30th October 2015 "Here's the Random Fact For The Day"

And another post rescued from the drafts.............

At least, that's what number One Son remarked when we spotted this

on the wall of "The Red Lion" in Red Lion Street, London.

My knowledge of Oliver Cromwell is very sketchy - Charles the something and another Charles, an Oak Tree, Roundheads and broad lace collars, No Christmas, Speed Bonny Boat Like a Bird on the Wing, and, my favourite, courtesy of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears;

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdMJUVhsVnY

Now for some "real" facts, from Wikipedia:

Cromwell is thought to have suffered from malaria and from "stone", a common term for urinary/kidney infections. In 1658 he was struck by a sudden bout of malarial fever, followed directly by illness symptomatic of a urinary or kidney complaint. The Venetian ambassador, who wrote regular dispatches to the Doge of Venice in which he included details of Cromwell's final illness, was suspicious of the rapidity of Cromwell's death.^[105] The decline may also have been hastened by the death of one of his daughters, Elizabeth Claypole, in August. He died aged 59 at Whitehall on Friday 3 September 1658, the anniversary of his great victories at Dunbar and Worcester.^[106] The most likely cause of Cromwell's death was septicaemia following his urinary infection. He was buried with great ceremony, with an elaborate funeral based on that of James I, at Westminster Abbey,^[107] his daughter Elizabeth also being buried there.^[108]

This doesn't match up with the plaque on the pub at all! But, reading on, from

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cromwell%27s_head

which is all about Oliver Cromwell's head, we learn that

Cromwell's body, hidden in the wall of the middle aisle of Henry VII Lady Chapel, took effort to exhume because the wood and cloth were difficult to shift. On 28 January 1661, the bodies of Cromwell and Ireton were taken to the Red Lion Inn in Holborn, joined the following day by the body of John Bradshaw, before being taken to Tyburn for execution. On the morning of 30 January 1661, the anniversary of the execution of King Charles I, the shrouded bodies in open coffins were dragged on a sledge through the streets of London to the gallows, where each body was hanged in full public view until around four o'clock that afternoon.^[12] After being taken down, Cromwell's head was severed with eight blows, placed on a wooden spike on a 20-foot (6.1 m) pole, and raised above Westminster Hall.

On the whole, back then, if one was to be executed, it is clearly much better to have died first.


By the way, I'm astonished that Winston Churchill was so tactless as to want to name a Royal Naval Warship after a King-Killer:

Cromwell controversy continued into the 20th century. As First Lord of the Admiralty before the First World War, Winston Churchill twice suggested naming a British battleship HMS Oliver Cromwell. The suggestion was vetoed by King George V, not only because of his personal feelings but because he felt, given the anger caused by the erection of the statue outside Parliament, to give such a name to an expensive warship at a time of Irish political unrest was unwise. Churchill was eventually told by the First Sea Lord Admiral Battenberg that the king's decision must be treated as final.^[138]

Especially after this had happened some time earlier:

In 1875 a statue of Cromwell by Matthew Noble was erected in Manchester outside the cathedral, a gift to the city by Mrs. Abel Heywood in memory of her first husband.^[133][134] It was the first such large-scale statue to be erected in the open in England and was a realistic likeness, based on the painting by Peter Lely and showing Cromwell in battledress with drawn sword and leather body armour. The statue was unpopular with local Conservatives and the large Irish immigrant population. When Queen Victoria was invited to open the new Manchester Town Hall, she is alleged to have consented on condition that the statue of Cromwell be removed. The statue remained, Victoria declined, and the Town Hall was instead opened by the Lord Mayor. During the 1980s the statue was relocated outside Wythenshawe Hall, which had been occupied by Cromwell's troops.^[135]

30th October 2015 - Winning the Nobel Prize

I discovered this post in drafts! Did I ever post it? If not, here it is!


BB, No1Son and I all received ours in the same afternoon.

