Don't take life seriously, no one gets out alive anyway...

#Reborn

#Lelutka briannon head

#Velour skin

I think she is a vixen and very beautiful. Do you agree? Watch the video and let me know please. She drives my camera wild. She seems to like the suet pellets

Ai! Há tantos pensamentos que não dão mais resultado que um fole: ao inchar, aumentam o vazio.

Assim falava Zaratustra do F. Nietsche na pag. 64 (Relógio D'Água)

Think...

Think Tank I built a while back for the GTWLUG displayed at Anime St Louis.

I borrowed the leg and front feet (rear 4 have bigger toes) from Pascal's (www.flickr.com/photos/pasukaru76/) Kenbishi Industries R2600 he posted a few years ago.

www.flickr.com/photos/pasukaru76/16531135528/in/photostream

The mecca of technology, I am sure the likes of davecparty, djpoe, jamief, James Yeung, marianNYC, - Loomax -, Barry Yanowitz and CANEOS7E to name a few of my NYC flickr friends can tell me where this is? Love the pads of the feet hence the title.

Tumbling down the rabbit hole? Just do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.

What is reality and what is a dream, it all merges into one!

Broughton Grange is the vast contemporary garden owned by former RBS Chairman Stephen Hester. It is open for a couple of days a year through the NGS scheme as well as for special charity days.

It is clearly a major garden, though I have doubts about its style and its lack of coherence. In a way, Hester has maintained the 18th century tradition of new landowners who bought a stately home and then commissioned the likes of Repton and ‘Capability’ Brown to create a grandiose landscape park around the house. It was a trophy landscape, a horticultural assertion of wealth, power and taste. Hester has simply perpetuated this by hiring designer du jour Tom Stuart-Smith and thus buying the ultimate trophy garden. Labels often boast about the number of gardeners needed, the tonnage of bulbs bought, the man hours it takes to plant etc. I think it has everything except passion.

The so-called walled garden is on a terrace overlooking several hundred acres of the estate and consists of a prairie-planting, Oudolf-inspired area that was a complete mess on my second visit; there is a large square pool and also an eye-popping parterre. It looks like three Chelsea show gardens having a stand-off. The parterre contains swirls of box and in spring thousands of tulips and in high summer a day-glo bedding scheme that I found frankly appalling - like Blackpool prom overdosing on Miracle-Gro. I’ve never seen such a bling display. I think this area of the garden has been planned for open days, not as a garden that a family might actually enjoy.

Far more restrained and successful are the borders and knot gardens down by the handsome Victorian-Costwoldian villa and the croquet lawn where Hester was playing en famille as hoi polloi walked by. A Bentley and a Porsche were parked in the driveway, adding to the rather ostentatious display of wealth.

土城鹿耳門聖母廟 - 五王殿香爐吞煙獸 / 祈禱天神保佑 - 可以心想事成

ORTHODOX LU-ERH-MEN SHENG MU MIAO - Five king palace's incense burner swallows the smoke beast / Pray deity to bless - May think that the matter becomes

ORTODOXA LU-ERH-MEN SHENG MU MIAO - quemador de incienso Cinco palacio del rey se traga a la bestia de humo / deidad Ore para bendecir - puede pensar que el asunto se convierte en

土城鹿耳門聖母廟 - 5王の殿の香炉はたばこのけものを飲み込みます / 天上の神の加護を祈ります - 事がなると心の中で考えることができます

ORTHODOXE LU-ERH-MEN SHENG MU MIAO - Fünf König Palastes Weihrauchbrenner schluckt den Rauch Tier / Betet zu Gott segne - Mai denke, dass wird die Sache

ORTHODOXE LU-TUM-MEN SHENG MU MIAO - brûleur d'encens Cinq palais roi avale la bête Tabac / Priez dieu de bénir - Mai pense que la question devient

