Keira Soleore: Cogitations and Meditations

Picture Day Friday: British Historical Landscape

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:30:00 +0000

Parterre at Edzell Castle in Scotland

[Image is courtesy of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Gardens of the University of Greenwich.]

Unitasking Instead of Multitasking is the New Way to Work

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

I shall be doing a short series of productivity blogs here next.

I have blogged on Monk Mind: How to Increase Your Focus by Leo Babauta before. I'm combining those previous posts into one here.

The buzzword of the late 1990s and 2000s was multitasking. Everyone wanted to be multitasking or wanted it bruited about that they were efficient multitaskers.

But the key question these high achievers failed to ask was: Were they effective as multitaskers? That is, at the end of the day, given the same set of tasks, did the multitaskers or the unitaskers achieve more in terms of quality and quantity?

Has this ever happened to you? You're reading a document, when it suddenly reminds you of the email your friend sent to you yesterday that you hadn't replied to, so you open your email program, only to find two high priority emails from your boss that you start answering, only to be interrupted by your co-worker calling you for lunch. And so your mid-morning goes, by the end of which, all you've achieved is a meal.

Behavior and social scientists now believe that constant context-switching between various tasks causes people to be less effective overall. For something like walking and chewing gum, multitasking works. For something like, writing a scene of your book with complex fight choreography and also having a protracted discussion via email on the minutiae of book contract negotiations, multitasking is counterproductive to achieving the milestones for either of the two tasks.

Every time you switch away from task one to task two, you have to reload all the details about task two in your mind before you can start working. Similarly, switching back to task one requires you to reload those set of details, and back and forth.

In Monk Mind, blogger Leo Babauta explodes the myth that multitaskers are getting more work done and are getting more satisfaction from that work, in terms of quality and sense of achievement.

So for the intellectually challenging tasks, tasks that require a lot of attention and care, tasks involving physical and emotional intimacy, etc., unitasking is to be lauded and actively pursued, because focusing on single tasks is the way to go in order to achieve success.

How do you go about focusing the mind on a single task? Take the case of writing an article for a magazine.

Clear Away Distractions

Close all email systems, browsers, and social media programs.

Turn off all notifications.

Disconect your computer from the Internet.

Clear your desk of all pieces of paper except for those necessary for your selected task. As in the case of writing the article, you'll need your folder of research material, interview transcripts, and notes.

Leave only the programs open that are necessary for achieving your selected task. So for the article, perhaps you'll need the folder where you've saved your research and nascent article files and your word processing program.

Plug in headphones, whether you play music or not is up to you. Headphones cut out ambient sound and also signal to other people that Serious Work Is In Progress.

Now, do nothing but that one task.

Practice Doing One Thing

If you can't focus on one task for more than a few minutes, start out with small goals in the begining. Say, you'll work on your task for five minutes, then reward yourself by taking a one-minute break to read email. Slowly build up to ten minutes on, one minute off; and so on. Be sure to have a timer set so that you can accurately build this up. In his article, Leo writes, "Set up a positive feedback cycle for single-tasking focus, and you’ll reverse the years of training your mind has gotten to switch tasks."

Sounds overly simplistic? Give it a try. The mind is flexible and can be retrained.

In conclusion, Leo writes, "While a few years ago I couldn’t sit down to work on something without quickly switching to email or one of my favorite Internet forums or sites, today I can sit down and write. I can clear away distractions, when I set my mind to it, and do one thing. And that changes everything: you lose yourself in that task, become so immersed that you pour everything you have into the work, and it becomes a meditative, transformative experience. Your happiness increases, stress goes down, and [quality of] work improves."

An aside...

However, busy moms will still prize multitasking. For example, here's what writer Monica Trasandes wrote in the December 2012 issue of Real Simple: "Recently I found myself walking toward the kitchen with a load of laundry in my arms, two empty coffee cups dangling from my fingers, and car keys tucked between my chin and the clothes."

I think Trasandes is a lightweight. I'd have a book tucked under one arm, a purse dangling from that elbow, the mugs held in one hand, while an empty water bottle and a board game are firmly clasped in the other hand, in addition to the laundry and keys.

