Architecture

Two weeks into my retirement and hardly a word written! It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but then life has a habit of interfering. I have managed to scribble this, hope you like it. Thanks to Kent Bonham for the interesting photo and to Rochelle for steering us through the maze…

Genre: Historical Fiction

Word Count: 100

A Man of Vision

‘How can we help you if you keep the design in your head Antoni?’

‘I cannot draw a design, as it changes every time I think of it. It is a fluid, changing thing I cannot confine to paper. If you will help me, then you must work as I work.’

‘But this bears no resemblance to any cathedral we have ever seen.’

Antoni stopped listening.

Through years of turmoil and political unrest he worked on his masterpiece. He never finished it, but saw in his mind’s eye all the colours, the textures and the glory of his beloved cathedral.

*******

For more information on Antoni Gaudi and his work, including his beloved cathedral the Sagrada Familia

for more stories, click Mr Frog

This is from our visit to Egypt, the photograph shows the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. We had left the air-conditioned mini-bus and walked with our guide the remaining few hundred yards towards the entrance to the tombs. The temperature was 46C and there was precious little shade.

We stayed at The Mena House hotel for the first two nights of our holiday and this is the entrance to the main hotel from the garden wing where our room was. We arrived late at night and I asked our guide how far away we were from the pyramids, he told me “Wait until morning!” And this is the view we had on opening the curtains, not one, but two pyramids! A sight that will stay with me for ever.

This photograph shows all that remains of the entrance to Wycoller Hall. The Hall was formely the home of the Cunliffe family, several generations of the family have lived there. Wycoller Hall is very famous locally; it is said to be haunted by the ghost of a horseman and it was thought to have been the inspiration for Ferndean Manor in Charlotte Bronte’s novel “Jane Eyre.” The Bronte family lived quite nearby in the village of Haworth and it is quite probable that Charlotte and Emily visited during their walks. The Hall was used to illustrate the cover of the 1898 edition of Jane Eyre.