Tainan Taiwan / Tainan Taiwán / 台灣台南

夏川里美 作詩 作曲 / Satomi Natsukawa poetry & composition

{涙はきらきら光ります/淚光閃閃/The tears sparkle}

{View large size on black}

{大員戀愛物語-安平追想曲2009}

{The Love story of Tayouan - Anping melody of the memorise 2009}

{La historia de amor de Tayouan - Melodía de Anping de la memorización 2009}

{大員の恋愛する物語 -安平は曲の2009を追憶します}

{Die Liebesgeschichte von Tayouan - Anping-Melodie merken 2009}

{My Blog / 不斷成長與進步的喜悅-管樂雅集}

{My Blog / The joy of the Grows unceasingly and the progress - Wind instrument music elegant gathering}

{Mi blog / La alegría del crece incesante y el progreso - Reunión elegante de la música del instrumento de viento}

{Mein Blog / Die Freude an wächst fortwährend und der Fortschritt - Elegante Versammlung der Windinstrument-Musik}

{My Blog / 一個從未結束的時代-日本時代}

{My Blog / The Never Ending Times - Japanese Times}

{Mi blog / Los tiempos interminables - épocas japonesas}

{Mein Blog / Die immer währenden Zeiten - japanische Zeiten}

{My Blog / 2009 Zeelandia city-Anping melody of the sword Lions}

{My Blog / 2009熱蘭遮城-劍獅追想曲}

{Mi ciudad blog / 2009 de Zeelandia - melodía de Anping de los leones de la espada}

{My Blog / 2009熱の蘭遮城-剣の獅子は曲を追憶します}

{Meine Blog / 2009 Zeelandia Stadt - Anping-Melodie der Klinge Löwen}

{My Blog / 2009七娘媽生-府城做十六歲}

{My Blog / The Big Dipper empress birth day 2009-The prefectural city makes 16 years old}

{Mi blog / El día 2009 del nacimiento de la emperatriz del cazo grande - La ciudad de la prefectura hace 16 años}

{Mein Blog / Der Wagenkaiseringeburtstag 2009 - Die Präfekturstadt bildet 16 Jahre alt}

{My Blog / 臺灣之門鹿耳門-北汕尾風情畫}

{My Blog / The Deer ear door of the Taiwan - The north sandbank character and style picture}

{Mi blog / La puerta del oído de los ciervos del Taiwán - El cuadro del norte del carácter y del estilo del banco de arena}

{Mein Blog / Die Rotwildohrtür des Taiwans - Die Nordsandbankbuchstaben- und -artabbildung}

原圖JPG直出無後製

Original picture JPG is straight has no children the system

El JPG original del cuadro es recto no tiene ninguÌn niño el sistema

原図JPGはずっと跡継ぎがいなくてつくることを出します

Ursprünglicher Abbildung JPG ist hat keine Kinder das System gerade

本圖無合成無折射

This chart does not have the refraction without the synthesis

Esta carta no tiene la refracción sin la síntesis

当合成がないことを求めて屈折がありません

Dieses Diagramm hat die Brechung nicht ohne die Synthese

可用放大鏡開1:1原圖

The available magnifying glass opens 1:1 original picture

La lupa disponible abre el cuadro de la original del 1:1

利用できる拡大鏡は1:1の原物映像を開ける

Die vorhandene Lupe öffnet 1:1vorlagenabbildung

Reading Buses Pink 163 with a 29 to Amersham Road on the Lower Caversham Shuttle.

Aix en Provence

I watched a free Shakespeare in the Park play in Central Park, Louisville. Fun!

One of my favorite quotes is Brutus opining on the rise of Rome's dictator, Julius Caesar:

"He would be crowned:

How that might change his nature,

there's the question.

It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, [...]

And therefore think him as a serpent's egg

Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous"

—from William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar

Ah, I see. It is also Shakespeare, not just the Roman Senate, who struggled with the nature of power. The powers of a dictator make a good man a snake, poisonous to Rome. Power and the structures of power changes a man. It corrupts. So how can checks and balances be designed to curtail the natural desire of the chief executive to dictate all things?

Shakespeare's Britain was painfully, slooowly evolving an answer to that question. There were Britain's civil wars. Almost two centuries later, it was the young upstart Americans who would provide a good answer, thanks to the abuses and inadequacies of their colonial rulers, Britain's government.

Think it's nicer B/W well different....

