A New Day

 Ailz was on the road all day yesterday. The M6 was snarled up with roadworks and accidents so more people than normal were using the M1- which meant the M1 was nose to tail and the going was slow. But she's home now and she's had a good night's sleep .

We have stuff from Dorothy's lying around on the floor. There's a star-shaped mirror which Ailz has always liked, there's an electric steamer we bought Dorothy but she never used (in fact it never came out of its box), there's a weird pedicure machine which Keith gave her and she told him she used every day- but looks to me to be in mint condition (even though it's out of its box), a foot stool with a top that Ailz wove, a little book rack that Ailz had as a child- and so on. The ornaments have already been distributed around the house. There's a family bible (early twentieth century) and a couple of wedding albums and some table mats...

And it's a new day and the sun is shining.

Nice Brass, Pity About The Church

St Swithun's East Grinstead used to have a spire that was the pride of the town. In 1772 it was struck by lightning and fell over in a westerly direction and demolished the rest of the building. The city fathers decided on a complete rebuild and called in the prodigious Lunnon architect James Wyatt- who designed them a church of grandiose proportions and considerable frigidity. Nothing remains of the former church, so far as I can see, apart from a few funerary memorials. The Victorians added gloom to the frigidity by filling the windows with their tiresome stained glass.

I didn't take many photos- and the only one I really like is this- of a 15th century memorial brass. Brasses can be difficult to see- let alone photograph- because they're so highly reflective. You have to get the light to fall just right- and in this instance it did...



P.S. Is brass rubbing still a thing? It's been a long time since I last saw anyone at it.