Carved creatures, South Gloucestershire

South Cerney door

The list of places to visit to see carvings, in particular carved creatures, is increasing weekly. My sister has now been through a book about Gloucestershire and we have marked churches of interest on the Gloucestershire map. Enticingly, there were many which we gave the highest ranking, based on the fact they had very unusual things there or many different things in the same church. It was too tempting to take a longer trip than usual, heading off on a sunny day to villages south of Cirencester.  There was a whole cluster of churches in a small area, all with our top ranking.

Our trips are so that we can have fun drawing. I have a new sketchbook, which is larger and allows me to draw more freely. Armed with our usual snacks, three-coloured crayons, ink and watercolour, we set off to discover yet more Norman and Saxon inspiration.

Saxon door, inside

outside

We stopped off first at Somerford Keynes, where the church has an original Saxon doorway possibly dating from the 8th century. It is not every day you see something from around 700AD, and this doorway was a real treasure. I did not know what to expect, but as you came in through the front door, (an old wooden door with a fabulous opening mechanism), the Saxon door was just to the left on the facing wall. In Saxon style it was tall and narrow. A member of the parish had been good enough to pay for its preservation; it was open to the outside, rather than blocked in, with a very tasteful panel of engraved glass across the space. It let in the light to the church and made a real feature of the Saxon door. Full marks to whoever designed this. Outside, you had a real sense of the history and atmosphere of the doorway, and could easily imagine Saxon people using it to go into their church.  It had 2 rope-like motifs over the top, and was beautiful in its simplicity.  Inside the church, we were disgusted to read that a fragment of Saxon stone carving had been stolen a couple of years before.

beaky creatures

Further north we stopped at South Cerney. From the book, we were expecting to see "beakheads" or as we call them "beaky creatures" - a feature of Norman doors that can be found in this area. Previous beakheads we have seen are of creatures' faces over the archway of a door, some of them gripping the archway in their beaks or mouths. We approached the church and were both very excited by what we saw. There were many beaky creatures gripping the archway, plus some beautiful carvings above the door posts and forming the archway. The whole doorway was very ornate and must have taken ages. You didn't know where to look, or what to draw first, such was the detail.Inside there were some Saxon crosses, later carvings and a resin copy of a wooden head and foot from a rare 12C crucifix.

It wasn't far to the next village, Ampney St Mary, but finding the church proved a little more difficult. It was not actually in the village, but a small distance away, on the main road. It turned out the original village had been evacuated due to the Black Death and since then the new village had grown up further away from the church. This church has a carving over a now blocked up doorway, which is very unusual and appealing. It has a long-bodied, skinny lion, with long legs, stretched over two faces that look almost cat-like, but are attached to long, almost crescent shaped bodies - who knows what they really are (some suggest a serpent

Ampney St Mary

but I am not convinced). Next to them is a creature with a bird's head, four legs and a long forked tail. (Both this tail and the lion's tail curl up over the bodies). The inside of the church was equally pleasing and there is a nice atmosphere: all over the walls are the remains of some medieval murals, which must have been very impressive in their day. There is another ancient wooden door and a simple and sturdy Norman font with a zigzag design. If you venture up towards the altar, you will see a stone screen and suddenly notice that one side of the church is leaning outwards at an alarming angle, which is a shame.

On the route back, we passed Harnhill, so we had to call in and see St Michael fighting a dragon, over the doorway. It was a little green, but the actual carving was charming and very bold. The dragon had its tongue out and was a really nice shape; I also liked St Michael's clothes, and noticed he too had wings...

St Michael and dragon, Harnhill

At our last stop, Siddington, we were disappointed to find the church padlocked at the gate. I find it hard to believe this is necessary in these small places. It prevented us from seeing the Norman font which sounded like it had impressive decoration. However, we could peak through the netting across the doorway to look at yet more beaky creatures - these however, did not somehow hold the same appeal as those at South Cerney. We thought maybe it was because they seemed more uniform, more flatter, and also looked newer - although I believe were also Norman. An interesting and unusual thing to note about them is how one beakhead had two arms, each reaching out to its neighbour and holding their beaks shut! The beak of the creature on the left was even pulled slightly towards the hand.

"Just one more thing..." Why I love Columbo

There is next to nothing on television these days, except perhaps episodes of Columbo at the weekend, but even these are interrupted by lots of adverts. So we have been working our way through the advert-free, box set of Columbo, starting at the beginning and watching them in order. It is guaranteed entertainment. At the moment we are on series 7, so almost at the end of those episodes made in the 1970s. (Later series were made after a break of over ten years).

