Jean and I were honoured to be invited to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend of ours – British author and historian Alison Weir.  We were fortunate for our paths to cross many years ago through Jeans and Alison’s interest in the Walker Brothers and we have remained good friends since.

As we will soon be gearing up for Christmas orders and shows, Jean and I decided that this would be the ideal time for us to incorporate a few days away.  So after bidding farewell to our loyal dog sitter and dachshund Treacle, we set off for Hever in Kent.  Our first stop was Alison and her husband Rankins house for tea and to deliver some paintings which we had collected for them from Ludlow.

Jean and I joined the National Trust on the first day of our break and we spent our time away visiting several properties in the area – it was great with both of us enjoying the domestic settings of the more ordinary houses. 

Our first visit was Chartwell – Churchill’s home.  It was charming and lovely even though it was really busy.  Churchill was quite a painter and the artwork in his house is plentiful.  What was most exciting for us was an Edward Ardizzone drawing of a scene from the house of commons - Jean and I are big fans!  The gardens were wonderful; rolling down to a lake and a walled vegetable garden.  Some of the Allium heads were as big as footballs and like sputnik spaceships!   In the afternoon we visited Quebec house in the village of Westerham.  This was the childhood home of General James Wolfe.  It was fascinating.  A wall had been uncovered in a bedroom dating back to the 1630’s but the property had been given to the National Trust on the condition that it remained in the period of when James Wolfe lived there.

 

On Friday morning Jean and I drove round in circles for nearly 1 ½ hours looking for Emmetts garden.  Jean was navigator and had me driving up and down awful single track country lanes and when we eventually arrived it was closed!  However, there was a silver lining to this tale – it had meant that whilst we were in the car we were staying dry avoiding the pouring rain!

So back we went to Chartwell for tea and cake.  Next it was on to Hever Castle for Alisons’ birthday celebrations.  Alison chose Hever Castle as the venue as it was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, tragic queen of King Henry VIII.  It was a delight to meet all of Alisons’ friends and family and after introductions we met for afternoon tea in the music room.  We had a wonder around the gardens and an exciting tour around the castle. 

We met for dinner in the grand hall of the castle and among the guests were the ‘History Girls’ and Gary Walker and his wife Barbara.  We had a lovely five course dinner and enjoyed watching Alison bravely open her gifts in front of everybody.  We stayed in Hever Castle that night and in the morning after saying goodbye to everyone at breakfast we took another stroll around the gardens. 

Next it was on to Knole and then Ightham Mote.  Ightham Mote is a fabulous English country domestic house with a courtyard in the middle, a charming wooded glade and a moat all around.  In the afternoon we ventured to Sissinghurst to stay in a lovely B&B and took a trip to Sissinghurst castle.  This was a beautiful property; the home of Harold Nicholson  and Vita Sackville-West.  We climbed the Elizabethan tower where Vita Sackville-West wrote and it was just as she had left it.  The gardens were wonderful.

 

Later we visited the charming village of Smallhythe and the home of the Victorian actress Ellen Terry. 

Realising that we were not too far from the home of Tony and Christine (creators and organisers of DAZZLE exhibitions) we dropped in on them.  We enjoyed a meal together and then back to their house to view their wonderful collection of art objects and collections.

 

We had a delightful few days away which left us feeling revived and refreshed and ready for the busyness of jewellery making that lies ahead!  Both Jean and I can thoroughly recommend joining the National Trust; there are some truly delightful properties and gardens to discover.  We can also recommend the love of a four legged friend – there’s nothing nicer to come home to!

 

posted by Nick Hubbard

 

 

 

A few weeks ago Jean and I headed off to London for the day to see ‘Cocteau voices’ at the Linbury Studio Theatre in the Royal Opera house.  Scott Walker composed the music for this performance and as many of you know, Jean is very fond of  Scotts’ work.   We took the train to Euston and on our arrival our first stop was buying an umbrella and sheltering from the rain we took a short stroll to the Wellcome Collection.  It is a huge building with lots of space and it’s  a lovely place to go if you’re in need of a little bit of peace, tranquility and calm.  There is a lovely bookshop and cafe where we stopped for lunch.  The current exhibition is ‘Dirt’ which runs until August 31st ; a real must see if you’re in the area.  As we hadn’t planned to visit we really didn’t do the exhibition justice and we could have easily spent 2 or 3 hours there.  The early microscope was fascinating and there were lots of beautiful engravings connected with ‘Dirt’ especially cures and remedies of cholera and bacteria.   Running short of time we took a taxi to the Royal Academy ‘Summer exhibition’ where there is always a little bit of something for everyone! We were particularly fond of the wood cuts and lino cuts.

