Smoothing the curve

 

This is looking north along the river towards the Alexandra dock in Lynn.

And this is the first time I've used (and not through choice; it was foisted on me) the new Blogger user interface. I must say I like the photo size adjuster with more options than small, big and enormous and out of sight; the rest seems like change for change sake, annoying but not life threatening.

I'd like to say I was professional and spent an age lining up this and that but nah it's just a click and ooh look they all kinda meet up nice; sometimes it just happens.

The Church of All Saints, Hillington Square, King's Lynn

This little church is not much spoken of in the tourist bumpf, we hear loads about St Margaret's church and St Nicholas chapel but it was only a few months ago I came across a mention of the ancient church of All Saints, tucked away to the south of the town. Odd because it's the oldest church in town originating in the 11th century or possibly earlier. It describes itself as "a hidden pearl" and with centuries of accretions it has a certain barroco appearance. A sign informs the visitor that "the tower collapsed in 1768", I'm at a loss to know where a tower could be fitted in but that's not my problem. I visited early in the morning so it was closed but visitors are welcome if you contact before hand and I've since found it's open on Saturdays  but maybe check before you go. Anyhow I'll post an anticlockwise tour starting at the west end.

This little window/niche and statue seem to have been added since the mid 19th century as an engraving shows a sundial over the doorway.

This is the view from Church Lane, the iron gates are pretty useless since there are no walls apart from these little bits.

The two windowed annex above is (or was), I'm reliably informed an anchor-hold, a room set to the side of the church where an anchoress (think Julian of Norwich) would seal themselves in and live a life of religious contemplation there's a tiny window inside with a view of the altar. This is considered a rare feature being on the north side of the church as most were on the south (warmer) side and also most have also been lost to demolition (the reformation did away with this kind of thing). You can see it has been added to over the years and it's now obstructing the window of the church.

Another odd feature is the lack of a church wall surrounding the church yard, it is surrounded by 60-70s social housing giving a quiet, peaceful almost cloistered feeling.

As idle as a painted ship

Here's an old barge marooned in the silt of the Boal Quay which has attracted the attentions of local painters and decorators and become really quite colourful, almost as colourful as the character it is named after, Tosca. A little research, like a little learning, is a dangerous thing so for what it's worth I can say that this area was a loop of the river Nar which emptied into the Great Ouse at the far end; changes to sluices and other works mean that it no longer flows around here hence the silting and 'nature' moving in. Some tidal water does reach in giving councils the excuse to erect signs warning of danger but it wasn't that that stopped me from going further to explore, no sir, it was inadequate footwear, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Tosca is apparently not the only boat lost in this gloopy greenery, a local historical site informs of others lost over time in the mire.

... and those menacing clouds duly emptied themselves on our heads soon after making us seek cover.

The Whitefriars Gate, King's Lynn

Hull has its Whitefriargate here in King's Lynn between terraced houses and a silted up quay is the Whitefriars Gate. It's the last vestige of a Carmelite Friary at the southern end of Lynn. A little sign around the back tells us the following "Gateway of the Carmelite Friary which from before 1260 until 1538 occupied a precinct to the south-east. Here lived Friar Aleyn, writer of 'The Book of Margery Kempe' the earliest biography in the English Language, c1436-40." This little jewel has survived the dissolution of the monasteries, sale to Lynn corporation, demolition of walls surrounding, demolition of later buildings abutting it and now stands in splendid isolation overlooking a car park.

I found an interesting blog post on this monument here.

Shibboleths

I saw a vile thing in a charity in King's Lynn; a face mask pouch. Yes a wee bag to pop your lung excreta soaked rag into after signalling far and wide your belonging to the "good guys gang", your  virtue and how much your really care. Ew! Anyhow here we have the equivalent of the Build-a-bear idea, the entrepreneurial drive may have been biffed around the snotty noggin by the Fat Controller but it is far from dead and still knows no depths too deep to sink.

This desperate advert cum ripped up don't- quite-know-what is just plain barmy. 99.95% survived and most of those that didn't were not long for this world and almost none died of Covid-19 alone. They make it seem like some epic struggled, the only danger was and remains the crazed politicians. 

And on the subject of being political I was upbraided by someone for being too political; this is not the spirit, I was told, of City Daily Photo (all praise and hallelujah!). This was after the said person had posted about the Mayor of her town and the state governor, yes she was American; how could you tell? Hmm I wonder where the word politics comes from; could it be the ancient Greek word for city πόλις I think it could well be. Cities are political entities, politics is at their heart, the pretty buildings, the nice parks, the artful riverside walks all come about by political power.

By the Millfleet, King's Lynn

As I mentioned in yesterday's somewhat rambling post I have been in King's Lynn for a few days and naturally took several gigabytes of photos. More to come over the next few days.

Blame it on the Covid

In the ground, in the ground, in the ground

Oh bury me deep in the ground,

I died of the 'rona and double pneumonia

So bury me deep in the ground

City Daily Photo has, it seems, a theme of "Your response to Covid-19" for this month of October. Covid-19! ... I know, I know, the great yawn inducer of 2020 ... October already how time flies in lockdown with anti-social distancing. My response to this year's seasonal respiratory infection, which has for some reason been given a name (Covid-19) and the sort of mass media coverage normally reserved for world wars, has been not to catch it and to ignore all the rules, guidelines, social distancing, lockdowns, hey-downs, ho-downs, derry derry downs etc that have issued forth like so many shots in the dark from a drunken blind gunman... I know there's been a lot of it about (as doctors used to say when you could go to see them) earlier on but I haven't had a sniffle, indeed never been healthier thank you for asking (I know you care). 

...but then such in depth coverage of the many celebrity colds that have featured in what passes for news these days. I hear even The Orange Donald has a wee snotty nose, a fever and gone to bed early with a glass of honeyed tea; well he would wouldn't he; anyone who is anyone has had this danger bug ... including Alexander de Pfeffel aka the Fat Controller who had it earlier this year but you know the social media motto "pics or it never" ... all these colds, fevers and coughs like it had never, ever happened before.

But that was my response I've expressed before nothing new here but what am I to make of  yours? Well never have I seen so much mass hysterical overreaction to a winter sniffle; you lot have, it seems, been making boldly for the Kool Aid and fallen for the necro-hype. Fear is stalking your febrile minds. You seem to want to be ordered (or mandated as the Americans euphemistically put it) to cover your ugly faces with a magical piece of rag the which will stop you passing it on to others and others passing it on to you. (Yet when this measure was introduced here "cases" rose seemingly in defiance of the politicians and continue to "rise" as testing continues to rise... draw your own conclusions) Strangely you lot seem to live on through this mass slaughter as deaths remain stubbornly near to zero as can be, indeed ten times as many of you are passing away with flu right now and nothing, not a damn thing is being done about that... And what kind of a dumbass is it that takes health advice from  lying, no good, ignorant, bullshitting politicians drunk on control freakery??? ... seems the world is full of numptified hoopleheads.  Still as I have said many times here and elsewhere à chacun son goût and you push your own handcart to that warm inferno ...

This is a little late (it's just back-dated) as I've been away to Norfolk and left all my computing stuff behind me, bliss was it in that dawn to be alive ...