Exeter Cathedral

What do Manchester Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford have in common? Both were founded by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, 1505-1519. His device or rebus is an owl (as it's thought his name might have been pronounced Owl-dam), and this appears on the ceiling of his chantry chapel within Exeter Cathedral.

From all of which you may gather, we took ourselves to Exeter today and enjoyed a guided tour of the cathedral. Also in my collage is one pane of a 1951 stained glass window. I was fascinated by this image of a pelican beside two open-beaked young sitting in a nest of thorns, with the word SACRIFICE. Our guide could shed no light on its significance and I've found no information online, but I still like it. The other stained glass window shows a stunning depiction of St George and the dragon. The final image is of an astronomical clock dating from the 15th century. The fleur de lys represents sun and the hour of the day (showing the sun's position in the sky), the dark disc represents the moon and shows its phase, while the slightly newer dial above the square dial shows the minutes within the hour.

I chose these as highlights of our short tour and to whet your appetite to visit the cathedral if ever you find yourself in Exeter with an hour to kill - bearing in mind that the "hours pass by and are reckoned to our account": Pereunt et imputantur - the motto below the clock.

(Today is my mother's birthday - she would have been 97.)