Taken along the mersey in speke

I think many of us have wondered how buses and trams would share the alignment between Kensington Junction and Doncaster Avenue in Sudney's south-east. On the afternoon of 20 November 2019 I had a chance to see the manoeuvre at 'new' Kensington Junction. Perfectly executed by two sets of LRVs and a few buses.

I think Izzi's schtick is to pick the biggest guy - in the entertainment industry, this person is known as a "mark" - she can find (preferably wearing a kilt) and claim her as her "boyfriend" (regardless if the guy is with his girlfriend, fiancée, or wife).

In this case, the "mark" was actually named Mark and I think he stood about 6'8". I honestly don't think she expected him to stand up while she was sitting on his shoulders (under her dress). She had some great quips about the vibrations she got when he verbally agreed to questions ("Uh-huh") and laughter. She could really change the pitch and tone of her voice. Normal-speaking voice for when in character was quite high and very little girlish with a standard RenFaire accent (southern England) but she could bring it down an octave or two for saying things in an American accent like, "Oh... yeah... that's good!" especially when Mark spoke (he was a bass or a baritone). And he was a charcter. Izzi did say to Mark, "Don't try to be funnier than me." during the show.

I nearly laughed myself sick and am totally impressed with myself that I took some really good photos during and in-between my fits of laughter.

"It's always sad when we have to say fare-

well to the Zinnias....but, ya know, they

can't bloom forever. :( And, we know (if we

sow our seeds) we'll be blessed with them

again next Summer....yippee! So, adios,

adieui, au revoir.....and just plain ol' bye

bye, Pretty Zinnias....we'll miss you; but

we'll see you later!" :)

~Mary Lou

"Think where man’s glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends."

(William Butler Yeats - Irish poet, 1865-1939)

This picture was shot at Munshi Ghat in Varanasi (Benaras).

These old friends sat in the shadow facing the Ganges and they were enjoying their conversation...

Join the photographer at www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.

Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).

The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

Uster, Zürich CH

21/4/2019 the day who the logo of the most pioneer /creating FUN family Tourist CAMPAIGN find the..LIGHT = GO support/like /share OR participate Because i looking for partners or places or park /hotel WHO want 30% more Tourist. = www.magikdo.info/advertising----support-

He was staring out the window.

Visit www.iphonesavior.com and click on Accessories

for more free iPhone & iPod Touch wallpapers.

Sri Lankan, I think. One of the many objects for which I forgot to photograph the label.

'A History of the World in 100 Objects', National Museum of Australia, Canberra.

Barbie on my mind

Roma - Lungotevere Milvio

Shot with Portra 400 @800 ISO.

Think different..... choose your own way...if you can...

14A_6734CPVN+

cardstock: recollections/110/white, stampin' up strawberry slush

stamps: sweet stamp shop unicorn/monogram it

ink: memento tuxedo, various copics, fresh ink/grass

tsurutadesigns.blogspot.com/2015/08/think-pretty-thoughts...

Worldwide Photo Walk 2015 - Irvine, CA

Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.

~ Yousuf Karsh

I've found shooting with film to be a very different experience than using a digital camera. While using my digital I usually like to work a subject from various distances and angles, shooting from all different perspectives to decide later which I prefer. Pressing the shutter on my Retina Reflex is an event. Each frame has value, or at least cost, and comes along with a build up of anticipation that lasts much longer than the split second it takes for a digital to spit out an image preview. In fact, I'm finding that a roll of film lasts me longer than I would like before I'm able to find enough quality subjects to fill it.

This image is from a test shoot with my donor camera. You can see the two missing leatherette pieces which cover the screws securing the front assembly.

Please take a look in Lightroom =)

You can see the reconstruction of this camera, along with some photos taken with it over the period of 53 years HERE

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cosima/61/133/21

What do you think fo this piece by Victoria Siemer?

Kakourgodikeiou , Athens , Greece

A collaboration with Chris M. He took the photo of jus dog, Diesel. My edit.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month I decided to make Think Pink Cupcakes.

I found the recipe in 500 Cupcakes and while I didn't fall in love with the taste they are pretty decent.

