History is now and England.

                       --- T.S. Eliot

I had forgotten that it was a visit to Salisbury Cathedral that sparked my interest in T.S. Eliot. Walking there again today I came upon the two memorial plaques bearing quotations from the Four Quartets, and once again I stood, entranced.

 "We die with the dying: See, they depart, and we go with them.We are born with the dead: See, they return, and bring us with them. The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree are of equal duration."

Of course, I must say that I did a lot of standing, entranced, today.  This is how it happened: When we woke up, we were hoping to go watch David take a ride in a glider; he had an appointment to do that. But when we looked out the window, we knew that there would be no gliding. As you can tell from my exterior photograph of the cathedral, it rained. And it rained. And it rained. There were some moments of respite, but not many. Well, then, we said, what shall we do? We decided to go for a steam train ride on the Watercress Line -- but it doesn't run on Monday. Hmmm. Plan C. "I know!" said Robin. "Let's go to Salisbury." And off we went. [I triple-checked to be sure that I had the chip for my camera.]

"Mary Magdalene" - Greg Tricker

There was an art exhibit at the cathedral: wonderful stained glass, paintings, and sculptures by Greg Tricker. The show was called "Pillars of Faith". I don't imagine the artist would want me to reproduce all his work on my blog, but I must show you this one: it's Mary Magdalene. I have to share it with you because it made me laugh. No, not the sculpture itself: that was beautiful.  It was what happened when I snapped the picture that was funny. I pushed the button; I heard a click; and then I saw a message come up on the screen. It read: BLINK DETECTED. I swear I heard the Twilight Zone theme.

I was drawn back repeatedly to the baptismal font. I didn't remember seeing it the last time I was at the cathedral. I kept leaning over it, using it as a mirror with which to see the ceiling and the windows. I finally located the dedication plaque and found out that the font was dedicated in 2008. I think that was about ten years after my previous visit. It is stunning.

After our first circuit, Robin and I had a cup of tea together in the refectory; then he headed over to a nearby military museum while I went back to stand, entranced, some more.

The view from the refectory

Some of what I saw was simply beautiful. Some was disturbing. I saw a plaque in memory of Caroline Luxford, who died in 1800 at the age of 29. Six weeks later, her baby died. It was her seventh child. I felt immeasurably lucky to live in this time. I also saw a gravestone dedicated to Thomas Lambert, who was born in May of 1683 and died in February of the same year. What? According to my guidebook, the calendar year at that time started March 25, rather than January 1.

I visited the Trinity Chapel, which is the oldest chapel in the cathedral; it was dedicated in 1225. Now, it features a modern window dedicated to prisoners of conscience, and the Amnesty Candle burns in one corner.

I took fifty-five photos today, most of them inside the cathedral. That's the kind of day I had.
When Robin came back from the military museum, we walked to the Chapter House to pay a visit to one of the four remaining original copies of the Magna Carta. I wasn't allowed to use my camera there. As we walked back to the car, I took a few shots, including one that I think is my favourite of the day.

Tomorrow will be another family day. I'm looking forward to that.

Sandra Sunday*

Today, it seems, is my day. I've been calling all the shots.

 "What would you like to do?" asked Robin.

"Really? My for-real wish list? Well. I would like to go to Romsey Abbey for the ten o'clock service; to Winchester Cathedral for Evensong; and somewhere along the line, to The Queen's Head [pub] in Burley." I specified The Queen's Head because I know that they have a vegan menu, as well as standard pub fare: I learned that useful fact at HappyCow.net, and I called the pub a few days ago to confirm.

That reminds me: We went into Costa Coffee in Romsey after the 10:00 service. Robin took a seat while I ordered our coffee: two cappuccinos; one with cow milk, the other with soy. When the young man (who, by the way, like all the staff, wore a button that read "I was made to love you" -- who could resist that?) finished making Robin's coffee, he asked, "Was that, uh, chocolate on the normal one and cinnamon on the soy?" "Yes," I replied, "though I take exception to the word normal." He was so embarrassed, he got all stammery, and I had to assure him that I had been joking (sort of). What was I to do? There was that button...

