Coffee time, Dimbola museum cafe

We got up slowly again today, after so much good food and drink last night. Bob always rises about 6am as he finds it is the best time to do his writing or other creative work. One of his new 'jobs' is as a trustee of the Dimbola Trust, dedicated to running the museum about the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, which is handy for him as he only lives two houses and fifty yards away.

Bob and I have worked together as well as being friends, since the late 1980s. He was very involved in teaching graphic design and then 'multimedia' when it was being conceived. He has been a lecturer as well as a digital interactive producer ever since. Now he is organising Visioneca, a festival of experimental films and new media, based in this village at the end of October.

After another hearty breakfast Bob took Helena and I to the Dimbola Trust in Dimbola Lodge, the house where Julia Margaret Cameron lived, photographed, processed and printed her revolutionary photographic images. The museum there is dedicated to her work and has her fantastic photos and unique camera equipment. See the website for more information but better still do visit it as she was a unique pioneer of the medium we are using here.

She was very involved with a famous artistic group of mid-Victorian times, who visited and befriended Freshwater and its bay when Alfred Tennyson lived there. The Freshwater Circle included actors, artists, writers and photographers. Around the museum are prints of many of these people who were her subjects mostly in portraits and tableaux, filmed in her studio at the back of the building. There are images of Tennyson, G. F. Watts, his young wife Ellen Terry, John Millais, Charles Dodson and Alice Liddell, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, John Herschel, Robert Browning et al. One occasional visitor was Charles Darwin who she photographed when he stayed for the whole summer in 1860 and lived at Redoubt House, where we are staying. It seemed amazing that in the rooms we have beens o happy in, he wrote some of his major works.

After viewing the museum, (rather too quickly unfortunately, as there is so much to take in, especially her photographs) we descended to the main ground floor front room of the museum where there is a notable cafe. I took this photo of Bob, sitting in front of me in the white shirt, whilst we were waited for him to finish a timely film festival-related meeting with some local people. Many academic visitors come to research here, because the archive provides an valuable insight into Victorian people and their work. There are also visiting exhibitions and this summer Bob and Mary, who has been part of Dimbola for many years, were overjoyed when Patti Smith was there with her exhibition for two weeks. I could have blipped an example of her images.

In the end I've decided to blip my photo, as it has an image by Julia Margaret Cameron on the end wall behind the reception desk looking towards us. It was very bright outside and am pleased with the colour, light and shade here.

Do explore the website to see some amazing examples of her work. Quite unique.