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Jul. 23rd, 2007 08:46 pmToday was a day of little things. I've done little bits of housework and little bits of other work. I've done a lot of dishwashing, but I still have a bunch to go. Never spend the weekend coking if you don't want to spend Monday washing dishes.
I'm also finishing books so they can be returned to owners and putting books away so there will be chair space for Wednesday's meeting and I'm looking at two new books and wondering how quickly I can sort the rest out and get to them.
One of my new books is Elizabeth Chadwick's The Scarlet Lion. I heard a lot about it while it was in progress and I'm very excited to see how it turned out. I've dipped into it already and can tell you that it will be an excellent read. Thank you, Susan, for both the books and for the rest of my very exciting birthday package: my birthday was in April, but this is a strange year and I'm still getting birthday presents and totally enjoying it. (Though I admit the worms from Thomas a Becket's underpants were a bit of a surprise when they tumbled out of their bag!!)
The other book from Susan is called Rossignos and it looks like an interesting read. It's an Old French poem by John of Howden. John was a clerk in the court of Eleanor. Not my favourite Eleanor, but Eleanor of Provence. His writing may well cover the awful time when Jews were expelled from England. Since one of my private wishes recently is to try to understand the mentalities that surround that sort of action, the book is perfectly timed. Even if the John who wrote this poem died in 1275 (the evidence about his life is a bit hard to untangle) he's still there during the formative period for the expulsion: basically, I need to understand the mentality of the period between the mad parliament and 1290. I would like to explain the whole period by blaming Simon de Montfort Jr (who creeps me out), but there was much more to it than that.
None of this is directly linked to John's poem, which is religious and 5272 lines long. (Doesn't it improve your existence to know the exact length?) The 5272 lines show me John's thoughts and will form a part of the kaleidoscope my mind is developing to help me understand what was going on in people's heads. I doubt I will write these ideas up as academic papers, but I might use them in teaching.
John tells us:
"Here begins the thought of Johan de Houedene, clerk to the queen of England mother of king Edward" about Jesus' life. John assures us that "Blessed be those who read it." I hope that blessing extends to all the other little things I've done today. Especially to my dishwashing. I don't understand why my dishwashing needs blessing, but it does, truly.
I'm also finishing books so they can be returned to owners and putting books away so there will be chair space for Wednesday's meeting and I'm looking at two new books and wondering how quickly I can sort the rest out and get to them.
One of my new books is Elizabeth Chadwick's The Scarlet Lion. I heard a lot about it while it was in progress and I'm very excited to see how it turned out. I've dipped into it already and can tell you that it will be an excellent read. Thank you, Susan, for both the books and for the rest of my very exciting birthday package: my birthday was in April, but this is a strange year and I'm still getting birthday presents and totally enjoying it. (Though I admit the worms from Thomas a Becket's underpants were a bit of a surprise when they tumbled out of their bag!!)
The other book from Susan is called Rossignos and it looks like an interesting read. It's an Old French poem by John of Howden. John was a clerk in the court of Eleanor. Not my favourite Eleanor, but Eleanor of Provence. His writing may well cover the awful time when Jews were expelled from England. Since one of my private wishes recently is to try to understand the mentalities that surround that sort of action, the book is perfectly timed. Even if the John who wrote this poem died in 1275 (the evidence about his life is a bit hard to untangle) he's still there during the formative period for the expulsion: basically, I need to understand the mentality of the period between the mad parliament and 1290. I would like to explain the whole period by blaming Simon de Montfort Jr (who creeps me out), but there was much more to it than that.
None of this is directly linked to John's poem, which is religious and 5272 lines long. (Doesn't it improve your existence to know the exact length?) The 5272 lines show me John's thoughts and will form a part of the kaleidoscope my mind is developing to help me understand what was going on in people's heads. I doubt I will write these ideas up as academic papers, but I might use them in teaching.
John tells us:
"Here begins the thought of Johan de Houedene, clerk to the queen of England mother of king Edward" about Jesus' life. John assures us that "Blessed be those who read it." I hope that blessing extends to all the other little things I've done today. Especially to my dishwashing. I don't understand why my dishwashing needs blessing, but it does, truly.