29th November 2024

Some good news and some reminscences.  I do so like going back over old blogs....

Notre Dame to re-open

Notre Dame.  Like an iced wedding cake.

Well my mind went back to another tower after reading that. William Beckford(1760 to 1844) had built just outside Bath.  This was one of my walks up the hills of Bath with Moss.  Happy memories, early morning, deer still grazing in the field and then the tower with its once garden in Beckford's time then turned into a Victorian Cemetery.  In spring, clusters of yellow primroses and violets in the rough grass. The graves sunken, ankle breaking as you wandered around.

But the good news for Beckford Tower is that it has also been restored and it was finished this year in June.  I hope the cemetery has not been restored it was a glorious reminder of Victorian gravestones.   It was an interesting graveyard, Beckford had a barrow made for his inhumation, here it is.

The money in the family was made on the backs of slaves in the sugar plantations.  Beckford merely inherited it but in the restoration of the tower museum the full story is covered.  He was a rather scandalous figure being bisexual and his daughters did not join him in his solitary grave.

You can find more photos here

A happy Moss on a glorious early summer's day

In one of my blogs I mention the hat shop with its golden cupola. Well I rescued it the other day - minus everything inside it but I enjoyed all the small stuff.  I shall not replicate the interior  but at least I swept some of the dust off.

This is one of my favourite photos. Early morning in winter, I have told Moss not to chase the deer about to go into the woods and he obeys. Almost an old 'brown' painting ;)

And something else to bring forward.  Another walk at Kelston Roundhill.  It was done in memory of a young teenager out riding on her horse.  An unexpected asthma attack resulted in her death in a spot just below Kelston Roundhill.  Chris Stringer took a drone shot.