Look for the recipe featured on blog in the next couple of days!

Explored #323

Had to post another Monty pic, to balance out the stranger pic!

__________________________________________________

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LICENCE INFORMATION

You are free to share or adapt this work but must attribute me as the original author of the image. This image may not be used for any commercial purposes without my written consent, which may be easier to get than you would think. Email me for licensing

Creative Commons Licence - Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic

I think the "Kissing Couple" in the photo bellow felt so happy with the view above of the Wonderful City that they couldn't resist and started to kiss and kiss and kiss for a long time, making all the other tourists admire the scene and to think "Will they never stop kissing?". Hahaha. :-)

In the photo above you can see the districts of Catete, Flamengo, and Urca with the famous Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf).

Viewed from Parque das Ruínas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Have a great rest of day! :-)

To direct contact me / Para me contactar diretamente: lmsmartinsx@yahoo.com.br

_____________________________________________________________________

A Vista do Casal Beijoqueiro

Acho que o casal na foto abaixo se sentiu tão alegre com a vista acima da Cidade Maravilhosa que eles não puderam se conter e começaram a se beijar, e beijar e beijar sem parar por um tempão, fazendo todos os outros turistas admirarem a cena e pensar "Eles nunca vão parar de beijar?". Hehehe.

Na foto podem ser vistos os bairros do Catete, Flamengo e Urca. Além do Pão de Açúcar. :-)

vista do Parque das Ruínas, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Tenham todos um ótimo fim de dia! :-D

To direct contact me / Para me contactar diretamente: lmsmartinsx@yahoo.com.br

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I can't remember why i decided to to Ufford; I think it was because it is in Simon's top ten of Suffolk churches. Of course everything is down to taste and perspective and what the day, light, or other factors at play when you visited.

I drove through the village three times looking for the church, but this was Upper Ufford; all golf clubs and easy access to the A12.

I tried to find the church on the sat nav, but that wanted me to go to Ipswich or Woodbridge, I then tried to find Church Lane, and hit the jackpot. Down through a modern housing estate, then down a narrow lane, left at the bottom and there at the end of a lane stood St Mary, or the tower of the church anyway.

In the house opposite, a young man paused doing physical jerks to stare at me as ai parked, but my eyes were on the church. What delights would I find inside?

The south wall of the church inside the porch is lined with some very nice tiles; I take a few pictures. Inside, your eye is taken to the wonderful font cover, several metres high, disappearing into the wooden beams high above. A fine rood beam stretched across the chancel arch, and is still decorated.

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Upper Ufford is a pleasant place, and known well enough in Suffolk. Pretty much an extension northwards of Woodbridge and Melton, it is a prosperous community, convenient without being suburban. Ufford Park Hotel is an enjoyable venue in to attend professional courses and conferences, and the former St Audrey's mental hospital grounds across the road are now picturesque with luxury flats and houses. And I am told that the Ufford Park golf course is good, too, for those who like that kind of thing.

But as I say, that Ufford is really just an extension of Melton. In fact, there is another Ufford. It is in the valley below, more than a mile away along narrow lanes and set in deep countryside beside the Deben, sits Lower Ufford. To reach it, you follow ways so rarely used that grass grows up the middle.

You pass old Melton church, redundant since the 19th century, but still in use for occasional exhibitions and performances, and once home to the seven sacrament font that is now in the plain 19th century building up in the main village. Eventually, the lane widens, and you come into the single street of a pretty, tiny hamlet, the church tower hidden from you by old cottages and houses.

In one direction, the lane to Bromeswell takes you past Lower Ufford's delicious little pub, the White Lion. A stalwart survivor among fast disappearing English country pubs, the beer still comes out of barrels and the bar is like a kitchen. I cannot think that a visit to Ufford should be undertaken without at least a pint there. And, at the other end of the street, set back in a close between cottages, sits the Assumption, its 14th century tower facing the street, a classic Suffolk moment.

The dedication was once that of hundreds of East Anglian churches, transformed to 'St Mary' by the Reformation and centuries of disuse before the 19th century revival, but revived both here and at Haughley near Stowmarket. In late medieval times, it coincided with the height of the harvest, and in those days East Anglia was Our Lady's Dowry, intensely Catholic, intimately Marian.