This was after an enjoyable couple of hours playing the "Satyrical Home-Made Machines"

 

which can be found at near Holburn at

I strongly recommend a visit. Entrance is free, but you will want to buy lots and lots of tokens. I suspect part of the cost of the tokens is to pay for all the ones taken away as souvenirs (like this one);

We were awarded the Nobel Prize for our success with the New Hadron Collider.

 And our medals were minted in front of our eyes; individually stamped to order on shiny silver paper.

I also recommend the "Expressive Photo Booth. I won't publish our results here, but am sorely tempted to use them as a seriously tasteless Christmas Card.

Here's where you should be heading as soon as you can;

http://www.novelty-automation.com/



Easter 2016 - Christus Victor

Someone at church shared this around - it is too good to keep to myself, and anyway, I want to make sure that I hang on to it.

So, all that follows is a copy and paste..... This is the facebook link is all comes from 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154110049323217&set=a.10150130312383217.297155.601048216&type=3&theater

Kenneth R McIntosh

THE WONDERS OF HOLY SATURDAY---A FORGOTTEN THIRD OF THE EASTER STORY

For most modern-day Protestants, Good Friday and Easter Sunday are of great importance, with the Saturday in between a sort of meaningless pause. However, for a great many Christians in the first millennium, Saturday was as important as Friday and Sunday of Holy Week. Holy Saturday was the ‘Harrowing of Hell.’ ‘Harrowing’ in modern English has the sense of ‘frightening’ but in the Early Middle Ages it was an agricultural term that referred to turning over soil in preparation for planting. Think about that, the ‘turning over’ of Hell to make it fruitful! In Early Medieval thought, throughout the Christian world, it was act two of a three-stage drama, and in fact it was the dramatic crescendo of Holy Week. Would you like to learn more about that? The following is a slightly adapted excerpt from my book “Water from an Ancient Well” published by Anamchara Books.

Jesus’s followers through the ages have understood that Christ’s work on holy week was that of atonement (think at-one-ment). As the Apostle Paul said, within decades of Christ’s death, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to God’s self” (2 Corinthians 5:19). But how was that marvellous work achieved? Through the ages there have been a variety of explanations.

The theory of atonement most Protestants hold today is that of “substitution.” It goes like this: all humans are sinners who deserve punishment, but God the Father chose to punish his Son in humanity’s place. While common today, this theory of redemption has only been popular since Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury promoted it around the year 1100, more than a thousand years after the birth of Christianity.
Christians in the Early Middle Ages understood Christ’s work differently; their understanding was commonly based on the perspective of the “Christus Victor” model of atonement. The Christus Victor premise was that Jesus’ death was not a legal settlement with God but rather a battle against the forces of darkness. Descending from the cross into the realm of death, Christ stepped into the arena where all of humanity confronts death and the other works of Satan. Like the bravest of knights, he fought with these terrifying enemies and was victorious; forcing them to release humanity from their grip. This theology is based on passages like Colossians 2:15: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities (evil spiritual powers), he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross,” and 1 John 3:8: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” Most specifically, 1 Peter chapter 3 tells of how Christ “having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit…went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits who once were disobedient.”
The film Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers presents a powerful allegory, inspired by Christ’s descent into the lower realms. In the dark caverns of Moria, the wizard Gandalf (a Christ figure in Tolkien’s epic) stands against a fiery demon called the Balrog. As they grapple with each other, they both fall into a chasm, hurtling down into the Earth’s depths, clawing and slashing at one another as they descend. As the wizard and demon plummet into this dark and fiery underworld, Gandalf’s companions flee to safety. They are grief-stricken over Gandalf’s apparent death, but later in the story, he reappears, now dazzling white and possessing even greater powers than before. He has defeated the Balrog and emerged victorious. In the same way, early Christians imagined Christ dying, battling with Satan in the nether realms, and then rising as the victorious hero. This epic battle—the point where humanity’s salvation was actually achieved—occurred in the ‘Harrowing of Hell’ on Holy Saturday.
Christians in the Early Middle Ages not only studied the Christian scriptures but also other Christian writings, and the monks of the ancient Iona monastery included The Acts of Pilate among the treasured documents of their library. In this book, the Harrowing of Hell is recounted in vivid pictures. Satan rushes to hell after Christ’s death on the cross, “fleeing in fear” as Christ pursues him. When Christ reaches hell’s gates, he demands, “Open thy gates that the King of Glory may come in.” The demons refuse him entrance, but then “suddenly Hell did quake, and the gates of death and the locks were broken small, and the bars of iron broken, and fell to the ground, and all things were laid open.” Christ then frees a jubilant crowd of captives. Afterward, “all the saints of God besought the Lord that he would leave the sign of victory—even of the holy cross—in hell, that the wicked ministers thereof might not prevail to keep back any that was accused, whom the Lord absolved. And it was so done, and the Lord set his cross in the midst of hell, which is the sign of victory; and it shall remain there forever” (italics mine).
For the ancient Celts and Saxons, the cross was a symbol of Christ’s heroic and eternal victory over hell and death. They believed if they descended to the very depths of hell, they would find the cross waiting for them, offering them hope and salvation even there. The psalmist wrote, “If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there” (139:8 KJV), and the Apostle Paul was “convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love” (Romans 8:38 NLT).

