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~ An occasional blog, mainly photos

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Monthly Archives: December 2015

Glastonbury’s ‘Crystal shops’, Part 3

13 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, History, People, Photography, Travel

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

alternative lifestyle, crystals, Curtain Pole, Glastonbury, Glastonbury High Street, organic food

Next door to the Heavenly Path Art Gallery058.P1170493is a totally conventional shop, The Curtain Pole, selling and making curtains, blinds and soft furnishings. 059.P1170495I especially wanted to do this series of blogs now, because this shop always does wonderful windows at Christmas. Here are those of 2015, rather obscured by condensation and reflections,060.P1170497 061.P1170498and later, with young visitors.061.P1170506Nearly at the top of the High Street are Arcanacadabra,062.P1170499Kashi,062.P1170500 063.P1170510and somewhere that somehow I have failed to visit so far!064.P1170501Wandering back down the High Street again, I pick up our large organic, etc, store,065.P1170507then ‘get real’066.P1170519 067.P1170525 069.P1170527and a shop which totally epitomises Glastonbury, simply called Crystals.070.P1170528 071.P1170530 073.P1170534 074.P1170536I believe that Gothic Image, yet another bookshop, is one of the oldest alternative shops in Glastonbury. Certainly they have been running ‘tours to ancient and sacred sites since 1980’.  You can learn more about many of these places from their websites.075.P1170554 076.P1170556I think this is wonderful!077.P1170557Back in the Market Place, I pass Happy Glastonbury,078.P1170588 079.P1170589and, nearly back to my garage in Benedict Street, I realise that I hadn’t caught the tattoo ‘studio’ on my way out.  Even though it’s actually double this width.081.P1170598Never a dull moment in Glastonbury!

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Glastonbury’s ‘Crystal shops’, Part 2

12 Saturday Dec 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, History, People, Photography, Travel

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Athelney, bookshop, Burns the Bread, Glastonbury, Glastonbury High Street, King Alfred, Meditation

Continuing our discovery of Glastonbury’s alternative lifestyle shops, a little further up is Moon Mirrors,030.P1170469 031.P1170560 032.P1170562and The Mystic Garden.034.P1170472 034a.P1170553On either side of the High Street are several alleys, reflecting the mediaeval layout of the town centre.  Some of these have totally disappeared, but some of them are still delightful to explore.  The Gauntlet is a very recent exploitation of the original layout, in that the developer not only beautifully restored buildings on either side of the alley, creating shops and accommodation, but extended it further with more housing.  Come and visit these byways yourself…035.P1170473 036.P1170545Continuing up the High Street, we come to Yinyang.038.P1170547 039.P1170548 040a.P1170550Glastonbury High street does have a few conventional shops, such as this flower shop, the name of which nevertheless has an Avalonian influence,041.P1170476and the wonderful Burns the Bread, award winning baker. It’s very difficult to pass without just popping in for a pastry. I joined a behind-the-scenes tour of the bakery with the Glastonbury Conservation Society a year or so back.  It was Bob Burns himself who guided us.  What a wonderful name, enabling a good old-fashioned English pun for the name of the shop! (It was only a few miles from here, at Athelney, that King Alfred – if he did – burnt the cakes.)042.P1170478Then we come to a shop focused on Africa,043.P1170479 044.P1170543followed by The Goddess and the Green Man,045.P1170480a shop selling imported Indian goods, dilliway and dilliway,046.P1170483 046a.P1170538and Lilith.047.P1170484_modifié-1 047a.P1170540 047b.P1170541Here’s another bookshop048.P1170485and Covenstead’s Curious Cottage, opened recently, in the place of a failed newspaper shop.  (Two years ago we had three of these, now we have just one.)049.P1170487 051.P1170517Perhaps you seek Enlightenment?053.P1170489 054.P1170522Are you a Natural Earthling?055.P1170491 056.P1170520Or perhaps you’d like to try Soul Therapy Meditation.057.P1170492(To be concluded tomorrow.)

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Glastonbury’s ‘Crystal shops’, Part 1

11 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by Musiewild in History, People, Photography, Travel

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

alternative lifestyle, crystal shops, Glastonbury, Glastonbury High Street, hippies, Rapson's

‘The crystal shops’ is the ever-so-slightly contemptuous name given by the more traditionally-minded people living here in Glastonbury to those outlets which promote a more alternative style.  We have dozens of them, and I can only imagine that they must make their living on tourists and web commerce.  Nearly all the goods they sell, other than clothes (the sort I used to wear in the hippie seventies), are of the ‘gift’ variety.

The other day, I had to take my car to the garage early.  I could have walked home then back again two hours later, but instead, as it was a bright, crisp day, I took my camera and wandered around town taking photos of most of these shops, and of a few others.  On the outward journey, most of them were still firmly shut, many with windows obscured by condensation.  By the time I wandered back, and having had a coffee in Caffe Zero, most were open, and most windows were clearer.

