Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Thursday 29 June 2017

Dog Days


This is my childhood companion, Kim, posing in a shopping basket in the early 1960s. He had a real basket to sleep in of course, as the two rather grainy pictures below show. Most of the time it would be stationed in the warmest spot in the kitchen. It was where he would retreat to when tired, bored, or had very occasionally fallen out of favour for some misdemeanour.





















The basket was easily transported in the car and would accompany the family on holiday, along with its owner. It got taken into the garden on sunny days, when the humans would sit on a picnic blanket or chair. Usually Kim would join the humans, as the blanket looked far more inviting.


The poet Elizabeth Barret Browning died on this day in 1861. She was a woman who was unwell for much of her life, and her faithful companion, a spaniel called Flush, is the subject of two of her poems. Flush spent much of his time on the couch with Elizabeth, unlike the tiny dog in this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt image, which comes to us courtesy of The Past on Glass on Flickr.


This little chap (or lady) belongs to the Mitchel. L. and that’s all we know; except that it was photographed by David Knights-Whittome, whose remarkable work is being cleaned, catalogued and researched by staff and volunteers of the Sutton Archive. He certainly had a way with animals, especially dogs. I wonder what made him photograph the Mitchel dog inside this basket, and why leave the brush and toy dog in the picture? It certainly makes for an interesting arrangement.

Elizabeth Barret Browning’s poem in praise of Flush, shows us that the love  and devotion he gave to to his sick mistress was returned in equal measure.

This dog only, waited on,
Knowing that when light is gone
Love remains for shining.

7 comments:

  1. Looks as though Kim enjoyed sucking the bedding, as our old springer/collie cross used to. Something quite childlike and endearing about it. The basket in the Knights-Whittome photograph looks better suited to a bird, than a dog. Quirky shot, though.

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  2. How oculd anyone resist that "oh so cute" first photogrpah and you managed to combine both dog and wicker work, plus the bonus of the Elizabeth Barrett Browning verse. A lovely post!

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  3. A cute dog. A basket. Best in Show!

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  4. A sweet little poodle that had good times in your life, much as Browning's...now you should write a poem!

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  5. Brilliant! I think dogs (and cats too) have a special symbiotic relationship with humanity that makes us better people.

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  6. An Easter Puppy in the first shot! Or perhaps a market basket and the best deal of the day was this sweetie. So looks like a little dog I used to know. Wonderful shots.

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  7. Ah yes those times of falling out of favor. Dogs can certainly play them up. Thank you for the interesting notes about Elizabeth Barett Browning.

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