I figured I better make a post before November is behind us. The month has gone by so fast and yet it was one so permeated by emotion, so filled with daily reflection, so eaten up by paranoia and the news, I wonder how all of it fit in what seemed like another blink of an eye. It may have had something to do with the fact we have felt (and have been) quite safe in Leuven, and been able to continue existing within our usual routines. I have been trying to improve my mental routine, however, by making an effort to wake up to every new day with a thankful heart and imprinting those kinds of grateful meditations on my most natural and impulsive state of mind. Some days are more successful than others of course. Anyways, for this post I'm going to list another round of discoveries I've found and have been enjoying all month long. I think, in a way, these kinds of listacles are another way for me to practice thankfulness, even if some of my 'discoveries' are rather mundane. But I think an essential part of thankfulness is finding in everyday the delightful and delicious and then ruminating on them, making a list of them, so that they eclipse some of the negativity that gets into our space. I don't really care of that sounds corny. I think its true, and besides ITS FUN.
I. Cam&Nina's Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Kyle has made these for us I don't know how many times. They are so good and so easy and they taste even better when your husband makes them for you!
GO MAKE THESE NOW
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| Kyle even took this great picture! Yay for Kyle! |
II. My Yoga Practice
Yoga isn't a new thing for me. I've been doing yoga in various forms (workout videos, classes, etc.) since I was about fifteen... so for seven years! But only recently have I really felt like I have a yoga 'practice' wherein my mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual faculties have an opportunity to connect. But I think its really important to admit that sometimes they don't connect! Sometimes my body will be going through all the yogic positions and motions but my brain will be somewhere else or emotions like anger and frustration will usurp my good intentions. I say these things are important to recognize and admit because it means that I am trying to grow my practice and that in turn is an act of self love, a concept I have struggled with over the years and struggled to cultivate in my life. For many years I used yoga for all of its touted "weightloss" "calorie-burning" "muscle-toning" advantages and just ignored all of the hippy-dippy mind, body, spirit, peace and harmony rubbish which of course is not rubbish. Here is one of my favourite videos to do first thing in the morning! Please try it yourself!
Yoga Love Flow
III. Marginalia from The Gorleston Psalter!
The Gorleston Psalter (1310-1324) is pretty well known among medieval manuscript enthusiasts, I think. I personally like how many rabbits there are in this one! I don't know if you can use the words 'wacky' and 'gorgeous' to describe the same thing, but those are the terms that come to mind. Flip through the whole ms here: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=add_ms_49622
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| I thought this one was sooo cool. Illuminated manuscripts like this one often have little fighting scenes, whether it is a fight between a snail and a knight or a couple of fantastical grotesques, they are fun little doodled duels. This one is interesting because the little fellow on the left appears to be waging war against that fly. But the artistic style of the fly is odd, it doesn't seem to fit among the whimsical flourishes and elongated figures. It looks like a real fly! I like to think that the scribe was being pestered by a medieval house fly that kept landing on his vellum as he tried to paint, so he decided to paint the fly in and let him pay for his impertinence by doing battle with the little spear-brandishing man! |
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| These hungry pigs are waiting for someone to come knock those acorns down from the oak tree! This was actually how it was done in the medieval period, and was called "right of pannage" or "common of mast." Pannage is the practice of releasing domestic pigs into a forest so that they can eat the fallen acorns, chestnuts, and whatever else they found on the forest floor to fatten up. |
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| This one: because that rabbit obviously has a force-field protecting him from the centaur's arrow. |
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| Clever rabbit making all of his friends jealous because he escaped from the confines of the line-filler! |
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| I like this one because Jesus looks so dang cool! I think this is an image depicting one of my favourite passages in the New Testament too, one of Jesus' many appearances after the resurrection. The most detailed and entertaining version, I think, is found in Luke 24: 36-49 when Jesus all of a sudden appears among his disciples and scares the crap out of them. To prove he is not a ghost, Jesus says "Peace be with you" and invites all of them to touch his wounds and see that he is indeed flesh and bone! All the disciples are amazed and overjoyed and meanwhile Jesus is so gosh darn hungry after being crucified and rescuing people from hell for three days is all like..."do you guys have any food?" I love it. Go read it. |
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| This one because in a bunch of preceding marginalia you see a poor deer being chased by hunters and their dogs... but it turns out the deer is okay because he is hiding out with the rabbits in their warren. I like to think that the two rabbits are like a husband and wife rabbit-couple and the wife has just come home from dropping off the kids at soccer practice to find out her husband's old college buddy buck is crashing at their place tonight until he can get in the clear from those dang hunters and the wife is a little cheezed off about it... "not again, George!" |
IV. Ellen daughter of Edmund le Berebreyt
Who, on June 7 1327, was pardoned for "not appearing before the late king to answer for breaking the king's park of Odiam and for hunting and carrying off the deer therein."
(Great Britain. 1891. Calendar of Patent Rolls. Edward III, 1327-1377. London: H.M.S.O.)
One day I was just being a total nerd flipping through an online edition of fourteenth-century Calendar Patent Rolls and I found this delightful entry that made me really excited! Here we have a piece of rare evidence that medieval women hunted and moreover, poached in the king's deer parks! It is significant that Ellen appears to have been a single woman at this time since she is identified as "the daughter of" her father and not "the wife of" a husband, which also might suggest she was also quite a young woman! I have come across other cases where women acted as accomplices with their husband's poaching ventures, but had yet to find a woman acting alone. She was pardoned both for her misdemeanour and failing to appear in court, which suggests that she was too poor to pay the large fine she likely incurred. I'm not entirely sure how these kinds of records work but I think that this court was held in York, whereas Ellen's waiver was issued in the county of Southampton which is on the completely opposite end of the island - a very long ways for Ellen (or Ellen's dad) to travel to appear in court! I am quite happy for Ellen. Seems like a spunky lass.
Odiam (now Odiham) deer park has a very interesting history as well! There is an interesting project plan underway to restore much of the medieval deer park that is currently being developed by the Odiham Parish Council and the Hampshire Archaeological Society. Read more about Odiham here: http://www.odiham.org.uk/history.html
That is all for my monthly discoveries! Here are some pictures from the recent trips we took to Bruges and Antwerp! France and Denmark are next on the list! Yippy!
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| Tympanum at Antwerp Cathedral! |
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| There was a lovely exhibit of renaissance Flemish altar pieces and Petrus Alamire music manuscripts! Kyle looking very cultured here. ;) |
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| Kyle loved this wall painting. If you stood and stared at it long enough, all the tendrils and foliage looked like it was moving, a kaleidoscopic optical illusion effect! |
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| This one was my favourite, mostly because of the contextual history, see below! |
<3 m
