Gifts from a Stranger: Acquired 2023 (vintage)

My Aunt Catherine, who lives in Harlow, had said in her morning text that she needed to go to the shops for a large Jiffy bag because she had got some tea towels to send to me. Sounded exciting but I knew it wasn’t from recent journeys of hers because she’d been in hospital. She went on to say that one of her daughter’s friends had given her a few to pass on to me. I have to say I have been the recipient of literally hundreds of tea towels from Catherine’s daughter’s friends (and customers). They have good taste, collect vintage tea towels and never use them.

In this bundle of four there is one promotional tea towel for OXO, bright red, stark, together with Hedgerow Berries which, in contrast, is full of writing, detailed drawings giving information about twenty-one different berries. It’s surprising how much you can squeeze onto a tea towel. All vintage, all pure linen, all unused.

In contrast, there are two Australian tea towels, unbleached linen, vintage, informative. One about Australian Stamps and the other about animal life. While I have a number of Australian tea towels, I’ve none like these and I’m thinking that maybe the Virtual Tea Towel Museum should have its own Collection from Australasia, maybe a target for the new year.

Thank you Amanda for passing these on to me, great additions to my Collection.

Borough Market: 27 September 2023

Before I start, many apologies for the slightly askew nature of this picture. The weather prevents me from taking a photo in the garden. Creativity allows me to take it above the cooker hob and then turn it 90 degrees ending up with a weird angle and some cooking foil to the left. Never mind. It will be rectified in the spring.

Since I’ve been recognised by Guinness World Records as a Collector, I’ve become fascinated by other Collectors. Why they do it, what pieces mean to them. I’m often asked which is my favourite tea towel and it is disrespectful to all the others to name a favourite. But as Readers know, I can name a favourite designer like Pat Albeck because I enjoy her style of work not only in tea towels but in paintings, fabrics, household ware etc, especially her paintings.

Because I use all my tea towels, rotationally of course, then memories are important and some tea towels will hold greater memories than others, memories that will linger, make me smile or cry, make me sad or happy but certainly make me feel. And I get that joy to some extent every time I use a tea towel. They take me places, back to a different time, with different people, maybe with people no longer around or perhaps people I don’t know but whose story I have learnt.

Borough Market arrived through the post, in a Jiffy bag, from my Aunt Catherine, accompanied by four other. She’d sent a text saying that the four were from her daughter’s friends but the one in a cellophane bag (this one) was from her daughter Amanda. She had no idea what it was.

I think I can safely say, there will be few tea towels that will have greater memories that this one and it is a joy to have it in my Collection. And not just because Borough Market is a lively, vibrant place to visit, definitely not one to miss if you’re in London.

WhatsApp is a good way to communicate sometimes. Short or as long as you like. Photos or a phone call depending on the mood.

“Has she gone down to the operating theatre yet?” I ask.

Amanda, her daughter, replies “I left her at 8.30am – but they said with a 10 hour operation not to expect any update for 13 hours. They’re taking lymph nodes from both sides. On the plus side, got you a Borough Market tea towel.”

The operation is two hours longer than originally planned. Guys Hospital is near Borough Market. I imagine Amanda wandering around, stall after stall, mind numb, trying to kill hours which go so slow, hardly taking in all the things that are on offer. Did she find Halloumi? Or something else I would find distasteful? Did she fill a shopping bag or have a cup of coffee? If she did, it would still only pass twenty or thirty minutes.

She found the tea towel. The Richard Bramble stall is big, full of china. I didn’t find a tea towel but she came up with this glorious one. Amanda’s day must have been long and drawn out. My heart went out to her.

The operation was actually shorter than we all thought and only lasted 8 hours, although equally serious and would be followed in six weeks time by four weeks of daily radiotherapy.

This tea towel arrived after the radiotherapy had finished, after the skin graft had healed, while the side effects of radiotherapy are at their worst. My aunt asked if I wanted to see the mask that was designed for her during her treatment since she’d been allowed to take it home. A photo whizzed across on WhatsApp. It was a cross between something out of the Zorro film and some kind of method of torture. It made my stomach turn but obviously not as much as it did hers as they screwed it down onto the bench each day.

