Fox and Herald
I am back home, and will post some UK images over the next few days. It is a bit odd to put up photos after I have returned; I usually have internet connections as I travel. For various reasons on this trip I wasn’t able to get online very much, and when I did, WordPress didn’t seem to want to take the uploaded photos. / John and I were walking back from the pub late one night and this fox was just wandering around the street. It walked into a front garden and the resident cat wasn’t very happy about his visit. John says he sees foxes all the time in the neighborhood and that they are not bothered much by people.
This sweet little Triumph Herald was parked just down the road from where I saw the fox. It has a really nice set of Minilite wheels and some kind of custom exhaust. I always liked these cars. My parent’s friend Polly Seeley had one in Meadville and I distinctly remember her driving up to our house on Cullum Street with the top down.
John Wilson
I’m in the UK for a few days helping my friend John Wilson do some work on his house in Chiswick. We don’t get to see each other often enough, but when we do it is always a treat. We met when we were both living in Berlin in the 1980’s and became close immediately. I have always been fascinated by his personal history. He was born in Trinidad, went to boarding school in Barbados, moved to the UK when he was 16, and has lived and worked all over the world. His family had been in the Caribbean for generations, and his father’s father was the Postmaster General of Grenada. (Charles Livingstone Wilson) Today we were in his studio and he wanted to show me a suitcase that contained some family items. (Suitcases seem to be a theme for me lately.) The name tag above is sewn on to the tennis shorts that he wore while at the Lodge School in Barbados.
The Pan American tag was on the inside of the case. It was full of family items and lots of folders, including reports to his mother and father about his progress at school.
I really like looking at old documents. There is something about the typefaces and writing in ink from a fountain pen that appeals to me.
Above is his housemaster’s comment (turquoise ink). And he still is quite the gentleman.
The comment above from the headmaster is a true reflection of the times. This is from his last term at school. / I am constantly reminded of how amazing all of my close friends are, and am so lucky to be a part of their lives.
Willard Suitcase #9
I had my most productive day ever this past Thursday. This case belonged to Eleanor G. I was expecting a regular suitcase from the way it was wrapped, but it was something altogether different.
The museum has a total of five cases from Eleanor, and I photographed all of them but the large steamer trunk. I’ll get to that on my next visit.
This is a very interesting cardboard storage container, and you can see above how I found it as I opened the drawers.
Eleanor must have sewn a lot. One of her other cases held two beautiful light cotton dresses that were clearly made by hand.
This drawer holds just a small selection of her sewing kit, and a couple of garters for her stockings.
Here is her little needle case.
The handles of these curling irons are the most beautiful shade of green.
For me, the most beautiful and evocative item was this perfume bottle. I googled Isabey and this is what I found. The link is a little funky, but at the top is a picture of the reissued bottle and case.
This could not have been an inexpensive bottle of perfume at the time she got it. Hand blown glass, and a beautiful velvet lined case.
Peggy helped out big time on Thursday. Both with rewrapping and seeing things that I might have missed. It made the day doubly productive.
Wine Bib
My friend Peter Carroll has a way of making these little napkin bibs for wine bottles to prevent drips. His always look perfect. Cris did a pretty good job on this one on Thanksgiving, but we are still aspiring to Peter’s high standards.
There was a very nice mention of the Willard suitcase project on Very Short List today. It is a way cool website. Here’s the link. I’m so grateful for all the attention, and welcome to all of you new subscribers to my notebook.
Chick’s in West Haven, CT
After I left Yale yesterday I went to Chick’s in West Haven to eat some clams. Peter and I have been making a bit of a study of fried clams in the Northeast, and he had encouraged me to check it out. (See previous post) I had originally hoped to go to Stowe’s, which is just down the road, but they are closed on Mondays. Chick’s is big, and was quite empty at about 4.00 pm, which made me a bit nervous. But the clams were very good.
They didn’t have that real ocean taste like ones from the North Shore of Massachusetts, as I assume they came from somewhere in the Sound, but the breading was very light and they were quite hot. It was nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy the late afternoon light.
Cushing Center
The suitcases project has opened a lot of doors for me. Jessica Helfand teaches a freshman seminar at Yale called “Studies in Visual Biography”. She is interested in (among other things) how ephemeral objects can tell a lot about the individual who owned them. Very early on she noticed my Kickstarter page and invited me to come down to New Haven to talk to the class. I went today and it was a blast. Afterwards Jessica took me to the Cushing Center at the Yale School of Medicine where neurologist Dr Harvey Cushing’s collection of brains resides. There is an amazing story about how the center came about, and the representation of his work and life are housed in a beautifully designed space. It is all very scientific, and not at all macabre. Well worth a visit.
Christmas Cacti
As I mentioned in an earlier post, our Christmas Cacti are in full bloom. They were outside all summer and through the autumn. My sister had told us not to bring them in until a hard freeze, so they came in just before the big storm at Halloween. We don’t pay much attention to the house plants; leave ’em out in the warm months, bring ’em in during the winter, and they seem to like it. The rosemary is still outside and looks great. I hope it survives the winter.
Knitting
When I first started wandering around with a camera, it seemed very easy to photograph people in public. No one paid much attention to me and I wasn’t self-conscious about snapping pictures. Something has changed in the last few years. I totally understand it; people are nervous about why someone would be photographing them. Just after I took this shot, this woman looked up at me and I felt kind of bad. The really cool image would have been her looking at me and smiling, but there is no way I could have taken that shot nowadays without her being startled and possibly upset. I often try to engage with people so that I can get their permission to take a photo, and I really should have done it here. I am sure she would have been more than happy if I offered to send her a print.
Cows
I left the house early this morning to drive up to Maine to visit my brother for a few days. The morning light was lovely and when I saw these cows, I pulled over to take a few shots.
Tulip
I bought some tulips over a week ago and they have lasted quite well. They are on their last legs now, but this one opened up nicely. / Both Christmas cacti are flowering as is the rosemary out on the deck. I think the early snow followed by the warm weather has confused the plants.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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