Another Little Day Trip

After our visit to Moulton Mill and the Flower Festival on Saturday I took the opportunity yesterday to join a local coach trip round 4 local churches which were also holding Flower Festivals. It seemed a good opportunity to visit buildings that I have often passed but never had the chance to go inside. Many of these buildings can trace their history back centuries and all were inspiring buildings.

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The church in the collage above is in the village of Donington, which was the birthplace of Matthew Flinders who was the first known European to circumnavigate the coast of Australia. He named many features of the coastline of Australia after members of his crew. Within the church is a display dedicated to Mattew Flinders including a modern stained glass window commemorating Flinders, Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist who was responsible for establishing Kew Gardens as one of the foremost botanical gardens in the world, and George Bass, the ship's doctor, after whom Bass Strait was named.

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An unexpected highlight of the day out was a visit to Springfields at Spalding. Springfields is one of those Outlet shopping places but it is also home to the Festival Gardens which are beautiful just at the moment, with all the tulips being in flower.

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I spent a very pleasant hour walking round the gardens and found the tulips glorious. If you click on the collage you can see a novel use for car exhausts! I would love to be able to make use of the rust on this sculpture. The sculpture in the bottom right of the collage is a type of windmill which should move in perpetual motion but was unmoving on such a calm day as yesterday. The surfaces of the paddles are all reflective but I couldn't get close enough to photograph them. Springfields will be especially busy this weekend when the annual Spring Flower Parade will be in full swing.

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This beautiful window was in the parish church of Gosberton which was, I think, the prettiest of all the churches. I have to apologise that I didn't photograph the church in its lovely setting. I'm sure that my DH and I will go back another time for another look as it is a lovely church. The double cross in the left hand panel is based on a cross in Southwell Minster and the Runic cross in the right hand panel is after a cross at Bakewell in Derbyshire.

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You can see from the photograph above that Gosberton's church is a substantial building. In all the churches there was the feeling of awe as your gaze is drawn ever upwards by the height of tthe building. I'm sure this was the intention when these buildings were erected. Many of the churches in Lincolnshire were built out of the wealth of the wool trade, hence their dramatic size. Gosberton was a particulary vibrant church with a great feeling of community and it was the only church that included displays by members of the local Embroiderers Guild and a Patchwork group. All of the churches had stalls to tempt people to part with a little money to maintain the churches. A lot of people had obviously worked very hard baking, sewing, knitting, and of course, there was plenty of tea and cakes on offer! Oh, and of course, the flower arrangements were inventive and stunning. A very pleasant way to spend a day.

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Today, apart from recovering from yesterday, I have been catching up on some of my sewing projects including making my first Little Gem. It just needs a little handsewing and then I shall be able to post it up here.