The Winchester Portrait Exhibition

Nadine Collison and Michael Butters

A fascinating exhibition of portraits of local people was put on by Michael Butters and Nadine Collison in the Great Hall, Winchester in April 2017 that raised £40-60,000 for local charities.

St Francis of Assisi

Jamie Balfour

Jean Ritchie

Nadine Collison

Nadine Collison

The Charles and Diana gates

Favourite Poetry - This Scepter'd Isle - Richard II

Methinks I am a prophet new inspired
And thus expiring do foretell of her:
Her rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last,
For violent fires soon burn out themselves;
Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
She tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes;
With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder:
Light vanity, insatiate cormorant,
Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.
This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Christian service and true chivalry,
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son,
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like to a tenement or pelting farm:
England, bound in with the triumphant sea
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds:
That England, that was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!

Shakespeare - Richard II

Old Swan House Garden late 2016

The grass garden Sept 2016

The garden in September 2016

The loggia October 2017

The garden October 2016

The garden in autumn 2016

The grass garden in the frost 2016

What is Poetry?

Your poetry arises of its own accord; when you and the object have become one; when you have delved deep enough into the object to apprehend within it some hidden glimmering

Basho

What is a lovely phrase?
One that has mopped up as much truth as it can hold

Virgina Woolf

It is six A.M., and I am working. I am absentminded, reckless, heedless of social obligations, etc. It is as it must be. The tire goes flat, the tooth falls out, there will be a hundred meals without mustard. The poem gets written. I have wrestled with the angel and I am stained with light and I have no shame. Neither do I have guilt. My responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth. It does not extend to the lost button, or the beans in the pot. My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive. If I have a meeting with you at three o’clock, rejoice if I am late. Rejoice even more if I do not arrive at all. 

There is no other way work of artistic worth can be done. And the occasional success, to the striver, is worth everything. The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time. 

Mary Oliver

"All that can best be expressed in words should be expressed in verse, but verse is a slow thing to create; nay, it is not really created: it is a secretion of the mind, it is a pearl that gathers round some irritant and slowly expresses the very essence of beauty and of desire that has lain long, potential and unexpressed, in the mind of the man who secretes it. ... Very often there is not any adjective, sometimes not any qualification at all: often only one subject with its predicate and its statement and its object. There is never any detail of description, but the scene rises, more vivid in colour, more exact in outline, more wonderful in influence, than anything we can see with our eyes, except perhaps those things we see in the few moments of intense emotion which come to us, we know not whence ..." (Belloc.)

Listen to WB Yeats reading his poem, The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Said a Blade of Grass

Old Swan House Garden in Autumn

Said a blade of grass to an autumn leaf, “You make such a noise falling! You scatter all my winter dreams.” 

Said the leaf indignant, “Low-born and low-dwelling! Songless, peevish thing! You live not in the upper air and you cannot tell the sound of singing.” 

Then the autumn leaf lay down upon the earth and slept. And when spring came she waked again — and she was a blade of grass. 

And when it was autumn and her winter sleep was upon her, and above her through all the air the leaves were falling, she muttered to herself, “O these autumn leaves! They make such noise! They scatter all my winter dreams.”

Kahil Gibran 

Winchester Cathedral Carol Service

The annual carol service at Winchester Cathedral was beautiful as ever. 1500 attended and there were people standing.

Christmas at Blenheim 2016

Blenheim Palace

Blenheim is the most astonishing castle in the country; absolutely magnificent, and of course set in a perfect Capability Brown landscape.

The lake at Blenheim taken from the West gate at sunset. The view of the palace from the West gate is often described as the finest view in England.

This year for the first time they have created a night-time garden walk - Christmas at Blenheim - which is beautifully done and absolutely spectacular. Being dark and without a tripod I found it difficult to capture the stunning effects adequately, and there are many spots in which music is played and some in which actors perform. Do try and go!

The Temple of Diana where Winston Churchill proposed to Clementine

Christmas at Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

A beautiful "Nine Lessons and Carols' at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford 

Wellbeing of Women Christmas Fair 2016

Drapers' Hall fi;;ed with stalls for the Fair

The Drapers' City Fair held annually and free in the Hall by Wellbeing of Women since 2009, was the best attended yet and raised a record amount for the charity. Over 50 stalls sold high-quality gifts and food and drink including my favourite Christmas cake (which so heavy with fruit that feels like a black hole).

Stockbridge Christmas Evening 2016

St Peter's Church and the Christmas tree after lighting

Stockbridge holds a Christmas shopping evening at the beginning of December every year. Each year the town looks prettier and prettier as more lighting is added, and more and more people attend. This year the tree on the church lawn was beautifully lit as was the Town Hall, and Sally Taylor of South Today came to help Alex Lewis (and his son Sam) switch on the lights.

Alex Lewis, Sam and Sally Taylor switching on the light

Prior to this, a horse-drawn coach carried the local MP, the Lord of the Manor and the mayor of Test Valley from Old St Peter's to new St Peter's, proceeded by the Town Crier.  

Stockbridge Town Hall. The horse-drawn carriage can be seen approaching 

Middle Wallop Military Wives Choir