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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 5m

They tell me you can't fill a whole account with weird old stuff from churches so here are some snaps from a recent visit to this temporary exhibition of Dom Wattebled and co. at Avranches in the castle walled garden. Hoping to visit the Scriptorial properly when funds allow.

A thing of brown paper decorated with chalk, like a ragged butterly and also a town map, it's contours teld down with pale shells

View down the steps to the courtyard along the side fo the Scriptorial, where tall a tall dark evergreen tree appears to form the right half of the old stone archway into the lane. The houses are, I guess, 18th centry, with tall slate roofs and a bourgeouis look.The cloud above has a swooping quality like a bird in corkscrew flight

Another Wattebled butterfly drawing, this one in colour crayons - most of the colours - and, yes, upside down.

An ancient arch with stumpy legs and an elegant arch leads along the wall of the courtyard.

Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 13h

Though I don't recall any of those tales being such a tangle of different myths. Usually those writers would just pick one and give it a good work-out. Tovey doesn't give a f*ck. Chuck 'em all in. If myths were serpents this song would be a Medusa's head itself

Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 13h

Tovey's lyrics have the concise, deceptively casual vibe of the best of those tales. That opening couplet. Later, the strangeness of honeysuckle paired with autumn leaves, open doors in a cold season. "Now that hairdo with the snakes/I'm not that sure about". But it's definitely not stopping him.

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 14h

Came upon a great drift of late-flowering honeysuckle at a field edge this evening and it reminded me of this, a kind of pop version of those modern-day myth/botanical stories from the Datlow/Windling dark fantasy and horror anthologies from the 90s

#FrankTovey

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2seF...

All That Is Mine

YouTube video by Frank Tovey & the Pyros - Topic

www.youtube.com

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 17h

These pics are a bit hopeless because by the time I'd finished gawping at the insides of the church it was getting dark, but here are the trees, or as much of them as would fit into the frame
#ThatsAHugeBitch

The trunk of the big knobbly one, absolutely fuckmassive. Just off to the left is the cleft tree and a wing of the church is on the right

The cleft tree, also very sizeable. I could confortably walk through the triangular doorway in it

The cleft tree viewed from within, looking up at the St Andrews cross of the metal struts to the needled branches above

IT'S SO AWESOME

A scatter of arils, fallen twiglets and dried-out golden needles resting in one of many undulating hollows of the cleft tree's bark. This badly-lit picture doesn't begin to convey how touchable the tree is, and I apologize in advance if that sounds creepy but you had to be there

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 17h

Wouldn't it be an absolute kick in the head if one or both of those yew trees, now reckoned at around 900 years old, changed gender to mark their real thousandth birthday. Like maybe they could just swap gender without telling anyone
www.bbc.com/news/uk-scot...

Berries show ancient Fortingall yew tree is 'changing sex'

The Fortingall Yew, an ancient tree in Perthshire believed to be thousands of years old, has partially changed sex to female.

www.bbc.com

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 17h

Oh yeah here is a FR article about the male and female pair of "ifs amoureux" (lover yew trees):
- the hollow tree once housed 63 children
- was also once used as a barber's shop
- I've been in it and it was wired for electric light and has metal parts

www.ouest-france.fr/normandie/fl...

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Reposted by Sonnenbarke

James Grady @jdgrady.bsky.social · 19h

This afternoon’s WFH CD, some Harry Partch

Harry Partch ‘Delusion of the Fury’ CD cover

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Reposted by Sonnenbarke

Twisted Spoon Press @twistedspoon.bsky.social · 21h

Good interview with translator @wordkunst.bsky.social in this month's issue of @theberliner.bsky.social . Alex's translation of The Folded Clock by Gerhard Rühm is out soon.
www.scribd.com/document/929...

Interview with Alexander Booth | PDF

An interview with translator Alexander Booth about his work on Gerhard Rühm, Alexander Kluge, et al., in the October 2025 issue of The Berliner.

www.scribd.com

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

I wish to apologize to the ghost of eecummings for capitalizing the first "l"

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

"Lady will you come with me into
the extremely little house of
my mind."

(Somehow missed this on previous visits to the churchyard at Brouains.)

#eecummings

The gleaming dark tomb of the FAMILLE BELLIARD, featuring a modern headstone with a wavy top and, behind the horizontal cross, a miniature house.