Thank you Amanda for such a great tea towel. It’s very special.

The West Highland Way: 2023

The West Highland Way is a Scottish long-distance footpath stretching from Milngarvie, just north of Glasgow, to Fort William, a distance of 96 miles. It opened in 1980, mainly as a walking trail although many use mountain bikes or horses but have to dismount some of the way. About 36,000 people walk the whole route each year. The route is commonly walked in seven or eight days but the record was 13 hours, 41 minutes and 8 seconds.

For those of us old enough to remember Kenneth McKellar, he wrote a song in the 1980s called the West Highland Way which lists many of the small towns and villages the walk takes you through and some of the places a walker might stay. It is a song I love which is what attracted me to buying it.

You can see on the tea towel, at Fort William, a statue called ‘Sair Feet’ of a man rubbing his sore feet indicating the end of the journey, a brilliant detail which is what this tea towel has – detail. I love it and it’s the last tea towel from my Scottish holiday

Recurvirostra Avosetta: 2023

I love an avocet. I’d go as far as to say it’s my favourite bird bird. This is the Pied Avocet. Only since 2018 has it bred in one spot in UK, in a RSPB reserve in Falkirk in Scotland.

I bought it in the tea room in Luss. I wouldn’t have bought it under normal circumstances, because it doesn’t relate to a particular place, except for the fact that it was an avocet. Short and sweet!

Loch Lomond: 2023

In September 2023, Liz and I spent a week in a cottage in Luss, a village on Loch Lomond. Luss is just a delightful village, home to very few people but visited by more than a quarter of a million tourists during the year. It must feel like an invasion. It’s not even as if there are lots of shops, restaurants or hotels, just enough to tempt tourists to spend lots of money. The funny thing is that as soon as I got home, I started reading Andrew Raymond’s ‘The Bloody Bloody Banks’ which is based around finding some body parts in Loch Lomond (I’m glad I wasn’t reading it while I was there). There is a paragraph that describes perfectly the problem with parking. Parking is forbidden on the streets and is subject to very high fines yet tourists flout the rules. Car parks are provided at both ends of the village but still tourists are happy to disturb the lives of the villagers. It’s a great book, by the way.

Luss is the perfect place to stay for a holiday without having to use a car. Public transport is good. Walking routes, cycling trails and hikes up the mountains are easily accessible or you can stroll down to the water, take a boat trip or watch others doing the same. Skimming stones is irresistible to locals and tourists alike.

Whatever we’d done during the day, after a cup of tea in the cottage we would take a stroll down to Loch Lomond, a dangerous venture because it involved crossing the A82, a fast road. Always a pessimist, I never thought we’d get across but somehow there was always a break in the traffic that allowed us to safely cross. This was a great holiday, a holiday of contrasting tea towels – the very traditional tea towel in blue and white on the right, also very cheap and the more modern styling, more colourful on the right. I’d love to go back.

Helensburgh: 2023

In search of a tea room, back in 2001, I visited Helensburgh briefly. I found a dated but pleasant place for a cup of tea and a scone. I never saw the sea! I must have been mad.

A return in 2023 was completely different. It was a delight, so much so that we came back three times to walk along the coast, to follow a short part of the John Muir Way which starts here (or ends depending on which way you’re heading), the other end being Dunbar, to have brunch at the seaside cafe, to experience the wind and rain and realise what we missed all those years ago.

Helensburgh has a real range of shops from unique craft and artisan shops selling things you really want to buy to the equivalent of Poundland, always useful. The Tourist Information Centre was full of souvenirs including tea towels (sadly a lot of which I had) but I snapped up the two above.

Helensburgh is a place for tourists but also the place for local dog walkers, cyclists and those wanting to keep up their ‘steps’ in a lovely setting but the attraction of the John Muir Way will be a starting point for many. We certainly loved Helensburgh. It would be worth revisiting if were up this way again.

Capercaillie: 2023

I was on holiday in Loch Lomond last September and promised myself that I would only buy a tea towel that specifically related to a place. I was being very good about this, although I managed to get four from Helensborough and three from The Hill House but still no arty-farty ones.