The Assumption was almost certainly not the original dedication of this church. There was a church here for centuries before the late middle ages, and although there are no traces of any pre-Conquest building, the apse of an early-Norman church has been discovered under the floor of the north side of the chancel. The current chancel has a late Norman doorway, although it has been substantially rebuilt since, and in any case the great glories of Ufford are all 15th century. Perhaps the most dramatic is the porch, one of Suffolk's best, covered in flushwork and intriguing carvings.

Ufford's graveyard is beautiful; wild and ancient. I wandered around for a while, spotting the curious blue crucifix to the east of the church, and reading old gravestones. One, to an early 19th century gardener at Ufford Hall, has his gardening equipment carved at the top. The church is secretive, hidden on all sides by venerable trees, difficult to photograph but lovely anyway. I stopped to look at it from the unfamiliar north-east; the Victorian schoolroom, now a vestry, juts out like a small cottage.

I walked back around to the south side, where the gorgeous porch is like a small palace against the body of the church. I knew the church would be open, because it is every day. And then, through the porch, and down into the north aisle, into the cool, dim, creamy light.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, 21st August 1644, Ufford had a famous visitor, a man who entered the church in exactly the same way, a man who recorded the events of that day in his journal. There were several differences between his visit and the one that I was making, one of them crucial; he found the church locked. He was the Commissioner to the Earl of Manchester for the Imposition in the Eastern Association of the Parliamentary Ordinance for the Demolishing of Monuments of Idolatry, and his name was William Dowsing.

Dowsing was a kind of 17th century political commissar, travelling the eastern counties and enforcing government legislation. He was checking that local officials had carried out what they were meant to do, and that they believed in what they were doing. In effect, he was getting them to work and think in the new ways that the central government required. It wasn't really a witch hunt, although God knows such things did exist in abundance at that time. It was more as if an arm of the state extended and worked its fingers into even the tiniest and most remote parishes. Anyone working in the public sector in Britain in the early years of the 21st century will have come across people like Dowsing.

As a part of his job, Dowsing was an iconoclast, charged with ensuring that idolatrous images were excised from the churches of the region. He is a man blamed for a lot. In fact, virtually all the Catholic imagery in English churches had been destroyed by the Anglican reformers almost a hundred years before Dowsing came along. All that survived was that which was difficult to destroy - angels in the roofs, gable crosses, and the like - and that which was inconvenient to replace - primarily, stained glass. Otherwise, in the late 1540s the statues had been burnt, the bench ends smashed, the wallpaintings whitewashed, the roods hauled down and the fonts plastered over. I have lost count of the times I have been told by churchwardens, or read in church guides, that the hatchet job on the bench ends or the font in their church was the work of 'William Dowsing' or 'Oliver Cromwell'. In fact, this destruction was from a century earlier than William Dowsing. Sometimes, I have even been told this at churches which Dowsing demonstrably did not visit.

Dowsing's main targets included stained glass, which the pragmatic Anglican reformers had left alone because of the expense of replacing it, and crosses and angels, and chancel steps. We can deduce from Dowsing's journal which medieval imagery had survived for him to see, and that which had already been hidden - not, I hasten to add, because people wanted to 'save' Catholic images, but rather because this was an expedient way of getting rid of them.

So, for example, Dowsing visited three churches during his progress through Suffolk which today have seven sacrament fonts, but Dowsing does not mention a single one of them in his journal; they had all been plastered over long ago.

In fact, Dowsing was not worried so much about medieval survivals. What concerned him more was overturning the reforms put in place by the ritualist Archbishop Laud in the 1630s. Laud had tried to restore the sacramental nature of the Church, primarily by putting the altar back in the chancel and building it up on raised steps. Laud had since been beheaded thanks to puritan popular opinion, but the evidence of his wickedness still filled the parish churches of England. The single order that Dowsing gave during his progress more than any other was that chancel steps should be levelled.

