Standen House 6 Jan 2019

Time is just galloping on. Here we are midway through May and I'm still posting winter stuff. I hope you enjoy the Christmas trees nostalgic look back.

Everywhere you looked, Christmas trees! On a grey and freezing day in East Sussex, finally some colour.

Standen House in East Grinstead is good to visit at any time of the year, but particularly at Christmas time. Last time I was here was for the Kaffe Fasset Exhibition in December 2016.

This year was the turn for The Xmas Tree of Mr X stitch (aka Jamie Chalmers). He worked with local communities and sewing groups to produce 600 x-stitch baubles. This were spread all around the grounds and on the 20 foot Christmas tree in the front courtyard.  

The man hours in this project! Mind boggling, and lovely ...

 Then, inside the house and everywhere you turn, more Christmas trees. Somebody had fun, I hope there was gluwhein involved. 

Ok, that's enough!

Out in to the cold.

Possibly there was low blood sugar involved, but how dare you close a path when we're visiting!

 
This is a Shepherd's Bothy - not an old one obviously but built as part of the National Trust New Art Contemporary Arts Programme taking place across the country. The Artist, Will Shannon, designed and sourced the materials from a 25 mile radius around Standen. The wood is all from the Standen estate. The handmade glass was sourced from the last remaining manufacturer of handmade glass in the UK - English Antique Glass in Birmingham. Isn't it amazing!

Cream tea happened at some stage, with the perpetual disagreement (cream first, then jam, just saying). 

Some wandering around the estate and more Christmas trees!

To the aspirant gardeners out there (Tony), this is how an espalier should end up, may take a couple of hundred years though!

Home time!

A Roman Temple in the heart of London? London Mithraeum - January 2019

Imagine that! In the 3rd century AD, a temple to the god Mithras was built on reclaimed land next to the Walbrook river - one of London's lost rivers. For many aeons it was lost,  rediscovered by chance in 1954 on a bomb site, and only excavated in 2010 - 2014 when Bloomberg were building their European headquarters. The current site is a re-creation of the original temple close by as the original site is too fragile to display.

On a freezing day in January we headed to London to check this out.

Modern street level is up to 9 metres above the temple. A good indication of how not removing your rubbish changes the landscape, but also the great fire of London and the WWII bombings may have had some impact. A boon for archaeologists though.

Very little is known of the Cult of Mithras and what is known is conjecture as a result of examination of artifacts found on digs.  The slaughter of the bull is always a central motif in every mithraeum but it appears that the cult, though secretive, was mainly involved in feasting (an extreme form of loyalty programme!) The cult was widespread in the Roman Empire but it's etymology is the Persians and the Ancient Greeks.

This marble head of Mithras was found on the last day of excavations in 1954 - fortuitous indeed. 

 

 

  

This museum is really worth a visit if you have the time.  The exhibition of artifacts found is fascinating and the staff are really friendly and well informed.  Entrance is free but you will need to book - www.londonmithraeum.com. It's located near to Bank tube station. 

Out in to the cold, we took a stroll down past St Pauls and across the river to the Tate Modern. 

 

One of these days I will actually go in here ...

 Kate & Kean were doing the London experience and staying overnight with Tessa & David. I just wanted to get warm, so that was me for the day.

Birling Gap December 2018

From one side of the world to the other,,,

Christmas had come and gone in a bit of a blur. Dayne and Matt produced a new member of the family, baby Maya, on Christmas Eve. Kate and Kean were collected from Heathrow on Christmas morning. Christmas lunch was delayed by a day or two in all the excitement and then there was a bit of time to take a breather, so we headed off to Birling Gap and The Seven Sisters for the day.

Birling Gap is the entry point to the beach and only accessible by a galvanised steel staircase - designed to be moved, as a result of the constant erosion of the cliffs. (Between 1873 and 2005 the cliffs had moved 90 metres northwards). The spectacular cliffs are the Seven Sisters.  Administered by the National Trust, there is lots of parking, clean loos and the ever reliable tea room for cakes and scones - an important (actually most important) part of any walk. 

Lots of people around despite the weather but the further you walked, the more you felt you were alone and about to walk off the edge of the cliff!  Easy to see why smuggling flourished in this area in bygone days.

Fairly regularly during the year you hear about people falling (jumping) off these cliffs. Selfies have accounted for a few.  This was also the area in 2017 where swathes of coastline was smothered with a toxic cloud leaving many people needing hospital treatment. One idea is that it may have been a 100 year old WW1 corroded munitions shipwreck leaking poison gas.  This is the English Channel after all.

Shades of Wuthering Heights?

The day wasn't warming up at all so time for that cream tea and then into the fog to find our way home.