And Again


I thought we'd stick with Northampton for a couple more days - y'know - kind of Cambridge-and-places-you-can-reach-easily-from-it-Daily-Photo type thing ;p

This is the door of the CRM house of yesterday - I want one just like it. The panels are yellow glass and glow ethereally inside. On the other side is the understated room of yesterday's post.

78


Drove 40 mins out of town yesterday to Northampton to visit a very special house. Like many people, my favourite designer/architect is Charles Rennie Mackintosh. As you probably know nearly all the buildings he worked on are in Scotland but he took a commission in 1916 to design some of the interiors of a house in Northampton for WJ Bassett-Lowke, a local businessman. The house was bought by the council in the last decade and is administered by a trust who, with the aid of a Heritage Lottery grant restored it completely and now it's open to the public. I nicked this pic off the web as photography isn't allowed in the house. This is the lounge/hall where the Bassett-Lowkes entertained their guests. Imagine walking into this room in 1917! The rest of the house is equally beautiful but less dramatic - even the lady of the house couldn't stomach it for more than five years and it was completely redone in grey in the the early 20s. Anyway, I loved every inch of the place and now I have to go to Glasgow to see the rest of his creations. Here's a link to the house but going via the google image search here takes you to a lot more info. Oh, and if you want to visit when you're here, I'll happily go with you. You get the tea and cakes though...

ps - sorry about yesterday but got home to find that the cover for the golf book had to be reprinted and things just went all kerplooey after that...

Stop, Tarry Awhile...


...and enjoy the peace of the Univerity Botanical Gardens. After a week of histrionics (my own) I needed a little countryside, so I went to the least-countryside-like spot you could find, the manicured and manipulated gardens right here in town. Well worth a visit when you come and there's even a shiny new cafe being built. I'll have a double-decaf, extra foam, moccha latte with sprinkles, thanks.

Oh, look...


...another picture of an old building in Cambridge ;p But this one's quite important. It's the chapel of Peterhouse College, the model for the one in Porterhouse Blue. It's the oldest of the colleges that form the University and was built in 1284. The chapel itself is a comparative young 'un - constructed 1628-32. No doubt by George Wimpey's ancestors....

So they had to pull the offending wisdom tooth out. Oh - the pain, the blood, the tears. And that was just when they told me. So another favourite Happy Place shot for today. Probably back to normal tomorrow.

If I survive the blood-loss.

Go To Your Happy Place


I have monster toothache today so can't be bothered with a new pic, just feel like reposting an old favourite. And it rained on and off all day today so that helped with the mood :)

Of course, being a guy, I'm not going to the dentist or anything constructive like that; I'll just continue moaning...heh

Just an Old-Time...


...kinda guy I guess. When you look at the new-fangled work of hideous horological hardware a couple of posts below and then look at this, I defy anyone to genuinely prefer the aesthetics and ergonomics of the former. Crappy phone-cam pics aside, a million quid seems, well, an obscene amount for that. This is the clock of the University church, Great St. Mary's - about 200 yards down the road from the ego-folly shown below.

A Degree of Ceremony


Possibly the most famous of university buildings after King's Chapel is the Senate House, sitting regally a the end of King's Parade. Tends to be used only for degree ceremonies these days but there was once a time when its roof was used as a car park... Those pesky kids.

Gotta Lava Sky Like This


Ok, that was lame I know but to celebrate the late arrival of summer in Cambridge I thought we'd try some levity. Crazytalk... Sunset on Parker's Piece - the very spot that gave us the modern rules of football and where Jack Hobbs started playing cricket. And where I once... No, best not finish that sentence ;p

Oh, and the books are in! How excited am I?!

Holy Evil Jiminy Crickets Batman...


...is that the time?

This is a ride-by shooting while I was on the bike, taken with the phone so it's amazing it came out at all, let alone legibly. And I missed all the tourists too. They were gawping at this new clock that was unveiled by the 'Hawkman' - Stephen Hawking yesterday. Some bigwig is endowing Corpus Christi College with a bunch of cash and had a library built in his name - this is the £1M clock showpiece. The evil grasshopper is powered by the pendulum and moves the gold-plated disc that illuminates to show the time. If you biggerise the pic (it's a word...) you should see that it was 3 minute3s past 4 as I narrowly missed the jaywalkers...

Ya know, it's nice to be nice but I have to say that this is one of the scariest, ugliest things I've ever seen. And I regularly see my bank statements. Whatever, I'm sure people of taste and refinement think it's the zenith of form and function.