Thankfully the weather was kinder to us as we walked to Covent Garden to find somewhere to eat.  We chose an Italian restaurant.   Unfortunately the meal was disappointing; I had a soggy pizza and Jean had a seafood dish that didn’t taste of anything.  We won’t name and shame but Jean gave it a low score of 3 out of 10!

‘Cocteau voices’ had some really nice little things going on.  It was Avant-garde dance and during the performance a dancer danced inside the projection of a giant mouth which was really cleverly done.  Jean said that the best thing about the performance was Scotts music which she says ‘he never ceases to surprise it was quite menacing at times; very exhilarating’ but Jean also admits to being extremely biased!  Scotts’ music has altered a lot since the days of the Walker Brothers.

Then there was an unscheduled interval and the next performance was an operatic middle aged woman having a conversation on a telephone.  It wasn’t too bad for the first 20 minutes but then it just became quite irritating - especially as we’d been told that the show would finish and 9.30pm.  Once panic had set in about missing our return train we took the opportunity to leave and a sweet girl from Singapore followed our lead.  We made our train with minutes to spare and discovered we’d booked onto the train that stops at all stations meaning that we returned late for a school night.   A good time was had by all (even Treacle who spent the day with Fifi at our daughter Liz’s) and Jean’s score for Scott - well 10 out of 10 of course!

Posted by Nick Hubbard

Last weekend Jean and I took a trip out to our favourite haunt – Ludlow.  We had been invited to an exhibition of work by ruralists; Ann and Graham Arnold at the Silk Top Hat Gallery.  We were late to set off which is often the case when we go away, although this time it wasn’t because of last minute ironing and packing or our dogs running madly around our feet!  As it was Fathers Day, our girls Philippa and Lizzie had organised a lovely family cooked breakfast before our departure.  What a wonderful start to the day!

 

We arrived in time for the lunchtime preview and although it was a drizzly day the exhibition was bustling.  We were excited to see the exhibition which runs until 18^th July 2009.

 

In the afternoon we visited the antique and flea market where we bought a delightful little miniature of a soldier from the First World War.  Jean bought amongst other things a wind up robot and an ‘I’d love a Babycham’ sign. 

 

 

 

 

We managed to book on laterooms to stay the night at Feathers, Ludlow’s oldest hotel.  Its Jacobean timber façade was built in 1619 and it has recently been described in the New York Times as ‘the most handsome inn in the world’.   For dinner we popped into Ego Café Bar for a lasagne and whilst there met a lovely gentleman who wanted to buy a brooch that Jean was wearing.

 

Due to our love of Ludlow, we are on the mailing list for the Ludlow Assembly rooms and in the evening we went along to watch Bronson.  It was a brilliantly acted part about inner rage rescued in part by the discovery of the joys of drawing.

 

On Monday morning we did a small tour of the charity shops; Jean bought three tops and I found ‘Vox’ a short book by Nicholson Baker.

 

By late afternoon we were once again back at the jewellery bench!

 

  

 

 Posted by Nick Hubbard

 

 

 

 

We thought we’d share this delightful card that Nick’s daughter Philippa drew him for his birthday.  She was over in the States and had only a biro and a selection of colouring pencils to hand.  With Nicks birthday looming she had only hours to create this little masterpiece of the Hubbard sausage dogs and ‘Grand’dog Fifi.  Needless to say, Nick was over the moon with his emailed birthday greeting!!!

If you watched any television on Wednesday 3rd June you cannot have failed to have seen Nick’s ‘Rocking the Boat’ brooch. It made an appearance on all of the news channels and on Thursday it was featured in the national press, modelled by Hazel Blears; she seems to have made a statement without uttering a word!

This humorous, tongue-in-cheek piece was designed by Nick to be ambiguous so that the wearer can put their own spin on it.

 

 Well it’s been a very exciting time here at the Brick and Bean studio, Nick has been interviewed for Times online and we also had the TV crew here filming Nick for ITV Central news, did you see it ? We’ve gotten through several cups of tea and Tunnocks chocolate bars!!!

 The Brick and Bean team would like to thank everyone for their wonderful kind messages of interest and support!

 http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2463085/Hazel-Blears-quits-wearing-brooch-mocking-PM.html

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/fashion/article6437113.ece 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1190242/Gordon-Brown-fights-survive-Lord-Mandelson-begs-MPs-snub-cyber-coup.html

 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6425772.ece

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8081141.stm

 http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/105302

 http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?Stand_youre_down,_stand_down,_rocking_the_boat…&in_article_id=678471&in_page_id=34