I started in Benedict Street, walking up from Rapson’s garage (family firm, great personal service).  The first interesting shop I came to was The Magpies’ Nest.  They get apostrophes!  (My photos amalgamate outward and return strolls.)001.P1170450 003.P1170595We are fortunate in having a music shop, and extra fortunate that it has not lost its old shutters, which were open by the time I got back.004.P1170452 005.P1170591Next came – you can just make it out – Bedlam.006.P1170455Up in the Market Place is Man, Myth and Magik,007.P1170456 007.P1170587and next door is a toy shop, Little Imps.  I was passing a while ago when the owner came out, so I took the opportunity of asking her how much the fantasy castle, which is always in the window, would cost. She said she could get one made for, as I recall, £4000.008.P1170457 009.P1170585I have had to limit myself in sharing with you Elestial’s windows, packed with delicate shades of turquoise, mauve and purple.010.P1170458 013.P1170581 014a.P1170584Also in the Market Place is the Cat and Cauldron. Because it was a bright day, you can see more reflections than window contents in the second picture.015.P1170459 016.P1170573 017.P1170576I couldn’t tell you whether Hemp in Avalon (only in Glastonbury!) actually sells cannabis, (one has to presume not, but…). I’ve just visited their website, and they certainly advocate its use!  I’ve never seen the shop without it’s grill.018.P1170460Further along, in Northload Street, The Crystal Man was shut on both occasions that I passed it.  Its lovely window is not obscured when the shop is open.020.P1170461Back to the Market Place, and starting up the High Street, past the Glastonbury Experience, 021.P1170462you come to Courtyard Books,022.P1170463 023.P1170569and, on the other side of the Street, another bookshop, The Speaking Tree.024.P1170465 025.P1170564 026.P1170565 027.P1170566 Dicketts is a small stationer’s, bookshop and seller of art supplies. Its wares reflect the town it is in.028.P1170468 copie 029.P1170467Parts 2 and 3 will complete our tour.

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Avebury Manor

07 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by Musiewild in Countryside views, History, People, Photography, Travel

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Adam Williamson, Avebury Circle, Avebury Manor, BBC, National Trust, Richard Holford, Sir Alexander Keiller, Wiltshire

A few years ago, the BBC and the National Trust collaborated on a project to do up Avebury Manor, in Wiltshire, in an innovative way.  I avoid the word ‘restore’, as each room was done up, using modern copies and decoration, as a kind of stage set, to illustrate how the room might have looked at a certain period of the Manor’s history.  Right now, staff and volunteers have further embellished each room to show how it might have looked at Christmas.  I visited last week with a friend. P1170322001Here are some photos I took, reflecting not historical order, but our tour, which started with how a Tudor dining room might have looked at Christmas in the mid 16th century.P1170328001 P1170333001Next was a dining room as it might have been in 1798, when the then owner, Sir  Adam Williamson, former Governor of Jamaica had a fatal fall in that very room, possibly as the result of a stroke.P1170336001 P1170339001We visited the post World War I billiard room, but I was unable to get a decent picture, other than this one, P1170360001for too much brilliant sunlight and the presence of too many visitors.

The 1912 kitchen occasionally reminded us of items we had known in our own 20th-century childhoods.P1170361001

P1170364 copie002 P1170366 copie002We were pleased to be offered in the room next door, which had been the servants’ hall, minced pies and mulled apple juice.

It was the millionaire archeologist Sir Alexander Keiller, of the marmalade family, who bought Avebury Manor in the 20th century, in order to work on excavating and re-erecting the standing stones.  (His widow gifted the estate to the National Trust in 1966.) Here is his parlour as it may have looked in the 1930s.P1170380001

P1170374 copie002Next we saw a late Tudor bedroom, sadly with a sumptuous bedcover removed and a rather boring ‘Christmassy’ one in its place.  Still, it was good to see the handmade felt decorations on the Christmas tree, though on reflection wasn’t it the Queen Victoria’s Prince Albert who introduced that traditional Christmas symbol to the country?P1170385001 P1170389001 P1170396001Queen Anne may or may not have dined at Avebury Manor, and may or may not have slept there in 1702.  But Richard Holford, the owner at the time, may well have  prepared for the eventuality, and here is a stage set version (as the guide insisted) of how it might have been done.P1170398001No explanation was given of these festive delights:P1170408001 P1170413001Most of the garden was closed, but we were able to see a little of it and look back at the house,P1170426001

P1170430001before walking alongside the wall past the church P1170432001to the outbuildings, including the cafeteria where we lunched, after visiting the archeological museum.  Then, as it was a chilly day, whether or not the sun was out, we limited our visit to the Avebury Stone Circle to a few minutes, before making our way home.P1170443001 P1170447001

 

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