I is for Image Dump - Gift Fair 2023 - Christmas Baubles

Taken nearly three years ago, more for my own interest, so the products of several stalls/stands, none of which I recorded the names of, so just more bauble eye-candy as we creep closer to the big day, less than four weeks now!

 

TKMaxx have had these dogs, or something remarkably similar, this year.

 

Resin

 

Pumpkin coach!

 

Bees and bee-keeping related, my late mother would have loved these!

 

Fruits, a bear and a soldier (wantone!), the now defunct Paperchase used to carry the more kitsch stuff like these fruits, but theirs were often very big.

 

Glass drops, give extra structure to the tree, and prevent layering.

And, for those who were asking, I delivered a card several days ago, because I may not see the recipients again before Christmas, and I wouldn't trust the privatised Royal Fail to deliver a turd from their own arse. 

 

The first Christmas sections appeared in stores in mid-August, and while that's ridiculously early, that's capitalism, which is also responsible for the depressing daily-news which Christmas helps us hide from for a while, especially after the quite sudden onset of Autumn this year, nothing wrong with a bit of whimsy, fantasy or tradition in one's life.

B&H is for Bauble Bears and Hairy Hangers!

Yeeeeessss, I do seem to be compensating for another treeless Christmas, with a spending spree on baubles against future traditional Christmases! We've met the bears before here, but I seem to have added five without really noticing!

This was in The Range, and is a flocked blow-mould

 

 

While I regret purchasing this one now, a garden centre standard from Gisela Graham, it's in a baby's romper-suit, and is a bit schmaltzy? But it was the first one I found this year, although second to be shot, and now it's met the others I guess it'll have to stay?

This was Homebase, but actually glass, not the plastic they've been using for the last few years, now going bust, some of the stores have been taken up by the above-mentioned 'Range, but not all of them. He ticks two boxes on the tree themes front, being both a bear and a soldier!

 

Charity shop rescue bear! I vaguely remember these being piled-high in somewhere like Clintons Cards a few years ago, and are clearly now being cast-off in favour of whatever 'this year's' fashion is. It has stitches all over and patches and stuff, and I think there were lines of cards and stationary attached to the licence? I don't know if it had a title, but has Me to You on the foot, which may be the franchise? . . . quick Google; Ah yes! Tatty Teddies!

 

Finally, another faux-distressed or 'aged' bear, but this one brand-new from Morrisions supermarkets, in that 'old' fur which first appeared about twelve years ago with grey-rabbits, one Easter, if I recall correctly?

 

A group-photo', there were about 24 last time I did the tree, and a couple more have been added in the last few years, so I think it's probably over 30 now, or ten-plus per turn. Having the mild ADHD which comes of being on the spectrum, I'm very strict, and will sort them into three piles, small-medium-large, resin-flocked-blow mould-glass, grey-brown-polar white etc, and then they go on the tree smaller ones near the top, larger ones down the bottom, equally spaced, like ursine snow!

P is for Pet Shop Parade!

Not that close to the core subject here, but they ARE figural! Previously called Nose T' Tail Pet Supplies, I shot these in the window of Hook Pet Supplies a month or so ago, while taking my break one evening, and they're worth a post!

Cotton-balls and crochet, glued onto a wooden maquette/former, these may have been produced closer to home, and are in a different scale to the poultry below, most of which is life-size'ish.

 

These are all enamel-painted tin-plate, and probably from China, Vietnam or possibly the Philippines, but could just as equally be Indian, or even French (especially that last, filigree-pierced one), they like their cocks and hens there (no pun intended, it's their national symbol), and probably the sort of thing you'd go to a shop fitter's catalogue for, although, equally, TKMaxx can carry stuff like this in the homeware section?

 

This is closer to taxidermy, but the feathers are glued over a former, the eyes and beak plastic, and the wattle is red felt.

 

Just a bit of fun . . . I have seen giant - probably fibreglass - cows on the roof of a barn near Alton, and a large calf of similar construction in the yard of another farm nearby, which I keep meaning to shoot, if/when I do, they'll appear here too!

QAIMNS (R) is for Angels!

One of the more unusual things in my possession is this old kit bag, about twice the size of the one I was issued with in '84, but half the strength of material, being quite soft, compared to mine which is like a canvas belt material, only bags bigger!

 

The base is heavier though, to prevent wear on trains, mud-tracks and ferries! It's brown, I don't know if there's a colour code, but I think the Navy have always been white, ours were standard 'army green' and the RAF had theirs in the same blue as their best dress, so there maybe/may have been a code, with women's' forces or reserves in brown?

 

It's marked MK DALY - QAIMNSR - BEF, which is the name of the owner, the unit (Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve), these days you tend to put the 'R' in brackets, but back then they clearly didn't! And British Expeditionary Force, our troops in France.

A little non-arduous Googling quickly revealed some of her history, she seems to have served from at least 1916 sometime (one of some 10,000 women), probably earlier, with a war diary in the National Archive revealing;
 

"Recommendation for 1 months’ sick leave for Miss M. K. Daly, QAIMNSR, 1 General Hospital, suffering from neurasthenia."

A euphemism for what we later called shell-shock (see below), and now call PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), from Abbeville (the Somme) on the 15th October 1916, suggesting she had already seen more than most of our generation ever will, and most of it pretty bad.