I have never met anyone who did not like Columbo; there are several magic elements that combine together to make it entertaining and amusing, with a satisfying end. Peter Falk is fantastic in the role and you can see that he really enjoyed playing the part; he played Columbo over many years. It is also the writing, particularly in the early episodes, which is witty and well crafted, and establishes Columbo's character in pleasing detail. It is so consistent and well-defined, that you feel you know him. We build up a picture from the well-worn raincoat hanging off his shoulders, the cigar, the battered old car, and his loveable hound, Dog; as well as regular references to Mrs Columbo, whom we never see, but which create a character and background to Columbo's life.

Part of Columbo's appeal is seeing his world build up over the series, through Peter Falk's performance. There are small details that help make him a rounded character, like his love of chilli and Scotch, his large family, and how he prefers to keep his feet on the ground, rather than fly or get on a boat. Columbo has a lot of fun with his cases, although he is always serious about nailing the murderer. He seems to enjoy the process, playing as it were, cat and mouse, but always respectfully calling the murderer "sir". He always expresses an interest in whatever the murderer happens to do, such as cooking or chess, or uses a nephew or niece as a reason to ask more about it (who knows if these anecdotes about his family are true...) I love the way he acts stupid, or forgetful, but is actually as sharp as a knife. That knowing and playful smile; a wave of his hand as he leaves; and the classic turn as he reaches the door, "Just one more thing..."... (the title of Falk's autobiography.) He always seems to know from the first moment who did it, and hints strongly to the murderer that he knows they are responsible. It is just a case of finding that crucial way to prove it, and there are some fabulous examples, where he catches them out in the cleverest of ways. The first episode I remember watching was "A Stitch in Crime" (s2) with Leonard Nimoy, which has a good ending. I also particularly liked "Blueprint for Murder" (s1 set on a building site), "Candidate for Crime" (s3, the senatorial election), "A Case of Immunity" (s5 the foreign embassy with Sal Mineo), "Short Fuse" (s1, Roddy McDowall and the exploding cigars) "Try and Catch Me" (s7, the writer with the safe) and the one with the two Dobermans, "How to Dial a Murder" (s7).  The episode with Johnny Cash is also very enjoyable and Cash turns in a fine performance ("Swan Song, s3). And "Double Shock" with the twin killers (s2). I could go on...

The murderer is always too clever for his or her own good and there are a few patterns that emerge in their behaviour. When informed of the murder, unable to respond naturally, many react in the most over-the-top way - for example William Shatner's actor character in "Fade into Murder" (s6). When questioned, instead of being puzzled by something which troubles Columbo, the murderer invariably offers a detailed explanation as to what might have happened, as if they understand it better than he does. Some offer to help him eagerly, while others become more and more annoyed with his constant appearances by their side (one particularly funny moment is when the murderer comes home and finds Columbo snoozing in a chair, in the dark ("Suitable for Framing" s1).  One murderer describes him as "the omnipresent detective", which I found very amusing.

Murderers are often well known actors, and some guest-star in several episodes. Robert Vaughn, Janet Leigh and Patrick McGoohan all appear. (There are various directors: "Murder by the Book, s1, was directed by Steven Spielberg and "The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case, s6, by Sam Wanamaker.) If you are a murderer in Columbo, there are several things which you can do, but which of course, will not work in the end, as the Lieutenant will figure it out. Several killers use time to provide an alibi, either by smashing the victim's watch to show a certain time, or by altering clocks, or by deliberately asking someone the time so that they remember this and provide a handy alibi. Everyone seems to drive posh cars and live in massive houses, and older men seem inexplicably to attract much younger women. A lot of murderers have spent a long time planning their crime, but never account for the detective who will be their downfall...

One thing which you should learn from the programme is that crime never pays. And often one murder leads to another to cover your steps. A word of advice for anyone who figures out that someone is a murderer - never ask them for money! It is clear from Columbo that all blackmail efforts lead to your sudden and swift demise.

I think part of the programme's popularity is its formula, and how you know who the murderer is at the start. Who would think that this could keep you watching all the way through, but Columbo's appeal is in his character and the ingenious thought processes he goes through to nail the criminal. He figures it out perfectly every time, and it is this which is so satisfying. A departure from this formula, "Last Salute to the Commodore", directed by Patrick McGoohan (s5), does not fit in with the others, in my opinion and left me bemused. But that blip aside, the programme is enduringly enjoyable and one of my absolute favourites. Columbo has to be the most endearing and cleverest of fictional detectives. One of the joys of the show is that you can watch them again and again, and it does not matter that you know the outcome. Peter Falk has given us endless hours of enjoyment. A quote from the Columbo box set pamphlet sums it up perfectly:
"There's nothing finer than curling up on the sofa in the afternoon to find an episode of Columbo about to start."