I was wandering around a beautiful craft shop in Helensborough, source of several tea towels when I saw this one. I was struck by the colours, the vibrant maroon background and those beautiful green capercaillie. And I couldn’t resist. “I’ll buy it for someone for Christmas” I said to Liz. She laughed.

“You’ll never give it away. You like it too much” she said. She was right. I do. I love it and I’ll never give it away. It’s an integral part of my Collection.

The Hill House: 2023

The Hill House is a National Trust for Scotland property, just on the outskirts of Helensborough. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh as a private dwelling, it is now known colloquially as ‘the house in a box’. It presents conservators with some of the biggest challenges and while they debate the solution, the house sits in a ‘box’.

The dilemma is that CRM’s design used a form of cement that rotted away in the Scottish climate, could not withstand the wind and rain thus the building is subject to leaks and water damage. The question is should they replace all the cement, destroying his original design, ignoring the fact this is a lesson to be learnt or should they look to find some way to preserve the building and prevent any further damage. This has divided the art world, in the same way as what to do with the Glasgow School of Art that was virtually destroyed by fire, twice, also designed by CRM. Should it be rebuilt in the same design at a huge cost or should it be accepted that it is damaged beyond repair?

Back to The Hill House. While the decision about the future of the house is debated a frame has been constructed around the building, protecting it with mesh so that it can still be seen but the damage cannot get worse. The frame or ‘box’ is both beautiful and amazing. It allows visitors to walk around all levels of the outside being able to see more than before, as well as being able to see the internal floors and rooms. Obviously from the point of view of accessibility, there is no lift to the internal first floor but there is now to the external viewing platforms.

The Hill House is a beautiful and inspiring piece of work by CRM, still with much of the original furniture, lighting, and wall decorations. It has an amazing atmosphere. There is a consultation exercise about whether to keep the ‘box’. My view is keep the ‘box’. It doesn’t interfere with the vista but it does give an even greater view of the whole of the outside, including a birds-eye view of the gardens.

I loved the whole property, everything from the gardens, to the restaurant, to the shop, to the house, the ‘box’ and the three tea towels.

Wild Water Swimming: 2023

Liz and I were on holiday in Luss on Loch Lomond in September this year. Luss is a beautiful village, a place we had visited more than 20 years previously, searching out a tea room that had been recommended to us. It’s still there but under new ownership, same dinner service with the Tartan design from Tain Pottery, same loose leaf tea, same wonderful cookery and although the shop was reorganised there are some equally good things to buy.

I had to have this one, a tea towel celebrating wild water swimming, something we saw people doing a lot in Scotland. I have to say, I could only think they must be mad but I am assured that the health benefits are enormous. Much too energetic for me, much too cold for me. But as a celebratory tea towel I think it is wonderful and I’m so glad I saw it, and bought it.

Kedleston Hall: 2023

Liz and I went for a walk with Jenny and Albert yesterday. We were bemoaning the weather and how difficult it was to find places to walk that weren’t soggy and boggy.

“Sometimes don’t you get bored walking the same old walks?” Jenny asked.

“I like familiarity but sometimes I just want somewhere new. Then it’s tricky to find somewhere quickly. We keep a list of potential places to try out. One of them was Kedleston Hall.”

“When did you go?” she asked.

“Couple of weeks ago. It had been awful weather. We were desperate for a walk so decided on the grounds of Kedleston. It was beautiful. We had big boots because it was a bit boggy but there was a lovely lake with a bridge, geese, some great walks. Best of all, great shop and restaurant.”

“Yes” Jenny said “that’s the sort of place you need to find when you want a break from the usual walks. Got any other suggestions?”

“No” I replied “but when I have I’ll let you know”.

Although Kedleston Hall isn’t far from where we live we’ve never been there. Don’t know why. We’ve missed a treat and will certainly go back. Not only did I get a traditional National Trust tea towel but also found a Laura Stoddart one called ‘Fabulous Ferns’. I’m beginning to love her work after having picked up one at Chatsworth House. A great day out.