’s even more difficult cos the guy I employed seems quite a nice friendly chap. He is really a rather nice person, he is pleasant, honest and works hard to support his young family. He has taken on far more than he can cope with but all with the very best of intentions and all in order to support his family without hand outs from the state.


     OH BIG SIGH……Isn’t life difficult sometimes?? And I still feel sick with anxiety about it all.

continuation of Kitchen no 7,STRESS

And so the saga continues............
Last night I ended up boiling  the last of the water left in the kettle that we had saved for drinks, and using it to wash with..........no bath for me last night. I threw the last of the bucket of water down the toilet followed by half a bottle of bleach and resigned myself to a very long bath-free night. He finally left in the early hours of the morning after connecting the water to the bathroom and switching my water heater back on. He left the water turned off in the kitchen which was irrelevant really since there was (still is) no sink in my kitchen!!.

This morning there was a bit of a reprieve, he didn't turn up before work which meant I could stay in bed a while longer and have that longed for soak in the bath. Oh bliss
Short lived bliss though. Tonight I returned from work not sure what to expect, what I didn't expect was to find a man I had never seen before, alone in my kitchen putting tiles on the wall. But that is exactly what I did find. This strange man had used my bucket, kicked water all over the floor, soaked the laminate, used my towels to mop it up and then trodden on the bucket and broke it........none of which seemed to matter very much to him.  He assumed I was in the process of moving in to the house, he obviously thought of my house more as a building site at his disposal than my home. I did end up telling him that these premises are primarily my home and not primarily a building site or his place of work, I suspect it fell on deaf ears. Once he realised I have been in this house for six years he said.........''oh have you only just got round to doing it up then?? of course the best way to do this is for the kitchen to be completely emptied out of cupboards and every thing''. What a horrible man and to add insult to injury I have just noticed he has not put the tiles up as I requested. He has put two white tiles between the black in some places and three white tiles between the black in others, it looks awful. He said he is going to return tomorrow to finish the tiling along with the original joiner who is supposed to be fitting the sink tomorrow.............oh I just want this to be over. This has to rank up there with divorce and moving as one of the greatest stress factors of all time.
And for every one who agreed with me.......yes now I am 100% convinced that workmen treat single women (of all ages but especially older single women) with utter contempt and disregard..........

Ian Hamilton Findlay; artist, poet, writer, philosopher,

One of the greatest Scottish artists.

Art Sunday; Ian Hamilton Findlay

Ian Hamilton Findlay

The most original ScottishArtist,
 An original thinker, philosopher, author, painter, sculptor and horticulturalist.

HIS GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT IS
LITTLE SPARTA

http://www.littlesparta.co.uk/

http://www.littlesparta.co.uk/index.htm

This is a VERY EARLY Art Sunday, if you have read the 'kitchen no 7 ' blog you will realise I have had a few late nights waiting for work in my kitchen.........this is the result of last nights very late night!!

If you are EVER in Scotland, Little Sparta is one place you MUST see. check out his web site.

Ian Hamilton Finlay was actually born in the Bahamas but of Scottish parents, he was educated in Scotland at Dollar Academy. When he was 13 World War II began and  he was evacuated to the Orkney Islands, then in 1942 he joined the British Army.

After the war, he worked as a shepherd and then began  to write short stories and poems. He published books including ‘’The Sea Bed and Other Stories’’, (1958) and ‘’The Dancers Inherit the Party’’, (1960) and some of his work was broadcast by the BBC.

In 1963, Finlay published Rapel, his first collection of concrete poetry (poetry in which the layout and typography of the words contributes to its overall effect), and it was as a concrete poet that he first gained wide renown. This work was mostly issued through his own ‘’Wild Hawthorn Press’’. After a while he began to inscribe his poems into stone, incorporating these sculptures into the natural environment.

This kind of environmental poetry is a prominent feature in his garden Little Sparta in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh, where he lived. This is a five-acre garden which also includes more conventional sculptures and temple-like buildings as well as plants.

In December 2004 in a poll conducted by Scotland on Sunday, a panel of fifty artists, gallery directors and arts professionals voted Little Sparta to be the most important work of Scottish art. Second and third were the Glasgow School of Art by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and The Skating Minister. Sir Roy Strong has said of Little Sparta that it is "the only really original garden made in this country since 1945".

Now the Little Sparta Trust is preserving the garden for the nation and raising enough to pay for all ongoing maintenance of the garden and exhibits within it.

