Since I read Julia O Faoilean’s novel I have always wanted to find a woman in a wall.
Since her novel referred to an anchorite who voluntarily immured herself in a convent I felt my chances were much better since we purchased the presbytere here.

Amazingly in the course of the building work the builder found two perfect sites for the same woman , both twere boarded up doorways but both unfortunately turned out womanless.
She has arrived finally and in a most unexpected manner.

Isabel’s daughter, Lucy stayed with us last summer and was quite enchanted with the myriad layers of wallpaper and the colours we were uncovering as we stripped off layer after layer.
This made me look at these walls again with a new eye.

That was how I found her, buiried among the layers.

Can you see her, a blue figure among the many colours.

She is going nowhere, Clive has agreed to make a frame for her and she is going to be the star of our dining room.

She is difficult to name, she obviously takes her stance from the Statue of Liberty, but our statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Courtyard has nothing to fear as she doesn’t look the least bit religious.
I suppose I should call her Marianne after the iconic bare breasted symbol of the revolution