Picture Day Friday: Memorabilia Around the Web

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

What people like to collect:

[Image courtesy of WWII Collectibles.]

[Image courtesy of Rootsweb Ancestry.]

[Image courtesy of Norvic Philatelics.]

[Image courtesy of Fan Pop.]

Collecting Memorabilia and Displaying It

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:12:00 +0000

Memorabilia, the detritus of one's life and also the raison d'être.

In his article "Flights of Fancy" for the April 2013 issue of the Smithsonian, playwright David Mamet waxes eloquent on his collection of memorabilia and the stories behind the items. "My various workplaces are cork-walled and covered in remembrances, of the early motion picture studios, of the railroads, of long-forgotten politicals wars."

Now, most romance readers collect author promo items, which we call swag. So let's have it: What is in your collection, swag or memorabilia? And where do you put it?

Most of my authorial swag is in paper form and is in binders of plastic sleeves. I have one sleeve dedicated to each of my top favorite authors and then sometimes shared sleeves for author groups (authors who are friends, fellow bloggers, write in the same sub-genre, etc.). In each sleeve, I have signed coverflats, post-its, bookmarks, postcards, handwritten notes, trading cards, and business cards. Other than binders, I have totes, pens, chapstick, chip clips, compacts, pens, hand mirrors, pens, coasters, and writing pads, which I use every day. It keeps the memory of the authors and their books alive in my mind every time I see one of those items.

One of my most favorite items of non-authorial swag is the concert program and ticket of Zubin Mehta's appearance as the conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. What a concert that was—a symphony :) of Webern and Beethoven.

Another treasured part of my collection is the set of five original colored prints of Regency gowns from the catalog La Belle Assemblée.

Here's a picture of one of my cork boards chockablock with memories:

(Click on the image to see a bigger version.)

Top left is Nora Roberts's annual magnet showing book releases by month as well as a calendar for the year. Below that is a small postcard of the Tibetan Festival I attended four years ago here. Under that is the aqua card from my husband that reminds me to "Listen Closely" because he knows that a writer is in the process of becoming. The rare Bridgertons bookmark by Julia Quinn hangs off the bottom left edge and is cozied up to a collection of four make-believe vintage romance novel covers. Above that is a picture of a study filled with warm wood furniture and lots of sunlight streaming in through the wide windows. This is my dream of a study to sit and write in.

"Park your car. Drive Fluevog." is a sticker sign that Canadian speciality shoemaker John Fluevog puts out. Above that are two wonderful memories of a Hawaiian trip: a wooden postcard with dolphins and whales and a wooden ukulele bookmark. Above the ukulele are three versions of my business cards. Below it is a bookmark by a person on eBay who designed my custom ex libris bookplates.

The bookmark from Titlepage and the occasional tweet by Odile reminds me of an attempt at an online literary disucssion circle with authors, a virtual soapbox that is a 21st century version of the Algonquin Round Table, produced and presented by Daniel Menaker.

Right above that is a bookmark from The Beau Monde, a special interest chapter of the Romance Writers of America. Next to this bookmark is a filligree metal bookmark of Sydney, sent to me by friend and author Anna Campbell. And right above that is my favorite button of all time: SquawkRadio. It was a group of five authors (Eloisa James, Connie Brockway, Christina Dodd, Lisa Kleypas, and Elizabeth Bevarly) who came together to create one of the very first online group author blogs. SquawkRadio was also my first introduction to the online romance community, affectionately known as Romancelandia.

Top right is the cardboard insert that came with my Jane Austen action figure—she came with a writing desk, quill, and a seriously fashionable outfit. To the left of that is a bookmark reminding me to "never judge a book by its movie," not that I am in danger of doing so. Below that is a post-it by fave historical author Candice Hern. Business cards from The Perfumed Court and Threadless highlight my current interests in perfume samples (including Queen Victoria's and Audrey Hepburn's faves) and crowdsourced, original art T-shirts.

