Gargoyle Central: Look to the Skies

Anyone who has been to my house knows that I love gargoyles. Our living room table sports a gargoyle engrossed in a book, a Green Man hangs on a connecting wall and our guest bathroom has a little gargoyle keeping away the bad spirits in there.

Naturally I was delighted to find Monster Walks which highlights some good gargoyle walks in New York. Not that I'll be there any time soon but I thoroughly enjoyed the photos.

As happened after reading The Cloudspotter's Guide, this is another reminder to me that we look down too much and forget to look up. I can't tell you how often lately I have been enjoying the various cloudscapes as they have scudded across the skies on an otherwise unremarkable morning. There is not much chance of spying gargoyles in Dallas but you can be sure I'll be glancing upwards more often just in case.

I found this site via this delightful Dallas Morning News article (free registration required) which also informed me that:

A gargoyle is a drainpipe, even a plain one, its name taken from the French word gargouille, meaning throat. In common usage, people refer to any ornamental architectural carving as a gargoyle.

Interesting. Maybe "gargle" came from gargouille also?