However, they were made of sterner stock in Edwardian Britain, and the same diary's entry (I couldn't ascertain the name or sex of the author) for 15th June 1917 reveals;

"To Frevent (Frévent, about 18km NE of Abbeville, ed.), to 6 Stationary Hospital, arriving at 12.15 noon. Went round the hospital with Miss Daly, the A/Matron, and the CO, Lt. Col. Harding. All in excellent order – had been evacuating largely – about 350 cases in hospital at the time of the visit. Saw the new hut for officers suffering from shell shock – not yet in use, to be opened next week, which will greatly relieve the existing Officers’ Hospital, which was overcrowded on the day of my visit, owing to a large number of shell shock cases. 59 officers in hospital altogether. Had lunch in the Sisters’ Mess, most comfortable and well kept."

 

So, she had returned to work, and was helping officers recover from what she had herself suffered from a year earlier.

The third mention of her I could find was her gazetting in the King's birthday honours list for 1919, where the British Journal of Nursing reports on January 25th;

"The King has been pleased to award the Royal Red Cross, second class, to the following ladies in recognition of their valuable services : — . . . Miss M. K. Daly, Staff Nurse, Q.A.I. M. N. S. R. . . .  "

 

At no point was her Christian-name or middle-name revealed, there were at least two other Daly's, one seems to have spent her war in the hospitals at Colchester, the other gets a brief mention in Scotland (I think, it was 'in passing'?), and one wonders what happened to her, all three of them, or indeed, the many thousands who 'answered the call', after the war?

The Quims (as they were 'affectionately' known), would become the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC), in 1949, commonly known as QA's. I briefly dated a QA after I'd left the Army, and once fell in love with a Captain, but she (along with two nurses, who were 'in on it') played a terrible trick on me and 'Snoz' Reed, which is another story for another day!

F is for Figural Finery for the Fake Fir

It is a fact, that despite appearing full every year, the artificial tree has an unerring ability to keep taking lade until, one day, presumably, it will just collapse under the weight? To that end, and despite not having the tree up again this year, I have in anticipation of a full-loading at some point in the near future, like next year, with any luck, procured a few figurals/shapes . . . in addition to the three robots, one spaceman and four hedgehogs already Blogged this festive season!

Two more bears, I'm wondering if I've already got the ceramic flat, but I don't think so, there's a similar bird I think? And I'm having second thoughts on the 'gummi bear', he was one of hundreds in baskets all over the garden centre, and was the best one for coverage of the little beads (some had hideous bald-patches, or bald-lines where the glue-boundary dried before the beads were poured), in a decent colour (the flash has made it look whiter than it is), but it's still a plastic, and they never used to be allowed . . . still it's fun, and another bear!

 

The rabbit came in a mixed lot of figures from a Charity Shop, and I was going to take him back with the next lot of donation stuff (I always make a mental note to take them back to a different shop!), when I realised I could get a hook under the scarf/string, so it stayed for the tree, probably home-made and much-loved by someone, once?

 

The gnome is a full, traditional glass-bauble, but mini, so he can go higher up the tree with the other smallies, and get to look-out further, while the soldier-dog, based on the standard nutcracker design, was grabbed in a hurry as Dunelm was closing (for the evening, not bankruptcy, just yet), and I thought he was a bear! But he can stay, he'll be the first dog on the tree though, so a Billy-no-mates!

Speaking of higher-up the tree, these are tiny, sold in threes, one shiny, one frosted and one glitter, they're only 15mm wide, a little bigger than the very small plain baubles everyone uses to 'fill the gaps', so they will be put to the same use, and fir-cones have always been another side-group, with 20-odd now including a really-big, sort of life-size sequoia one in gold!

 

I got this in a funny little independent garden-centre of the type which has almost disappeared round here, and while it's a rather boring fret-cut ply, it IS a soldier, and it's decorated on both sides, was only 99p and came home with me!

F is for Found Objects - Six of . . . It's Stick!

You'll be glad to hear! Even I was getting sick of the title thing! There was lots of other stuff 'found' or re-found over the last three years, and we'll be dipping into all sorts for years to come, but this is the last of the bitty-bits, and it's all fabric tonight!

 

A few things from the bedroom drawers which weren't in the mending or sewing boxes, including a plastic thimble from a Christmas cracker (Christmas again!), I've always thought actually using one was a recipe for a needle in the finger, and there's no sign it has been used!

 

Used to love this when we were kids, it's just a really tangible object you want to pick up and handle, marked 'Foreign', it'll be from post-war Japan, and you see them on evilBay with up to ten people, what's nice about it is that each person is made from a fine silk-fabric off-cut, some with their own patterns.

Dad's Borneo formation sign, sleeve badge, Mum must have sewn the poppers on, so it could be removed in the jungle, as it makes a nice upper-torso target! I was a baby at the time and totally unaware of the life & death connotations of everyday life!

 

Mum had this off-cut of fabric, again, probably from Heals or Habitat in Guildford, but it might have been from one of her friends, there was far more thrift back then, than today's throwaway culture, and this heavy material may have been some child's curtains?

Anyway, she had enough to make my Brother and I a cushion each, and I've always liked the jolly guardsmen in their orange and red uniforms, it's - like the dowel animal puppets in an earlier post of this sequence - very redolent of the 1970's design ethic, and you wonder if there may have been other colourways?

P is for Picnic Time!

No blurb, as this little lot are way outside the Blog's parameters! However, I have got into the habit of posting these local/community type things, and this was to be found in the library this week, nowhere near Christmas! And given the number of tags for Teddy Bears (40), one hopes the odd 'bear person' gets directed here by Google from time to time?

The theme is promotional, advertising and fund-raising bears I think.