Front center is my aboslute favorite photograph: My ideal of where I'd like to be 24x7: On a beach, on a sunny, warm, afternoon, sitting in a comfy chair with a cool drink on the table next to me, listening to the waves and reading a book. Below that is a lotion bottle wrapper from Island Bath and Body in Plumeria-Vanilla—Hawaiian heaven in a bottle. The button below that features some of the group of then aspiring and now published romance writers who used to frequent the SquawkRadio blog and the Eloisa James message board: The Bon Bons.

To the right of that is a gorgeous handmade purse of lavendar silk, plaid top, and beaded outline and handle. It's not a purse that can see heavy usage, but is a minor sort of a coin purse purely for your viewing pleasure. To the right of that is a tea bag packet from the tin of Fortnum and Mason tea I had picked up on my trip to London (part one, part two, and part three).

Top center is a picture of a completely chaotic office, where the mother's sitting under the desk and the baby in diapers rules the roost by commanding the room's computer. In his essay, Mamet laments the advent of the computer. "One unfortunate byproduct of [the computer] is the elimination of the physical artifact: the flight log, the sectional map, the postcard, the pin-back button and the poster—in short, of memorabilia."

Picture Day Friday: Trinity College Library Dublin

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:52:00 +0000

Take a look at the immensity of The Long Room Library at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. It makes you take a deep breath, doesn't it? All those books waiting to be read. It's awe-inspiring!

[Image courtesy of The Gentleman Scholar.]

The Lost Treasures of the Library of Alexandria

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

The Library of Alexandria in Egypt has always been considered as one of the greatest libraries of the ancient world. "Oppression and fear of learning have obliterated almost all memories of ancient Alexandria," writes Carl Sagan in Cosmos. "Yet this place was once the brain and glory of the greatest city on the planet, the first true research institute in the history of the world." (Carl Sagan may be forgiven a lot, including his blindness towards the ancient, advanced civilizations of the East, namely, China and India.)

Scholars of Alexandria explored philosophy, literature, chemistry, biology, medicine, physics, astronomy, geography, mathematics, engineering, and history. "Science and scholarship had come of age [in Alexandria]," writes Sagan. Open-minded pursuit of knowledge for the sake of learning, questioning, refuting or digesting was the order of the day among the diverse peoples of the city. Encouraged by Alexander the Great, his namesake city, Alexandria became the center of learning, culture, and also commerce. The library also served as home to a host of international scholars, who were provided with research, travel, and lodging stipends for themselves and their families.

The Greek kings, who succeeded Alexander, were also serious about learning and research. The library consisted of research halls, a large dining hall, fountains and colonnades, botanical gardens, a zoo, dissecting rooms, an observatory, and meeting rooms where scholars could gather for critical discussion and debate. The library itself is known to have an acquisitions department and a cataloguing department located close to the stacks.

Of course, the heart of the library, as with any library, were the books. The original founders and succeeding directors combed the world's civilizations for books. They bought up libraries, copied books that could not be bought, wrested books from personal libraries, and yes, also stole ones that were otherwise unavailable. The scholars also produced new works that were An estimated half a millions books, in the form of papyrus scrolls, were shelved there.

Thus, the destruction of the Library of Alexandria led to an immeasurable loss of knowledge that affects us to this day. We know some of what we lost—some of it took nearly two thousand years to rediscover—some we don't know how to figure out, and most of it is gone forever. Imagine what we could've known of history, astronomy, biology, and engineering had the texts survived!

[Credit for these images goes to Living Moon.]

Picture Day Friday: Raja Deen Dayal's Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:00:00 +0000

A photograph of the opulent drawing room in Bashir Bagh palace in Hyderabad, India taken in 1888. The photograph was shot by India's legendary photographer Raja Deen Dayal.

[Image courtesy of the BBC.]

Most Complete Georgian Playhouse of Britain

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond, North Yorkshire is the most complete Georgian playhouse in Britain today.

It was built by actor-manager Samuel Butler in 1788. In its heyday, the 200-seat theater hosted figures from Georgian star Edmund Kean to Dame Sybil Thorndike, Joyce Grenfell, and Alan Bennett.

The theater is still in its original form today with its original boxes, furnishings, stage, box office, and other features. One of them includes kicking boards, which audiences would use to make their disapproval heard.