His work is known for a constantly repeating a number of recurring themes: especially classical writers (including Virgil); a concern with fishing and the sea; an interest in the French Revolution; and a continual stream of work featuring World War II. His work can be severe, but it’s also witty and at times dark, deep and whimsical. His use of Nazi imagery led to an accusation of neo-Nazi sympathies, and to a court case, which he easily won. He also came into conflict Strathclyde Regional Council over his liability for rates on a byre in his garden, which the council insisted was being used as commercial premises. Finlay insisted that it was a garden temple, as such a place of worship and exempt from local taxes!!!! He eventually won the case and did not have to pay special rates for the structure. In general, he courted controversy.

One of the few gardens outside Scotland to permanently display his work is the Improvement Garden in Stockwood Park, Luton, England.

His awards are numerous and varied. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1985, awarded honorary doctorates from Aberdeen University in 1987, Heriot-Watt University in 1993 and the University of Glasgow in 2001, and an honorary and/or visiting professorship from the University of Dundee in 1999. The French Communist Party presented him with a bust of Saint-Just in 1991.

He received the Scottish Horticultural Medal from the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society in 2002, and the Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Award in 2003. Finally he was awarded a CBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours list in 2002.,

Finlay was married twice and had two children. He died in Edinburgh in 2006

Poetry Wednesday; Ian Hamilton Findlay

CONCRETE POETRY
 
IAN HAMILTON FINDLAY

Concrete poetry, pattern poetry or shape poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on.

It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry; a term that has evolved to have distinct meaning of its own, because the words themselves form a picture. This can be called imagery because you use your senses to figure out what the words mean.

Scottish artist, poet and thinker Ian Hamilton Findlay is among the greatest concrete poet. In 1963, Finlay published Rapel, his first collection of concrete poetry (poetry in which the layout and typography of the words contributes to its overall effect), and it was as a concrete poet that he first gained wide renown.

This work was mostly issued through his own ‘’Wild Hawthorn Press’’. After a while he began to inscribe his poems into stone, incorporating these sculptures into the natural environment. This man blurred the edges between art, sculpture, poetry and philosophy.

http://lauritasita.multiply.com/journal/item/1232/Poetry_Wednesday_032509_Sign_in_and_take_the_tour

Time for a New Kitchen no 7.

At last the joiner is working in my kitchen. I should be pleased, I should be well on my way to a new kitchen, things should be moving along nicely by now………….unfortunately the reality is a little different.
This experience has really, really put me off ever having any one in the house to do any thing ever again.
It is now almost 10 pm, my house is freezing cold because the front door has been open most of the evening, there is a hole in my kitchen wall where the joiner removed the extraction fan on Sunday (today is Tuesday!!), I still have no kitchen unit or sink, my water is disconnected, the joiner is in the kitchen still using power tools and I am getting very afraid one of my neighbours will knock the door to complain about the noise so late at night. Remember, I live in an upstairs apartment with young children directly below me. I would love to tell the joiner to go home but with no water, no sink and no way to flush the toilet, have a bath or even make a hot drink I am at his mercy until he at least reconnects the water supply. This man is a friend of a friend, I thought I would be doing the right thing by employing a local self-employed man, sounds good in theory. The original plan was that he could give me three whole days, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, which should have been enough to break the back of the job. Turns out he had other commitments during the day and he asked if he could do a couple of hours in the morning and a few hours every evening. SO……….what could I say??
 I agreed because I want my kitchen done. I have been getting out of my bed every morning at 6 to get ready for him arriving at 7, he leaves to work in a shop at about the same time as I go to my work and then he reappears at tea time, after the shop is closed for the evening. He has been here until almost midnight Sunday and Monday and it looks as if he will be late again tonight. Yesterday I had to ask him to stop using power tools after 9pm because I was worried about the children trying to sleep in the apartment underneith mine. Tonight I have had to let him carry on because I need the water sorted out. Tonight he casually said he would need me to help him outside with the new work surfaces so he could cut them. Obviously it didn’t occur to him that he would need assistance for this part of the job and when he asked I didn’t feel as if I had much choice, I need this sorted out, so……..despite the fact my arthritis makes lifting and stairs  difficult , I stupidly agreed. I helped him carry a 3 meter length of heavy work surface down my stairs and out into the garden. Then I had to go outside and hold the torch and steady the work surface while he used his power tools to cut it IN THE DARK!!!!!!!. Yes, I know…………this story gets more and more bizarre. Once it was cut and carried back indoors he noticed damage to the edge, actually I wasn’t surprised, but he was!! He insisted I contact the supplier to complain and ask for a replacement. Which of course I did, only to be told they could not replace it because it had already been cut. I can’t help thinking that if he didn’t damage it, if the damage was already there, he would probably have noticed if he had been doing this work in daylight and at a reasonable hour like any sane work man. And of course the chances of him causing the damage himself would have been much less in daylight.
So …………..now it’s 10.30 pm, my knees are very sore, I badly need a long hot soak followed by bed, my temper is frayed, my patience is exhausted and still ……….I HAVE NO WATER.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Oh yes…………….the final insult, he wouldn’t even give me a quote for the whole job, he said he charges by the hour so it looks like this whole fiasco is going to cost me a fortune. And all because I thought I was doing the right thing by giving work to a local self employed joiner.

