Lectern

Dropping by and hoping that everyone has enjoyed their Bank Holiday weekend [well those of us in the UK anyway].....please can someone explain to me how it is that we are already nearly at the end of August?!! It's been lots of bits and bobs going on here at GBT. For the first time in a few years we've actually got our act together and picked some blackberries which are now steeping nicely in a brewing bucket with some of our home grown raspberries. That lot will all be made into wine😍

A wee jaunt back over to Michelham Priory in East Sussex yesterday saw Mythago making its dancing return at the Medieval Festival. I have featured this lovely place on here a few times, so will spare you the repeat photos, but I did rather love this wooden 17th century lectern and its traces of original paint remaining. It's supposed to be an eagle which is a symbol of St John, but I'd have guessed goose or duck had I not known. Whilst the eagle is very common I have seen lecterns with other creatures including a parrot of all things. I'd certainly give this one house room.

Speak soon.

Arilx

Just what the doctor ordered.

Famous last words....in the end I didn't escape Covid, but on the plus side bar the weariness, it wasn't too bad and I just sat it out at home. To stop me from climbing the walls we did make good our escape for a brief sortie down to the beach at East Preston on Sunday. A quiet sit on a bench looking out over the sea with a flask of coffee in the early evening sunshine was just the tonic I needed. There was barely a soul to be seen, but instead there were oodles of these gorgeously coloured beach huts💗

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Arilx

Streamline Moderne

 Had you asked me yesterday what architectural style this fabulous building is I would have confidently replied that it's Art Deco. Today I have learnt it's actually Streamline Moderne which is contemporary and related, but without the decorative elements which come with the former. This was inspired by aerodynamic design and is all about the horizontal and curving lines. Whatever the details this place is glorious and a testament to a time when the functional could be made to look so glamorous. The garage was built in 1919, but the frontage is from 1934. Although the garage closed in 1973 the buildings were left in situ and over time became derelict. Once again someone with vision came to its rescue and got it listed in 2007. The old workshops were demolished, but this was the car showroom which is now a private dwelling. Somehow filling the car up at the supermarket petrol station doesn't quite have the same appeal!

Arilx

Not skirting round the issue

 Last Saturday we travelled over to Newbury for a pub lunch with Mr GBT's siblings plus their partners. It's been years since we've all managed to be in the same place at the same time. He's one of six so you can appreciate the logistics in organising it, but it was good to catch up with them all. They're a friendly low key bunch. By Sunday Mr GBT had gone down with Covid (he's got a milder dose this time) which has meant no further gallivanting this week. Fortunately I am still testing clear so I did manage a quick trip into town when I wasn't working and look what was waiting patiently for me on the sale rail outside the charity shop....right up my alley💜 Wasn't loving the waistband mind and that has now been banished and redesigned to make it to my taste. I just need to do a bit of sequin juggling to even the pattern out and when done I shall look forwards to twirling my way through the weekend. 

Being a dame with a very specific taste means I don't often see things which I really like, but this one's ticking all the boxes and worth every penny of my £4 investment. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

Arilx

Wild Times

 We have been blessed with another crop of lovely new members joining Mythago this year. Purely by chance I met one of them separately at a talk being given about Sussex butterflies a few months ago. This has got us chatting about our shared love of nature and the beautiful things we've been lucky enough to see over the years. Although she's lived in the district for a few years, she's a Londoner so there are many places she doesn't yet know about. I offered to show her around our local nature reserve a few weeks ago and we finally made it happen on a dry and sunny afternoon last week. A couple of relaxing hours spent watching a family of Great Crested Grebes and then trying to remember [not always successfully] the names of the wild flowers we saw😊

I asked online what those strange red blobs are....most likely to be Willow Bean Gall Sawfly. 

Another trip to see one of the nature spots on her patch is in the pipeline.

Arilx

Bone Tired

 Some wag had set this up outside their tent whilst they were over on the Wickham festival site enjoying the music. I felt just like that as we trudged past wearily up the hill back to the car after a hectic, but enjoyable day of dancing. It made me chuckle. Hope everyone has a good weekend. 

