> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # In Pursuit of Spring - Day Eight - URL: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/in-pursuit-of-spring-day-eight/ - Published: 2026-02-23T19:37:56.000Z - Updated: 2026-03-02T10:39:29.000Z - Description: A journey (now complete) on my camper-van-camino from the Scottish Highlands to Cornwall. Each day, on this journey, I wrote a short post and produced a watercolour drawn from the day’s experiences. - Author: Andy Marshall - Tags: In Pursuit of Spring, in pursuit of spring post, newport cathedral, wales, romanesque ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/St.-Melengall-Aerial-2-1-1-1.jpg) ## In Pursuit of Spring ****DAY EIGHT - 23 FEB 2026** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/IMG_5417.jpg) **I had a panicky moment yesterday evening. Am I really going to manage this? A painting every day. A post every evening. The travel. The van. The turning over of one place into another. It all briefly felt excessive and self-imposed.** What draws me to what I’m doing here, though, is the rhythm and the discipline of committing to a daily creative act. There is something monastic in the routine - rising each morning to the same intention, keeping to a pattern regardless of mood, working through tiredness, tending the small practicalities before turning to the task at hand. The reward is a kind of catharsis and connection - sharpening my creative lens through the grit of daily movement, observation and creation. It's a kind of order that's not imposed from the outside, but shaped by what the day reveals. Still, I arrived at Newport Cathedral - St Woolos’, or St Gwynllyw - in a state of anxiety, not helped by the unremarkable drive along the M4 and the steep walk up to the cathedral in the rain, bordered by litter along the boundary walls. Nothing about the approach soothed my nerves. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/A4858C39-AFB2-4EE8-AA84-B528611730D0_1_102-1.jpeg) But once I was inside, the temperature shifted. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/7AB24771-0196-4360-B547-1D88E44CCA23_1_201_a-1.jpeg) Entrance is through the tower and then into St Mary’s Chapel - which was part of the original church. From St Mary’s Chapel there is a view that steadies everything. The font in the foreground. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/EDBB77C8-4D97-42E6-B34E-3CEE2DA14189_1_201_a-1-1.jpeg) A Romanesque arch beyond it - reset Roman columns, re-carved Corinthian capitals - framing the heavy arcading. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/487664B9-0DED-46E2-A250-CC48D1CC6CD7_1_201_a-1.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/4705CDF1-6628-42C4-8435-72595F27AB70_1_102.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/Untitled-4.png) Beyond that is the chancel with a dossal and window designed by John Piper in the 1960s. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/49C1783B-1267-4C2F-B698-810D5A86A3D8_1_102-1.jpeg) It is almost as if the cathedral has been arranged as a stage set - from a single viewpoint - telling the story of Newport across sixteen centuries: Roman fragment, Norman arch, Victorian Romanesque, modern intervention. Each generation refusing to discard what came before, instead incorporating, re-carving, re-expressing, and carrying it forward. But from that single viewpoint in St Mary’s Chapel, another narrative presented itself to me: renewal out of breakdown. The Victorian Romanesque font growing from an original fragment. The Norman arch holding earlier Roman columns and re-carved Corinthian capitals. The heavy-set nave leading the eye towards the 1960s chancel, where Piper’s dossal, patterned like storm-tossed brine, rises towards the coloured repose of his glass. Coloured light resolving the turbulence inherent within an artist that experienced the vagaries of war. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/4DA6A776-C98C-4D80-BD59-9E88B95638A5_1_201_a-1.jpeg) I was struck by how instinctively we resist losing the essence of the past. How we incorporate and repair in likeness. We translate fragments into new forms and re-purpose old forms into new settings. In that moment I realised the building was modelling the very thing I was reaching for - the patient assembling of fragments into coherence. Roman column, Norman arch, modern glass. Doubt, tiredness, resolve. Stone ordered into structure. A creative life ordered by discipline. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/AC1C4476-6558-4ABC-8655-CA9F50DBD40C_1_102-1.jpeg) When I stepped back outside, the rain had stopped, and feeling re-invigorated, things I had not noticed on the way up began to register - blossom glowing, flowers blooming. Spring breaking free from the discipline of winter. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/FBE37F92-7CB4-407A-B51F-D9E224DEDB94_1_201_a-1.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/7C6CD9A8-5586-4C80-B7BE-621942EBF654-1.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/5D588F8E-F991-4492-BE16-A8AE279477B6_1_201_a-1.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/ADA137A9-747F-4835-A199-0624FC23BEF8_1_102-1.jpeg) The same hill. The same city. But reordered somehow like the cathedral. And I felt it too - ready to rise again the next morning and start again. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/IMG_5418.jpg) --- ## Subscribe for free to Andy Marshall's Genius Loci Digest Andy Marshall is documenting his travels in his time-travelling camper van 🚐📸🏛 Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. See the other posts from this journey: [In Pursuit of Spring - Andy Marshall’s Genius Loci Digest![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/icon/Andy-264.png)Andy Marshall's Genius Loci DigestAndy Marshall![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/thumbnail/DALL-E-2024-09-09-15.18.21---A-rectangular-watercolour-style-image-capturing-the-essence-of-the-Genius-Loci-Digest--but-with-more-saturated-colours.-In-the-background--a-classic-V-1-14.webp)](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/tag/in-pursuit-of-spring/) ****FIELD NOTES** Weather: Changeable. Sunshine and Showers. Windy. 14.5 degrees celsius. Observations: Blossom on the tree at the cathedral. Total Miles Travelled: 1280 miles. ****LINKS** [Welcome To Newport CathedralNewport Cathedral (Cadeirlan Casnewydd), Diocese of Monmouth, South Wales. We are open daily and welcome visitors to our services and historic premises.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/icon/cropped-Site-Icon-270x270.png)Newport Cathedral |![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/thumbnail/Ian-Black-photo-for-website-cr.jpg)](https://www.newportcathedral.org.uk/?ref=digest.andymarshall.co) ****IN PURSUIT OF SPRING LOCATIONS MAP** [Google MapsFind local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/icon/maps15_bnuw3a_32dp.ico)Google Maps![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/thumbnail/staticmap)](https://maps.app.goo.gl/ERnUNSbbxYfu7NYL8?ref=digest.andymarshall.co) ****WHATSAPP CHANNEL** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/79C783E0-B456-44CE-9E1F-0270D5609955_1_105_c.jpeg) [In Pursuit of SpringChannel • 0 followers • I’lm travelling upon my camper-van-camino the full length of Britain, from the Highlands of Scotland to the far reaches of Cornwall in February. Starts 16 Feb 2026\. Stay in touch with my journey here. Followers remain private.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/icon/ujTY9i_Jhs1-4.png)WhatsApp.com![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/thumbnail/An_p_d9fUSHPjffNdr_VXNPHsjxFaJ0sVgScMReUX8szSBN2TfSVs4kDs8MRJUaop3IONIy_PwVGp67rK5Pw7FZwZKghpS1L_VrZ4BfiLmuqT1QT2GzLdOilkx3GJc54cWKCTtRrDZDdMGfOXjBv-1)](https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBoig2DDmFRFeR0dY3B?ref=digest.andymarshall.co) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/dji_fly_20230516_130726_955_1684238668097_aeb-1.jpeg) ## Make a Donation Towards This Journey Thank you ☺️ [Make a Donation](https://donate.stripe.com/3csg2Z3824YR0Lu9AF?ref=digest.andymarshall.co) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2026/02/IMG_4680--1--1.jpeg) ## Become a Member Ways of Seeing. 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