Hello 2013!

Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed a brilliant Christmas and at least a few lazy days of food/films/family&friends, that's what it's all about! I have been looking forward to 2013, after an 'eventful' (to say the least!) 2012, I am welcoming the opportunities this year will bring me! I have decided against making any solid resolutions (even my horoscope told me not to bother!) but I have a few aims that I hope to make a good solid start on:

- Get cracking with redesigning the garden: build more vegetable patches, tidying around the greenhouse and sorting the sheds. Make progress with the wild flower 'mini meadow' and cottage garden section, lets get those bees-a-buzzing!

- Book myself onto some crafty courses to get motivated into using my imagination for arty purposes once more! *I have so far signed up to Stained Glass and Willow Weaving at The West End Centre - result!*

- Plough through the numerous paperbacks that I have collected over the years, donate as many to charity as possible, and build a proper bookcase to house my antique and collectible novels before I am buried alive.

- As well as growing my own fruit&veg as much as possible, be more aware of where the food I'm eating comes from. Aim to buy from more local producers and avoid supermarkets as a first option. And if it's not quality British free range, I'm not eating it.

- Travel. 2013 is the year I shall get on a plane....gulp!

- Use time wisely, enjoy the little things, keep busy, keep curious.

So nothing too scary or taxing! As long as I can look back and see the progress I've made, I'll be happy! Meanwhile, 2013 has brought quite a few creatures into the garden, starting with this amazing fellow! Excuse the low quality photo, I only had a second to snap him before he scarpered, but isn't he beautiful? I believe this to be a Peregrine (do correct me if I'm wrong! I did make an effort with the bird watchers guides but I'm not 100%) - the first one I've ever seen! They usually prefer coastal areas, but I assume the terrible weather has encouraged them inland. The little birds scarpered and didn't come back for a day or two, although its said they prefer pigeons - in which case, help yourself Mr P!

Meanwhile in the garden, there is life appearing in the cold frame! The broad beans are shooting up, I'll have to move them on soon, though I bet this mild January will turn to instant snow and frost the second I put them outside! And the greenhouse is still in hibernation, looking forward to being in there sowing and potting very soon, I certainly have a lot to do! I got some great gardening gifts for Christmas, including the pepper growing kit in the photo, an enamel vegetable bucket and a windowsill rocket plant.

Just a few cheeky photographs of my neighbours lovely chickens - who have realised the top of their coop is the perfect height to look over the fence and check up on what we're up to! I adore working on the raised beds hearing their contented little noises, they really are most endearing! Hello to Emmie if you're reading this, hope you like the chook portraits! :)

And finally, good news! Mollie had to go in for an operation after Christmas to have six teeth taken out, including the right canine which was terribly sore, and I'm glad to say she's doing well! The vets were brilliant, they preformed thorough blood tests beforehand, as she's eleven now they wanted to be careful, and gave the rest of her teeth a good polish. It's always so horrible when your pets are unwell, I am an awful worrier, and when I saw her with a little bandage around her leg (where the drip had been) I nearly burst into tears! However, when it came to taking it off at home she was her usual grumpy growling self, so I knew she must have been feeling better! She was eating chicken only hours after coming round from the anaesthetic (classic terrier), so let's hope they heal up smoothly now!

Hope the start of the New Year has been a good one for you!

Thanks for reading!

Katie

The Booth Museum Of Natural History

During my recent trip to Brighton, I visited The Booth Museum for the very first time! Founded by naturalist Edward Thomas Booth in 1874, it remains true to its nickname "home of the dioramas", as Booth was the first man to depict taxidermy animals in scenes resembling their natural habitats, down to the type of foliage and rocks included. His detailed sketches and notes show how determined he was to keep his work true to life, and as well as his taxidermy and famed bird collection, he also studied fossils, skeletons and insects. The skeleton room is vast, holding elephant skulls, and narwhales amongst other amazing examples, even a human skeleton features!

Booth was born in 1840, to a well-to-do family. His early years were spent in education in Brighton and then on to Trinity College Cambridge where he studied only briefly, before be asked to leave having spent more time on the fens shooting and observing birds than studying! The museum guide told us he was quite the playboy character, with too much time on his hands as a young man, it was the best career choice he could have hoped for! He was considered a real character, and even had his own carriage at Brighton Station to hook up to the next outward bound train whenever a new or rare bird was spotted! 

The view inside the museum, as it was around 1911.

Sorry I didn't take a photograph of the entrance now to compare, the light in the museum is so dim (to preserve the taxidermy) that my Iphone was quite useless, and the next photos aren't exactly brilliant, but hopefully they'll give you an idea of the sheer amount of work in this building! It doesn't look like a large space from the outside, but they sure have made the most of the space! Floor to ceiling cases, some absolutely huge, the top ones housing eagles and vultures which are eating lambs and rabbits...nice! Apart from a new desk and study area, the exhibits look exactly the same as the above picture. Here are a few pictures i managed to take, apologies for the quality!

My favourite bird of the moment! See all the leaves and foliage included? 

Family of Partridges

1. Claire and the giant fish!  2. Fantastic Flamingo!

Painted dioramas in the fossil room

Booth should never be regarded as a commercial taxidermist, as his collection until his death was a private resource. The building itself was built specifically around the collection, some cases even featuring in the walls themselves. Considering I co-own several taxidermy pieces with Bruce, I did find the museum quite overwhelming, all those little bodies peering out into the dim lit room...I don't know why I felt like that, I'm pretty tough! I guess the thought that Booth shot all those birds and animals himself is another factor, he certainly was busy! But it's a true gem in the naturalist movements crown, you won't be stuck in queues to look in the cabinets like at the Natural History Museum, it's much more curious at Booth!  It's a truly unique place to visit and I thoroughly recommend you pop by when you're next in Brighton, especially if its raining cats and dogs like on our trip!