But I am getting ahead of myself. Because I was going to church, I left my camera in the hotel room. Silly me. What about the four and a half hours between services? What about the leaves changing colour in the woods near Ampfield? What about the pasty shop in Winchester where we carried our tea and pasties up the stairs to a room with a ceiling so low, I had to duck; and drank our tea while sitting at a casement window, looking out over the pedestrian mall, looking into the 15th Century Buttercross? [If you click on the link, you'll see the cross itself and a Tudor building behind it. That's where we were sitting.]

On the other hand, I wandered all through Winchester Cathedral, stopping to allow other people to take photographs, taking none myself, lingering at Jane Austen's grave, studying windows and statues, thoroughly enjoying myself. People asked me for directions, something that doesn't happen when I have a camera slung around my neck. Not that I could help them.

The 10:00 service at Romsey Abbey was a Harvest Thanksgiving service. The 3:30 service at Winchester turned out not to be Evensong, after all. We must have been here on the same Sunday last year, because once again, there was no Evensong. There was the Harvest Festival. So I got to sing All Creatures of Our God and King twice today, which was great. On the other hand, I didn't get to sit in the quire. On the other other hand, I did get to gaze up at the arches, which is getting to be one of my favourite pastimes.

Robin: All Dressed Up

So. Several hours and two services later, I was just about as holy as I was going to get. We headed back to Lyndhurst and stopped at the hotel long enough for Robin to change into his dress clothes before we headed to Burley for dinner. (We were both feeling unwell on our anniversary, so instead of going out to dinner, we holed up in our hotel room and went to sleep early. Tonight's dinner was our belated anniversary celebration.)

While we were at the hotel, I grabbed my camera, so that tonight's blog entry wouldn't have to go completely naked. First, I snapped a photo of Robin standing in the hotel's courtyard. Then we drove to Burley and I took several photos of the pub.

The pub. This is the Restaurant Review segment of tonight's entry. Our dinners were very good. I have no complaint about the dinners themselves, but I do have a suggestion for the owners of the pub: Perhaps they could buy a stick of green chalk and write the vegan dishes in green, to save confusion. It took three people three trips back to the kitchen to find out which dishes were for-sure vegan and which ones might be vegan...I settled on vegetable fajitas, one of the two for-sure vegan dishes. [Robin ordered a fish dinner that was very good.] The thing is, when my vegetables arrived, sizzling, on a cast iron plate, they came with a side plate on which sat several tortillas along with little ramekins of guacamole, tomato salsa...and sour cream and shredded cheese.

Can you hear the raucous buzzer?

"I won't be needing these, thank you," I said. Once again, I was faced with an embarrassed waiter. This one grabbed the ramekins and sped away, leaving a trail of apologies in his wake. It was no big deal -- all I had to do was send away two little bowls -- but really. This was supposed to be one of the for-sures. It's labeled "vegan option" on the menu board.

On yet another hand (this is the last hand -- I promise), this is the only place where I've even seen the word "vegan" on the menu since we arrived in Hampshire, so I'm not really complaining -- just shaking my head and making one gentle suggestion. I did enjoy my dinner, and I would go back to The Queen's Head.

*It was Robin that called this Sandra Sunday. He wants copyright protection. Okay. Post title Copyright Robin Leigh.

We won!

3-0

Well, I'm using the term "we" rather loosely here.  We (Robin and I) attended a football game with David and Sheila; their local team [Verwood] won; we were told in no uncertain terms which team to support, and support them we did. Another fan suggested after the game that David should bring his Canadian relatives around more often. Apparently we brought the team good luck. We were in Cranborne, Dorset. While the men played football, I half watched the game, half looked over the heads of the players at the lovely, rolling countryside.

The sky was as beautiful as the forest .

well -- almost as beautiful.

Before the game began, I took a walk around the village; the leaves were beginning to change colour, but I found a cottage garden that still clung to summer. The nights are cool now, so perhaps we will have a chance to see autumn arrive in its full splendour before we leave England.

Yes, it was that kind of party.

After the game, we went to David and Sheila's for a Leigh-extended-family party. I'm tired, but I'm still grinning. I had a wonderful time.