Shooting Windows — Fury Triad Research

Posted by pooks on August 23, 2019 in The Work In Progress, This Crumbling Pageant, Untune the Sky, What Pooks Is Writing | 2 comments

I love photographing windows, usually the view from within.  And when it comes to windows, there is nothing I love more than leaded glass. When we were in England in March 2013, I shot several views from Erinyes Manor Baddesley Clinton.

View of the moat and grounds from a kitchen window. I loved the kitchen! I want it for myself! [Okay, it needs a weeeee bit of updating, ahem. But I’d keep most of it exactly as is.]

The open side of Baddesley Clinton where the original Tudor wing was. Fortunately, via Bardán Fury’s magic, the entire four wings still exist at Erinyes Manor.

And once chosen, this place that was only images and words in a guidebook and on the internet evolved into a place similar and yet very different.  I let the original wing, built in medieval times, survive instead of vanish.  I added an apple tree and a fountain where I have now see lives a wall of wisteria. My manor has ancient oaks so close to the moat, their long branches provide midnight escapes for children who want to explore in the moonlight, and midnight access for abductors whose aims are far less innocent.

But the one thing I never expected when I was writing? That I would walk its corridors, scale its stairs, inhale this place’s real magic in real life within months.  The unexpected trip to England was not only a trip to my spiritual home, Cornwall, but an opportunity to visit a place that hitherto only really existed in my imagination.

So when we landed at Heathrow, we picked up our car and drove straight to the Midlands (not exactly on the way to Cornwall, mind you).

How to describe? It wasn’t Erinyes Manor. And yet, it was comfortable and familiar to me. I kept saying, “I could live here.” Unlike many stately homes (St Michael’s Mount, you gorgeous thing, I’m looking at you) this one felt oddly historic and yet livable at the same time.  The scale was human; the atmosphere was warm.

An immense stone fireplace surround, typical of the age, such as Bardán Fury commissioned for the Magi Palace out of green Connemara Marble.

I could imagine family dinners more easily than stiff, formal occasions (okay, I’d replace the sidechairs).

The [probably Victorian era?] dining room as it looks today at Baddesley Clinton.

Baddesley Clinton was the embryo of my Erinyes Manor, for which I am ever grateful. But it is more.

View from the moat-house which you must pass through to enter Baddesley Clinton. A moated manor house!

I love windows. I love looking in. I love looking out.

But in this case, I stepped through the window and into another world, a world that had been fully lived in and fully loved, and if I manage to capture a bit of that reality in my fantasies, I will be very happy indeed.

Note for readers: We spent time at Erinyes Manor in This Crumbling Pageant and will return there for some dangerous and vital events in Untune the Sky!