Author: Seb Palmer

After my delivery shift I was in Fotheringay, so I took the opportunity to re-visit St Mary & All Saints, a very large and noble edifice. The whole area is utterly gorgeous, as I hope these photos attest.

I always park up near the narrow little bridge. Somewhere round here would be a pretty idyllic picnic spot. Must do that!

Also visible, just about, from this parking place, is the mound of what I assume was once Fotheringay Castle.

I don’t know much about the local history. But the green plaque, shown elsewhere in this post, indicates royal connections.

So… to the church. For some unknown reason(s), I didn’t get a decent pic of the whole edifice, up close. So the above will have to do. I kind of hoped the sun behind it would create a ‘divine rays’ effect…

The interior, whilst lovely, is almost disappointingly plain. At least on first glance. But, as ever, take a while and look closely. And you are rewarded. For starters there’s the fabulous King’s College Chapel style roof, in the tower. Very grand. And very beautiful.

The pulpit is very pretty, and has its own miniature tracery roof, internally. And there are some impressive monuments, flanking the altar.

At this point, I didst ‘give wind’, as Teresa would day. And, lo… I didst follow through, a little. Panic stations! Unlike in many churches these days, I was unable to find a thunderbox.

Exit, ignominiously… waddling. Fortunately I was equipped to deal with this awkward scenario. Lessons? Be prepared.

The walk to and from the main road to the church is delightful. Through an avenue of terrific trees. In strong sunshine, like today, the dappled light is glorious.

Also in Fotheringay…

I’ve definitely stopped at St Leonards before. But was it open then? I can’t recall! Being unsure, I took a(nother?) look.

Fairly run of the mill, perhaps? But still worth the visit.

St Nicholas, at Gunby, is hidden by trees, making it look a little intriguing. I thought I’d investigate. Locked, sadly. Maybe another time?

Not far from here is an interesting looking timber merchants:

When we visited Teresa’s family, we also re-visited this ol’ haunt.

A place Teresa used to come as a child. And somewhere she’s bought me once or twice in the past as well.

She remembered her way around very impressively. And we were blessed with wonderful weather.

It’s a very lovely place, indeed. With rolling meadowlands, and ancient woodlands.

And there are lakes. And a herd of free roaming cattle. I think the walls (and occasional very tight ‘gates’) are there to contain the cows.

We saw plenty of folk – though not too many – enjoying this gorgeous green space whilst we were there.

The Giant Oak

Teresa also took us back to The Aulde Tree, still huge and venerable. But now it has an iron ring around it.

Leaving the woods…

Finally the time came to head back to the car. On the way back to where we parked we came across a lone wandering Canada Goose.

All in all, an utterly gorgeous place. And lovely to return to, all these years later.

Yesterday and today we were down in The Smoke, visiting Teresa’s mum, Jean, and sister, Ruth. We stayed at a B&B/Hotel, very close to Heathrow, in Hounslow.

There was a bit of a carry on over our accommodation. But, to cut a long story short, we wound up staying in a nicer place. So all’s we’ll that ends well.

On the Saturday evening, after stopping in at our accommodation, we headed back up to Weston Drive, Stanmore. Picking up Teresa’s kinfolk, we all went off to a Sri Lankan restaurant, for dinner. Lovely! (Thanks, Ruth)

We went down Saturday, stayed near Heathrow overnight, and on Sunday went to Bentley Priory woods, and then to Teresa’s family home again.

At the latter we helped Jean and Ruth de-clutter a bit; loading up a car’s worth of stuff for disposal. We left about 4 pm.

Noooo!!!

Another great musical legend shuffles off this mortal coil.

A Hard Road was the Mayall album that burned into my musical subconscious as a youngster. I think we only had it on cassette. I just loved it to death. The variety on the album is staggering. From boisterous uptempo rollickers, to fabulous moody numbers, like The Super-Natural, the downright spooky There’s Always Work, and this gem:

Of course, dad had a vinyl copy of The Blues Breakers. And it’s a brilliant album. But Hard Road tops it, for me.

Here are a few images of Mayall, looking damnably cool.

I’m listening to Hard Road again, thinking of the genius that was John Mayall, and digging each and every track.

I’ve been meaning to get the The First Generation 1965-1974 boxed set for aeons. But it’s always been to expensive. And now he’s dead? It’ll probably only go up!

Unfortunately St Andrew’s (above) was locked. As was St Pega’s, Peakirk (below).

Between shifts I nipped home, cooked lunch, and had a very brief snooze. Before embarking on shifts two and three.

