Monday 27th May - Arundel Day Out - The Gardens

The Collector Earl's Gardens

We had time to fill after a very early lunch and before the Second Battle between the Rebels and Duke Some-one-or-other (for the King). We had already missed the First Battle - the dead were just being cheered back to life as we walked past.

It was properly sunny, and warmer now, and we meandered along to this part of the grounds, which were new since we had last come.

What a lovely, lovely place this is. Witty, and charming, with "stone" buildings and urns and fountains which all turned out to be made of green oak. The overall colour scheme throughout the gardens was this purple colour. Apart from this beautiful cloud of sky blue ceanothus.

It was when I took a closer look at this folly that I realised that everything was made of oak, not stone.

This is the interior.

The decorations are all made of mosses, and dried flower heads, and pine cones.

It would be the perfect place for a Summer party, with canapés and cocktails and champagne and Pimms, with hog roasts and entertainment and outdoor opera, with Punch and Judy and croquet and fancy dress, with music and dancing and ... a perfect place.

There was room for everyone; the atmosphere was light-hearted and informal, the flowers so pretty, the fountains entrancing, the gazebos amusing. Just delightful.

There was a maze mown into the lawn. Several families were walking the maze, or else picnicking in the centre.

That's the Catholic Cathedral. To the left is a grotto with a fountain inside.....

.... decorated with sea shells, and a golden crown is perched on top of the water jet, turning and turning and turning...

Beyond the maze lawn is an extraodinary collection of uprooted trees, like some bizarre South American landscape...

Another purple border, with aliums this time, not tulips, leading to

leads to the organic kitchen gardens.

I would have been happy to have just seen the gardens.



Oh, and we missed the Second Battle, but luckily there was a Third Battle so that was alright.

More Saturday 25th May - Boxgrove Priory and Labyrinth. Scollops and Bacon. Perfect Day

After we had finished with Bognor, what then? where should we go?

Chichester again?

I've always wanted to visit Boxgrove, which is just outside Chichester, so that's where we headed. Or rather, didn't head. But that was soon rectified by going completely round the next roundabout.

By now the weather was properly sunny, as experienced from inside the car. And properly freezing, as experienced when we got out of the car at Boxgrove.

It's a small Sussex village, with the remains of a priory. http://www.boxgrovepriory.co.uk/index.html

The ruins of the guesthouse,

 

 the entrance to the old cloisters,

 





















and just half a church.

 I'm standing where the North and South Transepts meet. The church ends just behind me. Originally there would have been a screen, and about the same amount of church again, where the village people would have come to worship. This was demolished after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The an entry on the ibenedictines blog (www.ibenedictines.org) laments the way that the chantry chapels  lost their original purpose; http://www.ibenedictines.org/2013/05/22/of-chantry-chapels-and-olden-times/, and masses are no longer said in them for the souls of the people who had endowed them.

Here, the De la Warr chantry is used for the reservation of the sacrament, and as a place for quiet prayer, and prayers are said for the De la Warr family every Wednesday, as requested in their Will back in the sixteenth century.

 We had to make our visit in two stages as there was a wedding in progress when we first turned up. So we wandered around outside while the congregation sang the first hymn; "Guide me, O Thou Great Redeemer" seeping through the windows and doors was just perfect.

We went off for a late, light lunch at the Anglesey Arms up the road (scallops and bacon, the one soft and delicately flavoured, the other crisp and salty, yum yum and very yum) and returned later to look around the interior. A romantic, Sussex Spring day, full of colour, and birdsong, and flowers...

 
 We came home refreshed, revived, having had a great day out, just the two of us. We had seen the sea, driven through the most beautiful countryside, up over the downs and back home again. Perfect.

Friday 17th May - Labyrinths

The actual posts are over on my other blog, www.episodesandinterludes.blogspot.co.uk which
is blog that I reserve for more overtly Christian posts. I don't feel like duplicating all the stuff here. So if you are interested, just follow the links!

http://episodesandinterludes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/liverpool-cathedral-night-light.html







http://www.episodesandinterludes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/labyrinth-at-cichester-cathedral-monday.html  




http://www.episodesandinterludes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/national-labyrinth-day-first-saturday.html

Tuesday 9th April - Crafty Work - Finishing Off bits and pieces

Over the years I have started many, many craft projects. I have also finished many craft projects. I have knitted jumpers and scarves, made curtains, patchwork quilts, cushion covers, sewn skirts, dresses, blouses, shirts, dressing gowns.

I have got five of my various fabric wall hangings up in various places around the house, and at the moment we are using two of the quilts on the bed (the warm one on my side, the lighter weight one on his side) - so I'm not completely hopeless at finishing things.

However there are a lot of things that are still "works in progress", and these came to light when we were doing "extreme bedroom tidying" a couple of weeks ago.

I have been staying in for the past few days because of having a chest infection - not enough to make me feel properly ill, but I am taking no chances. So, an ideal opportunity to finish some things off, or at least make some more progress.

Here's the cushion that I started back in about 2007 (or was is 2006). It uses a yarn called "Crofty" which has cleverly been dyed in such a way that when knitted up it looks a bit like fair-isle. I was a little worried about sewing it up as that is usually my weak point, but I managed it!






 
 











The patchwork cushion next to it is one of several that I made when I was in my "crazy patchwork" phase some years ago.

