St. Petersburg

 St. Petersburg

I visited St Petersburg as part of a flying visit ( actually by ship ) to many  Baltic capital cities. St Petersburg like most of the other capital cities is by the sea. Although it was the historic capital city of Russia this is now Moscow. At least the communist era Petrograd has been changed back to the historic name. I visited before the Putin era hardened up. I had two main objectives which were to tour the Hermitage museum and gallery and to visit some sites associated with Lenin and the communist ideology.

The Hermitage gallery or museum is the largest in the world. It was founded by Catherine the Great in 1764 and started with a German collection she acquired. The gigantic building encompasses the former Winter Palace of the Tsars which is only one of a half dozen massive buildings including the Imperial Hermitage all linked together. It is magnificently located on an embankment by the water ( actually  an inlet on the river Neva leading to the port ).

The whole is a maze of rooms often individually large and ornate. When we visited on a tour bus the tour guide emphasised we would be split up into smaller groups with a museum guide. We were strongly lectured to stay with our museum guide as it would be almost impossible to find the way out on our own. All the notices are in Cyrillic. This lecture was accompanied by some cautionary tales including a couple who got lost, missed their sailing time and had to be helicoptered out to their ship- a very expensive business.

To be frank I found the tour completely overwhelming. There is so much that I quickly glazed over and become quite blasé- “Oh look another old master”. The museum was quite crowded and I soon focussed on staying with our guide, Ludmilla. She teaches English in the winter. We bought 3 books on the contents and I’m ashamed to say I never have done more than glance through them

On our second day we took a guided tour of Revolutionary St Petersburg. It was to Smolny that Lenin came when he arrived in 1917 on the infamous sealed train through Germany. His rooms are carefully preserved and are very simple- the whole is rather austere He lived there with his wife although they had separate offices in the building. He later briefly moved to the Kshesinskaya Museum of Politics before ( after the revolution) moving back to Smolny for a short while.. It was from the balcony window that Lenin made some of his political speeches seeking support for the new regime.

Portraits of this time are on display and glorify Lenin. Indeed the history is highly selective with Trotsky written out completely; Stalin was barely mentioned.  The whole atmosphere was rather reverential. For example on entry we had to don plastic overshoes supposedly to protect the floor but I suspect to add to the ambience. I was rather surprised at the reverence for the Red Army on display at the museum. The Army is still highly regarded for its role in WW11. I always think the peaked caps of communist uniforms look almost comically large- I guess they have some psychological significance.

Afterwards we drove past the cruiser Aurora which fired on the Winter Palace and signalled the start of revolution. We should remember that actually the real revolution was in March 1917 when the Mensheviks took control of parliament. The Bolsheviks usurped power in the second revolution always celebrated in Russia as the October revolution. The present day heirs to Bolshevism have rewritten history on their terms.

Putin’s Russia is nostalgic for the Stalinist aggressive approach and is trying to rewrite post 1989 Eastern Europe. Arguably Putin’s Russia is more nationalistic with less emphasis on communist. However since the twenties communism is more a slogan than a reality partly hiding an aggressive, authoritarian, statist stance. People have little priority in Russia and individual rights and liberties none at all

Gardening under lockdown

 

Gardening

A post originally written in April 2020

Gardening is an interest I’ve neglected over the past few years. This has been partly as I’ve felt less able to do things but mainly that with spending a big portion of time in our Whitby flat we are not around for all jobs necessary. Annette is particularly keen on gardening in pots. This is fine and is reasonably successful. However in the dry summer months pots need daily watering and if we are not around plants die. A subsidiary reason is that I only like to grow things I can eat and shop bought fruit and vegetables seem cheap and hassle free.

Faced with isolation in the coronavirus emergency we were casting around for things to do. Annette initially suggested some gardening as a worthwhile pastime. This has now expanded to become more ambitious. Our thinking is that fresh fruit and vegetables may well become rather limited when the recovery we hope for starts. This recovery is likely to be slowish as production ramps up after what has been a crash stop.

The recent bout of fine weather has helped enormously.( written spring 2020 ) It has been pleasant to be outside for a part of the day. Having been relatively keen in the past we have the tools and equipment. We would have liked to buy some growbags for use in our greenhouse but we are just too late. At this stage we are taking isolation completely seriously and a trip out to a garden centre is not to be contemplated.

Fortunately we have lots of garden compost as we haven’t used much in the past couple of years. We also have ground available that we can bring back into use. Some is inside our fruit cage which has mainly shielded raspberries plus a couple of redberry bushes. Our mini orchard has been rather neglected and one of the original  trees is now smothered in ivy and another is rather diseased. These were large trees which I imagine were planted many years ago without the benefit of dwarfing rootstocks. Our modern apple trees aren’t in bad shape. I have found that they need dramatic fruit thinning as the natural “drop” is insufficient.

One disappointment will be blackberries. I like blackberries and I don’t mind the thorny process of picking them. Unfortunately my prize clump has been nearly wiped out by a tree falling from  next door. The top fell on the bush and clearing it has proven a long job which is still incomplete.. The bush will regenerate but not this year.

I have one big plum tree. All my other efforts with plums have failed miserably to the extent I’ve dug them up. I’m hoping for a good crop. I made plum jam last year and, even though I say so myself, it’s delicious.

The hard work of cultivating is being done by our friendly gardener. Social distancing is proving a bit odd but the sessions have gone OK. We have arranged benches on the patio so that we can still have a coffee and a chat while keeping 2m apart.

So far I have been trying to get organised so haven’t had much time to just wonder round and look at buds forming. We’ve had a gorgeous crop of primroses, a lot self set, but they have certainly brightened the garden.

