I enjoy seeing the different ways people decorate their narrowboats. Some are very traditional, some (it has to be said) extremely unimaginative. Occasionally I see one that is really quite different, like 'Forever Changes' that I found moored in Saltaire recently. It was painted bright turquoise and hot neon pink so it really stood out. With the 60s-inspired font that reminded me of the old Biba logo and the mandalas painted on the sides, it had quite a psychedelic look. I was attracted by a small but colourful table standing in the bow area. Photographed through the wet plastic of the tarp, it seemed a bit mystical, a look which I have further enhanced with a bit of layering. It was only after I'd studied the photo that I saw that it is a peacock.
It all took me back to my teenage years in the late 60s, when I decorated the mirror in my bedroom with similar mandalas. We wore sandals and lots of beads, long floaty skirts, long hair, flowers. I listened to Donovan, Joan Baez, Procol Harum and the Beatles and thought myself a hippie. Peace and love.
"Forever Changes" was an album by the US band Love - very big in the house I shared with 5 other students in Leyton in 1973! Love that peacock.
ReplyDeleteThe big hit when I hit Hameln in Sept 1967 was Scott McKenzies "Next time you go to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair". The Germans loved it. Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood's "Summer Wine" again remind me of Mukhdahan in Thailand where I spent a whole wonderful year in 1965-6. I volunteered to work longer on "Op Crown" but some Brigadier, looking at my name gently fading in the chalk dust at the bottom of the Unit Roll, said "Get that wretched man back here and put him on some Courses!" So I became more intelligent but unhappy in Malaya and Singapore.
ReplyDeleteNeat boat, and lovely photos. Nice to know where a hippie has gone. :)
ReplyDeleteImagine, the living history we are.
Love the boat's decorations. I hope that it's owned by retired hippies...or perhaps a new generation of younger ones!
ReplyDeleteThose were the days!
ReplyDeleteVery colourful!
ReplyDeleteLove the colourful peacock Janey, the boat has to be a nod to the 60/70's. Tres groovy 😉
ReplyDeleteGroovy, man! (A word I never used, even when it was current.)
ReplyDelete