A selection of writings, speeches, photographs and events as well as some of my favourite literary passages.
Sunday 12 August 2012
The Curse of Road Noise
Looking south on the M3 at Winchester on an uncharacteristically quiet morning. It normally carries some 130,000 vehicles a day. |
Nevertheless some towns and cities are blighted by almost constant road noise from busy main roads and motorways. For example the noise from the M3 motorway intrudes over much of the lovely city of Winchester and dominates villages bordering it, such as Shawford - hardly surprising considering that it carries some 130,000 vehicles a day.
The gash cut though the back of St Catherine's Hill in 1995, which still hasn't been 'healed' by plant growth almost twenty years later. |
road surface that is much quieter - and that road runs through farmland and woodland with the town some distance away.
PS: In February 2015, the Highways Agency and/ or the Hampshire County Council have finally resurfaced the M3 around Winchester, with the result that the noise from the motorway obtrudes far less on the City and the surrounding villages. What took them so long?
Friday 10 August 2012
Old Swan House Garden - 2012
The garden on 1st viewing in 2012. Note the huge leylandii hedge round the drive |
The old kitchen and scullery |
The end of the garden showing the disused vegetable area and the summerhouse. |
The round lawn with a loquat in the middle. |
Behind was a raised terrace with rhododendrons in wooden barrels and a dark-leafed cherry The garden was already fully planted up and was even somewhat overgrown, but the design was from the 70s - 'Geoffrey Smith' - although the effect was still delightful and felt secret and enclosed. How the changes were effected can be seen in Making the Garden at Old Swan House |
Monday 6 August 2012
Rediscovering Coventry's Medieval Stained Glass
Dr Heather Gilderdale Scott of Lincoln University, the authority on medieval stained glass and Dr Jonathan Foyle of the World Monuments Fund at the Paul Mellon Lecture in Coventry on 19th June 2012 |
The World Monuments Fund as just begun a project to restore and display the old stained glass, which is thought to have been the work of John Thornton, who also created the great stained glass of York Minster.
Click here for a BBC report on the project.
Click here for details of the World Monuments Fund's programme, which includes work to stabilise the ruins of the old Cathedral. And here for their fundraising site.
Click here for a link to the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Consecration of the new Cathedral
St Michael’s Glass on show in the Soane Museum
This Summer’s conservation work, by Crick-Smith, of more than 7,000 fragments of stained glass
from St Michael’s, Coventry (the largest collection of loose medieval glass in the Britain), has now
been completed. Several fine examples of the salvaged glass have pride of place in the current
World Monument Fund Britain exhibition in the Sir John Soane’s Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Fields,
London WC2A. The Exhibition runs until 26 January 2013 (Tuesday - Saturday 10.00 - 17.00
hours).
If you are unable to visit the exhibition, here’s link to a 12 minute film featuring Kevin McCloud’s
‘take’ on the Coventry glass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPnsJqt7DDA&feature=youtu.be
Saturday 4 August 2012
The Battle Proms at Highclere Castle
The Battle Proms have been held at castles and stately homes across Southern England for the last 15 years and have become extremely popular. Over 9000 people came to the event at Highclere Castle on 4th August to hear classical pieces like Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with live cannon fire, inspired by Napoleon's famous retreat from Moscow, and the celebratory piece of music that gives the Battle Proms its name: Beethoven’s 'Wellington’s Victory', more commonly known as the ‘Battle Symphony’, performed with 193 cannons, musket fire and fireworks. Click here for a rather quieter Irish air.
Friday 6 July 2012
Saturday 16 June 2012
Coventry Cathedral - the Sutherland Tapestry
Graham Sutherland's great tapestry, Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph, is full of imagery taken from Revelations. The Archbishop of Canterbury based his marvellous sermon at the Golden Jubilee of the Consecration of the Cathedral on the meaning of the tapestry.
The main theme of the tapestry is taken from the lines:
'And immediately I was in the spirit: and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
And he that sat to look upon like a jasper and sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald....
And in the midst of the throne and round about the throne, were four beasts...
and the first beast was like a lion,
and the second beast like a calf,
and the third beast had the face as a man,
and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.'
Revelations IV, vs. 2,3,6 and 7
The dragon in the chalice under Christ's feet is referenced here:
'Then another sign became visible in the sky and I saw that it was a huge red dragon...Now they have conquered him though the blood of the Lamb.'
Revelations XII, vs 3 and 10
St Michael hurling down the Devil is referred to here:
'Then war broke out in Heaven, Michael and his angels battled with the Dragon...so that the huge Dragon, the serpent of ancient times, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, was hurled down upon the earth.'