Time for a New Kitchen no 6

TIME FOR A NEW KITCHEN NO 6

Finally; the joiner came to see me tonight and gave me a start date of this Wednesday. The delay is not his fault, some of the pieces were not in the first delivery and I have had to wait for a second delivery. I grew very weary of the constant smell of paint and the unending mess all over my house and for the last week or so I have been ignoring the kitchen and doing other things, including spending a bit more time here. The only kitchen orientated activities I’ve indulged in recently are buying some of the ‘finishing touches’. I’ve bought a length of waterproof wipe clean table cloth to cover my table.

I wasn’t sure I liked the ‘mad cow’ pattern when I bought it but once home and laid out with all the other stuff I decided it was exactly right. I also came across these three little prints, very retro and very cheap from a discount store.

My daughter works for a window blind manufacturing company and chose these blinds for my kitchen, she gets a staff discount so more savings!

The black storage boxes that will sit on top of the units are computer paper boxes brought home from work and covered in black sticky back plastic, can’t help my self I just love to recycle where ever possible.

It looks as if my kitchen is another stop closer. I’m going to be busy making sure all the paint work is finished off properly and as soon as the joiner has finished doing his bit I shall start the wallpapering.

Like I said………………it may be slow but it’s getting there.

My granddaughter, her tee-shirt and the Rolling Stones

My Granddaughter and her tee-shirt.

When I saw what my granddaughter was wearing today I was quite taken aback. Obviously I’m no longer ‘in the know’ as far as pre-teen fashion trends go; if I were it would not have surprised me to see an eight year old proudly wearing one of the Rolling Stones most iconic images. There she stood, right in front of me, wearing the very same image that hung proudly on my wall 35 years ago. I tried to explain to her where the image came from, she raised her eyebrows and gave me a sort of ‘’what is my incoherent granny going on about??’’ look. Like a demented granny on a mission it became imperative for me to instil in her just a little understanding. With a sudden flash of inspiration I delved into scrap books and long forgotten trophies to emerge proudly holding the original ticket.

The ticket to the Frankfurt Concert of ’73 which was part of the ’73 European Tour, the tour which made the image iconic in the first place. Needless to say, she was not impressed and still didn’t have the faintest idea why I should be so fanatically interested in her tee-shirt.

Oh dear when did I get so old??And how sad is it to save a ticket for over 35 years??, Like I said.....reality check I'm officially old. But joking aside, how strange that one image should span 35 years and link people across the generations.

Poetry Wednesday; To A Mouse, Burns

"To a Mouse".
On turning her up in her nest with the plough,
November 1785.........
By Rabbie Burns
Sign in and take the tour

http://lauritasita.multiply.com/journal/item/1226/Poetry_Wednesday_031809_Sign_in_and_take_the_tour

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee
Wi' murd'ring pattle!
I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion
An' fellow mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't.
Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
Its silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's win's ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.
That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still thou are blest, compar'd wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

Paintings by Stephanie MacLean,
Scottish landscape painter
currently living and working in California.

http://www.black-isle.co.uk/smaclean/index.html

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/stephanie-maclean.html

Stephanie says of herself and her art; ‘’My art is heavily influenced by the simplicity and symmetry which I see in the landscape’’.

