Monday Window – From Pyrenees to Pennines

Fountains by Floodlight

Every October, Fountains Abbey open its gates on Friday and Saturday evenings to allow visitors to appreciate the site as the sun sets, darkness falls, the Abbey is illuminated by floodlight, choirs sing in the Cellarium, and a flotilla of food trucks cater to most tastes.

This year, there was another attraction: a lightshow telling the story of the Abbey, from its early days as a simple place of a life of prayer for a few devout monks; through its successful days as an important religious and wool-trading centre; to its dissolution by Henry VIII; its re-emergence as part of an 18th century water garden; and finally, as a UNESCO World Heritage site managed by the National Trust. All that history, colourfully and dramatically brought to life in 10 minutes or so, projected on repeat throughout the evening! It was magnificent, and a wonderful window on the past. If you live near enough and fancy this kind of evening out, there are two further weekends this October. Find out all about it here.

If the windows shown here aren’t obvious enough, here’s one more:

For Ludwig’s Monday Window, hosted this week by PR

PS. Radio silence for a while, apart from the odd virtual postcard. Off on a rail trip to visit Team Spain, then on to our old haunts in France for a few days before chugging our way home.

A Window on a Distressed Barn

Not long ago, I showed you a local barn I’m fond of. Now it’s time for another.

I often walk along the river bank towards the next village, and pass an attractive low-key campsite en route. And on this site is this elderly yet still serviceable barn…

Well, when I say ‘serviceable’, that’s unless you need to get through some of the doors. But the windows look fine, and windows are what Monday Window is all about. Every time I pass, I look at the layers of brick and ston , the iron retaining clasps that hold the whole thing together, and wonder what stories this venerable building, once part of a watermill, could tell…

For Ludwig’s Monday Window, hosted this week by Brian of Bushboy’s World fame.

A Window on Scarborough

Scarborough is a town that is either on the way up, or on its way down, according to who you talk to. It has some glorious housing stock, built in the town’s heyday as a prosperous and must-visit resort in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of it is still glorious, and windows sparkle. Some is run down and in bad shape, and windows are grubby and laced with spiders’ webs – often on the same street.

All smart and tickety-boo at one end … less so further down the street.

Shopping streets can be quirkily full of independent traders (taxidermist, anyone?)…

A rather sad display spotted through the taxidermist’s window.

or be slightly down-at-heel examples of chain stores seen anywhere. Or even cheerful sea-front stores. And as one image below shows, quirkily independent doesn’t always make it.

It boasts the nationally renowned Stephen Joseph Theatre. It even has a university, even if that local seat of learning is actually an outpost of Coventry University, 260 km, or three and a quarter hours away. Transport links aren’t great, and all this is difficult for job seekers, who point out that the sea automatically limits the number of opportunities available. ‘Half our catchment area is fish.‘

Many of those fish end up in one of the many fish and chip restaurants in town. Here’s the view from Catch 55 (recommended). Though one customer didn’t seem to relish the scene as much we did…

I’ll close with a snapshot I rather like. It includes some of the more desirable housing, some of the more desirable parkland, an even, if you look hard enough, the sea. It absolutely qualifies for Monday Window, because these views were taken glancing through the window of a parked car.

For Ludwig’s Monday Window, hosted this week by PR.

Windows to Hang Washing From

Continuing my From Dirty to Clean theme with windows, here are some to hang your washing from. All but one are from Spain. The odd one out is our very own washing line. Which one though?

For Ludwig’s Monday Window.

PS. British Readers for the use of. I’m very taken by an app I’ve come across. It’s called The Washing Line Index. Supply it with your post code or allow it to use your location, and it will tell you how wise it would be to hang your washing out today. How likely is it to rain? How warm will it be? How hard will the wind blow? It’s brilliant, ad free and … free. As a confirmed hanger-out-of-washing-in-nearly-all-circumstances, I love it.

Cleaning Windows

After last week’s Dirty Windows in Distress, I thought it only right to show some clean ones. Or some soon-to-be-clean ones.

There we are. Four fine fellows, following Health and Safety and enjoying a good day’s work cleaning all this glass..

Oh hang on. They’re a bit further from the ground than seems entirely comfortable.

Now that’s just … terrifying. I hope they lived to work another day.

Spotted in Warsaw, years ago.

For Ludwig’s Monday Window, hosted this week by Brian of Bushboy fame

A Window on Premià de Mar

Today, I have just a few everyday windows (and doors) from my daughter’s and family’s town in Catalonia. Plus windows-within-a-window as my featured photo. You can tell from the colour of the sky that these were not taken last week, during Heat Wave Central. Nobody in their right mind was walking round then, as daily ‘feels like’ temperatures regularly hit 42 degrees

For Ludwig’s Monday Window, hosted this week by Brian of Bushboy fame.

Reflections on Malmö Windows

Something Malmö was particularly good at was windows and their reflections of the city beyond. For my last post in this series – though there might be one or two more later, here are some shots taken of our meanderings round the city.

For Ludwig’s Monday Window, hosted this week by Brian, of Bushboy fame

And that’s me done for a while. I’ve scheduled a couple of posts, and may send the odd postcard, but for the next month I’m on Granny duty both here, and in Spain. Where it seems rather hot for comfort.

Feathers McGraw visits Bradford

Team London and I visited Bradford on Friday to spend time in its Science and Media Museum. And here we found Feathers McGraw, anti-hero star of The Wrong Trousers and Murder Most Fowl. Surely he should still be locked up at His Majesty’s Pleasure, instead of gazing out of the windows of the museum?

For Ludwigs’s Monday Window, hosted today by PR.

Monday Window in Chichester

Here’s a window to cheer on a Monday morning. You’ll find it in Chichester Cathedral, and it’s designed by Marc Chagall the Jewish Modernist painter, who enjoyed working with stained glass too. You’ll find his windows in churches in France, Germany, England and the USA, as well as in Jewish settings. Essentially, this window illustates Psalm 150, a hymn of praise to God suggesting He be praised – noisily – with every instrument to be found, as well as by singing and dancing. That’s what this window illustrates.

Chichester Cathedral came with surprises. This quintessentially English place of worship was built, as so many English cathedrals were, between the 11th and 14th centuries. So it was unexpected to find so many works of art from recent years there: a startlingly bright tapestry designed by John Piper; ‘Noli me tangere’ by Graham Sutherland; murals by Hans Feibusch, exiled from Nazi Germany in 1933; the ‘Reconciliation Tapestry’ designed by German artist Ursula Benker-Schirmer and woven partly in Germany, partly in England tells the story of Saint Richard and is a symbol of reconciliation between Britain and Germany after WWII.

For Ludwig’s Monday Window, hosted this week by PR

More Monday Windows from Saltaire

A bit of post Christmas fun. Here’s the exterior of Salts Mill, as seen on the bonnet and front window of a car parked just outside.

For Ludwig’s Monday Window

The bots are out to get me! For the last few days, I have been the World’s Most Popular Blogger, with stratospherically high viewing figures. This has happened in the past, and changing my password has instantly solved the problem. This time it’s had no effect. Any suggestions?