Revelations XII, vs 7,8 and 9
Location: London
Coventry, West Midlands, UK
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Golden Jubilee of the Consecration of Coventry Cathedral
The Golden Jubilee of the Consecration of Coventry Cathedral was held on 25th May 2012, exactly 50 years after the original service which was attended by the Queen. On this occasion, a glorious sunny day, the service was taken by the Dean, the Very Reverend John Irving, before the Bishop of Coventry, the Right Reverend Dr Christopher Cocksworth, and the Princess Royal. The service began with a beautiful Lord's Prayer sung in Aramaic. The Archbishop of Canterbury preached a marvellous sermon drawing on the imagery of Graham Sutherland's great tapestry.
A video of the procession at the end of the service can be seen here
Following the service, a reception was held for the Princess Royal in St Mary's Hall
Click here for some photos from the event
A very good BBC programme about the Cathedral can be heard here
Thursday 24 May 2012
Monday 7 May 2012
Sunday 29 April 2012
British Design 1948 - 2012 at the V&A
John Piper's Coventry |
The Exhibition of British Design 1948 - 2012 at the V&A is fascinating as it covers approximately my lifetime and includes some particularly potent images from the 1960s including my first car - a Mini - reminding one forcefully how terribly small they were. There were also a number of striking pieces from the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral, including the only maquette of John Piper's Baptistry Window and some stunning cartoons by Graham Sutherland from the creation of his famous tapestry, 'Christ In Glory in the Tetramorph' .
Graham Sutherland "The Eagle" (An image depicting St John) |
Wednesday 25 April 2012
Saturday 21 April 2012
Favourite Views - Chilcomb in Spring
Location: London
Chilcomb, Hampshire SO21, UK
Tuesday 10 April 2012
Marta Becket - To Dance On Sands
Marta Becket - 'Sunflower Alley' |
Say that upon the altar of her beauty
You sacrificed your tears, your sighs, yours heart:
Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears
Moist it again, and frame some feeling line
That may discover such integrity.
For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews,
Whose golden touch would soften steel and stones,
Make tigers tame and huge leviathans
Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands.
Proteus: Two Gentlemen of Verona
Act Three, Scene Two
Saturday 7 April 2012
The Song of Solomon
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.
Arise my love, my fair one and come away.
O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice and thy countenenace is comly.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes.
My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.
So perfect for April
Tuesday 20 March 2012
Favourite Views - The Hog's Back
View towards Godalming from the Hog's Back For more views, click here |
Labels:
hog's back A31 guildford
Location: London
A3, Godalming, Surrey, UK
Friday 9 March 2012
Food Shopping in Winchester
Ross Brimfield at The Veg Shed |
Shopping for food in the otherwise lovely cathedral city of Winchester is sorry experience. Three big supermarkets - Waitrose, Sainbury's and Tesco crouch on the extremities of the city like leeches sucking shoppers into their vast car parks - and forcing smaller specialist food shops to close. Incredibly, there are no butchers and no fishmongers left in this ancient city of 200,000, once the capital of England (well, Wessex) due mainly to our own weak-minded shopping habits, compounded by the cunning of the supermarkets who offer seemingly irresistible prices on everyday goods like lavatory paper and pet food. And for those trinkets we ignore the high prices we pay for imported vegetables and fruit and the factory-farmed chicken.
Not only do the supermarkets squeeze the last drop of profit out of all but the largest and best capitalised agribusinesses, but their profits are siphoned out of the area and contribute little or nothing to the wellbeing of city and its citizens, unlike small family-owned shops. And of course they avoiding paying as much tax as they can through transfer pricing, captive insurance companies, group relief and offshore trusts and make billions - while in a once charming and friendly city like Winchester (where as a schoolboy I used to be greeted personally by the bank manager), one is left talking to bored check-out staff rather than being known by name by knowledgeable shopkeepers who's defining advantage is service, not price.
There are signs of life however, outside the massive car-parks and ugly approach roads of the supermarkets. The Farmer's Market every fourth Sunday is hugely popular and carries interesting stock from small producers. And The Good Life, in Headbourne Worthy is a brave attempt at a farm shop, though it carries no fish. And, best of all, The Veg Shed run almost singlehandedly by Ross Brimfield, sells high quality and cheap vegetable, fruit and eggs from a wooden shack in two pub car parks three days a week and makes deliveries on the others. And he knows all his customers by name.
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Spitalfields Life Book Launch
Christ Church, Spitalfields |
The launch of the book of Spitalfields Life was a magical evening; unique in publishing terms and probably the largest gathering of notable locals and far-flung well-wishers ever assembled in Spitalfields for any purpose.
We were bound together by the vision of the unnamed Gentle Author who has penned his daily stories of a place and its people in the most sensitive and yet enlivening way, and which, through the power of the internet, have instantly reached people across the world.
The book itself is a triumph of design and deserves to be the godfather of many other collections of blog pieces that one hopes could sometimes be opened on one's knee.
Some photos from the event can be found here
The Gentle Author's own piece about the event and many more photos can be seen here
Monday 27 February 2012
Saturday 25 February 2012
Favourite Writings - Desiderata
Desiderarta
Go
placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far
as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you
compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise
caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take
kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond
a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore
be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
With
all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Friday 10 February 2012
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