The Way of the Wombat

D-d has set off back to York - I took her to the airport this afternoon, and she should be back in her house by now.

Last night being her last evening at home for a while, we had a house full of young women in their early twenties, and I spent the evening closeted upstairs, leaving them to their pizza, films and gossip. S2C commented this morning that it was clear that the house had been full of women all evening - apart from the pizza and salad they also managed to eat 1kg (2.2lbs) of chocolate and a tray of chocolate brownies between the ten of them... I mainly spent the evening reading and writing - but actually uploading pictures and posting them is somehow easier back in my usual place.

So - there are a couple of landscape pictures and some Christmas themed ones this week - also some where I have been 'playing' with instant effects in Photo-plus, sparked off by something in cairistiona7's journal.

( a bit image heavy )

And, completely back to reality, I go back to work tomorrow, after 2 whole weeks off. I expect there will be at least 30 messages on my voice-mail but the 'good' news is that, almost inevitably, 4 or 5 will be from someone who hasn't listened to the message and rung back, over and over, to ask why I didn't get back to them - if it's anything like usual.

Now, as it is almost 9pm, on JRR Tolkien's birthday, I will join other fans world-wide, and raise a wee glass to the memory - it's sort of like Burns' night without the piper and the haggis!

Before anything about my pictures for today, can I just say Our Boy Done well!

D-d and I sat and watched the last 35km and were jumping up and down and cheering him at the end there.

Today is my usual Sunday Pic Spam, so not beautiful pictures of fabulous Italian cathedrals with painted ceilings, but some pictures of another of our, much less ornate, parish churches.

Actually the first picture is not part of the church picture post, it is a piece of of our industrial heritage, but the other pictures are almost all of Lezayre Church - which has special significance for wildecate, so I am hoping that she notices!

( industrial heritage, another gateway, and Lezayre church )

I've had a lovely day today - I've been totally lazy, even skiving off church as there is no Sunday School now that the schools have broken up. I've pottered around dead-heading flowers, sat in the garden with a wee glass of wine for a while, made banana and chocolate chip cake to use up the over-ripe bananas, revised another chapter of Ten Years After to post over at Twisting the Hellmouth, and spent time downsizing some more of D-d's holiday pics to share later in the week. Oh, and eaten garlic and lemon prawns with salad for lunch, and chicken with roast sweet potato and cabbage for dinner. Now for coffee, and a bit of that cake.

Well, I know it's not exactly festive, but I have a few pictures taken at St George's in Douglas. Only the outside - there was a service on when I was up there - lunch time communion I think.

This was the second church built in the town of Douglas - the first, St Matthews, was down at the quayside, beside the market - it didn't have a churchyard.

St George's was built in the mid eighteenth century, one of the trustees during the building was the future father-in-law of Captain Bligh of 'Bounty' fame, and one of the earliest organists was Charles Dickens grandfather who lived out his life on the island to escape debtors' prison in England!

The churchyard is not very big, and is surrounded by offices, banks and the like these days. What is interesting is that for some years this was the 'field of strangers' - local people had the right of burial in either Kirk Braddan or Kirk Onchan - the parishes in whose land Douglas slowly grew. So, to quote the church history, those buried here

include retired half-pay officers, doctors, shopkeepers, artisans and impoverished gentlefolk escaping their creditors. They had flocked to the Island because of its low taxes and cost of living and found their last resting place in St George’s. Descent from the nobility is not infrequently claimed on the headstones, and at least fifty graves are those of persons with military titles or linked to the same.

I only took a few pictures apart from the one in the 365 post of Sir William Hillary's grave.

( under here )

So - just a few pics of St Georges.

Guess what? Once again I missed my LJ anniversary - it was 5 years on the 12th of this month...

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?

When I posted the pictures of Bride Old Church Yard earlier this week I commented that I had also taken some in the newer part of the graveyard. The original churchyard runs east from the sanctuary end of the church, the newer one is basically the width of a small field running along the north side of both church and old churchyard.

So, under the cut are a ( few more assorted relatives, a rather romantic looking angel, a submarine, and even a spot of gaelic. )

Speaking of my daughter, as I was under the cut, she is home from her trip to Amsterdam. Oh how much I love our daughter! Well, you know that, but I just love her take on life so much. As well as the usual description of the hostel they stayed in, the breakfasts, the chocolate waffles, and so on, were these two gems of Kat-ness.

"I held out until the last day, but when we were all out shopping I finally gave in. I said to the others to go on but I just had to go to the Amsterdam Museum - and I ran into it and stood and went 'Aaaah! Museum....' I only stayed about three hours though, then I could face shopping again."

"I did one of the things I've always, always, wanted to do! There was a Hari-Krishna procession - and they asked us to join in. And they gave Hannah some of those little tin castanets to play. And we got cards with the words on, in case we didn't know them! And we, like, processed around Amsterdam at the end of the Hare-Krishna procession! And I've always, always, wanted to just join one of them and dance through the streets chanting! It was so cool!"


Also today, apart from going to Tescos and doing some washing I have tidied the yard and written a chunk of Brotherhood. Oh, and worked out my lesson for Sunday School tomorrow - school is back, and so we are back to lessons on Sundays, too. Tomorrow might be a bit like herding cats...

In yesterday's post I had a picture of Odd's Cross, a piece of ninth century Viking carving from Old Kirk Braddan Church. When I stopped by there on Saturday I took a few more photos than just that one. They include some pictures of the church yard and a couple more thousand year old crosses.

( click for the pictures )

So - I have to admit, despite all the ancient, ancient stuff, my favourites are the seventeenth century 'made in advance' stone, and the bogie!