The theater was closed in 1848, reopened in 1963, and restored and extended 2003. However, only restoration work has been done on the building: no refits; thereby retaining everything the way it was when it was built. However, further restoration works still needs to be done, and so the theater is launching a fundraising campaign to save it from closure.

These days, in addition to a regular bill of plays, music concerts, and talks, the playhouse also houses a 180-member youth theater.

One of the one-person character plays currently playing is vignettes from the Georgian era's most beloved writers: Jane Austen. In Austen's Women, "thirteen of Jane Austen's most celebrated female characters are brought to life in this bold revisiting of scenes of high comedy and moments of pathos." Using only Austen's words, Austen's Women offers a distillation of 19th century feminism.

Picture Day Friday: Look Who's Getting a Ride on a Motorcyle in India

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:48:00 +0000

Picture Day Friday: Nevitsky Castle, Ukraine

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:05:00 +0000

Ruins of the medieval Nevitsky Castle are located in the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine.

The castle was built in the 13th century on a hill above the river valley of Uzh on the former site of a wooden fort. It was the mighty citadel of the Drugeth family. "In 1241, the castle was destroyed by the Mongol-Tatar hordes, but in the second half of the 13th century the castle was rebuilt. It was reconstructed several times and acquired its final shape in the early 16th century. In 1644, the castle was captured and destroyed by the Transylvanian governor György Rákóczi. Since then, the castle has not been restored." Go HERE for many more pictures.

[Image courtesy of UkraineTrek.com and thanks to @NevitskyCastle for the link.]

Kerfuffle: Barbara Cartland & Georgette Heyer

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:09:00 +0000

In a new biography on Georgette Heyer, author Jennifer Kloester reveals previously unpublished letters sent by Heyer in 1950. They furiously accuse Barbara Cartland of plagiarism. Heyer believed Cartland copied names, characters, and plot details, sometimes almost verbatim. "I think I could have borne it better had Miss Cartland not been so common-minded, so salacious and so illiterate," Heyer wrote. "For her main theme Miss Cartland has gone solely to These Old Shades, but for various minor situations and other characters, she has drawn upon four of my other novels." The eggregious book Knave of Hearts was reissued with the title The Innocent Heiress with a tagline reading "In the tradition of Georgette Heyer."

Picture Day Friday: Teetering Public Transportation in Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:47:00 +0000

This is how the public ride in the desert region of Kekra in the Tharparkar district of Sindh in Pakistan. Mind-boggling, isn't it? How in the world do they manage to hang on and not fall off during this jouncing ride among the sand and rocks? And how do the shock absorbers survive the rough road and huge passenger load?

Fan Letters by Great Authors to Great Authors

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:49:00 +0000

I blogged last November about how Lord Byron was a fan of Mary Shelley's work, particularly Frankestein, and how he treasued his autographed copy.

We all know that feeling: When we stand in line, with a frantically beating heart, of a booksigning by an author whose entire backlist of books we've read and re-read and treasured. And then we step up to the front, and it's our turn to babble nervously and with joy at the author telling him or her how very much we enjoy their books. Or we send an equally incoherent email to the author recounting all many ways we admire their works.

Well, authors were once or continue to be fans, too. At heart, they're readers who enjoy entertaining, well-crafted stories and admire the authors behind those tales. Here are some of the fan letters by The Greats put forth by Flavorwire.

From Norman Mailer to William Styron:

February 26, 1953

Dear Bill,

You certainly deserve a fan letter. As a matter of fact I’ve been meaning to write ever since I read “Long March” about a month ago. I think it’s just terrific, how good I’m almost embarrassed to say, but as a modest estimate it’s certainly as good an eighty pages as any American has written since the war, and really I think it’s much more than that. You watch. It’s going to last and last and last. And some day people will consider it as being close to the level of something as marvelous as The Heart of Darkness, which by the way, for no reason I know, it reminded me of. [...]

My best to you, Bill,
Norman

From Charles Dickens to George Eliot:

TO GEORGE ELIOT

January 18, 1858, London

My Dear Sir

I have been so strongly affected by the two first tales in the book you have had the kindness to send me through Messrs. Blackwood [Eliot’s publisher], that I hope you will excuse my writing to you to express my admiration of their extraordinary merit. The exquisite truth and delicacy, both of the humour and the pathos of those stories, I have never seen the like of; and they have impressed me in a manner that I should find it very difficult to describe to you, if I had the impertinence to try. [...]

