22nd June ![]() OMG; OMG, OMG! As Bob Marley said, "Everything's gonna be alright"............................(see above weather forecast !) Hang on to your hat Glastonbury Festival, I'm on my way! ------------------------------------------------- 21th June ![]() I love spiders, but am not so keen on them crawling over my face when I'm asleep. I've noticed an increase in the type of spiders in the pic left, this year. They are big and dark and very shiny. I will miss the Arcadia Spider this year at Glastonbury Festival; but am looking forward to seeing what the new show Pangea, is all about. I'm not sure if I will be able to blog from the Festival, but I will try to. Maybe I'll manage to upload some pics and put a time and date with them, we shall see. The weather forecast has improved and is looking more promising. So with a bit of luck, I will be in the Greenfields, not the brown fields.. ------------------------------------------------------------ 20th June When I'm at Glastonbury, I'll be lucky enough to be surrounded by magic mushrooms. No; not the edible ones, but giant wooden ones made by English Garden Art. The above video is the BBC area in 2008 featuring the some of the mushrooms with Dizzy Rascal and Calvin Harris performing around them. The giant mushrooms have been a feature in the festival for many; many years, and a lot of people make a pilgrimage to the Croissant Neuf field every year just to have a photo taken with the famous set of giant magic mushrooms. As Dizzy Rascal would say...........Skillz on show! -------------------------------------------------- 19th June ![]() Tonight I'm slightly suffering from F.O.M.O. (Fear of missing out). I had the offer of a free lift to; and from, Maceo's Bar opening night. Maceo's is the biggest, boldest and brightest backstage bar at Glastonbury Festival. It's snuggled inbetween Block 9 and Shangri-la; and I know that if I'd taken up the offer of a lift, I would see so many old friends and have a blast. However; experience tells me that over the next couple of days I would be feeling washed out, and wishing I hadn't indulged in the pre-party party. 'Ma' 'ce' 'o's'?.........in my case, may see double. I know that I will thank myself for the abstinence tommorrow; but part of me is with the party in spirit...just not literally tonight.. ------------------------------------------------------- 18th June ![]() Whether the weather be good at Glastonbury Festival; or whether the weather be bad? That is the word on every attendee's lips at the moment. You wouldn't believe how many non-believers are secretly praying that the sun gods will bless the site with their warm caresses. The press love to post pics of happy revellers lapping up the mud; but I've been to every Glastonbury Festival since 1986, and I think that makes this my 28th? That's a lot of enthusiasm to muster up if the forecast is rain, when you've been to quite a lot of 'muddy ones'. Fortunately it's not looking too bad! (Although I will be keeping my fingers; and anything else I can cross, crossed from now on). My wish is that there will be blue skies and green grass like in the above pic); and I'm hoping to have some fun in the sun on Joe Rush's new attraction for this year a Victorian style pier called 'Glastonbury on Sea'. If all goes to plan and the sun shines, it will be fabulous!. If the heavens open and it buckets it down; let's hope the new attraction doesn't become a prediction!..literally Glastonbury on 'Sea'....yikes!.. ------------------------------------------------------ 17th June ![]() No blog last night due to a dinner invite; and busy, busy, busy today with the Glastonbury prep. If you are lucky enough to go to Glastonbury Festival this year; feel free to call by the Showman's caravan in the Croissant Neuf field. (That's my red and yellow caravan in the top pic in the link, it's in the same spot every year). I'll be doing an exhibition and demonstration of my patented Traveller Tartan, and will have winter merino wool hats available as well as lighter fabric summer versions.