Drawings and dragons

Who would have known that inside the many churches throughout the country, lie so many interesting and different things to discover? My sister is very interested in Norman and Saxon carvings, which we have been drawing and which become an inspiration for artwork. She has devoted her time to going through the Wiltshire volume (and others) of Pevsner, picking out the churches where there are carvings and effigies that date back one thousand years or more. The earlier the better. She has joked that it is an obsession, as now there is a map of Wiltshire which we have colour coded to show the villages where there are carvings we wish to see. We have our work cut out, as there are many, but it is proving to be a great way to discover parts of Wiltshire which you would otherwise never see. The map helps us see where there are places near each other so we have been able to visit 2 or 3 places in one day.

Malmesbury Abbey entrance

 Our most recent trips took us to North Wiltshire, to the area around Malmesbury. If you want some idea of the peak of Norman carving, Malmesbury Abbey is the place to go: the doorway to the abbey is spectacular. There are no less than eight arches forming the entranceway, three which depict many scenes inside circles, such as people in boats, or animals, or people talking to each other. In between these are swirling designs, some like vegetation, others more geometrical. It must have taken the carvers a long time and would have been amazing in its time. It still is amazing, although some of the lower part is quite worn so it is hard to make out what the figures are doing. Within one circle, which I drew, it really seemed that someone was ironing great swathes of material; hard to imagine what else they were doing.  In the porchway are sitting figures, very well observed, although we felt their heads seemed squashed in under another figure.  Unfortunately for us we went along on Good Friday so the place was busy, but we managed to sit in the sunshine on a bench and the time flew by.

In contrast, we visited a tiny place in the middle of fields, called Little Langford, in the Wylye valley. It was a beautiful spot, undisturbed except for the passing trains, but a cool and inviting little church away from the village. It had over its door a wonderful early carving of a figure with three birds in a tree, and below him a boar, surrounded by three dogs, and a person. My drawing of it looked crude and childish but in fact the figures were simple and not entirely realistic in shape or size; the boars' feet were more like paws, and the dogs had long skinny bodies, but it was a very pleasing tympanum and I am happy with my effort. The archway over the top, a commonly found zigzag pattern, was notably different to usual zigzags in that it was not uniform in size; some zigzags were shallower than others and this asymmetry was very appealing.

Little Langford tympanum

I am constantly surprised by the differences between places; some churches are small and inviting; others are unexpectedly large in the middle of a small village. We have seen amusing heads of creatures (Steeple Langford), Jesus on a dragon (Stanton St Quentin) and a "tree of life" (Rodbourne). Rodbourne was particularly nice as it also had a small stained glass window of Adam and Eve by Ford Madox Brown, next to one of the Ascension by Dante Gabriel Rosetti. Who would think that they would come across Pre-Raphaelite glass in such a tiny place?

Tree of Life, Rodbourne

Tree of Life, Rodbourne

What is frustrating on our tour, for it is turning into that, is that in some places we arrive in anticipation of seeing something exciting, and yet when we try the big iron handle of the church door, the door is locked. It might have instructions as to where you can find the key (as in Rodbourne) or it might not; in which case it means we cannot see these things. I doubt there is a need to keep churches locked up as the crime rate in Wiltshire is surely low, and if there are items of worth in the church then keep them locked up. It strikes me as odd that churches of all places are not accessible, but we rarely see anyone on our travels anyway, not that this bothers me at all. 

My drawing is noticeably improving which is good and I am still using crayon to give an impression, rather than spend hours drawing the details. There are many more churches we wish to visit, such as yesterday, when we went to Whaddon.

Whaddon

Whaddon

Dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg - I'm learning Welsh

With a name like mine, you might expect me to be Welsh-speaking or at least from Wales. I grew up in England but my father is Welsh and spoke it as his first language. He speaks it now with relatives so I have always heard it and wondered what was being said. I suppose that if I had learned it while I was younger, I would be fluent by now, but we didn't go to Wales that regularly so I suppose he thought it would be of little benefit to us. And perhaps we never showed much interest as children. However, as you grow older I think it is natural to look back and question where you come from. I wanted to embrace both sides of my family and to find out more about them so that I have a sense of who I am and what came before me. My sister decided to start learning Welsh when she had some time off work. I also decided to start learning a little while afterwards, when I realised that classes ran in Birmingham. By learning Welsh I wanted to show my interest in my dad's culture and family.