Your obliged and faithful Servant, and admirer

CHARLES DICKENS.

From Virginia Woolf to Olaf Stapledon:

Dear Mr. Stapledon,

I would have thanked you for your book before, but I have been very busy and have only just had time to read it. I don’t suppose that I have understood more than a small part — all the same I have understood enough to be greatly interested, and elated too, since sometimes it seems to me that you are grasping ideas that I have tried to express, much more fumblingly, in fiction. But you have gone much further and I can’t help envying you — as one does those who reach what one has aimed at.

Many thanks for giving me a copy,
yours sincerely,
Virginia Woolf

Picture Day Friday: Room Made Of Chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:27:00 +0000

This lounge made entirely out of intricately crafted Belgian chocolate is on view in a shopping centre in Minsk, Belarus.

The masterpiece took Sculptor Elena Kliment two months to prepare and two weeks of work to transform the chocolate into furniture and home decorations. She used over 600kg of Belgian chocolate to create everything from the fireplace to the tea cups to the to the vase of flowers to the chest of drawers.

Credit for the photographs and information go to the Daily Mail. Visit the site for more detailed photographs.

A Brief History of Chocolate

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:35:00 +0000

The origin of the word chocolate can be traced back to the Aztec word xocoatl. Theobroma cacao, Food of the gods, is how chocolate is known in Latin. I think you all would agree with that definition.

For centuries, chocolate has been known as a sublime pleasure for the senses. In our times, chocolate is a widely acknowledged sweet that we eat, but for most of its life, it was a bitter and/or spicy beverage.

The Mayans and their ancestors in Mesoamerica were the first people clearly known to have discovered the secret of cacao during 250–900 CE. The trees grew in the rainforests on their lands. The Mayans harvested, fermented, roasted, and ground the cacao seeds into a paste, then mixed it with water, chili peppers, cornmeal, and other ingredients to make a frothy, spicy chocolate drink, according to the Field Museum.

(Chocolate liqueur in your coffee with rum? Oh, yes, please. Do be generous.) According to the Smithsonian Magazine, however, chocolate liqueur is an invention at least as old as 1400 BCE. "Last November, anthropologists from the University of Pennsylvania announced the discovery of cacao residue on pottery excavated in Honduras that could date back as far as 1400 BCE. It appears that the sweet pulp of the cacao fruit, which surrounds the beans, was fermented into an alcoholic beverage of the time." So the use of chocolate could be older than the Mayan era.

Aztecs valued cacao beans not only for the delicious beverage that could be made from them, but also as currency. "According to a 16th-century Aztec document, 100 beans could purchase a good turkey hen." Both the Mayans and the Aztecs believed the cacao bean had magical and/or divine properties suitable for use in the sacred rituals of birth, marriage, death, and sacrifices.

So how did chocolate transition from being a bitter Mesoamerican beverage to a sweetened European solid? The Aztec king Montezuma is said to have welcomed the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes with a banquet that included drinking chocolate. Cortes was much enthused by the effect cacao had on his mood and sense of well-being. So he introduced it back in Spain, but until it was mixed with honey and cane sugar, chocolate didn't catch on.

By the late 1600s, chocolate had become a popular drink among the well-heeled throughout Europe. However, it wasn't until the industrial revolution and the steam engine that mass production became possible and the middle classes were able to afford it.

In 1828, a Dutch chemist made powdered chocolate by removing nearly half of the cacao butter from the chocolate liquor. This paved the way to the creation of solid chocolate. Jospeh Fry in 1847 is credited with making the chocolate bar. He discovered that if you add some of the cacao butter back into the Dutch cocoa, then you could make a moldable chocolate paste.

