THE CARAVAN IS HEADING OUT 2

It's holiday time. While everyone whose life revolves around the school year is now returning this week - to work and and to school - we are all planning to head off. The flying caravan is loading up ... Vro-o-o-m, vro-o-o-m.

I am now closing down for 2 weeks while Mairi, John and I gather up these two little Funny Bunnies and descend of Glasgow Airport destined for Vancouver where we will be met by Grandpa and Uncle Alastair and Auntie Dawn.

So you can think of us ... 9 hours flying ... with the stickers, crayons, chalk... and lots of kiddies books!

HOUSE IN NEED OF TLC

This is the bungalow we have bought in Milngavie. It was built in the early 1960's by Lawrence Builders on what was then farmland on the outskirts of Glasgow. Built in the post-war period, it was a rare thing in the Glasgow area to have owner-occupied housing. No matter what the design or layout (not great...), it was a great thing to have A Home of Your Own (the Lawrence slogan).

This house was lived in for 50 years by the same people who bought it when it was first built. Not much has been done over that period, however. Over the past winter, it has lain empty (occupants deceased). In order to put a smile of the face of this sad little house I placed Alastair's wooden Schipol Airport tulips in the window on the right and Mairi's gladioli in the window on the left.

As we are downsizing and very much wanted a south facing garden/back yard, we are delighted that this house absolutely fills the bill! It is about a 15 minute walk from John and Mairi's (and the same distance to the shops and train in the other direction). They came over today and we paced around the 'policies' thinking about what sort of things could be done to do up the place.

What I really miss in our lovely flat in Helensburgh is a washing line! So, although I plan to have a whirly-gig type washing line, the first thing I did upon receiving the keys and opening up the house today, was to hang up a brand new clothes-peg container, i.e. a polka dot bucket, on the existing washing line and peg out a wet tea-towel.

There is garage, a very dilapidated garage, which Iain has plans to do up and maybe extend. In it were left a great many very rusty garden tools. The idea is that we stay in Helensburgh until we get the house fixed up before we fully move in. It is livable, but needs painting, re-wiring and work to update the kitchen and bathroom.

TEMPO GIUSTO

Louise lent me this most interesting book by a Canadian author, Carl Honoré. He is from Edmonton and has a website here . The book is here on Amazon.

It is all about the Slow Movement taking place on a global scale. It started with the Slow Food Movement in Italy some years ago where a group of local people made a feature of their home-grown, home-made dishes. Basically, this (earliest) movement arose as an antidote to the Fast Food that permeates every corner of the world now.

This author shows how everything is becoming more hurried; we live in a culture of speed. We all know the manifestations!

As someone who is guilty of clock-watching and rushing around like there is no tomorrow (particularly when it is not necessary!) I am mindful that it is a Good Idea to SLOW DOWN! The Slow Movement is not about operating at a snail's pace, just doing things less hectically. It is about striking a balance. They use the term Tempo Giusto meaning 'at the right speed'.

One way to do this is sit in the garden. Here is Anne in her garden down by St Germains Loch. I joined her on a perfect afternoon where we simply sat and drank tea and watched the coots and moorhens scrabble along the water's edge.

Under the heading of Work (or should that be Leisure?) I think the Apple Mac people have got things about right.

This is a photo I took of a sales assistant in the Apple Store on Buchanan Street, Glasgow. (I was buying an iPhone and this was a test of the phone's clever camera!) All the staff wear these T-shirts. I find the sales assistants most patient and helpful whenever I wander in with my list of questions. I am sure they get lots of business because they practice what the logo on their T-shirt says: "I could talk about this stuff for hours"!!

HATS OFF TO VERMEER

Our good friend, Professor Sir William (as he is known to his friends) passed along his Sunday Times Book Reviews which he puts aside for us every week. Having time to read through them in these quiet days, I was fascinated by John Carey's review of Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World.

In his opening sentence Carey says that the book is not about Vermeer...and it is spell-binding! Basically, the book is about the Dutch trade with China in the 17th century. It includes the story of how the Dutch, and the French and the British, headed toward North America in order to fulfil the demand for the raw material for a 'fashion' item, namely, beaver pelts for making hats. (By this time the European and Scandinavian beaver had become extinct.)

These beaver pelts were obtained (i.e. traded) from the natives and in so doing it opened up the continent as the traders navigated the river systems on their trade routes. Yes, explorers were also looking for China but it is the quest for beaver pelts that interests me.

In British Columbia, Canada, I, along with every other school child, learned the history of the fur trade. However, somewhere along the way I do not recall ever being taught what these (beaver pelt) 'hats' actually looked like! I know that it was not a Davy Crocket hat as that was something I learned about later; it was American and also made from raccoon.

This photograph of the Vermeer painting of The Officer and the Laughing Girl explains it all. The hats were these wide-brimmed, high-crowned fashion items worn by men. (Frans Hal's Laughing Cavalier is another example.)

I would imagine that they must have been quite a statement of wealth (and social standing?) too.

Now, as it happens someone asked me today to give them information about Alastair and the Vancouver Film School. When I googled VFS I got exactly what I wanted here.

I read that the Film School is very much in demand for teaching graphcs and film and all that but I felt there was a little Je ne sais quoi needed for one particular member of staff!