Christmas Holiday and Shock

I have had a nice Christmas in London with wife, daughter and grandchildren. I got to clear out an old garden shed that I have been wanting to attack for months and months. It only took two days.



Lazy walks around the Peckham area of London led me to a cemetary that still is in use, but has some very overgrown areas down hill. I found this gravestone still standing upright, although leaning a bit. It is a poignant reminder of how life has been for some and how it could have been for me. The stone records the death of three children, one Dorothy at five months in 1901; another, Irene at 12 weeks in 1903, and then Philip John Woodman at ninteen years of age, fighting in Gaza in 1917. There is no nearby grave of their parents.




When I came home from the walk, I found that Gaza was once again under attack. It was a shock to me, this co-incidence. How long must this fighting go on?

Stair Window Installation

Among the other things I do is help to install others' windows. I just finished helping Angel Steel install her window. This is it below.

This window is approximately 3 metres high. The image is of the window just after the platforms have been taken away from the window. The scaffolding is still in place and you can see both upright and horizontal poles running across the window. This installation took just one and a half days with three people, although we finished the major parts of the installation in the dark of day one. The second day was to tidy up and make sure all the work had been done properly.

It is so satisfying to stand back (once you are on the floor) and admire the finished work. It was of course, the first time Angela had seen the work in one piece.

Sunday Morning Cheer

This morning I opened a discussion list to see my name featuring in the subject line of one of the threads. Of course I had to see what was going on!

I had, with the usual trepidation, entered a few photographs of my past work in the newly established gallery on the site. I am always nervous about putting my work in front of fellow glass workers. It is much more nerve wracking than presenting a design to a client. The work will be judged by so many more people than just the client.

In this case, however, I have had a range of enthusiastic comments, with some of them having even come to this blog to find out more of what I do and have done.

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Apologies for the long gap between postings. The preparations for Christmas sales, and recovery from them seem to take up much more time than I ever expect. There have been an unusual number of Children's Hearings that I have been required to participate in this autumn. The preparation for these takes up several evenings before each Hearing. I am also trying to complete projects before my Christmas break which starts on Thursday. But all these are excuses. Have a good holiday season.