According to the Smithsonian Magazine, in America, chocolate was so valued during the Revolutionary War that it was included in soldiers' rations and used in lieu of wages. In current times, chocolate manufacturing is a four-billion-dollar industry. The average American eats at least half a pound per month. (Er, that little? I believe I can eat my weight in chocolate, especially Nutella! nom nom nom)

Picture Day Friday: Cool Library of Montclair

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 02:31:00 +0000

This is the stairwell of the main branch of the Montclair Public Library in New Jersey. To me, this magical stairwell is emblematic of the magic of books.

[Image courtesy of Sarah Wendell.]

Reading Jane Austen Stimulates the Brain

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:45:00 +0000

You guys totally knew this, right? Of course, reading Jane Austen stimulates the brain. How could it not? Take wit, erudition, laughter, high emotion, lovable characters, happily ever afters, pointed social commentary, and DRAMA; shake it up; apply Austen's prose skills; et voilà—an enduring masterpiece.

Natalie Phillips, an assistant professor of English at Michigan State University, is studying how reading Jane Austen's work affects the brain in a study at Stanford University.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "[Phillips] places volunteers inside an MRI scanner, hooks them up to eye-tracking equipment and asks them to read—on a mirror above them—the second chapter of Mansfield Park." In order to test her hypothesis, she needed a a work of fiction that worked as both a beach book and a critical literary work, and Mansfield Park fit the bill.

"The impact on the brain was far more extensive than she had expected. When the students engaged in critical reading, there was a notable expansion of activity in regions of the brain outside those responsible for executive function, which are normally used for paying close attention to a task like reading. Significantly, there was activity in areas associated with physical activity and movement, parts of the brain we use to place ourselves spatially in the world, as though the readers were actually physically present in the story. Concentrated, close reading activated unbelievably widespread parts of the brain that are immensely cognitively complex, on a par with doing hard math problems or working through computer code."

Please visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for more details.

193 years later, Jane Austen still rules!

RITA and Golden Heart Finalists

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 22:37:00 +0000

The Romance Writers of America (RWA) is the trade association for aspiring and published romance fiction authors. They announced the 2013 finaists for their RITA and Golden Heart awards earlier today. "The RITA recognizes excellence in published romance novels and novellas. The Golden Heart recognizes excellence in unpublished romance manuscripts." The winners of the awards will be announced on July 20 at the annual conference in Atlanta. Here are some of the finalists for the RITA. Go HERE for the full list.

Historical Romance Finalists

Beauty and the Bounty Hunter by Lori Austin
Bride by Mistake by Anne Gracie
Defiant by Pamela Clare
A Lady Never Surrenders by Sabrina Jeffries
The Recruit by Monica McCarty
A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean
Too Dangerous to Desire by Cara Elliott
Wedded in Sin by Jade Lee

Romance Novella Finalists

Breathless by Sophie Jordan
The Duchess of Love by Sally MacKenzie
“Room at the Inn” by Ruthie Knox in Naughty & Nice
Seduced by a Pirate by Eloisa James
“Sleeping with a Beauty” by Leslie Kelly in Once Upon a Valentine
“The Valentine’s Curse” by Jodi Thomas in Be My Texas Valentine

Contemporary Single Title Romance Finalists

About Last Night by Ruthie Knox
Barefoot in the Sand by Roxanne St. Claire
Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis
Lucky in Love by Jill Shalvis
Melt into You by Roni Loren
Sugar Springs by Kim Law
The Way Back Home by Barbara Freethy
Zoe’s Muster by Barbara Hannay

The Medieval Calendar (Video by The Getty Museum)

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:26:00 +0000

This video by the Getty Museum shows a few pages of a medieval calendar. The medieval calendar, in portrait mode a page a month, served as a map of the Church year. While following the method of the Roman calendar in determining dates, it also listed saints’ days and other religious feasts and recorded the phases of the moon. Many calendars also featured related illustrations of saints, feasts, monthly labors, leisure activities, and signs of the zodiac. They, too, divided their month into weeks, but the first day, ninth day (nonce), and fifteenth day (ides) were the most important days and people referred to other days of the month in relation to these three; for example, the 17th of the month was two days after the ides.

Picture Day Friday: St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:48:00 +0000

St. Vitus Cathedral is located in the Prague Castle of the Czech Republic. It is the spiritual home of the country, because St. Wenceslas, the Czech patron saint, is buried there. It was built by Peter Parler. The photo below is the nave from the viewpoint of the eastern choir.