Image: the Harrowing of Hell—Christ pulls a sinner from death’s realm—portrayed on the baptismal fount of St. Mary Magdalene Church, Eardisley, Herefordshire, England.

Easter Sunday - 27th March 2016

It's felt a bit like Christmas Day today.

For a start, I discovered that my Christmas Cactus had surreptitiously produced a couple of flowers on the side facing away from me. How come I never spotted them?

Then the Easter church service felt a lot like a Christmas Service. Apart from it being Hot Cross Buns and a Chocolate Fountain to go with the pre-service coffee, rather than mince pies.  A quiz, with Easter eggs for prizes (what is Easter Egg an anagram for?).

The difference being that we also celebrated communion, standing in a large circle, two deep in places, all around the modern square building as bread and wine were brought round.

The weather - cold, rain, hail, blustering wind, sunshine and rainbows;

And a bit traditional celebratory meal with all four of us and my father; roast lamb and all the trimmings, cheese and biscuits, fruit salad (no takers) and finishing off with special seasonal items - Easter Eggs all round. Time for himself to be taken back to his flat for a post-prandiel snooze before his regular Sunday Evening Quiz. Ah yes. The answer is Segregate. That's if you haven't forgotten the question.

An Indoor Easter Egg Hunt prepared by the youngsters for us oldies and a decorated tree;

The rest of the afternoon was "doing your own thing" until - as is traditional at Christmas, New Year and now, Easter, someone turning up with a computer for the menfolk to puzzle over together.

It's now 6pm (7 pm in old money as the clocks went forward last night). Not sure that I will be ready for more food for a while - maybe that fruit salad later on?

Happy Easter! Hmm, just had another couple of chocolate mini-eggs. Not saying I'll give up chocolate yet, just pause in the consumption....

Saturday 26th March - The Harrowing of Hell

"He descended into Hell"

I don't always look properly at pictures; Dame Catherine, in her blog post here

http://www.ibenedictines.org/2014/04/19/the-harrowing-of-hell-holy-saturday-2014/

comments on how tenderly Jesus takes the poor souls by the hand and leads them out of the mouth of Hell, while keeping the Devil at bay in this picture. So I paused to look properly.

Note on the illustration

Harrowing of Hell, illumination about 1190, York; written about 1490, Tempera colours and gold leaf on parchment
Leaf: 11.9 x 17 cm (4 11/16 x 6 11/16 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 101, fol. 82v

Elsewhere, here is Christ pulling a sinner from Hell carved on the baptismal font in St. Mary Magdalene Church, Eardisley, Herefordshire, England.

http://greatenglishchurches.co.uk/html/eardisley.html

This Saturday is often a day of  bleakness, remembering the horrific events of the first Good Friday (the weather today certainly fits that mood) and for the followers of Christ it must have been grim indeed. But it seems as though Jesus has already left the tomb, and that he is already alive, hard at work releasing the captives from Hell.

