It was the launch today of Castle Howards’s 21st. Century Renaissance, a comprehensive rehang, refurbishment, and in small but significant ways, a reinvention of its interiors: starting with the visitors’ entrance where the family portraits have been replaced by objects from the 4th. Earl’s Grand Tour:-

Then the run of bedrooms in the Thomas Robinson west wing which have been comprehensively redone – and beautifully – by Remy Renzullo:-

Then (but for some reason I didn’t take photographs) the Tapestry Drawing Room has been completely and magnificently recreated by Francis Terry in the style of Vanbrugh: not a reconstruction, but a reinvention, done with great sensitivity and historical intelligence.  A very interesting precedent for historic interiors.

The last Easter light on Snowdon:-

Happy Easter to all my readers:-

St. Mechell is a saint I have never heard of before: a miracle worker of the sixth century who turned thieves to stone and founded a clas, a type of small monastery, in Llanfechell in the north part of Anglesey.  The church is long and narrow with an unusual and distinctive pepper pot spire which was apparently added in the eighteenth century:-

We were tipped off that there is a butcher’s in Valley, an unlikely spot for a shop that is remarkable both for the quality of its meat and, more unexpectedly, a superb, almost museum quality, selection of kitchen knives, sharpeners and pots and pans, a definite addition to Anglesey’s gastronomic opportunities:-

https://www.angleseyfinefoods.co.uk/about

We went down to the beach to watch the sun go down:-

It’s a long time since we’ve been in Anglesey for the bluebells.  We went to see them in the woods on the Vaynol estate where one can walk through to Y Felinheli along a track which runs alongside the Menai Straits:-

There were lambs in the fields as well:-

I went to have another, proper look at the new project by Amin Taha on Greville Street just west of Farringdon Station.  It’s a fascinating development, re-using the existing concrete frame and then covering it with aluminium sheets which makes it a curious and unexpected re-invention of its previous history:-

And at the back:-

As I sat down in the pew for Norman Ackroyd’s memorial service, I was told by my neighbour that the photograph reproduced in the programme (by Paul Tozer) told one everything one needed to know about him:-

A big smoker, years of nicotine had dried out his skin.  When I arrived at the RA in 2007, meetings of Council would have a cigarette break.

The odd thing was that I had known him a bit in the 1970s as near neighbours in Southwark – he was already installed in Morocco Street.

What I hadn’t known was his rich frame of cultural reference, his deep knowledge of poetry, alongside his passion for the west coast of Ireland and his extraordinary and inspirational skill as a printmaker.  I only knew him later as the committed guardian of the RA Laws which he knew far better than I ever could or did.