I’m hoping she is going to post one of her life drawings, that she made when we attended a couple of life-drawing classes whilst we were away. Mrs Ogg coaxed and cajoled me into going, there may have been wine involved in the negotiation: you see I’d never tried my hand at life drawing before, and I’ll admit to being a little uneasy about it all, not the nudity* you understand, I can handle that, so long as it isn’t mine! No I was more concerned about displaying my own embryotic drawing skills in front of the other attendees, that idea made me feel very exposed indeed.
I could have turned on my sandaled heels and fled when we first arrived, a little late (as Mrs Ogg and I have no concept of time or tide when we are immersed in the delights of Devon) and the matriarchal class organiser announced as I peered from behind Mrs Ogg’s shoulder ‘Right ladies, you’re new here aren’t you? Right, we’ll have a few quickies first and would you like a donkey?’ .
I really enjoyed myself and any worries I may have had about doing a half decent job of drawing of what I thought might be ‘the most challenging parts’ of the anatomy were nothing but a smudge of charcoal by the time I’d tried to master the nose, hands and feet of the models! I may have to find another class, and Joe and Mr Uphilldowndale could make me a donkey of my very own.
* Mrs Ogg told me later, that even by life-class standards, the male model was something of an exhibitionist, which was reassuring to know, I did think the stretchy exercise he did were a little over the top!.
In the early hours of the 28th of April 1944 eight Landing Ship Tanks (LST’s), full of American servicemen were in Lyme Bay, off the coast of Devon, England. Their purpose to take part in Exercise Tiger, the realistic rehearsals for the D-Day landings in Normandy. The night turned into tragedy as a group of patrolling German e-boats discovered and attacked them. At the end of Exercise Tiger 946 American serviceman had lost their lives.
I didn’t finish sharing my favourite sculpture from the Beyond Limits exhibition, goodness it seems like months ago now, it was pre heat wave and an excess of rain, not to mention Devon, but here is my second place,
Lion 2 by Jo Yong-Ho
Made from old tyres, he is a handsome beast, I love the depth in his eyes.
With school children for scale
And whilst on the subject of African animals, I bring you a mountain bike hazard my boys don’t typically face when out on a ride, thank goodness.
Spud the dog continues his apple-fest (yes, on the sofa).
There are apples all over the house, every time he goes outside he sneaks one back in with him.
And it seems Spud is not the only dog who is fond of apples (We already know Joss’ dog has a fancy for them) and on Friday night I caught sight of gardener Monty Don on TV along with his dog Nigel (I can’t find a photo of Nigel but I did find Monty)
Nigel has a passion for apples too and I noticed that along with dogs and apples Monty also has a sexy curvy wall in his garden. I’m rather fond of those myself.
Spud has had his playground restricted, as there are 90 sheep grazing in his field
It’s not that he’d trouble them, but he would spook them, and 90 sheep stampeding down a steep field with a drystone wall at the bottom is not a good idea, it has the makings of an expensive disaster and a lot of rebuilding of walls. They are only going to be with us for a couple of weeks, lot of sheep for a short sharp munch of the meadow and then they will be off to pastures new. Spud will just have to wait patiently.
Spud has had such a busy week, a house full of family who have been more than happy to throw balls, go for walks, throw more balls. He has used up so much energy we’ve had to up his food ration. The weather has been glorious Spud has spent a lot of time cooling off in the pond
And just when he thought it couldn’t get any better in terms of playmates, two beautiful dogs of the Joker variety showed up for a couple of nights stay. Dog heaven
We’ve told him not to give up the day job, but he’s done that already…
I think regular readers might recognise the landscape, especially the drystone walls ( note, no drystone wall were injured or harmed in the making of this film). This is the shorter youtube version, 30 sec, without my man.
Warning, this post does not contain images of Spud the dog.
Keen readers will know I’ve been away to Wales this weekend, with Mrs Ogg, unfortunately Spud the dog couldn’t come along, which is a shame as he would have enjoyed the wide open beaches. We thought of him often.
Not least when Mrs Ogg and I were walking the coast path when we saw movement in the gorse bushes* and, every now and then, a flash of white, can you see, it’s a bit blurry because it is moving very fast?
Who ever and whatever was in there was having a high old time, crashing and thrashing around ‘it’ eventually, surfaced for air, it was a Spud dog.
