Monday, 11 March 2013

What's Been Happening?

Oh dear, things have got a bit behind lately. After writing up my blog for the Cornish holiday I concentrated on completing the "Leaving the Closet Behind" series, and with my speed of output that took until January of this year. Since then things have been in the doldrums in several ways and so I've let the blog keeping slip. So it's time to give a brief overview of what I've been up to.

So, what has been happening?


Winchester and Portsmouth with Amanda


A couple of weeks after coming back from Cornwall I received a message from Amanda Parnell asking me if I'd like to meet up in Winchester. Naturally I said yes and we agreed to meet outside Winchester Cathedral on Saturday morning. Unfortunately the cathedral was closed to visitors that morning so we had to change our plans for the day.



The Round Table in The Great Hall, Winchester
Amanda had a parcel to post so we wandered through the shops to the post office and then visited the castle great hall and attached museum. The most striking feature of the Great Hall is of course the Round Table. Once reputed to be "The" round table of King Arthur, it has in fact been dated to the 13th century with the decoration having been added in Tudor times. Whatever its pedigree, it is a most impressive piece of furniture. The museum houses a collection of documents, photographs and maps charting the city's history.

Following our visit to the castle Amanda suggested driving to Portsmouth to visit that city's cathedral. This is a different one from the usual English Gothic buildings that feature in our photographs. In fact I'd say it is one of the most unusual Anglican Cathedrals I've yet visited. The diocese of Portsmouth was created in 1927 and rather than build a new cathedral from scratch, it was decided to adapt and extend an existing church whose origins can be traced back to the 12th century. Like so many such projects in recent years, the work was suspended in 1940 on account of the war and didn't restart until 1990 with consecration taking place the following year.



Portsmouth Cathedral in the Sunshine
With much of the extension carried out in the Byzantine style, the building is a curious mixture of differing architectural styles. But like so many compromises, it seems to work well. Contained with the cathedral is the burial place of one of the members of the crew of the "Mary Rose". There is also a memorial to Admiral Bertram Ramsay, who was the mastermind of the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940 but sadly lost his life just before the end of the war.

After our tour of the cathedral we escaped a sudden downpour by heading to a local teashop. Afterwards with the return of some sunshine, Amanda shot a video for another of her mystery cities contests that she posts on her Flickr pages. All in all it was another great day and as ever Amanda was perfect company for a day out.


New Booties for Moi



Autumn Sunshine in Hampshire
Earlier in the summer I'd made a first visit to Tall girls in Alton, Hampshire. I'd been very pleased with my purchases and with the winter stocks now in I decided to make a return visit to buy some boots for the winter.

As before, I stopped on the way in Alton town centre for a spot of shopping. Unlike my previous visit it wasn't a hot sunny day, but it was still pleasant to wander around the shops and take in a coffee.

The visit to Tall Girls was fairly brief but very successful. I quickly found a pair of knee boots that fitted perfectly and also a nice pair of ankle boots. Once again I was delighted with the friendly service at Tall Girls and wouldn't hesitate in recommending them to anyone with a need for larger sizes.

With time to spare I stopped on the way home to take a few photos in the autumn sunshine.


Michelham Priory and Beachy Head



New Booties at Michelham Priory
Michelham Priory is an old Tudor manor house in East Sussex, built on the site of an old Augustine priory. It's somewhere I'd planned to visit for some time and keen to try out my new boots I decided it was time to go there. There's not a lot to add really other than to say I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and the new boots worked a treat.

I was blessed with some lovely late autumn sunshine so I spent a while wandering around the extensive grounds, as well as having a nice coffee in the cafeteria. The only down side to the visit was the fact that the gift shop wasn't open. A shame really but then there's always possibility of another visit at a later date.

After leaving Michelham Priory I took full advantage of the good weather and headed down to Beachy Head on the East Sussex coast. I had long been trying to get a photo of myself with the nearby lighthouse as a backdrop. Unfortunately the weather always seemed to be against me.

Beachy Head - and New Boots

This day however it was on my side and I finally got the shot I was after. It was taken by the side of the approach track to the old lighthouse at Belle Tout. This was the original Lighthouse at Beachy Head but being on top of the cliffs it was often obscured by fog. So in 1902 is was discontinued and replaced by the structure in this photo.

After the photos I spent some time wandering around the area and taking in some rare sunshine.


After this day my next outing would be a trip to Somerset to visit Lucy and Mandy for some "Christmas Shopping". Well, that was the excuse - if an excuse were needed.

More to come, but thank you for reading this.

Susan XXX

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