Yesterday I took advantage of the last open day of the season at Hodnet Hall Gardens. I arrived just after it opened which was lucky because there was also a private function taking place in a marquee within the grounds. This meant the car park got full very quickly and there were cars everywhere.
First stop was the teashop for lunch where I indulged myself with a cherry scone. Then I went exploring the many pathways within the grounds and got a bit carried away with my camera. The ponds here seem to have got taken over by that green weed which is rather a shame from a visual point of view.
Tags: Hodnet Hall Gardens, me, Self Portrait, Water
You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough.
Joseph E Levine
Tags: Cherie's Place Thought, Hodnet Hall Gardens, The Tithe Barn
In 1521 there was a dispute over the election of the prior which led to a visitation from Dr John Allen who took evidence from each of the monks at the priory. He published a report that showed that the once-strict following of the rule of St Benedict had now become slack. The list of ‘Injunctions & Exhortations’ included the following:
- The rule of continuous silence must be kept more strictly.
- There must be no dealings with women. They are forbidden in the cloister absolutely.
- Monks must conform to the rules about regular attendance in church, sleeping in the dormitory and eating in the refectory.
- Private property is forbidden.
- Monks must not hunt and their dogs must be expelled from the cloister, dormitory and indeed from the monastery.
- Gambling on games of cards, marbles and chess is forbidden.
- Monks must not take boys to the dormitory or have them in their company.
- Monks must not carry arms, nor must they form cliques and conspiracies.
- After compline, monks must go to the dormitory and not walk in the garden or go outside the monastery; they must not indulge in late drinking.
- After bleeding, monks may rest for two hours a day; they must not go to a grange for convalescence.
- Monks must be content with food and clothes instead of salaries, but they may receive payment for funerals.
- The prior should not indulge in luxurious and extravagant living with a large household.
- Everyone, from the prior downwards is forbidden to ask anyone what he said at this Visitation.
So according to Dr Allen, immorality, easy living and lack of worship had, by 1521, brought Wenlock Priory into disrepute. *
*From the English Heritage handbook.
For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.
Tags: Garden, PhotoHunt, Water, Wollerton Old Hall Garden
This is the view from the Lady Chapel at Wenlock Priory, it gives you and idea how peaceful the place is.
Tags: 100 Reasons to be glad, Countryside, English Heritage, Wenlock Priory
I put on 0.5lb this week which is probably because I had a bit of a bad weekend and didn’t quite manage to play catch up with my points allowance. I had a trade union meeting in Birmingham today which meant lots of walking, almost 7 miles in fact which should help me out next week.
The meeting was a PCS regional forum which explained how the union was planning to proceed with the attack on the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS) and the threats of massive cuts to public sector workers and services. The union has produced a booklet entitled ‘There is an alternative… The case against cuts in public spending‘, which will be distributed widely so that people can see there is an alternative to massive cuts.
As part of the campaign against the cuts PCS will be taking part in the national demonstration outside the Tory Party conference on 3rd October. During the meeting we were given an update on the latest arrangements for this.
Tags: Life, PCS, Trade Union, Weight Loss, Weight Watchers
By way of Statcounter and a Google link I found this blog post which showed a photo of one of the sculptures in the ‘Beyond Limits’ exhibition at Chatsworth. The post included a link to the ArtDaily newsletter which had an interesting article on the exhibition.
I found out a bit more about the sculpture picture below:
Manolo Valdés’ (b. 1942) Butterflies takes centre stage in this year’s show, with a prime positioning on the Duke’s private lawn in front of Chatsworth House. Butterflies is a unique work that was executed earlier this year in aluminum, a material which both enables an extraordinary play of light over its surfaces while at the same time providing the tensile strength and weight-saving attributes needed to support its monumental headdress measuring over nine meters wide. Commenting on his involvement in the 2010 Beyond Limits exhibition at Chatsworth, Manolo Valdés, the New York-based Spanish sculptor, states: “Seeing my work in such a spectacular setting is very rewarding. It is seldom that one may find such an ideal place as Chatsworth to show this type of art.”
I was also pleased to find out about the sculpture that was displayed in the cascade, you can see my photos of that here:
Yue Minjun (b. 1962) has been one of the most prominent rising stars of the Chinese Contemporary Art scene in recent years and Sotheby’s presents an eye-catching work by him this year: a set of 25 bronze figures entitled Contemporary Terracotta Warriors. They represent Minjun’s visual response to the 8,000-strong Qin dynasty terracotta warriors (221-206 BC), one of China’s world famous cultural attractions. The figures are placed within the stepped cascade at Chatsworth, imbuing them with the order of a military display.
Tags: Beyond Limits, Butterflies, Chatsworth, Contemporary Terracotta Warriors, Manolo Valdes, Sculpture, Yue Minjun