(See above pic). Along with some printed scarves too. You will also be able to see some lovely handmade jewellery on display, and everything will be made by me! Hats off to anybody who pops by! --------------------------------------------------- 15th June ![]() I've been so busy in the last few weeks trying to stick to a timetable for my Glastonbury prep. I've been adhering to the list remarkably well ,(for me). I tend to go off at a tangent quite a lot. (You've probably noticed). A week today, our little group will be pulling on to the Croissant Neuf field at the festival. With last year being a fallow year for the festival, I'm really looking forward to letting my hair down and clowning around in my newly furbished Circus Wagon this year. I should imagine this time next Saturday ; the the only list I will be I will be capable of, is that cockney rhyming slang... Brahms and Liszt.. _________________________________ ![]() 14th June Rooting about in a cupboard today, I found a picture I'd forgotton I'd made on an early computer art program called 'Paint' many years ago. The program came ready installed on the first ever computer I'd used. At the time I thought it was amazing. The images were quite pixelated when you zoomed in , and I didn't really know much then about resolution etc. You may have been able to change the file size; but I didn't know how to do this. Anyway; I took an image I found online of my all time favourite Lion Tamer, Herr Seeth. (My all time favourite Tiger Tamer was called Mabel Stark, and she was completely bonkers!). Herr Seeth wasn't my favourite Lion Tamer because I thought he was a great man by the way; infact he was probably a really horrible aggressive man, but visually he looked like he should be a Lion Tamer. I would have loved to have painted his portrait. I manipulated a photograph of him with a lion on his shoulders which was taken in the late 1800's to make it look like me. I made the body appear more feminine, and I put my head on his shoulders. Then I place the picture in a frame, and hung it on the Showman's wall. (See above pic). It was amazing how many people actually thought it really was me with a lion on my shoulders. Oh my; how times have changed with the progams like Photoshop etc, nobody would ever think nowadays that that it actually was photo of me. With computer art programs being so much better these days; I think I may have to make an updated version of this circus poster, and just 'Roll Up!, Roll Up!' this one... ---------------------------------------------------- 13th June When I made the tiger stencil for the walls in the caravan; I decided I was going to hand paint the teeth in, in white. Laying in bed last night though; I decided to cut them out of the stencil, and if I didn't like them, I could just paint over them in white. So I roared ahead; stippling the gold paint onto the King's Red walls, and now I have pussies galore! I'll have to hold back a bit with the tiger theme or people will be calling Tiger Lolly. If you turn your head sideways; and look at the stripes, you can make out the word Lolly. So what do you reckon? Would I be 'lion' if I said I think it's purrfect? -------------------------- 12th June ![]() Following on in the tiger's footsteps; I remembered I'd made a tiger stencil to decorate the walls of the Showman's Wagon with, a couple of years ago. I was inspired by the stencilled wallpaper in the backstage bar in the Arcadia field at Glastonbury 2017. If you've never seen the Arcadia show let me tell you this; it is beyond fabulous! I think as I've mentioned before; the Showman's wagon is rumoured to be an ex Chipperfield's Circus wagon, which as long as I've owned it (approximately 21 years I think?) I've planned to get it looking like a 1930's (kitschy film set) circus wagon. So the tiger stencil motif was something I designed using the stripes of the tiger to spell out my name. Hopefully if you turn your head sideways you will be able to read Lolly?. I will find out tomorrow when I test out the stencil; if I am a Tiger, or if I'm a Cat astrophy!... ------------------------------------------------------- 11th June ![]() I was going to put an eyepatch on my porcelain tiger's head as a tribute to The Blind Tiger venue in the Unfairground at Glastonbury Festival. The venue; according to the Official Glastonbury Festival web page, can be found inside Elvis's mouth. (With my new 'nod to Elvis' sofa I should be given free drinks!). However; I found an old pair of sunglasses which fit him very well, and I quite like the look albeit, he now has a Jazz look about him. I'll add an L.E.D. light in his mouth; and then he really will be a tiger tiger burning bright, in the middle of the night. He now looks happy instead of angry, and the sunnies are my little bit of hope that we will have a sunny festival. Fingers crossed; or like the tiger, I too may be feline beastly!... ---------------------------------------- 10th June It may be raining outside today, but it's getting totally tropical in the showman's caravan. I've nearly finished making the covers for the sofa bed, and I went for the reversible options. When I'm bored, I can just turn the cushions