Colin was at golf today on one of the hottest days of the year with the thermometer hitting 35 degrees. Needless to day this is the day that I had arranged an important meeting at midday at ETNA - the East Twickenham Neighbourhood Association - near Richmond. I had to travel there by bus and it was absolutely boiling especially wearing a face mask. It was a big relief to finally get off the bus and get some fresh albeit hot air.
My meeting was with the Centre Director to discuss the possibility of ETNA being the charity that I support with my next limited edition montage project. I met Vanessa the director, Sian and Colin Cooper from SWELN in the new ‘junk food’ restaurant out on the decking. It is a great place where waste food is cooked up or given away to reduce food waste and provide a good meal to those who need it. I donated and enjoyed a frittata and roasted vegetables.
Vanessa showed me the plans for a specific project of creating a sensory garden for use by everyone including local people without a garden or people visiting the building. The plan needs £25,000 of funding and although I cannot raise all of this, I hope to provide a reasonable donation with 30% of all sales of a limited edition run of 50 prints this time. Vanessa is very keen and I can now progress to the next stage which is actually taking the 25 images needed to create the montage! The central image will be the front door of ETNA. I am really excited as I thoroughly enjoyed creating and selling the Teddington montage and I hope this one will be just as successful.
Vanessa did mention that a photographer had made a montage for them some time ago. It was rather salubriously hung in the downstairs toilet! I took a quick look on my way in - I was a bit worried at first… then I saw it! It is not a good job at all and does not even feature images from Twickenham - I don’t think I need to worry too much about the previous competition!
After my meeting I called Colin who had offered to come and pick me up as not only was the thermometer now pushing 34 degrees, I was also collecting a very long mount I had ordered from the local framers in Twickenham. Sadly this had been destined for use in my panel for my photo club exhibition at the Landmark Arts Centre in March but for obvious reasons that had been cancelled. Maybe I will hang the panel next year instead.
When I finally arrived home in a melted puddle, I found that my frames had arrived from Swindon and to top the day off, we finally sold Colin’s old 1950’s KB radio. A collector had spotted it and drove over from north Twickenham. To my amazement the radio actually worked when he tried it with a battery. He did try to squeeze another £5 off the price but for £25 I think that was a very reasonable price for a vintage radio so I declined and he paid the asking price.