 Myself by the Narwhal/Killer Whale/Dolphin and Indian Elephant specimens. 

Stained glass windows in entrance hall.

Thanks for reading!

Katie

Looking back at the allotment

It's been a year since graduation (though I don't want to believe it!) and i think it might be time for me to start looking at some of my past work again. Mostly because I am planning a massive re-vamp of the website, so want to start thinking about which work I want to feature, and how! (it's proving difficult)

I am about to start reading "Defiant Gardens - making gardens in war time" by Kenneth I. Helphand which I am hoping will help me with some new ideas! I brought it whilst assisting Henry&Bragg at RHS wisley, they have such a fantastic book shop there.

So here are a few photographs from last year I have found, I will be re-scanning negatives over the next month, see if I will find any forgotten gems! I also want to start photographing it again very soon.

I would just like to add, if anyone thinks my photo's are a tad too "Sunday Supplement" (as one particular UCA lecturer was always too glad to point out!) then I would like to say, EXCELLENT! And I am very open to weekend publication features, just let me know! ;)

Keeping on topic with lovely nature, here is a little friend I made the other day! My dog always sits on the window sill in my parents room to keep an eye out for pedestrians/dogs/cats, and she was very bewildered to see this little chap staring back at her! NO idea what type of baby bird he was (please tell me if you do!) but he made a very high pitched "PEEP PEEP" noise, and worriedly my mum dreadfully with how he was perching on the window ledge! He flew off quite happily, don't worry!

My final piece of news is I did get onto the Historical Studies course at Winchester, but i've decided to take a bit of time to consider all sensible options for the rest of this year. But hooray! They liked me! :) AND the Museum of Farnham volunteering is going nicely! More news on that soon.

Thanks,

Katie

Woodland Birds

Here is another amazing book I have found in the Tunbridge Wells "Hall's" bookshop, a regular place for me and Bruce to browse on a Saturday afternoon!





It's the most amazing shop, floor to ceiling with every book imaginable!

"Woodland Birds" is a King Penguin book, so naturally it's beautifully done! Could you imagine a better front cover?



I have several books of bird studies, but this is my new favourite. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful, the compositions are very unusual indeed, particularly this one of the pigeon, it just seems too delicately posed for a educational book...



The illustrations were by Peter Shepheard, a passionate naturalist, artist and architect. It's said he always travelled with a small pocket knife and an A5 ringbound sketchbook. Some were filled with concise site notes, or sketches to explain to his architecture contractor or client how something could be constructed; others contained exquisitely drawn animals, plants or nudes, mostly executed from memory. He seemed to be constantly interested by the natural world around him.

Annabel Downs writes: "From childhood days pedalling around the Wirral, looking into ponds and birds nests, Peter Shepheard remained passionate about nature; he was interested in wild plants and native species long before it became fashionable. He abhorred double flowers, improved varieties, and variegated and coloured foliage.

He absorbed how nature worked, and then sought to understand more through drawing - how a pintail duck sits on water, for example, or how a building he was designing would sit in the landscape. Nikolaus Pevsner asked him to illustrate two books on ducks and woodland birds in the King Penguin series. He also produced all the line drawings for his own books, Modern Gardens (1953) and Gardens (1969)."

A wonderful inspiration. I hope you enjoy his stunning illustrations, i'm so glad to have found another fantastic naturalist, they are certainly rare these days.












Thanks for reading!

Katie

In Birdland With Field Glass and Camera.

I was lucky enough to stumble across this book on Ebay a few weeks ago, mostly due to it's gorgeous front cover etching! However, once I received it and began reading, I discovered that it's author, Oliver Pike, was a very interesting man indeed. I chose not to alter the colour of the scans because of the age of the book, i think it deserves to be shown in it's true quality!



Oliver Pike (1877-1963) was an early British pioneering photographer, film maker and author of wildlife subjects, particularly birds.
Pike took his first photo (of a flower) aged 13, and then began assisting photographer Reginald Badham. Together, they developed electric shutter releases, and eventually, bird activated trip-wire releases!
'In Birdland With Field Glass and Camera' was his first book published in 1900, and was followed by 24 other books!

Here are some of my favourite pages from 'In Birdland With Field Glass and Camera', I have always been fascinated with birds nests, so to see how many examples Pike tracked down for this book is quite fascinating, I particularly enjoy the examples of the nest on the wooden chair. He seemed keen to point out that nature is all around us, we should open our eyes and be more vigilant, appreciate it every day!



















Pike designed his own camera "The Birdland Camera' which was marketed by Sanders & Crowhurst of Shaftesbury Avenue, London. This is an advert for it in the back of the book. I managed to track down one on an auction house website...sadly the last one they had sold in 1998, for £150!?! Unbelievable.







Pike was opposed to egg collecting, shooting and other blood sports in Britain. He was keen on education, and widely lectured about his experiences. His collection is now kept in the National Media Museum.

He was also an avid film maker, and his creation 'In Birdland' was the first wildlife film to be screened to a paying audience in Britain. Although over 100 prints of the film were made, sadly, all copies are now thought to be lost. I found one of his other creations on youtube, which was made in 1908:




A still taken from his 1922 film 'The White Owl'

What an achievement. Oliver Pike left such an amazing legacy for future nature photographers, he really did explore every method of photographing the wildlife he cared so deeply about, inspirational. I hope to collect more of his books, I really am his newest fan!



Thanks for reading.