Ophelia

While I was at dinner with my parents on Monday, I asked them if they knew that 'Ophelia' was painted on the banks of the Hogsmill, the small river which runs near their house on its unhurried way to the Thames. "Of course" my mum replied, somewhat scathingly (or so it seemed to me).

She went on to say that she also knew the spot where it was painted, following the research of a local historian, so I asked her if she would show me, this evening.

We wandered down to the river and through the rather beautiful Six Acre Meadow until we reached the spot. Having failed to bring a copy of Ophelia with me and suffering as I do with a poor pictorial memory, I had to take what transpired to be a pretty poor guess at framing the shot (although I did think it was actually pretty good until I compared it with the painting).

Once I'd failed to convince my mum to lie in the river and taken my photo, we took a different route home, wandering back to the road and up to St John's church. On the spur of the moment, we decided to wander around the church cemetery and take a look at the church's architecture, consisting as it does of parts built in different eras.

As we were doing this, the minister came out*, introduced himself (Kevin) and offered to show us around the church. My mum mentioned that she was also a vicar, albeit retired, so they did some ecclesiastical banter as we looked around the beautiful old building.

This is one of the beauties of the daily blog; going out of one's way to get a photo often leads to little incidents and adventures that would not otherwise have happened. I think this is one of the principle reasons that I enjoy it.

*not like that.