11.31
Bredonborough.
A busy night: on the road with KC & playing in a church.
A grey, wet morning...
… but in the kitchen there are Christmas cakes…
The Minx rose early to ice these Wonder-Beasts of Nutrition, Delight & Bliss Arising. One is a present for pal John, and the other two are for me. They are mine. They already belong to me.
16.47 A grey wet day continues. All Quarters’ Maintainer & Hellboy Tom has just called with news of The Hellboys’ sessions in Woodstock with Director Bill & TLev; and The LCG’s recent performance at the Ethical Society, NYC. Tom reported several infractions which have not yet found mention in this Diary, nor the Guestbook. One character set up his movie camera in the middle of the balcony. Tom asked him to desist…
Infractor: There was no announcement!
Tom: There was an announcement in seven languages.
Infractor: I wasn’t here!
So presumably Mr. Infractor is deficient is decoding signs conventionally used in depicting the English language, because the notices were not easy to miss; that is, unless one were trying hard to do so. May we note: there is no innocence here.
20.54 Continuing seasonal excitements: decorations!…
Stockings & decorations are out in the downstairs front room, conventionally the present-opening room when Barbara & Beric visit on Christmas Day…
Eagle-eyed DGM visitors will notice the farting-Santa on the mantelpiece…
… and our Wedding garland behind the decoration-figures…
Bedroom I…
A John Miller Horizon above, stockings either side, illuminated bunnies on the bedhead. Snuggle lighting…
A harlequin pair of 18th. commodes function as bedside tables, supporting Laura Ashley lamps with John Lewis lampshades. The question: how closely to honour a period home with authentic period detail?
This is not question that need bother anyone or everyone, but has concerned me pretty well since being a property-owner. This goes to: what is the aim of your home? This may seem a silly question, but a lot is involved in choosing the functions & uses in our living-space. The house is material, a home is a quality. Beaton’s Reddish, a prodigy-house of post-war Britain, was renowned for its flamboyance & bravura elegance. It was a stage-set & shop-front for Cecil’s professional life, before it was a comfortable home. Actually, Reddish House was never comfortable; and although the surface was remarkable, beneath, the structure was decayed. Beaton paid attention to the surface, and none to the structure. We lived with builders for 10 years; and with no end in sight, that was enough if not already-too-much. I never addressed the interiors, a challenge well beyond my capacities.
It has been said, a property draws to itself the people it needs. For me, Reddish was a house too far but, without us, the structure might have fallen down. The present incumbent, needed by the house, sent in a team for 3 years full-time when we left. Reddish, if not yet a home, is presently a beautiful & sound house in a valley.
My aim in a home? To refresh the spirit. Part of that is, a measure of comfort; not necessarily plush seating, but a space away from the mundane, exploitative & downright dishonest of the music industry. Much of our emotional life is associational, as with our thinking. Pieces of furniture we have inherited from Parents, or which hold particularly fond memories, may not fit within a period scheme; but, as Mr. Romain of Romain’s Emporium of Antiquities, Wonder & Delight says: you can’t buy sentiment. So, Edwardian or Victorian may be pressed into service beside Regency or Georgian or 1920s. And what of art & paintings? Where to hang a John Miller & a trio of family portraits c. 1750 in their original papier-mache frames (acquired from a now-retired dealer in Bridport)? The answer: alongside each other, just down from the pair of contemporary Monica Peraltos, not far from the PJ Crooks. That is, the overall design idea here at Chez Fripp-Willcox & WillyFred is mix: contemporary & various within a period framework.
Organising materials, choosing & deciding the uses of spaces – activity, repose, storage, work (and now WillyFred running zones), blending colours, furniture, art; this has been an ongoing education since 1971. Looking over Fripp’s shoulder, I watch what he’s up to, how he responds, how he deals with combinations that don’t work, how he recognises they don’t work, how he approaches mistakes, what makes him happy, what makes him twitch.
One observation: works of quality co-exist, juxtapose, mingle & blend, without much difficulty or effort.
Designer notes now at an end for today, time to climb in & gentle with the Minx.
"Define the aim simply, clearly, briefly, positively"
