New Window Bangles

My jewelry is selling well at Grace Cathedral and so I made a few new bangles this week.

They were made from the St Matthew Window in the Chapel of Grace.The window was created by Charles Connick and is the first window as you enter the chapel.

Connick's chapel of Grace window designs, like the chapel architecture, were inspired by the famed and still-surviving Sainte-Chapelle - a private chapel attached to the royal palace in Paris. This chapel is considered one of the highest achievements of Gothic architecture - and   is somewhere I would love to visit one day........

The new bangles feature both the full length St Matthew window and also just small vignettes. I like the one shown above on the left as it has bunches of grapes on it...merlot?

 I need to make some more necklaces too, so I'll show you those when I'm done.

Radiant earrings

I made some stained glass window style earrings yesterday with anodised aluminum and love the bright colors.

All those primary colors, and with the black accent.

I think they will be lovely for festive parties over the next few months...can be worn with black and add real brightness and radiance.

And yes. I did a pendant to go with them too - shaped as a gothic arch.

The aluminum means that they are all lightweight too, so don't drag down your neck or ears!  Not a good party look :-D

Sunday's spotlight - Lincoln Waterlogged

By guest blogger Pete.

Lincoln has existed in even more chaos that normal over the past few days. Being an ancient city our roads are mainly narrow, limited, and single carriageways. There are just three arterial roads into the below hill part of the city and three into the up hill part. Early Monday morning the High Street in the below hill part of the city was closed, causing the other two remaining arterial roads to exceed their normal overcrowding and rush hours became a matter of patience rather than progress. The cause of this disruption was a burst water main, which sent gallons of the wet stuff up into the air. Fortunately, all this happened in the early morning hours and Anglian Water were quick to turn that water off BUT not quick enough to save the surface of the road. Thus for the next five days the High Street was closed to all non pedestrian traffic. No notice was given about the new bus routes that were set up. One day you could spend the whole day waiting at a bus stop for your bus (only to learn that it was going on a different route) and the next day the bus would run normally and you could pick it up from the same stop.


It's a few weeks now since I last inflicted on you all a photo of my latest and ongoing painting. I am fairly pleased with it but have purposely left the most difficult section to the end. Can you guess what part that is? No prizes on offer but self congratulations are permitted.


I have also been experimenting with some photographs again. In sunny July Pam and I took a holiday in Suffolk and during that week we visited Bury St Edmunds. That city has a great cathedral, which possesses some really fine stained glass. Using kaleidoscopes, I have been trying to get some rather different shots of some of the windows' features.


Isn't it a pity that there are only twenty four hours in a day? I could manage a few more without an hassles. Mind you, I speak as a retired person . There were times when I was working when I thought a reduction in each day's hours might well have been an advantage. Do you think each day has sufficient hours? I never seem to complete everything I want to do.


My magnolia appears to have given up its attempt to become the first evergreen magnolia in history and is now shedding leaves in a fashion that would suggest there is no to-morrow coming along. Add to this the fact that my plum tree still hasn't borne any fruit and you can see some of my frustrations.
Keep on enjoying life and keep on finding things to do.

Sunday's spotlight - Plums

By guest blogger Pete.

We are being told that this October is well on the way towards breaking records for mildness. I must confess that I am not really surprised by that news. I can't remember an October as mild as this one and I've lived through quite a few Octobers. Reading this morning's paper I was reminded that this time last year we had a covering of snow. I can vaguely remember that. We only need about 1cm of snow in this country for schools to close, local radio stations to run hot lines on the adverse weather conditions and advising folk to have flu jabs, Supermarkets to run out of bread and sugar and lorries to jack knife into folk's gardens. It's just as well that we don't get the sort of winters that other European countries endure.

The leaves are beginning to drop now but without much rain even they are looking attractive as they lay like a carpet on the lawns and pavements. My magnolia tree still hasn't caught on to the fact that this is the time for shedding leaves. There were ten leaves last week and I would estimate that this has grown to fifteen this week. That's still a lot of leaves to fall. Perhaps my magnolia is going to be the first evergreen magnolia. Fame and fortune could come even at this late date.

Quite a few moons ago - once again I've seen quite a few moons come and go - Ruth lived in rural Herefordshire at a rather attractive and not over large market town. That town is Ledbury and it was here that she met John. On our first visit to Ledbury to see her she took us on a tour of the surrounding countryside, during which we stopped off at one of Gloucestershire's vineyards. The grapes were quite tasty but I'll not make any comment about the wine except to say that I've walked with a limp ever since!. Oh dear!!!!! ------------ there goes the one Gloucestershire reader of this blog. Bye.

From that vineyard we mover on to an orchard specialising in Victoria plums. Now they are a delight on any palette. A little taste of bliss. I can remember buying a tray of them to take home with us - not to waste on jam making but rather to make a pig of myself just by eating them.

Soon after returning home we bought a Victoria Plum tree. By the third year we had plums everywhere and our popularity with the neighbours has never been higher as they became recipients of our plum bounty. The next year wasn't too good so the popularity stakes fell dramatically. The following year was a complete failure so I put on my check lumberjack shirt and that was the end of that Victoria Plum tree.

A suitable length of time has elapsed since the demise of that tree - long enough to make sure that the baddies who invaded it have moved off to invade other folks' trees. Five days ago we went off to the local Garden Centre and bought another Victoria Plum tree. The deceased tree grew to about 50 foot and it was a matter of risking life and limb to get to all the fruit. We were assured that this one would not exceed the three metre mark. I do wish people would give measurements in English - but that's another story. It's best to plant plum trees during October or November - that is the time they grow the most. Mind you, I've had this one for five days and there's still no sign of any fruit.

The painting is finished and the next one begun. Two photos to keep you up to date with progress and a few more photos of no particular relevance to this blog.

Keep eating the plums or else there will be a dearth of them.