Ok...


Why would we doubt the veracity of this Southwold gentleman's claim? And, of course, who's to say it belongs to a man? Anyway, I wasn't in Southwold to get tips, tricks and tactics from a master (no matter how easy that is to believe) - no, I was there for fish and chips from Mrs T's little shack down at the harbour. Even if you come over to visit Scotland, I swear it's worth the journey to get some. I mean, in quieter months you even get to select the piece of fish you want. Just incredible.

I wonder if his claim is true... I mean - I had an awesome car once with the number plate XSX - and that certainly wasn't true. Believe me.

Mow It and Roll It.


An American tourist once asked a college porter "Gee, your grass sure looks great. How d'ya get it looking so perfect?' 'Mow it and roll it for six hundred years sir,' came the deadpan reply.

I was told that by a guy whose cousin's girlfriend's cat's vet's son was actually there so it has to be true. But true or not, the grass in Cambridge colleges is generally billiard-table quality. This is Corpus Christi College's effort - and you have to agree, that's a sweet bit of turf.

Just the other day in 1382, the college was the cause of an uprising by townspeople like myself. A mob led by the city's mayor stormed it in protest against its rigid exaction of "candle rents" or rent charges assessed upon houses in its ownership, according to the number of wax-tapers found. Personally I keep only three, small, wax tapers about my accommodation - but I swear I saw my neighbour flagrantly playing his PS3 by the light of at least 5 of the scented variety no less!

Ibesas Pelicanos Noster?


Something our pelican? I'm not sure. I nearly passed my O level Latin at school but, y'know, nearly doesn't help much. I'm going to go with Save Our Pelicans because well, we should. But it doesn't even look like a pelican does it?

Same church as yesterday and I know, I cover too much stained glass in the blog but I love it - and just think, you get it all for free :)

N.

Charity


St. Botolph is the patron saint of travellers - and all aspects of farming. I have some St Christopher cuff-links and I'm wondering if it's only luck that's kept me from vagabonds and highwaymen when I've been abroad... Perhaps they're both up there watching out for us so maybe I should start searching for a tie clip featuring St B?

This is a detail from the North Aisle of St Botolph's Church here in the city -at what used to be the city gate for the south of medieval Cambridge. The panels alongside feature Hope and Faith unsurprisingly. There are around 8 churches in approx 200yds in this area and this one of the ones that gets overlooked - it's worth popping in though - the main part is 700 years old.

and here's some cheeriness:

"though the agent of their misery is invisible,
and one child rises from the floor and presses her face to the ice,
and she is beautiful and her pain is all-consuming,"

660-year-old Coffee?


Well, I dunno but it sure tastes like it. Had a break in the University Combination Room today - right in the centre next to the Senate House, Old Library, King's College etc. It's a function room for university staff and serves the most godawful coffee and tea - but quite nice cake. You can read about it here but the main points to note are the original wooden ceiling (detail below), the William Morris Carpet and the elephant tusks on display - a gift from Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I. The ceiling really is astonishing.

"one does not, even figuratively, fuck with nelly fags,
given the crucible of violence the world is for them;"

It's not...


a great shot but it has an atmosphere I like. Y'know, eventide settling on the ageless majesty of education... blah. But it is beautiful and the way the stone glows in the sunlight... mmm, Emmanuel College's peaceful, stunning serenity is found less than ten yards from one of Cambridge's main streets. That's the college chapel through the arch. And no, I don't wear a bustle...

"people swimming in each other’s skins awhile,
floating in each other’s secrets and obsessions"

Jaunty...


...but timeless. The angle annoys some but you can't get away from the fact that St. John's College it's pretty goddamn gorgeous.

Long Shadows...

Summer Sighs...


The weather was so drab and just plain...debilitating today, I thought I'd remember a time when we were young and carefree, when we allowed our spirits to roam untethered in the sun-caressed ether of halcyon days... etc. Last summer, Heacham nr. Snettisham - about an hours drive from Cambridge and well worth it. I mean there's nothing there - you ahve to drive miles for your nearest mid-afternoon McDonald's - and as such is just perfect.

A book that could turn me into a chef... stop that crazytalk!

But Before the One Before...


...you get to enjoy this, the Fellows' Building of the Second Court. I love everything about the court - especially the lampposts; I expect Mr Tumnus to appear any moment...

The Unbearable Thrill of Gamblin'...?

Ooh, lovely. Walk through the gorgeous gates of Christ's College, through the college proper and then you come to this, the typewriter. A 60s vision of future tenemental bliss...

