Sit and contemplate

This chair is one of several placed in the woodland around Croft Castle, Herefordshire. They were put there by the artist, Edie Jo Murray, an invitation to sit and contemplate in solitude. Their ornate eighteenth and nineteenth century design is intended to reference furniture found in the Castle. The very bright colours are intended to "alter the aesthetic presentation of the chairs and create an incongruous and distinctive intervention in the landscape." In case you were wondering.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

The Outdoor Inn, Gloucester

The Covid19 pandemic has forced change on many businesses and at first glance I thought The Outdoor Inn in Gloucester was just such a reaction. However, reading its website I discovered that the pub started life in 2018 in a horse box(!) and has since expanded to a shipping container conversion and four "pods"(!!) Only the discreet name gave away the nature of the business since the only indication on one of the other elevations was the giant letters "OI". Presumably music is a selling point of the pub too judging by the robot DJ graffito.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Art personified

The fashion for personification seems to have died out. From the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries it was not uncommon to see statues that represented, for example, Music (often with a lyre), Justice (blindfolded with sword and scales), Industry, Time, and much else. Today's photograph shows a statue of Art personified (with hammer and nails (!) hidden by the flowers). She is at one side of a Cecil monument in St Martin's church, Stamford: Victory (with a gilt Pallas Athene) is at the other. I've never seen this tomb with flowers nearby and a shot contrasting their soft colour with the almost monochrome marble suggested itself. Here is the whole of the tomb.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10