The 21st of August was a hot day, and Dowsing had much work to do. He had already visited the two Trimley churches, as well as Brightwell and Levington, that morning, and he had plans to reach Baylham on the other side of Ipswich before nightfall. Much to his frustration, he was delayed at Ufford for two hours by a dispute between the church wardens over whether or not to allow him access.

The thing was, he had been here before. Eight months earlier, as part of a routine visit, he had destroyed some Catholic images that were in stained glass, and prayer clauses in brass inscriptions, but had trusted the churchwardens to deal with a multitude of other sins, images that were beyond his reach without a ladder, or which would be too time-consuming. This was common practice - after all, the churchwardens of Suffolk were generally equally as puritan as Dowsing. It was assumed that people in such a position were supporters of the New Puritan project, especially in East Anglia. Dowsing rarely revisited churches. But, for some reason, he felt he had to come back here to make sure that his orders had been carried out.

Why was this? In retrospect, we can see that Ufford was one of less than half a dozen churches where the churchwardens were uncooperative. Elsewhere, at hundreds of other churches, the wardens welcomed Dowsing with open arms. And Dowsing only visited churches in the first place if it was thought there might be a problem, parishes with notorious 'scandalous ministers' - which is to say, theological liberals. Richard Lovekin, the Rector of Ufford, had been turned out of his living the previous year, although he survived to return when the Church of England was restored in 1660. But that was in the future. Something about his January visit told Dowsing that he needed to come back to Ufford.

Standing in the nave of the Assumption today, you can still see something that Dowsing saw, something which he must have seen in January, but which he doesn't mention until his second visit, in the entry in his journal for August 21st, which appears to be written in a passion. This is Ufford's most famous treasure, the great 15th century font cover.

It rises, six metres high, magnificent and stately, into the clerestory, enormous in its scale and presence. In all England, only the font cover at Southwold is taller. The cover is telescopic, and crocketting and arcading dances around it like waterfalls and forests. There are tiny niches, filled today with 19th century statues. At the top is a gilt pelican, plucking its breast.

Dowsing describes the font cover as glorious... like a pope's triple crown... but this is just anti-Catholic innuendo. The word glorious in the 17th century meant about the same as the word 'pretentious' means to us now - Dowsing was scoffing.

But that was no reason for him to be offended by it. The Anglicans had destroyed all the statues in the niches a century before, and all that remained was the pelican at the top, pecking its breast to feed its chicks. Dowsing would have known that this was a Catholic image of the Sacrifice of the Mass, and would have disapproved. But he did not order the font cover to be destroyed. After all, the rest of the cover was harmless enough, apart from being a waste of good firewood, and the awkwardness of the Ufford churchwardens seems to have put him off following through. He never went back.

Certainly, there can have been no theological reason for the churchwardens to protect their font cover. I like to think that they looked after it simply because they knew it to be beautiful, and that they also knew it had been constructed by ordinary workmen of their parish two hundred years before, under the direction of some European master designer. They protected it because of local pride, and amen to that. The contemporary font beneath is of a type more familiar in Norfolk than Suffolk, with quatrefoils alternating with shields, and heads beneath the bowl.

While the font cover is extraordinary, and of national importance, it is one of just several medieval survivals in the nave of the Assumption. All around it are 15th century benches, with superbly characterful and imaginative images on their ends. The best is the bench with St Margaret and St Catherine on it. This was recently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Gothic exhibition. Other bench end figures include a long haired, haloed woman seated on a throne, which may well be a representation of the Mother of God Enthroned, and another which may be the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven. There is also a praying woman in a butterfly headdress, once one of a pair, and a man wearing what appears to be a bowler hat, although I expect it is a helmet of some kind. His beard is magnificent. There are also a number of finely carved animals, both mythical and real.