over for a different look. I honestly think that Elvis Presley would be proud of me, it could easily fit in with his Jungle themed room at Gracelands. Seriously; I like to say 'Eat your heart out Elvis!', but I think that maybe he actually did? Which option do you think looks best in the pic above?. Tomorrow I will stitch the ends up, and then tackle the huge mess I've created making the sofabed. I can't even say that 'Elvis has left the room'........in this state...t'was me... ------------------------------------------------------------ 9th June Today didn't go quite to plan; it all started off very well, but come lunch time I suffered a large Snakebite. Well I say suffered but, it was actually very nice and quite nostalgic. I don't think I've drunk one since I was a student. In fact it was so nice I had two!. Which is why I didn't get as much done as I had planned. Then the red leopard skin print fabric I have been hanging on to for twenty years with the aim of building a slide out sofa bed seemed like overkill; so I threw the alternative gold version of it on top, to give me an idea of which I'd prefer. (See above pic). This proved even more of a dilemma, as I just couldn't decide which was the most pleasing option. I may try to make a reversible cover with both options. I've painted the wood the same 'King's' red as on the walls; and I've added two brass lion's head door knockers that I bought individually from boot sales, as handles. By the way; the tiger's head porcelain plaque is on the sofa because I've taken it down off the wall to add an eye patch to it, in recognition of the new venue in the Unfair Ground at Glastonbury Festival, The Blind Tiger. Hmm I've just thought of a recipe for a drink they could sell. A Tigerbite; made up of lager, cider and chilli. I think I'll let someone else test that one first though, or I may never get my work finished. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8th June ![]() So I've been screwing all day on the slide out sofabed; and I've just finished now, at 10.30pm. (Screwing the joints together and adding the slats). I'm working with all re-cycled materials which always makes the job more tricky. Even the screws are re-cycled, and amazingly I didn't round the heads. After the pic on the left was taken, I also added some large doors to the front. So in the morning I'll give it a lick of paint, and make a cover for the old piece of caravan foam I've rescued for the seat. I've saved some red and gold tassle trim that matches the curtains to decorate the foam with; and I have some fab red leopard skin fabric to use for the cover. Leopard skin fabric is not traditional in a showman's wagon I know but; it is reputedly an old circus wagon and sometimes I can be a bit of an animal..... ------------------------------------------------------- 7th June ![]() I was building a slide out sofa today in the Showman's wagon, and was wondering if anybody else uses a tape measure in the same way as I do. I can't be bothered to measure in just millimetres; so mark the point I need to the nearest big line, which means I could end up using inches or millimetres or both, as in the diagram above. This means that most of the time I work in inches with centimetres. It's a totally lazy way of working and if there were other markings on the tape measure which matched the point that I was working to, I would use these too. In the past if I can't find a tape measure I could use say, three bog rolls long?.. or two and a half pieces of A4 paper. It would probably be a lot easier to just measure everything in millimetres? (Wouldn't it be funny if there was actually a measurement called one bog roll!). The Queen; for example, could possibly measure 12 bog rolls tall?. I definately know the measure of myself though it's one 'stopfannyingaboutdaydreamingandgetonwiththejobyou'resupposedtobedoing!'... -------------------------------------------------------- 6th June ![]() The weather forecast for the coming week looks wet; and with that in mind I thought it would be best to spend the day giving the roof another coat of sealant. This involved a lot of climbing up and down a ladder. Moving the ladder around the Showman's wagon; I couldn't help but notice how much Cuckoo Spit there was in the undergrowth. (The next time I pop inside for a cuppa I will google 'why is it called Cuckoo Spit'?, I thought to myself). As children we believed it was actually Cuckoo's spit; but to be honest, I have never seen or heard a cuckoo spitting? When we were kids the boys who used to spit on the ground, were the ones who thought they were hard. I've never heard