My sister, who is still here until tomorrow, pointed out that today's Times proclaims it is the day of St Gerlac of Valkenburg, the patron saint of domestic animals. And we read the brief biographical blurb, and thought "Yes, but what's with the domestic animals?" So we looked him up online, and to save you time here's the slightly less brief ( Read more... )

I was slightly startled by the following headline:

POPE HOPES TO FOLLOW IN NIXON'S FOOTSTEPS

It turned out Leicestershire had signed an 18-year-old wicketkeeper called Joel Pope as a possible successor to Paul Nixon, who's pushing 37.

Fascinating interview in yesterday's Times with Jonathan Edwards (you may have to swat one of those irritating ads that blocks out text). He was the born-again Christian Olympic gold-winning athlete who proclaimed his reliance on God at every opportunity and refused to compete on the Sabbath. On retiring, he got a job presenting Songs of Praise ( Read more... )

Working through the newspaper backlog after my recent absences, I discovered that there are still Romans in York, even though we didn't see them in July.

And talking of historical re-enactment, it's a great shame I didn't have a camera with me in Nottingham yesterday, because otherwise you would all be able to share the astonishing spectacle of steverogerson ( Read more... )

Belatedly, I have got round to the meme where you answer ten questions using the titles of songs by a single band or artist. Originally, I was thinking Cream, as "She's a witch of trouble in electric blue" would cover at least half the answers. It then occurred to me, however, that the actual title of that song is "Strange Brew", which might also ( Read more... )

( One of my favourite love songs, which happens to be a chorale from Bach's St Matthew Passion )

Working through my newspaper backlog, I came across this charming story in the Daily Telegraph. Apparently, in 1985 Sweden sought British advice on how to protect possibly imaginary monsters living in northern lakes. This prompted the British Government to worry about whether they were protecting the Loch Ness Monster or not, but eventually they ( Read more... )

Cat Bells. Castlerigg stone circle. Sprouts. Had cold. Hemmed 2/3 curtain.

PS Probably won't see Noughth of Tenth for a few days, so no spoilers anywhere I hope.

Well, we're back from Midnight Mass, which I gather will put us one up on the megachristians. "I'm not handing out any DVDs," announced the new vicar, who won my hearty approval by not scheduling Once in Royal David's City at any point of the service, even if he did read the wrong version of the start of St John's Gospel. In other good news, we ( Read more... )

It's Ratzinger.