High up in the chancel arch is an unusual survival, the crocketted rood beam that once supported the crucifix, flanked by the grieving Mary and John, with perhaps a tympanum behind depicting the last judgement. These are now all gone, of course, as is the rood loft that once stood in front of the beam and allowed access to it. But below, the dado of the screen survives, with twelve panels. Figures survive on the south side. They have not worn well. They are six female Saints: St Agnes, St Cecilia, St Agatha, St Faith, St Bridget and, uniquely in England, St Florence. Curiously, the head of this last has been, in recent years, surrounded by stars, in imitation of the later Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Presumably this was done in a fit of Anglo-catholic enthusiasm about a century ago. The arrangement is similar to the south side of the screen at Westhall, and it may even be that the artist was the same. While there is no liturgical reason for having the female Saints on one side and, presumably, male Saints on the other, a similar arrangement exists on several Norfolk screens in the Dereham area.

Much of the character of the church today comes from it embracing, in the early years of the 20th century, Anglo-catholicism in full flood. It is true to say that, the later a parish took on the tradition, the more militant and intensely expressed it was, and the more evidence there is likely to be surviving. As at Great Ryburgh in Norfolk, patronage here ensured that this work was carried out to the very highest specification under the eye of the young Ninian Comper. Comper is an enthusiast's enthusiast, but I think he is at his best on a small scale in East Anglia like here and Ryburgh. His is the extraordinary war memorial window and reredos in the south aisle chapel, dedicated to St Leonard.

The window depicts Christ carrying his cross on the via dolorosa, but he is aided by a soldier in WWI uniform and, behind him, a sailor. The use of blues is very striking, as is the grain on the wood of the cross which, incidentally, can also be seen to the same effect on Comper's reredos at Ryburgh. The elegant, gilt reredos here profides a lovely foil to the tremendous window above it.

Comper's other major window here is on the north side of the nave. This is a depiction of the Annunciationextraordinary. from 1901, although it is the figures above which are most They are two of the Ancient Greek sibyls, Erythrea and Cumana, who are associated with the foretelling of Christ. At the top is a stunning Holy Trinity in the East Anglian style. There are angels at the bottom, and all in all this window shows Comper at the height of his powers.

Stepping into the chancel, there is older glass - or, at least, what at first sight appears to be. Certainly, there are some curious roundels which are probably continental 17th century work, ironically from about the same time that Dowsing was here. They were probably acquired by collectors in the 19th century, and installed here by Victorians. The image of a woman seated among goats is curious, as though she might represent the season of spring or be an allegory of fertility, but she is usually identified as St Agnes. It is a pity this roundel has been spoiled by dripping cement or plaster. Another roundel depicts St Sebastian shot with arrows, and a third St Anthony praying to a cross in the desert.

The two angels in the glass on the opposite side of the chancel are perhaps more interesting. They are English, probably early 16th Century, and represent two of the nine Orders of Angels, Dominions and Powers. They carry banners written in English declaring their relationship to eartly kings (Dominions) and priests and religious (Virtues). They would have been just two of a set of nine, but as with the glass opposite it seems likely that they did not come from this church originally.

However, the images in 'medieval' glass in the east window are entirely modern, though done so well you might not know. A clue, of course, is that the main figures, St Mary Salome with the infants St James and St John on the left, and St Anne with the infant Virgin on the right, are wholly un-East Anglian in style. In fact, they are 19th century copies by Clayton & Bell of images at All Souls College, Oxford, installed here in the 1970s. I think that the images of heads below may also be modern, but the angel below St Anne is 15th century, and obviously East Anglian, as is St Stephen to the north.

High above, the ancient roofs with their sacred monograms are the ones that Dowsing saw, the ones that the 15th century builders gilt and painted to be beautiful to the glory of God - and, of course, to the glory of their patrons. Rich patronage survived the Reformation, and at the west end of the south aisle is the massive memorial to Sir Henry Wood, who died in 1671, eleven years after the end of the Commonwealth. It is monumental, the wreathed ox heads a severely classical motif. Wood, Mortlock tells us, was Treasurer to the Household of Queen Henrietta Maria.

There is so much to see in this wonderful church that, even visiting time and time again, there is always something new to see, or something old to see in a new way. It is, above all, a beautiful space, and, still maintaining a reasonably High worship tradition, it is is still kept in High liturgical style. It is at once a beautiful art object and a hallowed space, an organic touchstone, precious and powerful.

Simon Knott, June 2006, updated July 2010 and January 2017

www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/Ufford.htm