In the last month I’ve read some very odd books, or an eclectic selection of perfectly normal books, take your pick. I started with “Laura Spinney’s utterly engrossing Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global [which] tells the story in magnificent detail” of how the Indo-European group of languages got its start. The quote is from the [...]
I started three different essays for today…
... About eight years ago I had a lovely swirl of fiber to spin. It was very similar to this picture. I was a relatively new spinner at the time and hadn't fully internalized the idea that if I just started spinning this pretty stuff it would turn to a mud-color. However, it became obvious [...]
Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord
Okay, we celebrated this feast on Sunday, January 11. It is more or less assigned to January 13, but celebrated on the Sunday following the feast of the Epiphany, which is January 6 but moved to the first Sunday in January. Also oddly, the Feast of the Epiphany is considered to be a celebration of [...]
January 9 — St. Adrian
Today is the feast of Saint Adrian of Canterbury. He was a gentle scholar who was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Saint Vitalian. He refused the honor but ended up working in Canterbury running schools and educating monks in Latin and Greek. He is said to have died around 710 A.D. I had never [...]
On the twelfth day of Christmas…
The Three Kings Tell Herod of Christ's Birth. Etching. 1549. Augustin Hirschvogel. National Gallery of Art. Public domain. I made Split Pea Soup to celebrate. I used the bone from our Christmas ham, a 16 oz bag of split peas, carefully rinsed, and bought several months ago because around here you can't buy split peas [...]