A Windows Update

Once upon a time, many years ago, I regularly used to post lots of pictures of windows. Lately there haven't been so many, though the obsession hasn't gone away and I seem to have accumulated quite a collection.

Flowery window 

Bus window

 Cottage window

College window

 Shed window

 Cinema window

Half-timbered window

 Brick window

Modern window

And we certainly must not forget this important man.....

Take care.

When I'm Dreaming Windows....

Time for an update on my constantly growing collection of windows. 

The smallest room?

Fancy designs

How much is that Teddy in the window?

The old mill

University outfitters and robe makers

College outlook

Modest decoration

Pink cottage

A little pruning required

If you want to see more then just click on the "Windows" label on the sidebar ►►►►▼ 


Take care.

                 

Walden's Windows

Saffron Walden is a wondrous place for the watcher of windows, the glorifier of glass, the fan of fenestration, the devotee of the dormer, the collector of casements and indeed anyone who's an aficionado of apertures.

sparkly glass behind the glass

coloured glass for a coloured wall

a window display

church windows? No, a pub!

reflected windows

window shopping

a view right through

 tinted windows

pretty plaster

weird windows

tucked under the eaves

somebody's watching you!

Take care

Vindauga Or Fenester

A window, when you look into it, is more complicated than you might first imagine.

"Window" is derived from the Old Norse vindauga, which itself is derived from vindr, meaning wind, and auga, meaning an eye. So it's an eye or opening that lets the wind in. The word window has been around since about 1200 AD, before that we spoke of the eagduru.

We are apparently at odds with most other Germanic languages which have adopted variations of the Latin fenestra for window, such as the French fenetre or the German Fenster.

Up until the middle of the sixteenth century we had one of those words too; "fenester" and "window" were used interchangeably. Some scholars believe that "fenester" was used to denote a glazed window while a "window" was merely a hole in the wall. If so, then surely fenester would have been the word to survive as more and more windows contained glass panes.

The word "fenestration", meaning the style and arrangement of windows in a building, is still used by architects. And "de-fenestration" means to throw someone out of a window! I'm very interested in the former, but have never done the latter - though I did manage to defenestrate myself, by falling out of a window, on one memorably painful occasion.

But what interests me even more are the little glimpses we sometimes get of other people's lives.

Going upstairs to play ancient melodies on the harp while, outside, roses sway in time, has a certain appeal; though I suppose I'm condemned, for the rest of my days, to rattle out jigs and hornpipes on my old squeezebox.

Then, at other times, windows catch and distort unexpected reflections, like this surreal modern architecture at Murray Edwards College.

And sometimes the reflections just serve to soften the image. Reflections always pose a problem for the photographer who doesn't want his or her own reflection to complicate the image. No, I'm not going to tell you how I do it!

The reflection can become more important and even seem more real than what's contained within. This is the tower of St John's College Chapel reflected in the window of a shop, or was it restaurant, opposite.

So I hope that's shed a little light on the subject of the old vindauga (plural vindaugu) for you.


Take care.

Fixing The Windows

We haven't had any window-pictures lately. So for anyone suffering from withdrawal symptoms (probably only me!) here is your latest fix.

Bright colours in Downham

Elegant reflections in Cambridge

Echoes of times past 

Cottage pelargoniums

A ghostly presence of a former

resident of Hatfield House

Fading shades of red

A Cambridge college

Patriotism and tradition

Bunnies ahoy!

Remembering the wisteria

of spring

Back to that first window for

a colourful semi-abstract.

Take care.