Mystery saint

Saint Editha is a real Staffordshire saint, in that she existed (she lived in the early part of the tenth century) somewhere in or around Tamworth.

After that little fact (ie she definitely existed), almost none of the sources can agree about the details of her life story.  In Amington Church, which is dedicated to her, there is this lovely little stained-glass portrait of her wearing a crown (she may have been a princess) - but that's as fanciful a idea of her as everything else.
A long, lovely article by Christine Smith attempts to sort it all out.  (Well done for trying, Christine!)

Anyway... one source claims that today is her feast-day. 

The lady in red

This lady is Mary Magdalene; yes, the wife of Jesus (according to the theory behind the Da Vinci Code book anyway). She is seen her in glass at Alrewas Church.
Identifying people in church stained glass windows is often just a matter of knowing the, er, code – or symbols anyway. St Peter always carries a key for example.
And the reason that we know that this lady is Mary Magdalen is the red hair. Mary was (by another legend) a reformed prostitute, and as red is a symbol of sensuality… Mary got red hair.

I hesitate to think what the real Mary Magdalen would have thought of all these stories about her.

Link: Magdalene (wikipedia)

George and dragon

Images of Saint George (and his dragon) are pretty much everywhere, so it was not hard to find a depiction of him to put up on the photo-blog on this, St George’s Day. I like this one a lot though.

I came across it on a building in the midst of a ‘clearance area’, where all the old rows of homes have been pulled down to make way for, er, regeneration. Only the regeneration doesn’t seem to have started yet.

The building (now home to offices owned by Alliance) used to be a Parker’s Ales pub, and the old pub's mosaic over the door is quite fine.
I like that they kept the mosaic at least.