of a hard case cuckoo though?. Or seen one wearing a Millwall shirt either?. Nowadays the only people you see spitting are footballers and to be honest it's absolutely gross. They really need to tuck a hanky into their waistbands and discreetly spit into that if they really need to spit, and if they haven't got one with them, they need to put their hands up and ask the ref for one! When I read why it's called cuckoo spit; the only connection it has with an actual cuckoo, is that it appears in the spring around the time you could hear cuckoos. So there we have it, cuckoos don't spit. I'm glad it's going to rain tomorrow and I will be back working inside; as there are far too many distractions outside. At this rate it will be me that ends up Cuckoo... ![]() ------------------------------------------------------- 5th June I seem to have a default setting when I'm under pressure and have a lot of jobs to do before #GlastonburyFestival. I call it my 'Matrix Mode', and I guess it's a kind of self distraction technique. I can get distracted by the smallest thing. (Like with the millipede left, that I came across today.) Time slows down; like the scene in the Matrix when things go into slow motion, and I find myself observing insects, or flowers maybe?. Here's a sample of todays thoughts... "Ooo look at that little wriggling thing".... "Is it a centipede or a millipede"?..."Hang on, I'll count it's legs".... "Ooo it seems to have 108, too many for a centipede, but not enough for a millipede",......"maybe it's a centimillipede?"..."hmmm; I wonder how long it would take it to sing Heads; Shoulders, Knees and Toes"?, ....Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Knees and Knees and Knees and Knees and Knees" etc, etc, and before you know it; I've wasted another valuable quarter of an hour. I really need to give myself a damn good kick up the backside......Thank God I'm not a millipede or that could be very painful indeed!... ------------------------------------------------------ 4th June The sofa bed in my Showmans wagon is 1950's and, let's say it's a tad lumpy. I keep meaning to re-furbish it with some memory foam, but it's so expensive. (I also plan to build another 'slide out' sofa bed in the lving area; out of scrap wood, and old caravan foam I've been keeping). I remember how people used to call it sponge when I was young. There was also sponge cake; which was a little confusing as we actually had a foam sponge cake in the play shop at school. However; yesterday I had a lucky bid on ebay and managed to win a small double bed sized piece for only £5. Today when I went to collect the memory foam, I met a lovely kind old man called Bob. He asked me if I'd like to take two other single sized pieces as well, for free. He was so sweet. I mentioned that my engine management light had come on; on my dashboard, and he offered to have a look at it and check the water etc. (Obviously I declined; Bob must have been in his 80's, and I was pretty sure it was a fault with the light). When I go to sleep; I will now feel like I am floating on a cloud. All thanks to a kindly 'sponge' Bob. -------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd June The BBC weather forecast for today, predicted overcast but fine in Somerset. The outlook for the rest of the week is showery with occasional sunny spells. Great! I thought, today is the day to get up on the roof and paint another layer of sealant coating. (Pic above from the roof looking over my jewellery workshop and sewing shed). However; the forecast was not as predicted. It seemed like every time I climbed up and started slapping on the rubber paint, the heavens would open. I felt like the little woman in an Alpine Weather House, every time it rained I downed tools and went inside. With the week ahead looking unpredictable (weather wise); tomorrow, I'll be back to painting the cabinets. When it rains at this time of year, it gives me a little bit of hope that during the Festival the weather will be good. Wishful thinking I know but; the idea of a muddy Glastonbury Festival lost it's appeal for me when it rained so much tents and portaloos floated away, creating a river of mud and heaven knows what?. I can never look at drunken revellers happily sliding on their stomachs in the mud again without thinking "They're laughing now, but I know they're probably in the sh*t" ------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd June With the date of Glastonbury Festival steaming towards me, I decided I had better try and get a little organised in my preparation. (Something which certainly doesn't come naturally to me).
