Love from Darwin

Yes, I'm home again. It's been longer than it seemed while I was away - some time at Mum's place with my sister, some time there alone with Mum's cats, then time in Sydney with my sister - now I'm back in Darwin with my cats. After being very close to Mum all my life, and sharing many interests, it's taken time to come to terms with her death.

I'd forgotten how dry and hazy Darwin gets in the dry season (when rural property owners burn off, leading to smoky skies and ash particles in the air - and inside). I also hadn't realised how much I had bought on ebay while I was away! I have a small car, but absolutely filled it with all the parcels that had arrived since I left in April. The staff at Darwin GPO are wonderful, and had kept it all safely in one place ...

So I've spent a couple of days unpacking (and dealing with all the packaging!). One of my purchases is this wonderful set:


Actually, there are two armchairs, but they are quite big - about 12.5cm or 5" wide, deep and high - so I only put one in the photo with the sofa.

The "walls" are an old filing box and the flooring is an old piece of lino, both of which I found at an amazing secondhand shop in Annandale called Recycling Works:

photo from Google; not mine

I really could do with something to cover the metal that held the spring clip - maybe a lamp, like this one:


but I'd need to make it a stand, or hang it - not today, so only half a scene - but I wanted to show you this lounge suite, with a lovely message on the back of the sofa:

"With love from Darwin 1944"

I bought this from Queensland; it was described as a "salesman sample miniature Genoa lounge," and it might well be a miniature sample, but for the message on the back.

1944 was of course during World War II, and following the Japanese bombing raids on Darwin in 1942, many civilians had been evacuated, and there were army bases in and south of Darwin. I think that these pieces may have been made by a service man or woman based in Darwin, and sent as a gift to a child living, perhaps, in Queensland ... I'd love to know more of their history, but these words alone evoke a time and place and circumstances - these chairs have seen a lot.

After the funeral

Dear friends and fellow bloggers, thank you so much for your condolences, thoughts, love and support after the loss of my mother. I've been gone from here for over a month now, while I've been staying in Mum's house and slowly adjusting to not having her here anymore.


I thought you might like to see some photos of Mum's funeral. They were taken by Rodney Shrimpton, who is a professional photographer as well as a good friend and Reiki student of Mum's.

We chose an eco-casket for Mum, with the image of a stately tree on it.


The words on the top are from William Blake:

To see a world in a grain of sand,
and a heaven in a wild flower.

The autumn leaves were from Mum's garden.

My sister and I took turns reading the eulogy we had written together - we're smiling in these photos because there were some funny bits ...




It was a lovely funeral, with a lovely feeling in the room. It felt much fuller than it looked afterwards in the photos, I'm sure because of all the love and prayers and thoughts of people who couldn't be there in person.

After the funeral, a friend of my sister's, who was also a student of Mum's at the university here, stayed on for two nights. We went op shopping together (op shop is short for opportunity shop, though no-one ever calls them that - they are secondhand shops run by charities, what are called charity shops in the UK and thrift shops in the US (I think)). Bathurst has several op shops, as well as several other secondhand shops of varying priciness. I found a few nice bits and pieces which I might be able to use in my dolls houses:







Both I and my sister were exhausted after looking after Mum and then preparing for the funeral, and we both got flu afterwards. So I have been taking things very slowly, spending time resting, cuddling Mum's cats, reading, and so on, as well as doing necessary things like organising Mum's tax for the last 3 years and making a list of her investments for the solicitor. Oh, and I have put together another issue of the Dolls Houses Past and Present online magazine, thanks to all the members who sent articles! It was good to have something to focus on that wasn't too demanding (I was a bit less active as editor/researcher this time). So hopefully I'll be back on here a bit more from now on.

Gone

Mum died early in the morning on Wednesday 27th April. These photos were taken by my sister Deborah in Mum's backyard, ten days before she died. We were able to care for Mum at home for the last 20 days of her life, with support from palliative care, the district nurses, and friends. Mum was happy to be with her two daughters, her cats (and Deborah's), and to be in her own home. We're very sad that she's gone, but very glad to have had this time together with her as a family. Now we're remembering her life as we prepare the eulogy and a slideshow of photos for her funeral.
Many thanks to those of you who have offered your support on my previous post, and your sympathy following Mum's death through facebook or DHPP. It's a great help.

A Mother's Love

Dear blogging friends, I just wanted to let you know that I may not be posting much over the next month or so, or commenting much on your blogs. My mother has been diagnosed with cancer of the liver, and I am going to be with her for the last phase of her life. My sister is already with her.
It's been quite a shock, although Mum had lost much appetite and a lot of weight over the last year. She had already had major changes after this photo was taken, nearly 10 years ago, as she had a heart attack and stroke 5 years ago, and has suffered vascular dementia since. She is philosophical, and will be happy to spend the time she has left with her daughters, reading good books, and going for drives. It's autumn in Australia (or at least the part she lives in), so I hope there will be some lovely trees to see.
I'll still be dropping in to your blogs and enjoying your company when I get the chance - and perhaps posting a bit too, I'll just see how it goes.

