None of your concern Just a monkey playing the bagpipes in 1497, and a Large White (?) butterfly. (British Library, Add. MS 18851, f.412v - a Breviary once owned by Isabella I of Castille!)
Collective nouns - WalesWhile it's probably more likely to be something like a scrum of Welshmen, or a choir, a valley, or even (cover your eyes) a flock... ...it seems to me that the true collective noun should to be: a Jonah of Welshmen Think about it...
I love the stars “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night, come out these envoys of beauty” Ralph Waldo...See More »
Happy Quinquaegesima Sunday! [I Am a Traditional Catholic] (Quote) The human race, like the unnamed man in the traditional Gospel reading for today, is blind, and we were thrown out, in our first parents, from the joys of Paradise. We are ignorant, in the darkness, of its own damnation. But - we are given...See More »
Abiding Love On St Valentine's day, let us remember this lovely couple, Aragorn and Arwen - aged 88 and 2778 years old respectively when they got married.
Sunday Wisdom [I Love Birds, All Birds] Apparently today is something called Superb Owl Sunday, so it seems fitting to share a little of these adorable birds. Owls have 14 cervical* vertebrae (twice as many as a quarterback), which is why it's so hard to sneak up on them. Owls can't...See More »
Multitasking Even in the late 1290s, women had to do everything at once... (From a copy of the 'Smithfield Decretals', British Library, Royal MS 10 E IV f. 29v)
The Last Day of Christmas Today, 2nd February, is Candlemas. Even though we've already found ourselves in Septuagesima ('Pre-Lent'), we are still able today to celebrate the final day of the 40-day Christmas season. (from 'My Book of the Church's Year', Enid Chadwick) The...See More »
Redecorating Jackson is out; Franklin is in. Personally I'd have changed the curtains. And I can never get over how it's not quite the same as the West Wing's Oval Office set.
Lady Columbia disgorges the Orange Beast? The 'Luttrel Psalter', c. 1320; British Library, (Add. Ms. 42130 f.43v).
On Gaudetes we wear pink [I Am a Traditional Catholic] "Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again, I say, Rejoice!" Otherwise known as: we're over halfway through Advent already. What on earth has happened to this month!?
A sensible British law? Never! [I Drank Alcohol Before I Was 21]Throughout the civilised world - and America - it's seen as reasonable in most cases to have some sort of restriction on who can buy alcohol, given its interesting effects on people. But 21, which is the law in the USA, is from a European...See More »
Habita advocati diaboli...While outside the mainstream maybe of contemporary western thought sometimes (leaning instead to what the Catholic Church teaches - and has always taught - so sometimes that seems 'controversial' in an unhealthy world), I wouldn't say on the whole I...See More »
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary "Happy art thou, O holy Virgin Mary, and of all praise most worthy: for out of thee hath risen the sun of justice, Christ our God." (Gradual for the Nativity of Our Lady, 8th September) The Nativity of the Virgin, Andrea di Bartolo c. 1400