stations of the cross

After going home to Italy, Domenico Chiochetti spent some years carving all 14 Stations of the Cross on mahogany plaques to hang on the chapel walls. Four of them are visible, not in detail, on our 2009 photo of the interior on yesterday's post. In 2014 three of the plaques were stolen, a loss described by John Muir, secretary of local group who care for the chapel, as 'devastating' (Maev Kennedy, The Guardian, 18 August 2014). Much other damage, vandalism, theft and sheer weight of numbers, has been caused by the many visitors to the chapel.

Paul's photo taken today, Good Friday, of purple Pasque (Easter) flowers in our garden bought from a nursery. It is hard to believe that such richly coloured flowers are native to the UK and mainland Europe growing on chalky grassland. It is sad that their survival today is in only five undisclosed UK locations, due to vandalism, theft and carelessness.

---