Evocative Victory

Eastern Lights


There are way too many churches and chapels in Cambridge to bore you week after week with their magnificent windows but every couple of months I like to squeeze one in. This is a detail of the east window in the chancel of St Michael's in the city centre and if the sun had been present the colours would have been more spectacular. As it is though, the artistry and craftmanship are still impressively evident on even the dullest day.

Simply Spectacular

Lodge-ical Design


This is the rather fabulously ornate cupola roof of King's College Porters' Lodge. Simply Stunning. A standard view of (all of) it can be seen here if you insist on actually learning something useful...

Calling Time


So I guess Britain is famous for, amongst other things like buses and rain, phone boxes and pubs. Therefore, ladies, gentlemen and the others at the back, I present to you the zenith (or nadir I guess) of form and function - a phone box in a pub (The Alma, Russsell Court). As if that wasn't enough, it's a fish tank as well!! It's like, well, poetry.

Hell is the Place Between Words and the World

Church View


There's a small exhibition taking place at the moment at the Michaelhouse Centre on Trinity St. There's some great stuff and I noticed some of the art is by Irony who's a bud of Maya's - who I always go on about as you know. Here's a link to their stuff online at Blight Society. It's just quite brilliant.

The final pages of the novel's first chapter are up over here. 23 days 'til publication..!

Did I Mention...


...that the Imperial War Museum, Duxford is celebrating the airfield's 90th anniversary with an enormous and fantastic airshow this weekend? I guess I may have done. I'm not on commission or anything, honest. I just think that educationally, historically and entertainingly, it's the best show in town and well worth the time. Also, there's a free bus from Cambridge Station throughout the day. And those pesky kids are free. You can even get a ride in a Tiger Moth fer cryin'out loud! And you can guarantee there'll be no mushroom soup in the overhead compartment...

Now, if you showed me a movie where someone a) Took mushroom soup on an international flight; b) the soup leaked out of the compartment and c) dripped on the one person in the world allergic to Baxter's Wild Mushroom Potage who d) happened to be on the same flight, let alone under the drip - I'd walk out claiming you'd taken suspense of disbelief a million miles too far...

What I also don't quite believe is that we're actually publishing the debut novel of award-winning poet Richard Katrovas. But it's true - the book's at the printer as we speak. You can read how this publishing fairy tale came to pass here. The first chapter is being posted there. Or go to the book's page here.

More Big Boys' Toys


Still with the ladies of the sky down at the Imperial War Museum Duxford where they're celebrating the the airfield's 90th anniversary with an enormous and fantastic airshow this weekend. Head on down there and join in the fun - they organise one heck of party!

Also my favourite project, award-winning poet Richard Katrovas's awesome first novel, is now available for pre-order. Read the charmed genesis of this extraordinary literary opera of New Orleans. The first chapter is being posted this week.

"The Blighters are Everywhere Sir!"


Due to Duxford's 90th anniversary and the Air Show they're celebrating with this weekend we're sticking with the museum for the week. This is the Operations Room on the airfield from where they organised bomber raids and fighter sorties as well as charting the Luftwaffe incursions into our neck of the woods. A lot of the guys who took off from here never came back and some of them are forever (hopefully) immortalised on the Eagle pub's ceiling - see the relevant post here.

26 days to go and the next bit of the publishing phoenix that is the Pig is up!

I'm Mary, Fly Me.


This old girl entertains in her hanger at Duxford (Officially the Imperial War Museum - Duxford) along with stacks of other great planes, including every schoolboy's favourite, the SR-71 Blackbird in the American Air Museum. There's now a huge land warfare section too which is also fascinating. This weekend is the 90th Anniversary Air Show - it'll be fantastic; you should definitely head that way if you're in the area. I force all my visitors to go there, I love the place!

P.s. - I'm so excited; the first pages of the first chapter of the first glimpse are being posted...

That's Blown It...


I'd just had a lovely lunch with friends at The King William IV in Heydon (well worth checking out - it has great food ((Vegetarian Pub of the Year three times)), has tables hanging from the ceiling and is allegedly run by a witch. What more do you need?) and thought I'd swing by here in the afternoon as I knew this to be a great scene. In the sunshine it is; as I pulled up the clouds bunched up and the rain started. So it's a grey, dull, English summer shot. But I still like the windmill - it's near Barley, about 8 miles from Cambridge. And talking of wind, the astonishingly-good-about-to-be-published-novel Mystic Pig's blog is concentrating on honest-to-God scary stuff...