Bloggers' Day of Silence for Japan

Please consider joining! For more information, see Utterly-Engaged's Shelter Box USA appeal, and the bloggers who had the idea, Ever Ours and Utterly Engaged.

Miniature Japanese bamboo house listed by Fukuoka based ebay seller seizan21:
"The area where I live in has six hours (3+3) blackout plan in a day.
Therefore contact and shipment may be late. Please understand it."

Casas de Muñecas Antiguas

Who collects antique and vintage Spanish dolls houses? A query from a Dolls House Past and Present member about antique Spanish dolls house furniture got me thinking about this, and I started searching ebay.es and other websites. Just in one evening I found some lovely houses - and I would love to know more about old Spanish dolls houses and their makers.

This one, called Celi, is said to be made in Dénia in the 1950s.





This one is also said to date from the 50s:



while this one, in English Victorian style, is said to date from the 30s or 40s:



The ebay seller who has listed this boxed porcelain dinner set thinks that it was made in Dénia, although the box is unmarked:



The same seller is listing a boxed set of kitchen utensils, which were apparently made in Alicante in the 1940s:


Can anyone tell us more? Was Alicante, and particularly Dénia, a centre of dolls house manufacturing? Do any of my Spanish readers own antique or vintage dolls houses or dolls house furnishings (say, from the 1950s or before)? Or do you know of other collectors, or museums, who own some? Perhaps there is already a website showing them? I would love to discover more!

A Doll's House with a Moral Tale

I recently bought this little book. It starts off promisingly,

Jenny had the most beautiful doll's house. But she hardly ever played with it. She liked trains, and model cars, and fire-engines because her brother Christopher played with those. And Jenny wished that she was a boy too.

One saturday morning Christopher's friend Tony came to play with him. They got out all the model cars and made a marvellous garage. Then they were the garage-men, and they told Jenny that she could be a customer. But Jenny didn't want to be a customer. She wanted to be a garage-man too.

So what did Jenny do? Did she build her own garage? No,

So she went up to her bedroom and sulked. She laid down on a thick white rug in the corner and rested her head on her hands. And she found herself staring at her doll's house which was in the same corner. Jenny thought how nice it looked, with its garden looking so bright in the morning sunshine.

Perhaps Jenny decided to become a gardener? Perhaps she had a set of Britain's garden pieces, and could plant flowerbeds and trees and vegetable gardens?

No,

She opened the front door and looked into the hall. What nice little pieces of furniture! But they did need a polish.
"Yes, they really do need cleaning," someone said. "And it's such a charming little house, isn't it? Look at its lovely brick chimneys and the porch over the door."

"There are curtains in every room, even in the kitchen. The stairs have carpet on them, which probably needs brus-hing. And I don't think I've ever seen a nice bedroom."

"Such a pity," they said, "that the owner never comes to take care of the house and all the little things in it."

Jenny turned her head to see who it was speaking. It was Teresa, her own walking-doll. She was standing just beside Jenny, looking at the house. She didn't seem to realise that it was strange for her to be speaking.

Jenny doesn't seem to think it's strange either, and instead of running from the room and the doll which walks and talks by itself, she asks,

"What would you do if you were the owner?"

"Well, I'd clean the windows sometimes and polish the furniture. And use all the things inside. And I'd have cars in the garage at the back."

"That's a very good idea," said Jenny. She ran downstairs to the boys and asked for a couple of their cars.

"What for?" asked Christopher.

"To put in the garage of my doll's house."

"That's a good idea," said Christopher. "Why don't you bring it down and put it near our garage? Then you could be a real customer, with your cars in your own garage."

Remember, Jenny didn't want to be a customer, she wanted to be a garage-man too. So,

They did that, and it turned out to be a very good game.
Jenny found she liked being a customer. When the game was over she took the doll's house back to her bedroom and cleaned it from top to bottom. And very nice it looked.
"I'll never leave it all alone like that again, Teresa," she said. "Truly. I'll keep it bright and clean now, and play with it often. Just as you said."

But Teresa didn't want to answer. She had already said all that she wanted to say.

So girls, don't be individuals and explore your own interests. You'll find that you really like being a girl, which means being a customer and cleaning your house. Don't show any gumption - use Gumption to clean your bath!



This book was published in the year I was born, about 10 years after women worked in garages during World War II, and about 10 years before the second wave of the women's movement began. So poor Jenny didn't have much chance. I was luckier, in that I grew up in a messy house where everybody read. My dolls didn't tell me to clean my dolls house, or my own bedroom, though if they had, they might also have said that "they had never seen a nice bedroom," poor things!

I do like this little house - the exterior with its brick chimneys and bright garden, and interior with its 60s pastel blue, pink and yellow bedroom, and kitchen with orange and turquoise highlights. Where is that four-poster bed with red velvet drapes meant to go, though? Are we meant to use that antique bedwarmer in the comfortable bed with its padded bedhead and twin side-tables, while reading by the light of the hanging oil lamp?

Like Jenny, this little house seems somewhat uncertain of what it's meant to be.

Story by Wendy Wilkin, published by Bancroft & Co. 1963.
The illustrator is not named - perhaps Wendy Wilkin illustrated it too?