Tantalising Tintern

Tags

Cistercian, Decorated Gothic, Monmouthshire, Tintern Abbey, Wye Valley

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

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Saturday in Abergavenny

Tags

Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales

 

                                             Brrrr!  Photos by Candia Dixon- Stuart

Over The Fence

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alpaca, Golden Hour, sheep may safely graze

 

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

The Lost Souls of Great Rissington

Tags

Fry's Five Boys chocolate, Great Barrington, Great Rissington, Lest We Forget, quatrain, Remembrance Day, shrapnel, St John Baptist church, villanelle, Windrush, World War1

Photo by Candia Dixon- Stuart

A re-blog from 5/11/16

 

I visited the church today as I wanted to somehow commemorate five

brothers who were all killed in World War 1.  Their youngest brother-

Percy Soul- died of meningitis after the war.  He was the sixth son.

Apparently some villagers were annoyed that Mrs Soul received financial

‘compensation’ for her five sons’ deaths in service.

Unbelievable!

Later she moved to Great Barrington.  She had three daughters who must

have been traumatised by the loss of their brothers.

I kept thinking of Fry’s Five Boys chocolate, for some reason and I checked

that it was in production when the boys were young.  It was.  I hope they

were able to enjoy this childish luxury as they ran around the fields,

scratching their names on the beams of a barn.  Maybe not, if they were

relatively poor.

(Photo by Kim Traynor, 2013.  Own work of enamel sign.)

It was freezing cold today.  Inside there were wall monuments to others

who had died – centuries before.  One girl had only been 19 when she

expired.

There was a little trapped wren inside and an aspiring organist who

arrived for a practice.  I don’t know how he could have attempted to play

with cold hands!

Anyway, I went home and thought I’d try a villanelle.  The rhymes are

limited, but there are 5 tercets- one for each brother, maybe.  It ends with

a quatrain, where the rhyme feels a bit anti-climactic.  But then, maybe it

suits the content… All ready for Remembrance Day.  Let’s Not Forget.

The Lost Souls of Great Rissington

So, she wouldn’t stand for God Save The King,

though all five sons lay down for him and died.

For each life she pocketed a shilling.

The candle in her window kept burning,

watched by a girl who’d never be a bride.

And a mother and three sisters crying

was no salve for the sharpness of Death’s sting.

Over the cow-common, The Windrush sighed

and, in a drawer, telegrams were yellowing.

The candle guttered- a Soul was leaving.

The Roll up yonder couldn’t be denied.

No bugler registered this sibling.

In a village barn there is a carving-

names of hopeful lads which emphasised

desires for immortality.  Living

in a peaceful hamlet?  No, perishing-

even a twin had no one at his side.

While some entrenched neighbours were gossiping,

lethal as shrapnel and more exacting.

(St John the Baptist Church, Great Rissington

Photo by Jonathan Billinger, 2007)

Mexican Day of the Dead (Oxfordshire)

Tags

Ashmolean, Mexican Day of the Dead, Oxfordshire

Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart.  The Ashmolean.

Hailes Abbey- Gloucestershire

Tags

Cistercian, Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, Hailes Abbey, Rule of Benedict

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Treasures of Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire

Tags

blood of Christ relic, Cotswolds, encaustic tiles, Gloucestershire, Hailes Abbey, monks' bell, Percy coat arms, Samson and the lion

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Badbury Clump

Tags

Atrebates, Badbury Clump, Belgae, Catuvellauni, King Arthur, Marasnius oreades, mercenaries, Mons Badonicus, mycology, Voltigern

Photo by Lord Mayonnaise, 2012 (Bolton) 

Mushroom Observer.  Wiki

 

Ancient boundaries:

Atrebates, the Belgae,

Catuvellauni.

A whiff of Arthur,

as he defended this land

from the foreigners –

those mercenaries

whom Voltigern had welcomed.

Was Mons Badonicus here?

I stumble across

some pushy Marasnius

oreades, which

rejuvenate with raindrops,

blown in from mainland Europe.

Challenged, they go underground.

They know coasts are never clear,

but invasion is a fact.

They are here for the long term.

Christ Church, Oxford Today

Tags

Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell, Christ Church, Henry Liddell, Lewis Carroll, Oxford, Peter Eugene Ball

 

Peter Eugene Ball’s Madonna and Child; statue of Henry Liddell

(father of  Alice, as in ‘Wonderland’)

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Charentaise Carousel Cartouches

Tags

carousel, cartouche, Charente Maritime, fairground, La Rochelle

Photos by Candia Dixon -Stuart