Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Here be dragons

Current work: new Medical, c2
Listening to: Bach’s French Suites (Joanna MacGregor – beautifully played and highly recommended)
Reading: Nicola Cornick, Miss Verey’s Proposal (finished last night and enjoyed thoroughly)

Saw ‘Hotel for Dogs’ at the cinema yesterday – we all enjoyed the film and there were definite laugh-out-loud moments, but maybe I should’ve checked the reviews first, as there were a couple of bits that really upset me. (Bear in mind I was banned from watching Lassie films, as a small child – and I can’t handle Bambi... Ahem. Daughter nudged me afterwards. ‘Are those tears in your eyes?’ Yeah. Your mother needs some sleep.)

Also did a bit of the dragon trail. It was lovely to get to see St Helen’s church (which isn’t open very often) and the refectory of the Great Hospital. As well as the dragons (bench end carvings in the church and spandrels in the refectory), we also saw one of the cannon that was used during Kett’s rebellion, 460 years ago this summer, and a partial copy of one of the swan rolls.

Here are the cloisters between the church and the hospital:


And the famous dragon on the bench end:

And this boss (from the chantry chapel) is the only known depiction of a midwife at Christ's birth - I think this is utterly charming:

Plans for today: depends on the weather. From my desk, it looks grey, grey, grey. Don't think we'll be persuading DH to the beach, then.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now that is totally spooky - I heard the Bach French yesterday morning on Radio 3 and was listening to it on YouTube most of the afternoon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOM6ipm784w

Lovely pics. What an interesting building.
Hope the weather brightens up! LOL

Unknown said...

Oh dear, I can't handle Bambi either. Or Lassie. I'll be avoiding Hotel for Dogs then.

Lovely pics. Thanks for sharing

Anonymous said...

Love the pics!

Jan Jones said...

Oooh, three really nice photos. I feel the middle one ought to be captioned On A Wing and a Prayer. And how handy the the midwife just happened to be in the vicinity of the stable that night...

Kate Hardy said...

Ray-Anne - it's a very interesting building. There's a swan pit at the back. I'm waiting for the next open day (to see the Eagle Ward - the ceiling was painted with eagles in honour of Anne of Bohemia's visit to the city).

I caught the Back French on Classic FM a week or so back, when it was snowing - and it was just perfect for the Norway book.

Kate Hardy said...

Shirley - it's not terribly, terribly bad. Just that I knew what was going to happen offstage at the dog pound. And kids being separated from their dog... No, no, no, no, no.

(This is why I am not allowed anywhere near rescue places. We would have a houseful.)

Kate Hardy said...

Julie - thank you :o) Bits of Norwich that aren't usually on view, and I need to talk to my ed to see if I can get an extra pic in there...

Kate Hardy said...

Jan - thank you. You would've found it really interesting. The bosses were superb; as good, I think, as the cathedral bosses, and I reckon they were made by the same craftsmen. (And as the cathedral is about a minute's walk away, tops...)