It is worth following the link to the website that I snitched this picture from

http://greatenglishchurches.co.uk/html/eardisley.html

for more pictures of the font. There is also some interesting information about the carving, the tradition of the Harrowing of Hell, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, Bleak House, and the Hound of the Baskervilles all get a mention....  I think I want to visit Herefordshire again sometime.

I never really understood the pleasures of "church-crawling" in the past, but now it HURTS when we drive past an interesting looking church.  

Saturday 26th March - The Sliding Block Puzzle

The sacrifices I make to provide a blog post!

I've just brave the cold, grey, dank, blustery HORRIBLE weather outside to take this picture:

which is the state of the back seat of my car. Now that I am back at the computer, sitting next to a hot radiator, I will explain.

The two big black patio planters are my "junk" samba kit (there is a smaller planter inside one of them. The multi-coloured plastic tubes are "boomwhackers" - when you tap them they produce sounds of different pitches. The various bags contain shakers, tambourines, xylophones and sundry assorted instruments. All this stuff lives in the car because - well - there is nowhere else for it. (now, when we get the shed up..... things may change.....)

Anyway, the situation is that the clutch on BB's car is going, so we are not using it in order to preserve what little capability is left for the drive to the garage on Tuesday. So that means we will have to use my car. That's fine, except both offsprings are staying here over Easter, so we will need to fit four into my car. Usually, when we need to empty my car, we just dump everything in the back bedroom - but there is a daughter in there at the moment. Or the little front bedroom - but that is already occupied by the son. Or, if it was just for a day, in the sitting room - but I can't cope with falling over it for a whole Bank Holiday weekend.

Solution - BB is currently, as I type, loading it all into his car, which, let's face it, is little more than a stationary wheeled shed at the moment. On Tuesday we can transfer it all to a vacated bedroom. By the time term starts again, it can all go back in my car.

Perhaps we will need two sheds - a musical shed and a gardening shed? And a third, to be a workshop?

Good Friday 25th March 2016 - Full Circle

Crucifixion and Annunciation (BL Add. 44949, f. 5)

Because I don't follow the Church Liturgical Calendar, I hadn't picked up that today is both Good Friday, when Jesus died, and the Feast of the Annunciation, when he was conceived. The dates won't meet up again until 2057, but if Easter is turned from a movable to a fixed feast,sometime in April they will never meet again. Unless they move the Annunciation? But that would make Jesus into a premature baby.

Calendar, marking the Annunciation and Crucifixion on 25 March (BL Royal 1 D X, f.10)

It says it all here (which is where I have taken all my pictures from);

http://www.aclerkofoxford.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/this-doubtful-day-of-feast-or-fast-good.html
It is a long post, but I found it fascinating. You could read it while you listen to the St Matthew Passion.

I now need to visit the V and A to see this for real: An alabaster sculpture of the Annunciation, with the Lily Crucifix coming between the young Virgin and the Angel.  

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O71407/the-annunciation-with-trinity-panel-unknown/

I imagine it is very small. Oh. Ah. I see that it is in storage.

Last year I went to the British Museum to see this; the Holy Thorn Reliquary

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=562294001&objectId=42845&partId=1

which I discovered from listening to the wonderful, wonderful "History of the World in 100 Objects".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/pZ-Jq-iaTOiazy-YLBF2fg That's the link to the BBC i-player recording.

Even if the reliquary doesn't actually contain a True Thorn, the idea that it might, that there might be something there that touched Jesus, that touched the real Jesus, is mind blowing. Awesome. The Crown of Thorns acquitred by Louis IX is now housed in Notre Dame Cathedral, in a container provided by Napoleon. I can't exactly remember, but I think that it is taken and shown to pilgrims once a year. Who knows? Is it real? Does it matter? It is the possibility, the idea, that excites me.

