Green Woman

There has been a great deal of interest in the Green Man post I did recently. Two days ago, I was posting a letter in town, when I glimpsed a work of art on a stone plinth at the edge of the car park. I remembered that, a few years ago, the local council took it upon themselves to remove the town's war memorial that had stood there for more than seventy years to a more picturesque but less accessible site. They reasoned that it would look better sat in a newly created garden where the young people gather, make noise, carve initials in the wooden benches etc. Sorry, I meant to say 'a newly created garden where the whole local populace can sit to enjoy the surroundings' but do note the irony I intended!

That said, and I apologise for the diversion, nothing was parked in front of the vacant memorial plinth for once and to my astonishment I realised that the work of art that had been commissioned was actually that of a Green Woman. I think it is beautiful and I hope you do, too?

I have also come across a wonderful website - Green Man East Anglia - which publishes many photographs of Green Men to be found in that area of England. It has a very good Links section which provides details of other useful Green Man sites.

A Terracotta Green Man

While wandering around a maze of stonework at Iford Manor, I came across a very large terracotta pot and was captivated by what I took to be a merchant's face embossed on the outside of it. It was only when I looked more closely at the photograph, tonight, that I realised it depicted a 'Green Man'. According to Wikipedia, a Green Man is a sculpture, drawing or other representation of a face surrounded by or made from leaves. Branches or vines may sprout from the nose, mouth, nostrils or other parts of the face . . .