Looking Through a Window

A view at Coventry Cathedral, in England, or the ruins of to be exact. Another snippet from my trip.  I have always been fascinated by the shape of a cathedral window, so it was great to see so many on my trip. Windows in general truly fascinate me, its that mystery of what the view shows or what's behind the corner that you can't see. Is there any aspect of architecture that fascinates you?  I'd love to hear about it.

A Moment In Time

I am recording videos for my class this week so I have little art to show you.  So I think this week I'll show some random photographs that I took on my trip to Ireland. Just a small snippet of beauty here and there. This is at my friend Donna Higton's home in England, well her garden actually. Wishing for you, a little spot of beauty today.

Castles and Cathedrals

I went to visit my online friend Donna Highton who lives in the West Midlands near Birmingham.  She lives in a village called Meridan.  

Here she is, all smiles as we chatted in the back garden an

Father a full day of sightseeing.

Donna picked me up from the train station, we stopped off at her place to drop off my luggage and then headed to Coventry. 

Covemtry was destroyed during the blitz of World war 2.  The ruins of the Cathedral still stand and they were beautiful to see. They built another cathedral but it is not nearly as interesting.

I loved seeng the sky through all those windows.

Ok enough of the Cathedral. Next we went to a museum called the Herbert.

Coventry was an area famous for ribbon weaving.  They used these massive Jacquard looms.

Thu s a side view of one of the looms.

This shows several ribbons being wove at the same time.  In this picture they are red white and blue.  Also you can see shuttle piled up containing the yarns used in the weaving.

Here is a view of the whole loom.

Next we went to a pub for a cool drink, Ioved the view from my seat.

This is Kenilworth castle it is another ruin.A lot of it is intact but a lot f it is more like remnants of its former self.

For a girl who likes doorways and windows I had a blast taking photos.

Ok that's enough Castle pics.

Here we are laughing it up.  Pretty soon we were pretty tired so we headed for a country pub for dinner.  I decide to go decidedly British this time.  I had my first steak and Ale pie with potatoes verges and gravy.  It was really great.  What a wonderful day we had.

Next stop Dublin.

Meeting someone I hadn't expected.

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Here Lisa and I are sitting in her garden.  What a great time we've had today.

We planned a visit to see Sulgrave Manor today.  It's funny that I traveled all the way to England to meet this man.

Yep it's George Washington,  Sulgrave Manor just so happens to be the home of his ancestors.

This was our capable guide, he filled us with stories of Lawrence Washington and all the other relations of George Washington.  It was a pretty fascinating.

This the manor today but it was much larger in its heyday.  

There were several spinning wheels.

Here we are in the kitchen where we learned about the tragic life of spit boys, the lack of medical knowledge and the fact that the poor people actuallly ate healthier than the rich. Darker bread vegetables and little meat was healthier than the ruche duet if white bread and meat.

The gardens were beautiful.  

Ok that's enough flowers.  

This is the front of the house which shows a lot about the man who owned the house.

The triangle. At the top showed how he made his money, that was my wool.  The second thing was frme honor from the queen, I can't quite remember what it was called but let's just say it gone him great status. The third thing is the crest of the Washington Family which includes 3 red stripes which represent rivers of French blood from the battle of Crecy where the family served honorably.  There are stars on the crest too but I don't remember what they are for. The interesting thing I didn't know is that when Betsy Ross created the American flag, Martha Washington suggested that the Washington crest be used for the design.  So the red stripes in our flag represent rivers of French blood.  Funny things that you learn when you are on a trip.

We spent the afternoon making some art together which was such a delight. Tomorrow I am headed to Birmingham. To spend some time with my friend Donna. 

A Day In Cambridge

I I left Grantham this morning and a couple hours later, I arrived in Cambrudge to meet this lovely lady.

My friend Lisa is a wonderful artist I met online several,years ago.

Cambridge is full of fascinating architecture.  I took a zillion pics but won't bore you with all of them.  

We took a ride on one of the punt boats.  This is our driver and guide who regaled us with all,the fascinating stories about mNy of the colleges.

After ou ride we decided to go here and have a drink here.

This is the pub where DNA was discovered.  We immediately felt like intellectuals when we entered, just kidding...

We had a wonderful dinner at this pub, and the dessert Imhad was a chocolate and salted caramel and cream concoction that was just heavenly.

I loved this mysterious lane, So after taking a picture we had to go down and discover what is down the lane.  We had a nice walk but didn't discover anything amazing.

A few more shots in Cambridge.

That's it for tonight.  

Making Art Today

Claire and I spent the day indoors and pulled out her art supplies to play.

My first piece with watercolor crayons and some oil pastels.

My favorite piece of the day was this little forest of trees.

Just geometric shapes resulted from. This watercolor background.

I had some difficulty with her.  She has a watercolor background is created with oil pastels.

Claire is intently working on her drawing.

My last piece seems like I was channeling Sedona, Arizona. This is the beginning of something but I am not sure of what.

Tomorrow I am off to visit another friend in Cambridge.  Till then enjoy.