The above photo was not meant to be blurred in the distance. Sigh! You get the idea anyway.
I hope you all survived Storm Arwen with no great damage. We are surrounded by trees here, up on our hill, and so have a good shelter-belt. There was an eyebrow of light snow on the highest distant hills yesterday and a definite heavier fall on hills beyond Hundred House. The Hay-on-Wye road was closed to traffic so I imagine there must have been trees down there, but when we drove to Brita's little Antiques Fair in Llandeilo, all appeared well. Very chilly though - that Northerly wind just blew straight through you.
This morning I came down intending to get on with chores and not be distracted by the computer. Well, that didn't work out! Not only have I come on the computer, but I checked out a post on The Smell of Water (sidebar) and have gone off on a wonderfully convoluted journey with everything from Odin and Huggin and Munnin on his shoulders, to drilled holes for eyes in Anglo-Saxon sculptures and did they originally have glass in, to Pictish beast-headed men and the Iconography of the Papil Stone on Orkney and the Glenmorangie Research Project. Well, that's got my brain working again. I just LOVE research. Oh, if only we could drive up to Teeside and back in a day and visit St Martin's Church, Kirklevington. Ah well. Perhaps we can get away for a few days next summer and head off that way.
I hope this link to Scotland's Early Silver will work:
Oooh, never tried adding a video link before. Success!
We still don't have a working main bathroom. It's plastered, tiled, the bath and sink set in place, and that's it. I cannot get through to the plumber - his phone goes straight to voice-mail - and I am leaving increasingly irritated messages for him to get in touch and let me know what is happening. We are now going into the third week without a bathroom - ironic that we turned the 4 hour quote-from-hell plumber down not just on price, but the fact that the work would take "at least 3 weeks". (Quite apart from the fact that he expected us (combined age 150 years) to take our own ex-bathroom to the Tip, including the old cast iron bath. Sure, we could chuck that in the back of the car no trouble!)
Right, this won't do. Must mop the kitchen floor (that was to be my first job, so it was dry before Keith came down!) and get the ironing done.
Thank you for your lovely comments.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't come across them already, these are great resources https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/home?WINID=1638090448263 more sites are being added on a regular basis
https://chacklepie.com/ascorpus/index.php sadly this does not cover Wales but has some good resources including a free download of Rosemary Cramps book The Grammar of AS ornament
cheers
Gavin
Gavin - thank YOU for visiting and writing about the church at Kirklevington. I have been off on a wonderful journey of discovery this morning. Sod the ironing!! I remember Rosemary Cramp from my degree days. Will check your links - and many thanks for making me realize my brain CAN still work and for putting a big smile on my face.
ReplyDeleteOld cast iron baths are worth something to a reclamation yard...
ReplyDeleteA shame ours is in two halves then Tom!! Mind you, it was so stained and pitted you just couldn't sit down in it - like sitting on sandpaper. I had one luke warm bath in it and after that it has been showers, which I hate.
DeleteSadly we did have storm damage from Arwen - parts of next door's roof cowling and facia boards and masonry came down our outbuildings (but not my new shed office - phew) - nobody hurt and relatively minor damage so I guess we should be grateful
ReplyDeleteOh dear. I hope it won't cost too much to put right. I saw that the Many Tears Animal Rescue had a lot of damage and a new building (classroom) ripped to shreds by the wind.
DeleteWe were lucky here, since the stable roof has tiles on one end which are trying not to breath out too much for fear of falling!
I am glad that you weathered the storm, even here in Canada we heard that things were nasty there.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Well, when they give them names, we know to expect a bad 'un.
DeleteMarvellous article on 'Smell of Water' the church is such a treasure trove of stone and he (is that Gavin?) has recorded practically everything. One day you will luxuriate in a hot bath, think what a treat that will be!
ReplyDeleteGavin did it proud, that's for sure. Still looking longingly at the bath but since it has no taps (hence no water connection yet) looking is all we can do. This week should see us sorted.
DeleteWe had a fair bit of snow - the wind was more damaging with bending and twisting our neighbour's tree in half - I can see it going to need some tree work on it. Chimney pots, wheelie bins and bit of garage/shed rooves were ripped off through out the village but today's problem is the water supply into the village has developed a leak and we now dont have any water! But we are lucky - we still have power so we are very grateful for that :)
ReplyDeleteYou're a good bit further north, so no wonder you had it worse. A Carlisle friend was saying the A66 was closed with feet of the white stuff.
DeleteSounds like your village was hit pretty hard, but not having water must be a real problem, Hope that is soon sorted. Lack of power is hard to cope with too, glad you kept yours.
Thanks for mentioning that wonderful blog post from The Smell of Water - what an amazing church and I would love to visit it too. The photos are superb.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you can get hold of the plumber soon and he finishes the bathroom as soon as possible.
I thought you'd like that post RR. Right up your street.
DeletePlumber and apprentice here for 12 hours yesterday and didn't leave till 9 p.m. All installed now. Back Friday just for a couple of little bits to be fitted.