Maundy Thursday 24th March 2016 - St Matthew Passion

Okay, yes, I am writing this on Friday.

But it is all about yesterday, so there you are.

I tripped across a reference to the St Matthew Passion in something someone had written about it - now I'm going to have to track back. Was it in twitter? In a blog? A facebook post? Anyway, the writer commented on the final chorus, "In tears of grief", where, just before the choir comes in, there is an ascending scale by the cellos and basses an unexpected note which always affected her very deeply when she heard it. So I had to go and look at my score, and I think this is what she means:

The last note from the orchestra before the choir sing is not what your ear is expecting.

I also discovered that the last time I paid any attention to the St M Passion was back in 1974, when, as a sixth former, I sang it in Winchester Cathedral. I remember the occasion well.

Well, all this discussion may be of zero interest of you. But, stay with me, in my researching, I came across this youtube of the complete Mattau Passion (because it is all auf Deutsch) which is wunderbar, and I spent most of yesterday listening to it, and trying to buy the recording.

I can't find this actual recording, but have bought another with Ian Bostridge and Andras Scholl and am keeping my fingers crossed that it is anyway near as good.

Here's the youtube - do, do listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm1os4VzTgA

I've also sent off for a recording of the Mozart Requiem, as I really don't like the one we have. I'll let you know...

Sunday 20th March - Lack of Posts -Teeth - WWDoP

No blog posts for ages?

This blog was originally conceived as a letter from home to family (and friends), and the family has been in telephone contact, or even here, quite a bit over the past few weeks - Mothering Sunday, a birthday...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Writing_a_letter.jpg

which means that I haven't "written" to them for a while.

However, I enjoy reading posts on other blogs I follow, so it is only fair to reciprocate! But what to write?

The last three weeks have had the added excitement of three visits to the dentist for the repair of an old root canal filling and replacement crown. That didn't hurt too much, surprisingly, but when it came to the descale and clean... I'm hoping I didn't actually speak out loud when my mind was shouting "You can stop doing that anytime NOW". Judging by the way the dentists determinedly carried on, I think I kept silence.

It was also the month for the annual "Womens' World Day of Prayer" service, this year held at my home church (I'm never sure where to put the apostrophe - but luckily I won't be expected to pass year 6 SATS tests in English next term).

I was in charge of organizing it, which entailed gathering together

all my Indonesian sarongs (to act as tablecloths for "please stay for refreshments which will be served in the hall afterwards")

A load of "props" for the service:

a piece of sugar cane (I substituted a bag of Free Trade sugar)
maraccas
a white jasmine pot plant
a candle and candle holder and box of matches
supply of brightly coloured scarves in case anyone forgot the dress code (we went for bright clothes, rather than trying to assemble Spanish-style ruffled dresses for everyone. Plus it is jolly cod in England at this time of year. I wore a thermal vest. I'm still wearing thermal vests.)
a large kitchen bowl of "provisions" (I hoped that a melon, some sweet potatoes, some bananas and a couple of leeks would fit the bill)


It looks like a list of disparate items from a mystery story.

Also required for the service
spare copies of the music
booklets for the service
spare copies of the script for the meditation
a USB memory stick with the powerpoint slides
Baskets for the collection

and probably another dozen bits and pieces - it was two weeks ago which seems like twenty years.

Oh, and round up "the cast"; Reader 1, Reader 2, four Cuban ladies, three young Cuban girls, musicians, someone to make the refreshments, someone to sort out microphones, someone to set up and operate the powerpoint presentation. We nearly drew a blank on the young girls, but one came, and we got her to do all three parts.

CUBA?! Every year, the service is created by the women of a different country, and much to our amazement, this year was Cuba's turn. That wold also explain the sugar cane.

Aha! The apostrophe comes between "n" and "s".

Anyway, that took up two mornings and one evening, and was well worth the effort.

And also reminded me I feel that the time has come for me to hand over my position on the local WWDoP committee to someone else. It will be years before it is our church's turn again, which might be a persuader for my successor.