I went to beginners Welsh lessons at the Brasshouse in Birmingham for two and a half years. It was a night class so by the end of the ninety minutes I always felt a bit tired and was losing concentration. However, we covered a lot of material, including different tenses, aspects of culture, and differences between southern and northern Welsh, as there were learners of both in the class. My tutor, Gareth, was a native Welsh speaker and had a lot of teaching experience. He was knowledgeable about languages and made some interesting connections between words, which made it fun. He was gently amusing and I enjoyed the lessons. I passed both levels 1 and 2 which were tests in reading and listening, with the top grade. I started the third year but unfortunately had to move away so was unable to complete it.

I loved the classes but it was difficult to practise much in the week while working and I found that I forgot things from week to week, much like some of the others. To help, I watched some DVDs called Talk About Welsh, which I think are excellent. I am not sure if they are easily available now. They are like a soap opera and you watch without subtitles, as they use basic phrases which you can understand. There is a narrator figure who explains what key phrases mean. The lessons work through repetition, as everyone says the same things a lot of times, such as "mae'n flyn gyda fi" to mean "I'm sorry" and "pam" (why), "beth" (what) and so on. It is an amusing story and you find yourself wanting to know what happens next. Jaci is a Welsh learner so you can empathise with her character as she asks people to slow down and questions what things mean.

Another resource I use is Big Welsh Challenge. It is by the BBC and available through their website, which has many more games and learning resources. Funnily enough, one member of the cast of Talk About Welsh pops up, looking older, in these clips. There is a loose storyline that develops as you go through the units. This has additional help in the form of short grammar explanations and plenty of chance to practise what is said in the clips.

A year or so after leaving the class, I have begun learning again with my sister. We are learning using the online course "Say Something In Welsh." This for me is a different approach to learning and is working extremely well. You listen to a lesson online and actively participate. The tutor gives you a phrase in Welsh, such as "Dw i'n gallu siarad" I can speak. He then gives you different Welsh verbs, such as "mynd" to go, or "gweld" to see.  He then says the English phrase, eg "I can go" and using your knowledge of how the previous construction worked, you are expected to come out with the Welsh ie "Dw i'n gallu mynd."  It is amazing what your brain can work out, given a basic construction. The emphasis of SSIW is on listening and speaking, not writing anything down, or reading. My sister and I have found that we are making great progress, as we are not getting confused with how to pronounce a written word (not always straightforward to us!) but we are listening to the sounds and repeating them.  The lessons are half an hour at a time. You can pause them to fill in the gap with your answer (and believe me, we need to sometimes!) But we have both found that the format is very effective. The sentences get tougher and tougher and they are really setting you a challenge sometimes. But when you get the sentence right, (they give you the correct version after the pause), you feel a real sense of achievement. We have said things to each other we never thought possible.  The units are available to download so you can listen to them wherever you like.

The rate of progress is also amazing. We have completed six lessons now and that has taken us about two weeks but we have not been doing them every day. However we are practising between lessons with each other and we have found that we can form basic sentences and communicate a lot, using what we know. We know how to say things in the present, the simple future and one of the past tenses.  We are both determined to keep it up, as repetition and practise are key to learning any language. We both think that our accents are better than they were before by having listened to the pronunciation and rhythm of the words. The key thing is that it give you confidence to speak and to use what you know to say new things.

We were thrilled at the weekend to try out what we had learnt with our dad. He was impressed, I am sure, and he enjoyed helping us to learn new words. We went for a walk so we could talk about things we saw. There was one point when I said I could see a bird, and he replied, and I understood it, and I realised we had just had a perfectly natural exchange in Welsh which both of us understood. We were talking Welsh together! It really felt quite special to know that after thirty-something years, all three of us were chatting together. My mother also understands a lot of Welsh having heard it over the years, and she has learned some herself, so she was not excluded from the conversations.

My parents both watch S4C which also has programmes available online. We have enjoyed watching children's programme Hafod Haul (except the theme tune goes round your head for hours!) and I am just getting into top drama 35 Diwrnod... which you can watch too as it has English subtitles - many of the programmes on S4C have subtitles so if you want to hear what Welsh sounds like, get along to the site!

It means a lot to me to have embraced this part of my family and background and I am glad to see that there are many resources for learning, although understandably classes are only offered in a few areas. It is a nice sounding language and it seems as if people are being encouraged to learn it. What would be really good is if I could find a job in Wales where I can practise speaking Welsh as part of it.