The Prague Castle was built around 880 by Prince Bořivoj of the Premyslid Dynasty. It is said to be the largest castle complex in the world with an area of almost 70,000 square meters. Buildings still standing are from the 10th century through the 14th century. Most of the twentieth century has been spent in renovations and restorations of this medieval wonder. The Prague Castle has been deemed a UNESCO World Heritage site.

[Image courtesy of the Prague Castle website.]

Fordyce Castle and Baron Title for Sale

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:57:00 +0000

Many castles in Scotland, England, France, Germany, and other European countries are up for sale these days as the costs for maintaining these edifices is constantly rising. However, a castle for sale rarely comes with its corresponding title. In this case, Fordyce Castle is accompanied by its barony title. A few years ago, I had visited Aberdeenshire. Pity I didn't venture out to see Fordyce.

The castle in located in a village off the Banffshire coast in NE Scotland, 45 miles from Aberdeen airport. The L-shaped tower house has three floors with a corbelled stair tower, shot holes through which to fire upon besieging enemies, and with a nod to modernity indoor plumbing and under-floor heating. The castle itself and the cottages on the property have all been upgraded to four-star holiday accommodation as a bed and breakfast inn. It is said that it can be reverted partially or completely into a family estate.

Thomas Menzies, former lord provost of Aberdeen, built the castle in 1592. It stayed in the Menzies-Dunbar families, until it passed with heiress Ann Dunbar to the Ogilvie-Grants on her marriage to James the 1st Earl of Seafield. It changed hands, including foreign hands (Portuguese and German) before being restored in 2000 by Robert and Fiona Ogilvie McVeigh-Crabbe as their family home. The Castle was A-listed inside and out, so the Crabbes had to work closely with the Historic Scotland society for permissions to do any work.

Now for the low-low price of 800k pounds, you could be a proud owner of a castle and have everyone address you as Baron Fordyce or Baroness Fordyce or my lord or my lady.

Medieval Knight in an Edinburgh Car Park

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:52:00 +0000

After the three kings, it's the knight's turn now. And he's been found in a car park, too. They should simply dig up all the car parks in Britain.

The car park was being cleared to build a new Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation. Knowing that the site was the location of the 18th Century Old High School, the 16th Century Royal High School, and the 13th Century Blackfriars Monastery, archeology experts were already involved in the dig. So it wasn't too much of a surprise when they came across an elaborate sandstone slab, with carvings of a Calvary Cross and an ornate sword, marking the grave of a nobleman. The skeleton and grave have now been dated to the 13th century like the Blackfriars Monastery, which was founded in 1230 by Alexander II and destroyed during the Reformation.

(See the BBC article for the photograph and more details.)

Picture Day Friday: Saffron Plant

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:26:00 +0000

The bright red-orange stigmas of the autumn-blooming Crocus sativus is the popular saffron spice. It is said to be more expensive by weight than gold these days. In medieval times, it had multiple uses. Dyers used it to impart a yellow or orange-yellow color to textiles, painters and illuminators used it as a pigment, and cooks used it in dishes.

[Image is courtesy of The Cloisters Museum and Gardens in NYC.]

Finding Alfred the Great's Bones

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:57:00 +0000

"After the car park king comes the cemetery sovereign," famously says The Times. Scientists and historians claim to have found the remains of Alfred the Great, undoubtedly the greatest Anglo-Saxon king, buried in an unmarked grave in Winchester. Enthusiastic archelogists are seeking to excavate the grave at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Hampshire.

Unfortunately for them, the grave contains jumbled remains of five people, and so correctly identifying which bones go with which skull and which one of them is indeed Alfred is going to be a tough task. Another tough task is going to be to find a living direct descendant so proper DNA testing can be conducted to identify the skeleton as truly Alfred's. Given that Alfred reigned over England in the late 800s, finding a living relative is a task of monumental proportions.