Detail of the long-eared dog and front door, ajar onto a sliver of darkness. The word "Souvenir" appears on a plaque in front of the dog

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

Rock me Asmodeus those are good, but of course the Young People deserve nothing less

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Reposted by Sonnenbarke

Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 1d

Every single one of the illustrations is a brilliant brooding exercise in evoking dread & doom.
I’d never seen his art before I picked up this book, but after an Earl E. Mayan internet odyssey I’m completely smitten

A collage painting with black and white cut out photos of human faces and a snarling Alsatian dog surrounding a white painted sheet ghost, all against a black and purple background made of paint drips suggesting a spooky wood, above which door shapes are scratched in black ink

A collage painting in which a phot of two white men, one standing wearing a cowboy hat and crumpled shirt and trousers, the other squatting wearing preppy clothes and a sailor hat, are surrounded by an ominous purple painted background, above them a black and white painted skull, to their left a black white and grey painted area which is fairly abstract but suggests tv static intermixed with shadowy branches

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

Also quite confounded by the outer casing of the plant pots, that looks like it's made of hair. I couldn't bring myself to touch that, but it makes me think the dark vest on the bearded figure, underneath his gold robe, might be meant to be a hairshirt. Must do some homework on this topic

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

Though I'm not sure those green pot plants were even fake. I touched one, and I'm still not sure.

Impasse.

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

I know, it made my head spin tbh. Those fairy lights around the virgin were flashing like billy-o as well, it was like something from one of those early 90s pop videos. The eye keeps scanning the shadows for a trailing feather boa or a curlicued iron bedstead

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

Mixed bag of human and ex-human sorts

A polished grey stone skull and book rest at the feet of a robed statue.. The skull is topped with a white rose

Two plaster guys in very gold robes, one laving the other by pouring a cup on his head. I think the laved girlish long haired one is Jesus. At their feet are three bonkers waxy green pot plants with wavy stems as if dancing. The mens bodies shine where their chests and arms are exposed and this may be the campest statuary I have ever seen here, and that's saying something

Plaster holy man with a dazed expression, a smart gold and red striped gown and a mahoosive rake

Intricate pale marble carving of Jesus in his dying agonies, swooning in the lap of a succouring woman, maybe his mum.

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

Some fabulous beasts

Awesome green plaster dragon with snarling red lips

Fish dragon dog looking thing carved from dark wood, balancing on its jaw on the monochrome zigzag tiled floor just inside the doors, it's long scaled body snaking up the wall in a thicket of carved rushes

The fish beast in front view. It is balancing a massive pale marble and gilt oyster shell font on the end of its tail

Long shot of the green dragon and Sainte Marguerite, whose legs it is wrapped around. Her robes match the dragons colours

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

I've often been to see the millennial yews at the church at Lande Patry, but the other day the building itself was open and there's quite a bit to see

Statue of the Virgin in sentimental style, blonde, pale blue and white piety enhanced with FLASHING BLUE FAIRY LIGHTS all around her, and two blue and white floral stained glass windows on either side of her head

The long sombre nave with tall dark grey arches and geometrically tiled floor, the aisle ending in a blaze of red altar candle.

$Stained glass window of Jean Baptiste de Chevrel, a refractaire priest who got the guillotine. His form is a constellation of rainbow panes, though deep blue and turquoise predominate, and he holds his hands up in benediction. Around the window the light is the colour of red wine.$ Closer shot of the bright red altar candles and some saints on the wall above bathed in its furnace light

Closer shot of the bright red altar candles and some saints on the wall above bathed in its furnace light

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Reposted by Sonnenbarke

Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · 1d

GOOD NEWS !
"A team of musicologists has unearthed the printed score of a previously unknown Purcell song, as well as the original manuscript for various keyboard compositions."
#baroque #music
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

‘Almost unheard of’: experts find more music by English composer Henry Purcell

Printed score and keyboard manuscript by Purcell, who died in 1695, unearthed in Worcestershire and Norfolk

www.theguardian.com

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

Oh it didn't even occur to me that it might be your old pack! No need to apologize, I was glad to be put on that at the time since I was still trying to keep this as a kind-of career account back then. And thanks for the removal!

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

I've already begun a program of special breathing exercises and ritual cleansing to prepare myself for the nativity creche scene in Manche. Many will no doubt just be beautiful, but then there are the others, off the beaten track. I'm already pre-haunted by what might be found in Chevreville

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

Flers is back in Orne, which compared to Manche is not very committed to Hallowe'en, but if you want creepy in Orne, you just wait for nativity creche season. By mid-December you'll be on your knees begging for a Cosy Witch colouring-in book and an unravelling crocheted spider

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

The Hallowe'en display in the Flers Leclerc is just this and a protective ring of childrens' ghost books, which I sort of admire

The blotchy blue and white papier mache(?) head of a woman with a long lilac fright wig and a single hand, emerging from a sea of plain cotton wool, under a plastic dome, on a table surrounded by books about "Cosy Witches" and the like

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Sonnenbarke @novembergrau.bsky.social · 1d

PS the above posts sound a bit grumpy to later-on-in-the-morning me, so I want to add: if you are reading this and added me to a starter pack, thanks and everything, I appreciate the thought, but this isn't really the kind of place anything starts

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