This and that
After what has seemed like weeks of dull, grey and cold weather we've had two sunny afternoons and the change has been very welcome. On my walk today there was a duck on the pond and snowdrops in a sheltered spot. Before the pandemic I would have thought nothing of this but today they definitely merited a "yay".
We had a lovely lunch out last Friday with our friends D & K. It was very good to see them again and we tried to avoid talking too much about D's health problems. I think we all felt better for going out and the restaurant is one we know has tables well apart so we felt perfectly safe. Today is, of course, the day Plan B restrictions are eased here and a cynic would say that our beloved PM was doing it to save his own political skin. As I am a cynic I will say it! We have decided to go out a bit more but my mask will stay firmly in place.
Yesterday was the last part of the Zoom lectures I have been watching on Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts and again was very interesting. One of the lectures was about the role of women in creating, consuming and patronising manuscript illumination. Needless to say women had been written out of the story until very recent research has begun to show that they were much more involved in the whole process than anyone had thought. Apparently the skull of a woman, presumed to be a nun, in Germany has been analysed and traces of lapis lazuli were found in the plaque on her teeth. As lapis lazuli was hugely expensive it was only really used for manuscript illumination and she is now thought to be a manuscript illuminator who licked her brush to get a point when painting. We were told about another woman in Paris who worked with her husband on manuscripts but her existence only appears in records after he died as she was now running the family business. It does make you wonder how many other women were working hidden behind the men of their families. There was also some evidence that noblewomen in the 12th century had passed books around amongst themselves as a kind of medieval book group, which was a little fact I rather liked. Unfortunately that was the end of this particular course but I have a couple more booked now on different subjects.
Tomorrow we're hoping to go to a garden centre in the morning to find some squirrel deterrent and then I'm having a Zoom meet up in the afternoon with some old school friends. That almost sounds like a busy day!
We had a lovely lunch out last Friday with our friends D & K. It was very good to see them again and we tried to avoid talking too much about D's health problems. I think we all felt better for going out and the restaurant is one we know has tables well apart so we felt perfectly safe. Today is, of course, the day Plan B restrictions are eased here and a cynic would say that our beloved PM was doing it to save his own political skin. As I am a cynic I will say it! We have decided to go out a bit more but my mask will stay firmly in place.
Yesterday was the last part of the Zoom lectures I have been watching on Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts and again was very interesting. One of the lectures was about the role of women in creating, consuming and patronising manuscript illumination. Needless to say women had been written out of the story until very recent research has begun to show that they were much more involved in the whole process than anyone had thought. Apparently the skull of a woman, presumed to be a nun, in Germany has been analysed and traces of lapis lazuli were found in the plaque on her teeth. As lapis lazuli was hugely expensive it was only really used for manuscript illumination and she is now thought to be a manuscript illuminator who licked her brush to get a point when painting. We were told about another woman in Paris who worked with her husband on manuscripts but her existence only appears in records after he died as she was now running the family business. It does make you wonder how many other women were working hidden behind the men of their families. There was also some evidence that noblewomen in the 12th century had passed books around amongst themselves as a kind of medieval book group, which was a little fact I rather liked. Unfortunately that was the end of this particular course but I have a couple more booked now on different subjects.
Tomorrow we're hoping to go to a garden centre in the morning to find some squirrel deterrent and then I'm having a Zoom meet up in the afternoon with some old school friends. That almost sounds like a busy day!