Not a grown up or human minder in sight, just a very happy dog, who had no time for or interest in Mrs Ogg and I, only in whatever game was hiding in the heath. Presumably he/she would find his/her own way home, eventually.
Spud will return to pole position next Sunday, I promise.
So it’s my turn (Mr UHDD) to take the reins for a few days while UHDD is away enjoying herself. A blog post …… a first for me …… scary……in such hallowed company.
In her past life, UHDD did a bit of work for film and TV providing props. I’d never been exposed to this unreal world but felt I knew a bit about it from what UHDD had told me. Then a few weeks ago I received an email entitled “Male Runners Wanted for TV Advert”. Never one to shy away from an opportunity like this, I asked UHDD to take the requisite full length photo of me in farmer’s clothing and sent it off that afternoon. The phone rang a few minutes later inviting me to an audition – wow!
After the audition and a “recall”, I was offered a part as an extra, not a “featured runner” (I clearly wasn’t experienced enough for that) in the filming of a Hovis (a well known brand of flour/bread) advert entitled Farmer’s Race. It was to be directed by none other than Dougal Wilson who directed the Never Knowingly Undersold ad for the John Lewis Partnership that UHDD featured in her blog last year.
There are many excellent Hovis ads, but this one from the 1970s is still judged by many to be the best TV ad of all time:
I know they work long hours in film and TV, so it didn’t really come as a surprise to be told that it was a 4:30am “call” last Wednesday at a car park in Macclesfield from where we would be taken to the location, Blaze Farm, famous locally for its children’s parties and home made ice cream. So it was that a busload of sleepy extras including several other runners I know, arrived on the farm and were immediately herded (appropriately) into a barn where we dressed in our kit and then headed for breakfast. Film types seem to know how to look after their stomachs as there was plenty of good food available, but we were slightly disappointed to be segregated – “crew” got more choice than “background” (as extras are known, for that’s what we were to be in the shots).
The weather couldn’t have been much better over the three days of filming. Sunburn was the biggest risk rather than the more usual frostbite or windchill – very welcome, but unexpected in March.
The storyline is something along the lines of Hovis wheat farmers having a deadly serious running race across the countryside and encountering various obstacles on the way to the finish. Some complete the course, others fall by the wayside. Of course when they’re filming, things don’t go in the same order as in the finished version. The sequence for day 1 was something like this:
1) Large pack of runners squeeze through gate
2) Finish of race
3) Start of Race
4) Runners follow camera across undulating field
5) Runners hurdle an obstacle made of straw bales
So you finish the race looking clean and fresh, then start the race more dirty and tired!
It doesn’t sound much, but filming started as soon as the sun was up, before 7am and finished after 6pm. Each scene involved many takes, so by the end of the day everyone was pretty exhausted, particularly the more generously proportioned people who weren’t used to running.
A couple of shots at the start – “runners” lined up:
Below – gun about to be fired for start. Barry who is holding the gun created an unintentional “comic” moment as he allowed the loaded gun to drop when the director was speaking to him, and everyone else screamed in horror. He was safer when rehearsing with a stick:
Day two was more tiring for the runners, but good training.
Here is the storyboard:
The scenes included running uphill with sheep in foreground, sheep in middle ground, sheep in background, no sheep. In the end the sheep got so bored they walked off and couldn’t be bribed back even with the tastiest morsel while the runners got more and more drained!
As for the rest of it, you’ll just have to wait until the ad is broadcast.
It’s astonishing to think that three days on set for over 40 crew and 60+ cast/extras plus all the preparation, editing etc. results in one brief TV commercial albeit one that will probably become a classic.
Light, we’ve had light and sunshine yesterday, what a joy. I scampered* out of the house at first light to the top of the highest (locally available) hill and watched the sun rise and kiss the hills. The sharp frost had shaded the landscape with verdigris.
In the photos below, what looks like water, just below the skyline is a pool of mist not water, that is smothering the towns of Stockport** and Manchester,
From my vantage point, I had no company, save for a cackling grouse, a hovering kestrel that was in search of a warm blooded breakfast and a dead sheep that was very obviously devoid of warm blood.
* When I say scampered what I mean was I drove as high as I could, parked in a layby and walked the last few hundred yards.