Well, buenos noches, as we all said in the service.

  
 

Wednesday 2nd March - CAKE!

On Saturday, the cake tin was empty, the Canadian Maple Chocolates were but a happy memory, there were no biscuits in the house...

and the freezer is full of apple puree made in September...

so I searched on applesauce cake uk on google, and chose this one

http://www.crystalpalacefoodmarket.co.uk/applesauce-cake-salted-caramel-icing%E2%80%8F/

which I STRONGLY recommend. Mine looks like this (what's left of it)

I had a few issues and problems along the way - nothing serious. For a start, I haven't really climbed on board the current fashion for "salted caramel". So I didn't add salt to the cake recipe or the icing recipe. Oh, and by the way, I used a "middling" coloured soft brown sugar; the pale stuff always seems a bit pale to me, and dark brown would have been too strong.

I have no idea what has happened to my stash of mixed spice. Maybe it went in the last batch of mincemeat? So I used a big teaspoon, maybe a much as nearly a tablespoon, of cinnamon, and a fat pinch of cloves.

Another problem was the apple juice - 100ml. I didn't have any in the house and I wasn't going to go out into the cold wind and buy any. So, GENIUS MOMENT - I substituted 30ml of dark rum and 70 ml of water. (100ml of rum looked, and smelled, like too much of a good thing).

I lined my 2lb - that would be 1kg, I suppose - loaf  tin with baking paper, ignoring the instructions to mess around with greasing the tin (and my fingers and my sleeves and quite a lot of the kitchen) and tipping in some flour, shaking it about, and tipping the excess out (and covering everything in a fine white dust).

Otherwise I followed the instructions to the letter, including the "unsalted caramel icing". It worked like a dream. Solid, but not heavy, full of spicy apple flavour, moist but not soggy, and fragrant with heavenly heavenly rum. Worth buying the rum for if you haven't got any lying around.

Tuesday 1st March - How each year begins

First Quarter 2012 - can't remember. Wasn't keeping a diary then (started in 2013)

First Quarter 2013
The cooker non-functional for the whole of January after exploding with a BANG as we took out the turkey on Christmas Day. Mummy still in hospital in rehab after her stroke at the end of October. She came out in February. Total domestic chaos for everyone while we all worked out how to manage everything. Also, I was trekking up to London for overnight hospital tests and investigations regarding lung problems in  February and March

First Quarter 2014
BestB headed towards retirement, just in time to sort out his sister's affairs which took up most of his non-working time.

First Quarter 2015
My parents moved to their present flat, which took several months of planning, moving, and settling in. I was ill most of the time with what turned out to be side-effects from one of the medicines I was taking (I've stopped, and am back to normal). We also had a new driveway done - very chaotic but Most Excellent.

First Quarter 2016
Well, if you've been following this blog, you will know all about my mother's illness and everything. Now we are all reshaping our lives, clearing up, sorting out, which will be on-going for a good wee whiley yet.

It seems that the beginning for every year has been a whirlwind; illness, chaos, disorganisation, unexpected events, challenges...

Let's re-think that.

Every year has begun with snowdrops under the apple tree, shy, easing into flower around Christmas Day and staying with us for several weeks. Then came the catkins, almost overlooked. Early daffodils by the roadside in certain special places, the first camellia, a rhododendron in a rush to be first.

 

Only last Friday, driving from one school to another, the verges were a mass of primroses glowing in that particular greeny-yellow shade. (Do you remember that field of primroses, or maybe cowslips? that we used to look for up on the right, near the top of a hill, as we drove to Cornwall in the Spring? No idea where it was on the route, but we always watched for it.)




http://www.cotswoldyear.com/2014_03_01_archive.html

 (Not one of my pictures - couldn't stop to take one)

Ever since I started this job where I drive all over the place from one school to another, I have been mesmerised by the flowers, trees, skies, leaves. At the end, whatever has happened, however it goes on, there's always something around that will pick me up again.