Sutton St James, has an unusual gun and WWII/British army memorabilia shop. Sadly due to close this winter.

It gone 10 pm, now. I’m utterly exhausted. Time to sleep, methinks.

When we were in Ely yesterday, I spotted a book at Waterside Antiques, on The Great East Window of York Minster. I think it was priced around £60-80. I can’t recall exactly.

It was a terrific tome. One I’d dearly love to have acquired. But the price was way too high for my straitened circumstances. And the book is pretty old, mostly illustrated in black and white. With only a very few colour plates at the back.

So, rather as with the Painton Cowen Rose Windows books, I thought I’d see if there was a modern title on the same subject. And ‘Googling’ “The Great East Window of York Minster book” lead me to this:

Having found that there was indeed a newer book, I immediately ordered it, from Beelzebub… er, I mean Amazon. It arrived in less than 24 hours. Fab!

All of this reminds me that in actual fact we went to York Minster, many, many moons ago (and a wargaming show, whilst we were at it, I believe?), and I was struck at the time that a very large stained glass window was hidden/removed. And instead there was an enormous print version on display.

Now I realise it must’ve been the East Window. And what we saw – which was a disappointment at the time, obviously – was a result of the restoration project being in progress, which in turn gives us this incredible book.

My pics of this beautiful book aren’t great, as they’re all taken in the low light of our bedroom. But hopefully they’ll give some idea of the fabulous richness of this insanely wonderful artefact.

It starts with about 100 pages that mix numerous varied images with scholarly text. I’ve not read any of this yet. After this comes the Catalogue…

What I bought this book for are the remaining 165+ pages, that reproduce in glorious detail, beautiful colour and stunningly seductive detail, the more than 300 individual panels that comprise the truly Great genuinely awesome East Window.

The above gallery shows full panels, from the more regular square-ish lower parts of the window. The gallery below is made up of some of the details I find amazing, alluring, mesmerising, or – in (perhaps more than?) one instance – hilarious.

The more I look into old churches, cathedrals, etc, the deeper my joy in and passion for them grows. As repositories of our collective cultural heritage, in the form of stunning artistry and craftsmanship, they are nonpareil.

PS – York Minster has its own website, and they have a ‘page’ on this subject that’s worth a look.

Today, our eighth anniversary of moving in to our ‘new home’, in March – July, 2016 – we went on a riverboat ‘pleasure cruise’, ‘pon the river Ouse. Dad, Claire, Sam, Teresa and I.

I volunteered to ‘drive’ the boat. That lasted all of a few minutes. I couldn’t get the damned thing to go in anything other than circles! And with dad freaking out, I decided to bale out.

Sam took over, and did a great job. Eventually. But in the meantime dad just wouldn’t stop with the continual freak-out! We did, alas, wind up fouled in the reeds, and having to call out the marina cavalry.

They tutored Sam in the ways of nautical righteousness. And from there on in – well, with a small second dose of guidance – Sam steered us all the way to Ely and back. Well done, bro’!

Once arrived at Ely, we had to pass the waterfront by, turn around, head back, and then moor up. Dad was still incessantly stressing. But after a first attempt near-miss, Sam got us ‘parked’. He and I secured Bramble to the mooring posts.

There were several causes for our initial difficulties, in Bramble. First, we’re not seasoned or practiced boaties. Second, in a tiny light-weight boat, such as Bramble, strong winds continually blew us off course, very easily and swiftly. Third, dad was at the front on the way out. Again, the tiny-ness of the boat was unhelpful; on the way back, with dad at the rear, the engine sat lower in the water, giving more oomph.

Once moored up, Teresa and I had a picnic, on the park by the river, and decompressed from the appalling stress of the outward journey. Dad, Claire and Sam went to Teacock’s, for lunch. After a brief look around Waterside Antiques, we joined them, for tea n’ a choc’ brownie.

We ate and drank in the back garden of Peacock’s. Which Teresa and I had never been to before. Despite our many visits there.

Dad calmed down a great deal during this sojourn. But it took an awful lot of persuading to get him back on the boat, for the return journey. To his great credit he did finally capitulate. And so we headed back to the mooring.

We got back to the marina with time in hand. I think Claire wanted to go out again (and get our moneys’ worth, poss?). But the rest of us were for getting back to Terry Firmer!

I had allowed myself to get riled by dad’s continual carping on the way out. And I had told him, several times, to shut up. I felt awful about this afterwards. Even if such an admonition was justified.

But in the end, with Percy Verence, and patience and fortitude all round, we saw the cruise through, and even managed, eventually, to enjoy it. At least Teresa and I certainly did.