20 Comments
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Sarah Hibbert's avatar

Great piece again, I love how you always manage to sneak a photo in of the Beatles ! Happy rain free Sunday. X

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Jane Brocket's avatar

You've noticed! Lol

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Chloe Evans's avatar

Umbrellas seem to me to belong to those with a more elegant life, not possible on a bike in Oxford or anywhere in Shetland. This summer Renoir’s The Umbrellas is in Leicester part of the NG National Treasures programme https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/national-treasures-partners/leicester-museum-art-gallery

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Jane Brocket's avatar

The Fitz has a NG Botticelli. Have to admit I'd prefer the Renoir!

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Catherineap's avatar

The scene from Foreign Correspondent is great—don’t think I’ve seen that one, at least not recently, so on the viewing list it goes! Coincidentally, I just watched Terminus, John Schlesinger’s short documentary about a day at Waterloo Station. There’s a funny sequence of a woman looking for her umbrella at the lost & found office which was just like your photos (as well as wonderfully noirish and atmospheric scenes of steam trains, crowds, station buffets and train sheds). It’s on Youtube and well worth watching.

I have an umbrella with the Caillebotte painting on it—what could be more perfect?

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Jane Brocket's avatar

I love Terminus! So atmospheric.

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Geraldine's avatar

I am never without one! Hate getting my hair wet! I love looking in the window of James and Son in Bloomsbury at their beautiful umbrellas 🌂 Thankyou for these wonderful images! And a giggle at the nostalgia of the box of Rainmates in the hairdressers!

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Caroline Donahue's avatar

SO lovely! The Caillebotte is one of my favorites. I love his Floor Scrapers even more, but I once had an umbrella with this painting on it, likely from the Art Institute of Chicago museum shop. I loved that one until it fell apart. Sadly, my objection to umbrellas these days is the weird material they often make the handles out of - a sort of rubbery stuff that feels nice at first, but inevitably goes gummy, like you had leaking food containers in your bag with it. Nein Danke.

My personal favorite at the moment is a tiny one I bought at Foyles when I was stupid enough to leave the house when visiting London without the umbrella I'd brought on the trip. Enraging to have to buy another, but this one fits anywhere and blows in the wind without going inside out. Bliss!

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Sue Dove's avatar

Love the variety of umbrella images….brilliant 🌺

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Peg Mastrianni's avatar

Perfect musings, Jane, with wonderful images. Thank you!!!

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Sarah Harkness's avatar

So many brilliant images here, thank you.

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Alison Macaulay's avatar

What a lovely piece! I have fond memories of my transparent brolly which made me feel very on-trend as a fashion conscious 8-year-old back in the 1970s. But as an adult, I've developed an aversion to them, for the silliest reason. I started to become overly concerned about what to do with it if, for example, passing under a bridge. Keep it up, even though it's not raining, or take it down, then put it back up again at the other side? I prefer a good now (though I draw the line at a rainmate).

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Laura K Bray's avatar

Oh! How I wanted a transparent umbrella in my 1970s childhood-you lucky girl!

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Alison Macaulay's avatar

*hood

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Janet's avatar

I bought my first umbrella when I went to Manchester as a student, as a means of self-defence. Most Mancunians seemed to carry their open umbrellas at my eye height, so I needed the protection to stop having an eye poked out. Coming from the Isle of Wight, we wore hats or hoods against the rain which was frequently brought on south-westerly gales. No umbrella stood a chance against that.

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Laura K Bray's avatar

When we first moved from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest of the US, we were told that only tourists used umbrellas! And it's true-when it rains as much as it does where we live, it's much easier to go about life dressed in a good rain jacket.

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Lynne Birkett's avatar

What a lovely piece, only a parasol will be needed here in York today where it is "scorchio"! I hated having to wear a rain mate as a child but they were the norm on a rainy day. I adored my child's umbrella, a lovely tartan with a tiny Scotty dog embedded in a clear resin handle 😍

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Linda Slow Growing in Scotland's avatar

You can buy umbrellas in France that say "Merde, il pleut!" round the ?canopy? What is that bit called? And oh yes, the Rainmates of my Mum and her friends.

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Georgina Gowland's avatar

I love an umbrella 🌂 and I'd love to own a parasol. However, as I rarely walk anywhere now I hardly get to use one. It rains a lot here in Yorkshire!

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Geraldine's avatar

I am the proud owner of a lovely black silk parasol, a treat from my husband from a vintage fair. As I am very pale skinned it’s a necessity in these recent summers.

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