shotleyfieldsforever

Visiting Turner in January. Each year in January the National Art Gallery in Edinburgh shows its collection of Turner watercolours which were bequeathed to the gallery in 1900 by Henry Vaughan. I have visited this exhibition on a few occasions most recently January 2019. I always find the exhibition uplifting and 2019 has been no exception. One year the view of Durham Cathedral from Prebends Bridge caught my attention in this and a second watercolour Turner captures the majesty and mystery of the Cathedral but using poetic or maybe that should be artistic licence he turns the Cathedral on its axis the better to illustrate the East End rising above the River Wear. Another year I found myself standing in front of his marvellous image of the Falls of Clyde imagining if not in practice almost hearing the cascading waters as they tumble down the Falls and on into the turbulence of the River. This year however I found myself reflecting on Turners tremendous capacity for travel a...

I'm certainly  not claiming to be Tom Cruise. I'm taller than he is and I'm not a scientologist. But we have both played at Barman. He more successfully and much, much better paid than ever I was. But yes I have been a Barman. It was, admittedly a summer job, but I was a Barman in the Privates bar in a NAAFI in Germany. My work colleague won the lottery that day and became Barman in the Corporals Bar. The Squad, in question, that the squaddies were members of was the Sherwood Foresters. Of course there were many fabulous stories told. My favourite, although sadly it may have been apocryphal and certainly didn't happen on my watch, was the night that the Barman closed the Bar. He announced 'the Bar is closed' and, pulled the shutters closed. As he headed back to the office along a long T shaped corridor, he heard a crashing sound as the Juke Box came through the shutters landing on the counter and a chorus chanted 'its open now'. I did howe...

The frost has lain heavily on the ground these past few mornings.The chickens lift their feet gingerly as they step out of the coop and the bird table is heavily oversubscribed. But walking to Church on Sunday Morning felt very good. The only issue that I have is dealing with the instruction which I received over fifty years ago at Theological College that before approaching the Altar I should shave and polish my shoes. Shaving is not difficult despite the controversial Gillette advert, but as I use an electric razor for my shaven headed look, shaving is quick and easy. But the Vicarage drive has something of an unmade road about it and in the rainy season feet will be wet, in the snow feet will be cold and, in the summer feet will be dusty. So a complicated but essential Plan B is in preparation but not yet quite implemented but will probably involve shoe cleaning materials in the Vestry or at least a pair of clean shoes standing in readiness to slip on in order to approach...

Concrete Holiness A personal reflection on sacred space in Carlisle Cathedral This is how the Church is made of living stones, compacted by mercy. Thomas Merton Following the success of Martyn Halsall's inaugural year as Poet in Residence which has resulted in a forthcoming book Sanctuary to be published later this year I accepted the challenge of becoming poet in residence in 2013. I began my year with the intention of creating a series of nine spare, terse, schematic works or 'posters' each reflecting an aspect of monastic life and then through an iterative process to make linkages between the monasticism practiced on this historic site and what is coming to be known as New Monasticism. For each of the nine 'sacred spaces' identified by the Cathedral I have endeavored to make a connection between the ancient practice and current expression e.g. in the first poem between the work in the scriptoriu...