Lincoln Cathedral part two - looking for graffiti

Chris had recently been on the graffiti tour at Lincoln Cathedral, so he was happy to show me some of the graffiti he found.   As humans, we seem to need to leave our mark in some way and these images are left in the Cathedral stone work. There were a lot of names, such as Thomas Robinson, above.

There were also some circular patterns.

I like the extra decoration on R Cook's name.

This isn't graffiti - it is the chisel marks on the stone, but it fascinated me.

This made me smile - someone had added an extra 'e' to John Skelton's name, making him John Skeleton!

There were some images of ships.  This one has three masts.

This carving was on the wall of a tomb and says John Bunch, with 'Singing Boy' underneath.  Chris said the guide thought he might have been a choir member at some time.

A more complex ship.

I wonder who Josiah was?

Was this from 1671?

Can I spot John Bunch again? This time he is accompanied by Peter Lely in 1756 and some others who were here in 1697.  These carvings were also above a tomb.

RW from 1732.  I wonder how long it took to carve initials or a name?  

1698 was the date for this one.

Nathaniel Jackson obviously had the time to carve all of his name.

John Whaley from what looks like 1576 had time to create some lovely decorative patterns on his name.

John added some impressive swirls too.  

Even though we don't know who these people were, they will be remembered for as long as the cathedral is standing, assuming you know where to look to find their names.  It was fascinating to see them all.  

Looking at the Cathedral across the new garden for the Visitors' Centre, I liked the way the colour of the grasses echoed the colour of the limestone.  I really enjoyed my visit.

Lincoln Cathedral part one - the Moon, Duncan, the Imp, Katherine, Eyes and Dragons

We visited Lincoln Cathedral last week, partly to see the Moon exhibition in situ and partly because Chris had been on a 'Graffiti tour' previously and wanted to show me what they had found.  It was half term, so it was very busy with lots of families looking round.  Good for the Cathedral funds but not so good if you wanted a peaceful experience!  

I last saw the Moon exhibition at the Collection in Lincoln (in 2019 - see the post here) and it was a little cramped, although you were much closer to it.  I think it looks more impressive in a larger space like this.

It really was quite a presence.

I'm pleased I saw it here.  

We had a good look round the Cathedral, mainly for graffiti (more on that in part two), but I also stopped off to revisit some of my favourite areas, such as the chapel painted by Duncan Grant.

I like the bright colours he used.

I also liked these carvings, which were quite high up and easy to miss.

I had to say hello to the Lincoln Imp.

Here's a close up of him.

I also stopped off at Katherine Swynford's tomb.  

I have read the novel, Katherine by Anya Seton and the biography of her, Katherine Swynford: John of Gaunt and his scandalous Duchess by Alison Weir.  She lived opposite the cathedral at one stage.

The sun came out briefly and I captured the colours of the stained glass on the pillar.

The Bishop's Eye window... 

...and the Dean's Eye window.  The glass is from the 13th century.

I liked these dragon-type creatures on the font. This is a rare Tournai font, made of blue-black limestone during the 12th and early 13th centuries in and around the Belgian town of Tournai (thank you to wikipedia for that information).

There is more to come about the Cathedral in my next post.

First garden visit of 2022

On a rather wet and grey Sunday, my garden visit companions, Katy and Alison headed off to Easton Walled Gardens, which is a thirty minute drive away.  It had just opened for snowdrops the Friday before.  I had visited before, but not since 2015, so was interested to see how things had grown and changed.  I had managed to slip on our stairs that morning, which had winded me, but I was lucky and hadn't done any lasting damage, although felt a little more fragile than usual! 

The house was demolished in the 1950s but I believe the bulldozer broke down and the gatehouse was left standing.  

I remember these spirals as very small last time I visited.  (You can see it was raining).

They make a lovely feature now.

The snowdrops were looking lovely, flowering away under the trees.

I liked this combination of hellebore, cyclamen coum and pulmonaria.

More snowdrops on the bank...

...and snowdrops as far as the eye could see by the river.

I managed to lose my footing around here and ended up sprawling on my back amongst the snowdrops. which caused much hilarity (and I don't think I will ever be able to live it down).  Again, luckily, it was a soft landing and apart from a bruise on my leg, I escaped unscathed.  It was completely my own fault, not being aware of where my feet were while trying to take a photo.  

I liked these troughs planted with iris reticulata.

The hedge above had been pruned to show its lovely bumpy shapes.

The bridge was a Victorian addition.

This trough also caught my eye.  The combination of ferns, snowdrops, hellebores and cyclamen works so well and could be repeated in a large pot at home...hmm...

Yes, I came away with another hellebore to add to my collection.  I spied this one as soon as I went to the shop. It is 'Harvington Pink'.

Such a pretty pink too.

Isn't it a beauty?  Being with friends, tea, cake, snowdrops and hellebores - what a great way to start the garden visits in 2022.