Sunday Picspam - a post of two halves...

[curiouswombat]

Well - it's one post - but two contrasting themes. There are some fascinating (well I think so) church pictures from York - and some of the garden.

Both two weeks ago, when I was still in York, and today at home, the temperature is pleasantly warm and sunny. Probably about 20C, which I know sounds cold to friends in California - but it's a pleasant summer temperature for me. I mention this because D-d is in Buenos Aires where the temperature had dipped down to zero at night... She's having a lovely time though - a mix of museums, maté, and nights out.

I must share her description of maté - it is a bit like a herbal tea but looks, smells and probably tastes a lot like cat-nip.

Any way - the pictures. I have passed St Martin's church in York so many times - it is on one of the main shopping streets. This time I stopped to look properly. The church was called St Martin the Grand - now knowing that there are beautiful medieval churches on almost every corner in the old city of York, you might expect this to be a very impressive church indeed. It is - but not in the way it used to be. The oldest parts of the building date back to the eleventh century although much of it was a little more recent - being fifteenth century. But almost all of it was destroyed in one of the Baedecker air-raids in 1942 leaving only the fifteenth century Tower and the South aisle.

Some churches so badly damaged have been rebuilt, others were demolished. St Martin's was restored so that that tower and aisle became the entirety of the church.



So, this would have been a small part of the church - but now it is the whole church...



And as you can see it has some nice medieval stonework. I like this - I assume it is a small demon; it looks like a rather bad tempered cat -



And my eye was caught by the drip stones at either side of the door - it seems to me as if one is a king and the other a bishop - but I have no idea of the significance - any ideas folks? (I am looking especially at keswindhover...)





The work to return what was left into a working church was mainly carried out in the 1950s - and is really rather beautiful. The church is now dedicated to Peace and Reconciliation. I was very impressed by the reredos. Here you can see how it sits beneath a modern stained glass window, above the altar.



And here it is a little closer -



And now for something completely different.

I spent part of the afternoon with my laptop out in the garden. I was going to take the netbook but it needed charging - and this newest laptop is very light with a pretty good battery life, and so much easier to write on. This is where I wrote about 1,000 words of the BigBang story -



And yes - that would be an alcoholic drink with some of my fresh mint out of the garden in it!

This year the garden is mostly doing pink - here is the view if I glanced around from the screen -



And yes - those are Lollo Roso lettuce in that pot - although they are prettier than they are tasty.

The geraniums and Surfinia are doing well in the wall baskets. Although the baskets themselves are getting a bit tatty.





And this is what was just behind me -



Those lollo rosso have been well cropped - they're getting droopy!

Of course, in the end I stood up, and began to do a bit of dead-heading. Three minutes later I turned around...



I decided it was time to come indoors.

It's still nice out there, though. I might go back later, with a cup of coffee.

Comments

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

At least Shaka waits for you to get up. When I was a kid our big tabby would start off on your lap in an armchair, then every time you moved an inch, would squeeze into the gap you had just vacated, until if at all possible she pushed you out of the entire chair...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Quite often he comes and tries to sit on the laptop if I take it out. But today it was in the shade, once I put the parasol thing up, and so he settled on the table at the edge of the sunny bit.

But I do recognise the tactic you describe all too well. Actually My Mum's dog (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/curiouswombat/Willow/Willow001.jpg) is a skilled practitioner and can take over an entire single bed...

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Oh, I so know what you are talking about! *lol* That's what my cats do to me. :)))