So today I wrote a list of jobs that needs doing before leaving, and realised a lot of them were to do with working on my Showmans wagon. I need to have a display area where I can have a little exhibition of my work. So I decided to move some cabinets around in my kitchen which will have a dual purpose. They will have to be useful as kitchen cabinets but could double up as a display area when needed. I already have a nice art deco cabinet in the kitchen which would serve this purpose, but there was an annoying gap between the top of it and the roof, so I filled it in with two little cupboards I made with flap doors. Then I moved some other cabinets I had which were in the living room, into the kitchen and I felt that they would serve to do the job very nicely. Many years ago; (long before Drew Pritchard, and other trendy salvage hunters), I bought an early plastic, hollow tigers head at a Car Boot sale. I think it may have originally been a mascot on a lorry. I can remember as a child sometimes you would see a lorry with an illuminated mascot on the top above the windscreen. One day I thought; I will install it as a lamp in a piece of furniture, as the showman's wagon is Circus themed, it seemed appropriate to install it into my re-worked display cabinet. The tigers head had always slightly annoyed me; because one of the eyes was slightly bulging and therefore slightly facing in the wrong direction. To remedy this; I used some heat on it from my jewellers torch (being very careful not to over do it!). With a bit of pressure applied to it as it cooled down, the eye popped back to its correct position. Then I painted the cabinet, as I wanted it to be bright and engaging as this is what you see when looking in through the showman's door. (See above pics of before and after. The blueish tinge in the before pic is due to the tarpaulin on the roof, which I removed so that I can see the colours clearly). It's not quite finished yet but I'm pleased with the progress so far. I have an l.e.d. light ready to fit into the socket I prepared for the tiger light. I've just found out that there is a new super venue for The Unfairground area of Glastonbury, it's called The Blind Tiger. If I'd known this earlier I could have just stuck a black patch over the tigers eye and saved myself half an hours work, and be very in keeping with the festival vibe. Tonight though; I'm feline quite content with todays work. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st June I've completely lost track of time. I thought I might start blogging again on the first of June and describe the preparation that goes into getting everything ready for Pilton. (Or Glastonbury Festival as it is more commonly called). The only thing is; I thought that the first day of June was on Monday, and only noticed this evening (Saturday) the first is actually today. I'm trying not to panic at the amount of work I have to do before the festival; however, I've just lost two days that I thought I had. In the past I have heard a Pyschiatric Nurse say that the biggest influx of patients in Psychiatric Hospitals is around the really stressful times of year. The first being Christmas; when people are getting everything ready for a perfect family holiday and there turns out to be far more planning than they had planned and their heads go ping. Secondly; around Glastonbury Festival,.......... for the same reasons. It really is miraculous what is achieved in a small amount of time; in a few fields, around Pilton Village, in a few weeks time. It always makes me think of Henry VIII's 'Field of the Cloth of Gold'. The Field of the Cloth of Gold was a magical artistic triumph that must have been spectacular. When you read the descriptions of it (which are quite detailed) it must have been an enormous undertaking for the artists involved. It was made in England then transported over to France, set up for a few days then disappeared just as quickly. There were working giant fountains which spouted red wine; life sized buildings painted onto canvas and erected in situ, etc etc. Basically; the equivalent of a modern day film set, which is very similar to large parts of Glastonbury Festival. The Long Drop Toilets (probably only best to scroll through the pics on the link, if you have a strong stomach) are often described as medieval. All we really need at Glastonbury Festival to get it on par with the Field of the Cloth of Gold are some red wine fountains! Sadly; somehow, I don't think Michael Eavis would fund that though. However; I may need a glass or two tonight, now that I've realised I've just lost two days...
3 Comments
6/16/2019 06:42:47 pm
The first week of June started so right for you! Before anything else, I just want to mention that I really appreciate the effort of sharing etc and everything that happens on your single day. I couldn't be that vocal on small and big thing that happens in my life on an everyday basis that's why I am also amazed at the same time. Right now, I am just so happy to see that you get the chance to do the things that you love. You deserve it in the first place!`
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Lolly
6/17/2019 02:55:10 pm
Thanks once again for your lovely encouraging comments, they always make me happy :-)
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Liz w
10/23/2019 12:18:02 am
That spider looks like a false widow darling, if left undisturbed they just keep themselves to themselves, mess with them and they can be quite feisty....as I found out to my cost when I had to evict one because jay was scared. Btw, Your lolly tiger stencil is genius lady xxxxxxx
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Lolly GoldingThe day to day life of a Somerset Artist Archives
March 2022
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