09:00 Our weekly Saturday zoom call with our daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia, starts an hour earlier than last week's, due to our clocks changing from British Summer Time (BST) to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) for the winter. The clocks don't change in Western Australia, which must be nice for them.
Poor us !!!! Still we've got used to GMT now, and are waking up at the normal time, which is nice. But what madness it all is !!!!!
We are hoping that our weekly delivery of groceries from Budgens, the convenience store in the village, will happen as usual at 10 am, but just our luck - the delivery guy comes early at 9:15 am, as if he's determined at all costs to disrupt our chat with Sarah - what madness (again) !!!!!
Sarah reports that she and Francis and their 8-year-old twins, Lily and Jessie, went on a successful trick-or-treat expedition in Tapping last Sunday, for Halloween, and came back with a big box of candy, which is nice to hear. Sarah says she is rationing it so that they don't eat them all at once, which seems like a good idea.
Sarah says that her accounting work with the heating firm she works for has been going well, although there is rampant inflation in WA at the moment, meaning that the firm has been losing money on a big plasterboard ceiling job - they had quoted too low a price for the job, not realising what would happen to prices in the meantime. Oh dear!The girls have just finished their primary school's "Swimming Fortnight", and Jessie has got her Grade 5 and Lily has got her Grade 3, which is nice.
Sarah showcases Jessie's Grade 5 swimming certificate
It's "fly season" in Perth at the moment. That means that, walking to school, you get flies settling on you, especially if you are sweating or if you're walking past the park: flies like parks because there's lots of dog poo apparently. Yuck! And if you're at home and you leave the front door open for a few minutes you find that the flies are all over the house. October-November is the worst time - when the proper summer arrives, the flies go away: Sarah's not sure where exactly they go, but she's not that interested, and we can't blame her!
Fly season, eh? There's something to be said for England after all, it seems because we don't really have one of those seasons haha!
Everybody's expecting that Western Australia will open up the state borders again in February, provided an 80% vaccination rate has been achieved, but people are wondering whether that will lead to a big rise in COVID cases. Sarah and Francis don't really want schools to shut all over again, that's for sure!
WA premier Mark McGowan announcing that the state borders will remain closed
over Christmas, not reopening till at least the end of January
At the moment we only talk to Sarah once a week, on Saturdays, but she's wondering if we can do a mid-week phone call as well, which we're more than happy to do. Lois and I wonder whether she's missing her mum's advice and support. We husbands aren't so good at this job, because we mostly want comfort for ourselves but perhaps aren't always quite so good about supplying comfort to our wives. We're not really sure - the jury's still out on that one.
But what a crazy world we live in !!!!!
10:30 We go for a walk on the local football field, but there's only a few dog-walkers around, and it's really cold sitting on the so-called Buddy Bench having our coffees and almond crunches together. Brrrr!!!!!
One plus is that there are no flies sticking to us as we walk back to our house and get inside to warm up. My god!!!!
11:30 Our neighbour Bob brings us a pheasant, and I hang it up in a plastic bag in the larder. Fresh this morning, Bob says.
Poor Pheasant!!!!
17:30 Steve, my American brother-in-law, draws my attention to an SAS Scandinavian Airlines video on YouTube, which asks the question, "What things are truly Scandinavian?"
The answer to that question is "Nothing" apparently! All the things we associate with Scandinavians actually originated elsewhere, according to the video.
What a crazy world we live in !!!!!
I notice that USA gets the credit for the beginnings of women's rights movements, which may be fair enough, although I notice that the policemen in the SAS clip look a little bit British perhaps? And isn't Widnes in Lancashire, England? I don't know but I think we should be told!
But it may be just my poor eyesight causing a problem here, so I'm going to let that one slide.
20:00 We watch some TV, an interesting documentary on the life and career of sculptor Auguste Rodin.
Auguste Rodin with his faithful companion Rose Beuret from his native Alsace:
the two soon have a baby together, Auguste Jr.
But then years later, when Rodin was in his early forties, a 19-year-old sculptress, Camille Claudel, came into Rodin's life. She was quite a forward young woman, who introduced herself to him and proceeded to seduce him. Although young, she had already produced several sculptures: she drew and sketched well, and she kneaded and worked clay, but she also carved directly - something Rodin never mastered. Oh dear!
the 19-year-old Camille Claudel, Rodin's "new squeeze" was already an
accomplished sculptress in her own right
Camille Claudet's "Girl with a Sheaf of Wheat" : Rodin wrote that
"Mademoisell Claudet has become my finest practitioner".
They began a passionate relationship, and she became the main "practitioner" in his studio, working closely with him when he was sculpting his famous statue "The Kiss", in which he embodied the ferocious power of their relationship.
Rodin's "The Kiss"
Claudel continued her own work in parallel, but this was very much a male-dominated world, and Claudel was soon being accused of "copying" Rodin, although Rodin was never accused of copying Claudel, surprise surprise! But nowadays she is seen as a genius in her own right.
So we have the 2 women in Auguste's life : (1) faithful middle-aged Rose from back home in Alsace, and (2) Camille, the passionate young sculptress. So which one of these do you think that Auguste eventually dumps? Yes, that's right, it's Camille of course!!!!
Lois calls this the "Hemingway syndrome". Male artists and writers don't like their wives or mistresses to be too talented in what they regard as their own field, be it writing, painting or sculpting. And I have to admit she's got a point here. But what madness !!!!!
It was surely no coincidence that Rodin's dumping of Claudel more or less coincided with his artistic breakthrough, when, after years of rejection by the fashionable art world, he was suddenly seen as a genius. So Rodin dumped Claudel at this point, and did nothing to help or protect her when, years later in 1913, her mother had her committed to a madhouse.
Rodin specialised in sculpting nudes, there's no doubt about that. And I suppose it's easier to portray emotions in a nude, plus it must be awfully difficult to sculpt clothes with their awkward folds etc: clothes are just a nuisance, aren't they, that's for sure!
And Rodin didn't let up, even as he approached old age. His fellow sculptor Antoine Bourdelle wrote, "When he [Rodin] sculpted he was like a large goat, leading a flock of spirits, the god Pan, causing to quiver his flock of lines. As he worked he seemed to breathe in the soul of the clay in a way one might kiss."
Yikes !!!!
In 1900, when Rodin was 60, he met the 22-year-old American dancer Isadora Duncan, and invited her into his studio to watch him at work.
She later wrote, "Sometimes he murmured the names of his statues. He ran his hands over them and caressed them. I remember thinking that beneath his hands, the marble seemed to flow like molten lead. He took a small quantity of clay and pressed it between his palms. He breathed hard as he did so. In a few moments he had formed a woman's breast, that palpitated beneath his fingers.
"He gazed at me with lowered lids, his eyes blazing, and then, with the same expression that he had before his works, he came towards me.
"He ran his hands over my neck and breasts, stroked my arms. He ran his hands over my hips, my bare legs and feet. He began to knead my whole body as if it were clay, while from him emanated heat that scorched and melted me. My whole desire was to yield to him my entire being."
However, what she called her "upbringing" held Isadora back at his point.
Poor Rodin !!!!!
Although later Duncan said that she often regretted what she called her "childish miscomprehension", which lost her "the divine chance of giving my virginity to the great god Pan himself, the mighty Rodin".
Poor Isadora !!!!!!
Fascinating stuff !!!!!!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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