Winchester

Today I accompanied my Mum to Winchester for the first of her expeditions for her new hobby. She has decided to visit all the English cathedrals (C of E predominantly). The day was gorgeous - beautiful winter sunshine - and we had a lovely train journey there. We meandered into the city centre and poked around a few shops and the concourse near the Great Hall before heading to the cathedral refectory for lunch. Oh my! I had slow cooked belly pork on mashed potato with cabbage and wholegrain mustard gravy and every single morsel was scrumptious. Mum had chicken pie, mashed potato and vegetables which was also scrumptious.

We then headed into the cathedral and were greeted by a friendly volunteer who let us know that there would be a guided tour shortly, so we hung around until it started. The guide showed us round and gave us the architectural history of the building - most of what we see is not the original Norman building, but the 14th century redesign. At the East end of the building is a portion that is in the original state, rather solid and with rounded arches piled on top of each other rather than tall pointed arches. He pointed out the font, made of a relatively soft black limestone with fascinating scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas. Some of them were a bit gruesome but still interesting. We saw Jane Austin's tombstone (of course) which doesn't mention her writing, and then onto the 'Holey Hole' where medieval pilgrims crawled to get close to the relics of Saint Swithun. There was lots of medieval tiling on the floor here as well as some more modern replicas. We also saw a chapel that had pre-reformation paintings on the walls that had been plastered over before the reign of Henry VIII. Rather lovely. Lastly we went to the flooded crypt and admired the Anthony Gormley statue that is down there,. The tour ended there, as part of the cathedral was closed for cleaning. Afterwards we popped into a small exhibition showing the Winchester Bible - a handwritten, illuminated edition in four volumes which was absolutely beautiful.

The interior of the cathedral is lovely, with elaborate chantries for long dead bishops, a magnificent stone altar screen, intricately carved woodwork, swooping arches and vaulted ceilings, decorative floor tiles in the older part, a wide variety of memorial plaques to local notables, gentry and military figures, and lovely side chapels some with stunning stained glass windows. The huge window at the west end of the cathedral is worth a look; it is a patchwork of stained glass. This is because Winchester was pro-royalist in the civil war and the rest of the county wasn't, so the original window got smashed to bits. Once Charles II was on the throne as many bits of stained glass as could be found were collected up and put back into the window any old how with clear glass to fill the gaps. Really rather a good effect!

We left late afternoon and visited the gift shop and then had tea and cake in the refectory, explored the outside of the cathedral and found a second hand bookshop that raises money for the choristers, then headed back inside for choral evensong. This was very calm and lovely, with a visiting choir, the Cheriton Singers. Talented bunch. We then headed back to the railway station and home. Pleasant day.



Statue in crypt



detail of carving




Cathedral entrance

Cathedral from the Close

 

Family Get Together

Another trip to the North Island, this time to Winchester for a gathering of the clan to celebrate my Mother's birthday. Several of us arrived early so met at the Cathedral and had a cup of tea in the Refectory Cafe, before heading to the restaurant to meet everybody else. The restaurant in question was the delightful Chesil Rectory; this was a pre-reformation building that had had a number of uses over the centuries, but had been a restaurant for the past 85 years. We were given a large side room and served the most delicious food. I had carrot and cumin soup, followed by lamb (fell apart, yum!) with chickpeas and chorizo, followed by sticky toffee pudding - my brother in law was rapturous about this, and I wasn't far off. Scrumptious! The finale to the meal was a wonderful birthday cake created by my brother-in-law's daughter at Three Little Birds Bakery. Looked and tasted delicious!

After several hours, some of the party headed home, and the rest of us waddled to our cars and headed down to Dorset to the Hoburn Naish holiday park in New Milton. We spent the evening in a cabin, eating more delicious food and telling silly family stories until we all needed to retire.  The following morning began with a leisurely breakfast, and then a stroll along the beach towards Highcliff and back. Glorious views along the coast towards Muddiford, and towards Barton-on-Sea, and across the water to the Island and the Needles.

We all headed home early afternoon, and us Island people managed to get an earlier ferry back thankfully. Tired but happy.

Ventnor Botanic Garden

Nearly the end of half term so teenager and I decided to have an expedition which included lunch. We headed south to Ventnor Botanic Garden, via Rookley and Whitwell (nice bendy country roads), paid the entrance fee and headed for 'Edulis', the restaurant in the gardens. Unfortunately their menu is not overly friendly for a picky teenager but she eventually decided on a ham sandwich, crisps and millionaire's shortbread, all of which met with satisfaction. I took a while to choose my meal as they all sounded yummy to me, and I eventually settled on the seafood linguine. Oh my goodness, this was yummy! Freshly caught local crab, mussels and king prawns in a nice sauce. Delish!

Once lunch was over we ambled around the gardens for an hour or so, having a good old natter and admiring the plants. The garden is on the site of a Victorian Tuberculosis hospital, and in a little valley which has a lovely, warm microclimate. Being close to the coast and the Gulf Stream helps too. Due to this, a wide variety of plants that would be too tender in many parts of the country can be grown here. Today the Echiums were at their peak, towering into the sky, ablaze with blue flowers and buzzing with bees. One of my favourite plants. Many other flowers were in bloom such as Sisyrinchium, Abutilon, Osteospermum, Allium, Syringa, Arum, and Rosa. I was particularly taken with the variety of bark textures on the many trees, and particularly liked a variety of Myrtus.

Once we had finished in the garden I perused the seed shop and bought several packets of wildflowers for my garden project. The botanic garden sells seed collected from it's own plants, as well as plants grown from cuttings from the garden, so you can get varieties of plants you wouldn't ordinarily find in a garden centre. Their gift shop is also very tempting, but today I mostly resisted the urge to buy lovely things!

Once we left we headed back towards Godshill and popped into Brownrigg Farm Shop to stock up on local produce - "Oil of Wight" anyone? - and then toddled off to Ryde for other supplies; I didn't drive my usual route and went via Ashey Road, and at one point came round a corner and down a hill to see a magnificent view before us which caused me to shriek "OH MY GOODNESS! We're so lucky to live here!".  Beautiful, beautiful Isle of Wight!

Echium flowers

Acer

Myrtus bark

Pelargonium

Allium (Chives)