One relic we have rescued after being neglected for years is a strawberry tub. We never had any joy growing strawberries in it so we plan to try French beans. I still have a very large strawberry tub but we don’t have any plans for it.- in fact it has never been used except for storage in all the time we lived here.

Our big problem is rabbits. We border on open country and they have been a major problem- in fact one reason for growing in tubs. We will probably fall back on home made cloches used more for protection than warmth. That will  be dependent on finding the glass stored away several years ago.

Art Deco and Brexit( 2 smaller items )

 

Art Deco

It has become the custom in the art world to give names to styles and movements. These often overlap with other era’s of art styles. Art Deco is much wider than simply a style of art. It encompassed not only things normally thought of as related like sculpture but also the design of furniture, household appliances, cars and even buildings.

The name art deco is a shortening of the French arts decoratifs. This was in turn taken from an exhibition which founded the style Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoraratifs et Industriels Modernes. This exhibition was in 1925 and was considered to start the period which ended with the start of WW11 in 1939. The style had been developing in France since even before 1914 and WW1 but the heyday was 1925-39

Because so much is within art deco it is difficult to define. It was modern in design and made with fine materials and great craftmanship. .In particularly its early days it exuded glamour , sophistication exuberance and a faith in technological progress. Later in the 30’s with economic depression the style in becoming slightly more down market using cheaper materials and less individual craftmanship. Also newer techniques such as chrome plating were more common.

Inspiration was taken from geometric patterns of Cubism along with styles drawn from ( but not copying ) many historic designs from Egyptian, Mayan, and Asian times. The period was characterised by bold colours taken from the graphic arts of the immediately preceding period.

It should be emphasised the style was started by decorators/ interior designers and taken up by artists of the day. It wasn’t primarily an artistic movement  but much more a style taken up by designers of every kind.

I’m a fan of the art deco style. I have been fortunate on 3 trips to happen upon particular islands of deco style. In addition on the special occasion of our 50^th wedding anniversary we stayed at one of the premier examples in the UK of an art deco styled hotel. The particular variant is called streamlined modern This was the Midland Hotel in Morecambe. After sliding towards dereliction the Midland has been lovingly restored and now has all its fine features regained. The bedrooms have been modernised to 21^st century standard using deluxe fittings. The en suite bathrooms have been cunningly integrated using wardrobe doors to make into separate rooms. To justify the restoration costs and the splendid ambience the prices are high which I felt justified in paying because of our special anniversary. The dining area is a sinuous room on the seaward side with an elegant circular bar at one end. The hotel is next to the sea.

We went to Australasia as part of our Golden Wedding celebration spending the bulk of our time in a cruise along the east coast of New Zealand. One of the ports of call was Napier where I was fascinated to learn of a close art deco connection. After a severe storm had damaged some buildings they were rebuilt in deco style. During a bus tour it was interesting to see that some individual houses are in deco style. However it was the beach side buildings which had suffered the most. I sat in an arena next to the sea which had a shell like stage surround. Napier makes a great deal out of its art deco heritage including a wonderful art deco shop although everything was too expensive for me.

Another later year we went on a Caribbean cruise which left us with nearly a day in Miami. Our tour operator pointed us in the direction of the South beach area where many buildings are of art deco design. Interestingly the original reason was similar to Napier. A severe storm had destroyed the area which was rebuilt in deco style. Miami now treats this as a major tourist attraction such that almost all of the rebuilt part is preserved. The area also has an interesting art deco museum

Brexit

It gives me little pleasure to say “I told you so” to all those conned into supporting leave. The trigger for this post is an item in the Daily Telegraph, a fervent leave supporter, admitting that leaving has not been a success. The item is still written in the absurd belief that if only Boris Johnson was a better Prime Minister then the original promises might be met. Ironically one of the reasons the author cited for concern was that Lord Frost, a hardline leaver, felt he had to resign.

I say ironic because Frost has been taking a very aggressive line with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol. Leaving aside the hypocrisy in this as the UK agreed to it in the first place the Irish issue is the main stumbling block against an American trade deal. US President Biden is very keen to see the Irish peace process continue and he sees the present UK stance as a big threat.

The Telegraph item points out that the much vaunted non EU trade deals are very small. Deals with old friends in Australia and New Zealand have been relatively easy but they have changed since the pre EU days. UK exporters are unlikely to succeed except in a very marginal sense. The UK government agues this is a stepping stone towards a much bigger deal with the new Asian trade deal with 10 nations. However there is no tie of sentiment or language and distance will be a big handicap. As the article discusses the only worthwhile prize is an American trade deal which seems unlikely.

Meantime trade with the EU is not going well. UK exports are down and UK exporters face a mass of new bureaucracy, something which is going to worsen in 2022 as transitional arrangements end.

All of this is trade in manufactured goods. Area of UK strength in finance and services is rapidly winding down. London once one of the worlds major financial hubs is declining. Much is moving to EU centres. For example share trading where London has been overtaken by Amsterdam. We can only hope that the City can reinvent itself as the UK still has strengths not entirely Brexit damaged.

A great deal of leaver sentiment was driven by immigration. There was supposed to be a widespread anti immigration sentiment. As regards illegal immigration the record flow of some 26 thousand is getting worse. On legal immigration the government has been forced to recognise that immigrants play an important role in society and the economy. So far their relaxations have been ad hoc but more permanent changes look inevitable.

The vaunted independence to set our own rules always was largely an illusion. The brutal truth is that in international markets the UK is a follower not a leader. Multinational companies will not make changes to suit what is in global terms a small market.