This is what The Times, irreverently, says about Alfred's remains: "In life King Alfred may have fought a prolonged guerrilla war against the Danes, but his bones have arguably had an even more tumultuous time in death. Initially buried in 899AD beside Winchester Cathedral, with the expansion of the cathedral in 1110AD they had to be moved. Relocated in the newly built Hyde Abbey, he rested in peace for almost half a millennium in front of the altar. But when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, the altar and everything around it was lost. During the following centuries, assuming they remained, the greatest of the Wessex royals found themselves beneath first derelict land, then a prison, then beside St Bartholomew’s Church."

Alfred was the first West Saxon king to be called the King of the Anglo Saxons. In 871, he succeeded to the throne of Wessex. In 878, at the Battle of Ethandun, he defeated the Viking King Guthrum, and as part of the treaty, ceded East Anglia to him as Danelaw and the rest of England and Wales became the united Anglo-Saxon kingdom. (Some people say that the signing of this treaty took place in 880.)

As the years of mostly peace followed this, Alfred showed himself to be a just and wise king and human being. Militarily, he reorganizd his forces with a standing, mobile field army, built a network of fortified burhs, and assembled a small fleet of ships to navigate rivers and other bodies of water. He strengthened the economy through a policy of monetary reform, urban planning, scaled taxation, and revamped law codes. In law as in cultural aspects, Alfred was ruled by his ideas of what a Christian person is and what a Christian king should be. He undertook an ambitious effort to revive learning in the entire land under his command, and he was adamant that all available literature should be in the accessible Anglo-Saxon (AKA Old English) language easily understood by everyone.

Richard III and His Second Chance at Fame

noreply@blogger.com (Keira Soleore) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:01:00 +0000

"It's him!" And with that, the University of Leicester announced the discovery of King Richard III's bones on February 4, 2013. Following DNA and skeletal analysis and genealogical research, lead archaeologist Richard Buckley unambiguously proclaimed that the skeleton discovered under a council car park in Leicester was indeed that of the last Plantagenet medieval king Richard III.

Richard was killed in the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire, the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, on August 22, 1485. In commemoration of that event, 100 white roses were laid at a sundial by invited guests at a ceremony last week. Of the battle, Paul Lay, editor of History Today, writes in The Guardian irreverently that the skeleton demonstrates "the tactile brutalities of 15th-century warfare: eight wounds to Richard's head, two to his body and the postmortem humiliation of a knife to the buttocks, giving new meaning to the expression 'gettin' medieval on your ass'."

Medievalists.net writes that "Examination of the remains have shown that Richard had no kyphosis or withered arm, despite this being a feature commonly attributed to him and his face is shown to be warm, young, earnest and rather serious." Richard III was made the object of fun and ridicule by history, and the University of Leicester and the Richard III Society are keen to redress the unflattering light shined on his life by Shakespeare and the Tudors. They're hoping the remains will help retell his story.

The Richard III Society, working with the University of Dundee, undertook the task of reconstructing Richard's face from the remains. Caroline Wilkinson, Professor of Craniofacial Identification, said, "His facial structure was produced using a scientific approach, based on anatomical assessment and interpretation, and a 3-D replication process known as stereolithography. The final head was painted and textured with glass eyes and a wig, using the portraits as reference, to create a realistic and regal appearance." Janice Aitken, a lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, painted the 3-D replica of the head, that Professor Wilkinson created, using protrait painting techniques combined with historical and contemporary references.

Along with the skeletal remains, the medieval church of Greyfriars was also unearthed. Historical evidence shows that Richard was first buried in the Church of the Annunciation of Mary the Virgin, i.e., the Newarke at Leicester. Legend has it that in the 18th century, the Franciscans of Greyfriars "asked for permission to bury the late king in their friary church, where he was afforded a place of honour in the choir, i.e. the area before the holy altar."

Now, according to the Richard III Society, Sir Robert Burgess, Vice Chancellor of the University of Leicester and the Right Reverend Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester, [have] confirmed that King Richard III will be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral.

For more details, visit the websites of The University of Leicester and The Richard III Society.

[Edited 3/12/13: It's now come to light that death threats have been made over the issue of whether Richard III's remains should be buried in Leicester, York, or at Westminster Abbey. The decision of Leicester Cathedral still stands.]