CathyLoweBerkshire

#AdoorableThursday Going in, and coming out, of the Brethren's Hall, Hospital of St Cross.

I feel a good ol' skritch may be about to commence.

Herons train for months in art & composition, in order to stage tableau as sophisticated as this.

We had that when mum had a migraine and was in bed, so couldn't make our tea. It was rather cheering to have a hot pie, when one felt sad that she was ill.

Geometric? Or Curvilinear? I get so confused.

Dec with plate tracery?

I do like that style myself.

Indeed. I am younger than you, and attempted neither!

What impressed me was your enthusiasm for getting down to business, and then your ability to recover to an upright position, without making a kerfuffle!

He met his match in me. I can ruminate for Berkshire!!

#Woodensday I recommend a visit to the Hospital of St Cross & Almshouses of Noble Poverty, near Winchester cathedral.

In the Brethren’s Hall, for centuries, the Brothers gathered for meals. The oak roof has been dendro-dated to the 1440s. I liked the angel corbels with their delicate hands.

I take it personally!

Thank you. I am of course "inspired by herons".

Studies of Herons, by Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe, sold at auction. @churchartnature.bsky.social

🥄🧡

Generally speaking, lecterns deplore my presence! This chap more than most [in the village of Ducklington with actual ducks in its duck pond, next to the church!]. @chartresfi.bsky.social

#Woodensday Both myself and @portaspeciosa.bsky.social taking a closer look at these handsome lion lectern feet in Wells cathedral.

To the left, a very smart little podium, cosying up to its companion eagle lectern! @notpodium.bsky.social

#Woodensday in the Choir at Wells.

This eagle lectern seems to look upon my intrusion into his space with deep disapproval, but in truth one is simply in awe of the quantity of nodding ogee arches in evidence here.

I definitely feel that I am invariably found wanting!

Haughty is the perfect description!

No one makes "pointed" remarks like a grey heron does, lit by the afternoon sun on a lake in Berkshire.

I had seen no birds to photograph, and then suddenly! There was a magnificent heron, smoothly attired amid a riotous tangle of bankside stems. @everyheron.bsky.social @iangrebe.bsky.social

It might be a fantasy bird come to think of it!

#TraceryTuesday I remembered that there was a St Francis window in St Cross. It includes a very good heron. @everyheron.bsky.social

Memorial window by Hugh Easton for Emily Mary Hanbury d 1938. Is that a kingfisher to the right, more yellow/blue than orange & turquoise? @iangrebe.bsky.social

I was stunned when I visited that church, and fell in love with it immediately.

#TilesOnTuesday in St Cross. I lost my head when admiring the tiles in this church, & will need to return to locate most of them, then match them up with Pevsner.

I can broadly say that those on the left are Victorian, possibly Minton, & those on the right considerably older. All are handsome!

#TilesOnTuesday in the Church of St Cross, across the meadows from Winchester Cathedral.

St Cross boasts a sumptuous panoply of pre-Victorian tiles, a selection of which I snapped; these 1260-80, reset by Butterfield & handsomely contrasted with C18th leger stones & black & white marble borders.

#MonumentsMonday How better to be remembered, than for the dazzling beauty of one's chantry chapel?

Views of the interior of Treasurer Hugh Sugar's chantry chapel in Wells Cathedral, 1489; a hexagonal stone jewel-box with a heavenly fan-vaulted canopy over the altar. @portaspeciosa.bsky.social

@iangrebe.bsky.social

I have only whisked through Southwark once, at the end of a long day of touring the City. I definitely need to return for a more leisurely look!

Some more images from Drayton. I like the crisp ears of wheat, third photo, which also includes the artist's signature.

Good!

A light from the Finzi Memorial Window shown above, Tom Denny says that Finzi’s works are full of an aching sense of transience, with the beautiful melancholy that one finds in Hardy’s “proud songsters”:

“pipe as they can when April wears
As if all time were theirs”.