Friday, June 15, 2012

not in nottingham

A Saturday morning in Robin Hood's Bay, a picturesque North Yorkshire seaside town. It was an infamous smugglers' cove. The legend goes that Robin Hood met French pirates who were pillaging the town; he defeated them, and gave their loot to the poor.


An atmospheric morning driving through the moors.


Arrival in Robin Hood's Bay.


The steep road into the village.


How the faces of love have changed, turning the pages.


And I have changed, oh but you, you remain ageless.


The strangest beauty's in the empty spaces.


You say time will wash every tower to the sea.


Blue door or yellow door, which to choose ?


We sailed through our youth, so impatiently.


Eva Cottage.


Back track, think back, E-V-E.


Bow Cottage, 1625.


To the sea wall & George Rex.


Ye Dolphin, public house.


Don't you want to just give up everything sometimes,
and live a life by the sea ?


Drove me, like a magnet...


To the sea.


I turned around.


And the water was closing, all around me.


Like a glove.


Like the love that had finally, finally found me.


All these miles of water...


Steal from the rich, give to the poor.
xx

Thursday, June 14, 2012

fortune faded

This year's Architectural History & Theory Research School field visit:
Bolsover Castle, in Derbyshire.


Bolsover Castle from in the bus, on the road below.


The site of an ancient castle, the present buildings date to the 1600s.


York art historians storm the castle.


Doesn't it look like the sea in the distance ?


It's not, it's just the hazy blue view over the Peak District.


The 17th-century diarist Celia Fiennes wrote in
Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary
:
"All Derbyshire is full of Steep hills and nothing but the peakes of hills as thick one by another is seen in most of ye County wch are very steepe, wch makes travelling tedious and ye miles Long. You see neither hedge nor tree but only Low drye stone walls round some ground Else its only hills and Dales as thick as you Can Imagine..."


Now mostly an empty shell castle...


The "Little Castle," circa 1621, is intact.


It overlooks the beautiful Peak District.


The buildings were built by the Cavendish family.




Lots of trompe l'oeil decoration inside.




An eerie quiet in the empty castle.


Glowing windows.


Beautiful views through the leaded glass.


Elaborate fireplaces.






This was my favourite room.


So Alice in Wonderland.


Amazing ceilings.


Want.


Painted chambers in the next level of the keep.


Cherubs everywhere.


Another painted chamber.












The top level and its window dome.


Emptiness.


In the courtyard.


Faux battlements.


Sometimes I walk by and I look up to your balcony,
just to make sure that you were real.


Leaving the Little Castle.


To explore the ruined range.


A once-grand entrance.


Magical views.




Wherever those walls were...






P.S. 1822.


Fields of gold in the distance.


Fortune faded.


Fortune tellers, fortunes tell her.
xx