Now, these next two pictures are of patchwork blocks for a quilt I started back in - 2001 maybe? I am bodging it together using a method called "quilt as you go". Each square made with its own backing and wadding, and then somehow, once they are all done, I have to work out how to join them together. There is no rhyme or reason for the choices of fabric, colours, design, or anything!

The owls are left over from a quilt I made for a friend's daughter as an 18th birthday present, and also for taking with her to university. Her quilt incorporated leftovers from her bedroom curtains as well as lots of owls. The blue block below (trying saying that without losing your teeth) uses bits and pieces of the same fabrics as the quilt on his side of the bed. 

I finished these blocks a couple of days ago - just three more to go and I will have made them all.





 
 



I have knitted some more blocks for "the Knitting Project" which I started last Summer


The one with the heart motif will probably have to go. I knitted it while watching a Dr Who episode, and had to pull it out about three times. In spite of all the corrections, it's still too full of errors - too many even for me. I might keep it, though; I like the blocks to have memories attached to them.

Wednesday 13th February - Labyrinths and Bach

I was teaching an adult (retired) piano student this afternoon. Although he plays at an advanced level, he had taken a year off playing last year, as so his fingers were nearly as stiff as mine had become, through lack of practise (perhaps I should add daily piano practise to my list of Lent resolutions - but that might be a penance that my fellow family members would not want to pay!)

Because of the break, we have returned to the Anna Magdalena book. These little pieces are deceptive - there is a lot of technique hidden inside the simple melodies and short dances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFUPxPKg_Dg

We are working on this menuet in B flat major, with a steady "walking bass" leading us all the way through. It reminded me of walking a labyrinth; this steady, measured progression all the way into the centre of the dance, and then back out again. There are no fireworks, no surprises, no sudden shocks - just a satisfying journey through well known paths...

We used to "do" the local maize maze every year. I always found this a little too frightening. I suppose, if  I got desperate, I could have just forced my way through the towering plants and got out that way, but I was always scared that we would get lost (well, thinking about it, we WERE lost) and wouldn't be able to get out for hours and hours and hours.

Labyrinths aren't like this. There is just the one path in, and you retrace your steps to get out. Simple.
The Bach menuet is just the same; a gentle walk to the centre, and then a steady return journey. At least, that's the long term plan....

Wednesday 13th Feb - Labyrinths all over London

The other day I tripped across this news item - here's the link and a copy-and-paste of the first paragraph:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21369129

Mark Wallinger unveils labyrinth Tube art

Each of the 270 stations has its own design, including this one for Westminster

Continue reading the main story

 

Artist Mark Wallinger has unveiled his labyrinth design for artworks to be displayed at every station on the London Underground.

Permanent art works are to be displayed at each of the 270 Tube stations to commemorate the network's 150th anniversary.

Inspired by the Tube's symbols, each station will have its own unique black and white design.

The first ten will be on display from 7 February.

It represents the journey through the network taken by millions of individuals each year from that place, Wallinger said.



I'm looking forward to hunting them down at some time - a Summer project, maybe.

 

 

 

Monday 24th September - three-point labyrinth

I expect there is some proper technical name for a labyrinth constructed from a Y shape and three dots.

After reading Growing Greenpatches' post I thought I'd have another go.

I used coloured pencils so that I could see what I had done.

This labyrinth has a very short path, but there is still a fair bit of room for symbolism; you travel up, and round, and down, and anti-clockwise, and clockwise, before you reach the centre.


Thinking about how one could use a home-drawn labyrinth for mediation and prayer, I came up with the idea of drawing it over a picture or shaded paper, so that as you trace the path with your finger, or a pencil, you travel across different colours or images.

Maybe another time.

If you want to end up with a pencil-path with a longer route, you start with more "spokes" radiating out from the centre, with dots between each "spoke". The ones here have four spokes (arranged in a cross) and four dots. Follow the same sequence for joining the ends of the spokes to the dots. Just make sure your piece of paper is big enough...

Friday 6th July - Labyrinthine Days

10 m (33 ft) high fountain of Pāhoehoe lava, Hawaii, United States
picture from wikipedia

At this stage of the term, all my schedules and diaries and calendars go into meltdown.


The regular pattern of my days and weeks disintegrates into a stew of harum-scarum ingredients to be fitted in wherever possible; school concerts, instrument inventory checks, extra piano lessons (I usually enter around half a dozen students who often need extra lessons as the reality of the exam draws ever closer), and exam appointments (I accompany about twenty - thirty instrumental exam candidates who all need rehearsal slots). Add a seasoning of routine blood tests, optician appointments and visits to collect glasses, an unplanned trip to the vet etc etc and the schedules become unmanageable.



I have given up on the diary function on my mobile phone, and stopped using the excel spreadsheet that I use to schedule piano lessons. The only way I can deal with the last couple of weeks of term and the shifting quicksands of the appointments is with a written schedule that I can alter (IN PENCIL) at a moment's notice. And then rub it out and change it again.
Technology just doesn't function as effectively as paper when the chips are well and truly down.

Labyrinth at Meis, Galicia, possibly from the Atlantic Bronze Age
picture from wikipedia

Sometimes I feel as though I am being dragged, kicking and screaming, through a maze


but it is actually only a labyrinth.

There is ultimately just the one path through each day with no dead ends, no false trails.

I just have to begin at the beginning, and follow the path through to the end.