Texture all around me

Smooth, bumpy, rough, and lumpy…
Slimy, fuzzy, sharp, and fluffy…

Texture is the way a surface, material, or substance feels when we touch it, but I don’t think you have to touch something to notice texture.  Every time I pick up my camera, I see texture all around me, and as I was looking through my photos trying to figure out what to do for my next week’s worth of posts, I saw texture everywhere.  So, I thought it might be fun to do a series about it.

Tree bark provides my eyes with texture overload but not in a bad way.  There are so many different textures in tree bark, especially on a tree where the bark is peeling like in this photo.  What I see could mostly be described as rough, but I’m sure if I closed my eyes and touched the bark, there would be many different degrees of roughness and also some smooth sections where the bark has peeled away enough to reveal the natural wood underneath.  Do you notice the texture around you?

Mystery Photo #14

Sometimes it’s really hard to figure out what to use as the mystery photo, but yesterday my creative side appeared out of nowhere, and I took enough mystery pictures to last a couple of months.  There’s a good mixture too – some are mind boggling (I think anyway) while others are fairly easy if you look carefully.  I think today’s photo might strain your brain a little, at least I hope it will.  Ok, ready, set, go……..

Punting on the Cam

Ok, so I know I said I was done with my series on Cambridge, England, but I forgot one aspect of Cambridge that I found very quaint.

While Cambridge is world renowned as a centre for knowledge and learning, it’s not all about hitting the books.  There is rest and relaxation as well, and one of the best ways to do just that is to go punting on the Cam.  A punt is a square-ended boat which has a flat bottom with no keel and is usually propelled using a long pole. Punts were developed in Medieval times to provide stable craft which could be used in areas of water too shallow for rowing conventional craft.  Punts were introduced to Cambridge as pleasure craft in Edwardian times and even now punting on the River Cam on a lovely summer day is still an image often associated with Cambridge.  It’s also referred to as punting on the Backs, as the River Cam runs behind the colleges of Cambridge University.  Here are three of my favourite photos from the Backs.

Views from the top

As a final post in my series about Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, I give you the view from the top of the Great St. Mary’s.  As I couldn’t choose just one, here are my favourites that show some of the colleges as well as the market place behind the church.  I hope you have enjoyed this series!!

Phew, that was quite the climb!!

Another one of my favourite historical landmarks in Cambridge, England was the Church of St. Mary the Great, known locally as Great St. Mary’s or GSM, a Church of England church.  The first church on the site of the current one was built in 1205, but this was mostly destroyed by fire on July 9, 1290 and then rebuilt.  During its early years, the church was the property of the crown, but ownership eventually passed to the University of Cambridge.  The present building was constructed between 1478 and 1519, with the tower finished later, in 1608. The cost of construction was covered largely by Richard III and Henry VII.

Access to the tower is via a 123-step medieval turret staircase, and I’m telling you it’s quite the climb and fully convinced me that the human race has definitely grown since medieval times.  As a woman with a size 9 shoe, I had to turn my feet sideways because the stairs were so tiny, and the staircase is so narrow that if you are going up and meet someone coming down, somebody has to backtrack to a small landing so that everyone can continue. There is no way you could pass someone on that staircase!  But no matter how tricky the climb, the view from the top is totally worthwhile, as you are treated to a panoramic view of Cambridge.

The first picture below is a view of Great St. Mary’s from the street, and the second shot is one of my favourite photos from the day, looking up toward the top of the tower.  Tomorrow I will show you the view from the top.

St. John’s College, Cambridge University

While walking around Cambridge University in England, I was fascinated by the details found on the buildings.  One that was especially detailed was St. John’s College.  The college was established in 1511 by Lady Margaret Beaufort, and believe it or not the full, formal name of the college is “The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge”.  That’s quite a mouthful isn’t it?   The college’s alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints.

This is a photo of the Great Gate.  According to Wikipedia, “St John’s distinctive Great Gate follows the standard contemporary pattern employed previously at Christ’s College and Queen’s College. The gatehouse is crenelated and adorned with the arms of the foundress, Lady Margare Beaufort. Above these are displayed her ensigns, the Red Rose of Lancaster and Portcullis. The College Arms are flanked by curious creatures known as yales, mythical beasts with elephants’ tails, antelopes’ bodies, goats’ heads, and swivelling horns. Above them is a tabernacle containing a socle figure of St John the Evangelist, an Eagle at his feet and symbolic, poisoned chalice in his hands. The doors date from 1665-6, and the fan vaulting above was constructed by William Swayne, the master mason of King’s College Chapel”.  Like I said two days ago, college or castle?  Sorry about the people’s heads in the picture, but it does help to give you an idea how huge these buildings are.

Can you see the difference?

To continue on from yesterday, King’s College Chapel took over a century to build, and it has the largest fan vault ceiling in the world and some of the finest medieval stained glass.  It is one of the finest examples of late Gothic (Perpendicular) English architecture.  The Chapel has a total length of 289 feet, and the width of the main vault is 40 feet.  The interior height is 80 feet and the exterior height is 94 feet.  The windows of King’s College Chapel are some of the finest in the world from their era. There are 12 large windows on each side of the chapel, and larger windows at the east and west ends.  It also features a Renaissance wooden screen, and a painting by Rubens called The Adoration of the Magi above the altar.

What I found really interesting is that you can see two distinct colours of stone in the chapel.  This is because a white magnesium limestone from Yorkshire was used for the first 15 years of building, while later work is in Northamptonshire sandstone.  You can best see the difference in the buttresses where you can see the level the building had reached by 1461, fifteen years after the first stone was laid.  Can you see the change in colour?