‘’Each painting is based on my extensive travels through the countryside that I portray. I paint in my studio using both photography and my knowledge of the specific locations to equally influence the art. As I paint I like to visualize the entire landscape including the contours and valleys not visible in the final painting. My current focus is on contemporary landscape and seascapes. I love to portray the dramatic Northern California scenery where I currectly live, in addition to my native North of Scotland which has a very different kind of beauty’’.

This is a very clever animated film of Burns himself reciting the poem. This video is covered by copyright to Jim Clark who very kindly gave his permission for me to use it.

Song saturday, The Prolaimers

SONG SATURDAY

This is very clever, the proclaimers sing ‘I’m on my way’ to an old laurel and hardy dance routine.
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The Proclaimers

Background information
Origin     Auchtermuchty, Scotland
Genre(s)     Folk rock, Pop
Occupation(s)     Singer-songwriters
Instrument(s)     Vocals
Years active     1983–present
Label(s)     Chrysalis Records
Website     Proclaimers.co.uk
Members
Charlie Reid
Craig Reid

The Proclaimers are a Scottish band composed of identical twins Charlie and Craig Reid (born 5 March 1962). They are best known for the songs 'Letter from America', 'I'm On My Way', and 'I'm Gonna Be' (500 Miles). I'm Gonna Be became the theme song for the film Benny & Joon (1993), and for several charity events, such as the Terry Fox Run and Red Nose Day 2007.
 

 

Anne Redpath, Scottish Artist

Anne Redpath; Scottish Painter
1895 - 1965

Art Sunday; Anne Redpath, Scottish artist.

Anne Redpath; Scottish Painter
1895 - 1965
Her paintings are here

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/224/Anne_Redpath_Scottish_ArtistAnne

Redpath was  Born in Galashiels in 1895, she was the daughter of a textile designer. The Redpaths moved from Galashiels to Hawick when Anne was about six. After Hawick High School, she went to Edinburgh College of Art in 1913. Her father was a traditional Scottish tweed designer in the Scottish Borders. She saw a connection between his use of colour and her own. She is reported to have said "I do with a spot of red or yellow in a harmony of grey, what my father did in his tweed’’. 


She attended Edinburgh College of Art and graduated in 1918. Post-graduate study led to a scholarship which allowed her to travel on the Continent in 1919, she visited Bruges, Paris, Florence and Siena. She travelled extensively throughout Europe which is later reflected time and time again in her work. The following year, 1920, she married James Michie, an architect, and they went to live in Pas-de-Calais, France where her first two sons were born; the eldest of whom is the painter and sculptor Alastair Michie. In 1924 they moved to the South of France, and in 1928 their third son was born, now David Michie the artist. Returning to Scotland, Redpath began to paint seriously in both oil and water-colour. Initially her work was mostly still-life, but in  later years she chose Mediterranean subjects, which she painted using intense colours. This was very much in keeping with contemporary influences prevalent throughout France and Europe at that time.

In 1934 she returned to Hawick and soon began exhibiting in Edinburgh. She was made president of the Scottish Society of Women Artists from 1944 to 1947. The Royal Scottish Academy admitted her as an associate in 1947, and in 1952 she became the first woman Academician. In 1955 she honoured with an OBE for her work as "Artist" and "Member of the Board of Management of the Edinburgh College of Art".
Once her children were grown-up, she developed an ever more active involvement in the Edinburgh art circles. She moved to live in town at the end of the 1940s and in the 1950s and early 1960s she started to travel again, painting in Spain, the Canary Islands, Corsica, Brittany, Venice and elsewhere.

She is probably best-known for her still-lifes where familiar household objects - a chair, a cup - are made into a "two-dimensional" design. She used textiles - a printed tablecloth, a spotted scarf - to add pattern within the pattern. The Indian Rug, also known as Red Shoes, is a good example of this group of paintings.

Matisse's influence is clear in these bold, flat-surfaced interior arrangements. During her travels throughout Europe she discovered the richness of Catholic imagery which was unfamiliar to a young woman brought up as a strict Scottish Protestant. The rich imagery of Catholicism is a theme explored many timers in her work.


 
Together with a group of contemporaries her work was sometimes referred to as ‘’The Edinburgh School’’. And they are seen by some as the natural successors to the Scottish Colourists:

Redpath's ‘’The Orange Chair’’, for example, suggests the Colourist heritage, even the name is reminiscent of ‘’The orange Blind’’, (unfortunately I can only find a tiny image of her ‘’Orange Chair’’).