The South Window

This morning I visited St Bartholomew's Church in Nettlebed to see the John Piper stained glass windows. This is the south window which is dedicated to Colonel Peter Fleming (brother of Ian Fleming) who lived locally and was a friend of Piper's. In the 1930s Fleming had travelled to the Amazon in search of Colonel Fawcett's expedition to the 'lost city' of Z. Fleming was also a regular nature columnist for the Spectator, writing under the name 'Strix'. The window reflects these aspects of his life, including the 'screech-owl' (Strix in Latin) in the left-hand light. I like the way that the window tracery has been used to create the tree and branches and particularly admire the sun, moon and earth in the quatrefoil above. 

My photograph doesn't do the window justice. It was such a dark grey day that very little light was coming through the glass. However, I will return tomorrow to  collect a book on John Piper's church stained glass in Oxfordshire and may get some photographs of the fantastic east window.