In celebration...

This beautiful wax sculpture was made by the grandmother of Emily who is...hang on... blimey... I suppose strictly speaking Emily is my stepmother-in-law. But I can't call her that! She's AlfeeTee's Dad's wife, a sculptor and award-winning taxidermist and this sculpture was made by her maternal grandmother Lottie Pritzel.

Lottie was an artist, friend and contemporary of Max Ernst, Hans Belmer and other surrealist artists in Berlin. She lived an amazing and pretty wild life. This beautiful figurine resides in Emily's mother (Ermeline)'s cottage which is right next to Emily and John's.

Ermeline is one of, if not the most originally stylish and genuinely inspiring women I have ever met. She was a milliner and designed spectacular hats for operas, she paints and writes and she has always had a beautiful house full of curios and wonderful art, plants and vintage knicknacks. The family home used to be in Greenwich and I always loved to visit there. There were always German delicacies on offer and stories and laughter amid the art, textiles, homemade decorative bits and ancient wooden toys. Before Christmas she moved to this cottage and Emily and her sister recreated her lovely environment as far as they could. It's wonderful.

I was really looking forward to seeing her and she us, but unfortunately she had to be taken into hospital yesterday morning as she didn't recover from a blood transfusion properly. We saw her briefly in the ambulance before she left. She has a chest infection apparently. Hopefully she will be home in time for her 94th birthday next Saturday.

So this blip is dedicated to Ermeline, the other creative women in her family and all the other inspiring women I know including my blip girlfriends whose photos I admire so much and whose chat, wisdom and support I really appreciate. It is for women everywhere, including the ones who toil and strive in sometimes terrible circumstances and against incredible odds to survive and thrive. Without them we'd be nowhere.