Arilx

Coastal delights

Don't faint...I have actually emerged from my Olympian cave and met up with friends, not once, but twice over the last couple of days. On Sunday Eloise dandled the prospect of a free local history talk and a chance to explore somewhere different. You know how much I enjoy my jaunts round Sussex....I didn't need to think about it. Although I have been to Shoreham before [as featured on here], this side of the town is new to me. 

Seeing as we were down on the coast let's start with the Shoreham Lighthouse which stands looking out across the harbour. It's made of limestone and the lintel above the door says 1846. Round the black lantern at the top is a circlet of carved dolphins. It remains working to this day.

Our primary destination was at nearby Kingston Buci which once stood separate, but has now been subsumed by the extending thread of development. The locals were holding a talk and tour of their beloved parish church of St Julian. It's another of those beautiful flint churches which are quite common in that part of the county. The evidence suggests that there was an older Saxon church on this site and some remains were found in 1964. However, the present building is 13th century and one of only three in Sussex which had an anchorite cell. Upon his death the anchorite was buried below the floor and the cell was pulled down. The very fact that such an individual was here indicates that this would have been an important road and quite possible a pilgrim route over to the continent.

This piece of ecclesiastical furniture is probably one you haven't seen before as it's very possibly the only surviving 17th century singing desk. The pitch pipe was added later and would have been used to help the congregation hit the right singing note!

It's thought that at one time during the English Civil War the Roundheads might have been used the church to stable their horses and sharpen their swords on the pillars. Sadly you can see some examples of their handiwork with the damage they inflicted upon the carvings on one of the ancient tombs. It still hides a cheeky little secret though for all along the ceiling of it are Tudor roses or so you think, but if you look back over your shoulder there's this single cheeky imp sticking his tongue out at you. I've turned the photo round so that you can see him the right way up. 

There was an excavation held in the churchyard back in 1927 and they dug up a couple of stonking finds which I strongly suspect were hurriedly buried so that the Parliamentarians couldn't destroy them. One was a panel of 15th century glass and the other this rather fabulous scallop shell basin. It's described as a Saxon font, but I do wonder if it's Medieval . It's now standing in the vestry and is still used for washing the communion vessels.

Outside too this place has a few hidden treasures. The lychgate across the road has these three rather charmingly naive carvings which presumably date from 1926 when it was put up.

The enthusiasm of the volunteers was infectious and spurred on we decided to fling a final foray into the mix. Sometimes things aren't quite what they seem. The stately home frontage is from Buckingham House which was built in 1655. It had been left unoccupied and open to the elements for many years following a fire in 1905 and was due for demolition in 1954. Thankfully a local historian had the foresight to get it listed as a grade II the day beforehand and now it sits rather incongruously at the centre of a road of 1970s style Georgian houses with a 1960s block of flats attached to the back of it. The empty space is now a rather pretty communal garden. It's a place you would need to know about as it's tucked away. 

Before we headed back we both chuckled at this little notice on the bench and it seems only right and proper that having started with a lighthouse that I should finish with one of the newest knitted ones I've seen.

Such a lovely way to spend a couple of hours.

Arilx
 

Slow news week.

 Here at GBT it's been working in the heat and as much Olympic viewing as I can get away with.....hence no real news. All I have for you in the way of a rather paltry offering is my sheer delight at learning two new phrases this week.....'don't spare the horses' [be quick and don't waste time] and 'Casey's court' [a gathering of unruly children]. Now to find some sentences which I can work them into! I did manage to tear myself away from the coverage long enough to snap one of the new toppers. There have been a few of late, but this one made me smile.

My apologies...I am also behind with my blog reading and commenting. No excuses...all self inflicted. Mildly abnormal blogging service will be resumed in the next week or so. Have a fabulous weekend. I am dancing at a music festival...not my natural territory and too crowded for me really, but I rather enjoyed it last time despite all that so am looking forwards to making a return visit.

Arilx