Stats

Subtitled

“Get a life, kid, get a life”

Did you know that there are about 39 mini figures in, on and around this structure?  I say ‘about’ because I’ve still not dressed the two old builders on the back roof and there’s a couple of figures I’m working on for the kitchen – (once I’d prepped the bread maker the kitchen looked lopsided so another small one is to be added I think.)

I couldn’t believe it was so many, but I did a roll call and there they were, or almost.

The idea was to make some sort of chart of which folk are connected; which ones live in the Hall and where they sleep and who the other others are and what they’re doing there.  And 39 it was.

A busy household at a festive time

There’s the main family, the Riddinglys and two others, the Padgets and the deVanders, with family groupings amongst the workers too.

The current Master of the guild is Thomas Riddingly and his uncle Matthew was Master before him.  Thomas’s parents also live in Hogepotche, and Matthew is visiting at the moment.  Thomas has one daughter, Catherine who is widowed and she and her three children live here with the parents and grandparents.

(for John and Jane see The 1616 inhabitants  and From mirror to room
for Thomas and Mary and also Faith see The jobs that time forgot and
A life of their own
for Catherine and Susannah see Woman and child
and for Catherine’s daughters and mother-in-law see The red-headed sisters and
Posh caller from the Low Countries

For many of the other featured folk they can be found in The ins and outs, and postings under the Great Hall and Great Hall extension menus on the ground floor of Hogepotche Hall

Visitors

Other visitors are Thomas’s sister, Faith and a gossiping neighbour (Philippa Butler) and Catherine’s mother-in-law, Isobel, who has brought her other grandchildren, Will and Susannah with her.

The daily workers in Hogepotche Hall

The clerks can each been found either in the committee rooms of the upper Great Hall or the reception office of the Hall just off the Porch, whilst the other men and the first skivvy are in the Great Hall or the Porch, the middle girl is in the girl’s bedroom and the bucket chucker can be found at
Picking up the box lid wall

Missing from the gallery

The unclothed bread maker in the kitchen and a fireside skivvy yet to be assembled, let alone dressed.

On the roof

The builders can be found mostly at Using the roof as a room setting

And on the street

And the street scenes can be found in and around
Just a little more drying time

More stats for you:  there are eight dogs and, at the moment, seven cats but there’s another on the way possibly.  There are numerous birds in and on the building and a few hens with chicks near the kitchen.  A small village in and of itself?

I think I’ve been consistent in naming throughout and I’ve tested the links.  Hope it works for you 😉

Ah, reality, where art thou?  Oh, there you are.  Not so good eh?  Back to the little people possibly?

Someone’s hidden summer

Garden is brooding and tomatoes don’t know what to do

Whilst I ponder that problem here’s an update of goings on at Hogepotche Hall, just to prove it is all still going on at a frantic pace.

How the stores block fits against the side of the house

The three areas down the other side of the stores block – the dairy and corridor storage space which are open and the scullery which opens onto the main kitchen (at right of photo)

View from diary outer door – only the fire is on in the main kitchen

Pushing camera in a little and lights on at the other end

Other views are available. Here through the buttery door you can get just a corner of the little scullery

and here through to the main kitchen through where the door (and its wall) have yet to be built

Swinging the block round and looking into the scullery

Scullery looking down before the ceiling goes in, against the wall there’s the channel for the slops and other waste water to go out and the drain hole outside (not mouse proof I notice)

Back along from scullery to dairy back door

There is a shadow on the wall

Looking down between the beams there’s a step up from the kitchen to scullery (wash tub for cloths and other linens on left out there)

And this view you get as I rather like it because of the stone dividing wall and the reflection of the fire in the horribly shiny and dark floor tiling

 

Bread, bucket, felines and another bread cradle

Brick update

Battling on with the brickwork and slowly getting there, though considering other wall coverings for the two long removable sides.  Don’t know what yet but I’m thinking hard.

Main kitchen

There’d been no intention of populating the kitchen but I did want to put out the bread preparation board (yet another item from Mini Things).  Now this board has some bread dough proving under a cloth, some shaped up breads ready for the oven and some bread dough that had been knocked back and was in the process of shaping.  It worried me.  Who would leave the kitchen in the middle of actually shaping bread without covering the lot up again?  Someone needed to be present and thus I went in search of a baker.

Board of bread making items by Mini Things

Another kit from “World of My Own and rob Lucas Miniatures”

As you can see she is knocking back and shaping loaves – she wouldn’t walk away at this moment surely?

Bread making is set at this side of the kitchen

Along with cats and bucket of water – what more could one want?

Here she is in a longer shot with the bread cradle knocked together between brick laying and worrying about where the baker had gone.

Must get some clothes on this person.

 

Butchery and Game

Creating a setting – first run

Sawdust on the floor and apologies to all vegetarians and vegans.

The contents of this store room could almost be described as an homage to the work of Vanessa Percival of Mini Things  (also what I believe is her Etsy shop or on eBay) as the majority of these items are her handiwork, plus one or two items from other miniaturists.

The items are all beautifully made.  Each of these crafts folk make many other wonderful things besides meat but I’ve been making this particular collection when I could, squirreling them away for when they could be set out in the butchery/game store and, at last, here they are.  (Peering at the grainy photos I reckon that rabbit needs to be moved nearer the fowl?)

Straw and sawdust to mop up some of the mess and make it easier to clean

Hanging fowl

Meat preparation going on here

This crow’s got in and having a go at the entrails and in the corner there’s a pile of bones ready for use

A long view of all three store rooms on this side so far

What is my work other than the layout and building?  Well I stuck some lolly sticks together and bunged on some legs for the work table and hacked a bit of thickish twig to match the log butcher’s block with the joint of meat that came from Mini Things but this one’s to hold the pile of bones (also from Mini Things).  Oh and the door is more lolly sticks too.

Believe it or not, between bouts of yet more bricklaying I’ve been playing with a relationships/family tree of Hogepotche Hall personnel and their ‘story’.  More of that some other time perhaps.