MY GARDEN

Ink and watercolour in A6 Venezia sketchbook

“The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose” ~ Kahlil Gibran

Me?...I am an optimist...There are no thorns on my rose!

I was elated to be able to enjoy the garden for a spell today after the incessant rain that has tormented each passing day. Everything, including the weeds, looked luscious and green against the blues and purples flowering in the beds below them. Thistles stood proud, claiming their spot in my absence, displaying their sharpness smugly as if to realise their victory. The damp ground beneath my feet played a melody upon the soles of my old suede friends and the sky, busy with birds and a valiant butterfly, carried the sweet smell of life.

HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, Long Melford, Suffolk. UK.

After leaving Melford Hall Joan and I stopped by The Holy Trinity Church in Long Melford on our way to Clarice House where we had booked a room for the night.

Holy Trinity boasts an abundance of gems and with it's numerous windows resembles a Cathedral more than a simple village church. With so much to browse upon protected within it's walls it was difficult to choose something to concentrate my sketches upon. That was until I read the piece on Sir William Clopton's tomb, such a fascinating story, I felt compelled to log it in my venezia sketchbook. (click on the image to read the story in larger print).

The Clopton chantry exhibited the Lily Crucifix window said to date from 1350 and two poems by John Lydgate, a well known Bury monk, scroll around the top of the chantry walls entitled 'Vine of Life'. The Lady chapel is adjoined to the church and unique in that it is only accessible from the outside entrance.

Artwork by Iain McKillop hang on the walls at the end of each pew, his studies for the altar piece paintings that now decorate Gloucester Cathedral. His work was probably my most exciting find of the day, his figures portrayed such emotion I could hardly wait to get home and research him on the internet. It was during this search that I came across his website and the totally amazing cathedral paintings in his collection, what an unexpected honour I had experienced in viewing his work first hand.

Visiting Holy Trinity had been the only part of our weekend we hadn't planned in advance and I am so grateful for our time there - What a memorable experience!