All Sorts of Everything!

 Lindisfarne Castle

Apologies but I'm pretty hopeless at posting these days.  I'm convinced we only have 3 day weeks now.  I just seem to get up in the morning & a couple of days have gone!  Maybe I've slept through!  It's a sign of old age, mind you it does seem to be worse in winter.  Christmas has a lot to answer for.  Thankfully we don't have Thanksgiving here or I'd be to take away!

This week I decided to buy my husband a laptop for his combined Christmas & birthday presents.  Well his old one has been driving him batty for a few months now.  My fault really, I've loaded it with photos of my trips & grandchildren.  Well it has taken me hours & hours to set it up for him.  I've lost a weekend. Thought it would be a doddle like it was with my little Nokia tablet but no.  The basic set up was fine.  However I won't go into the problems I had with the laptop after I downloaded Google Chrome because I just can't hack Internet Explorer.  YUK!!!!  After that I set up his email.  Problem?  Well I just couldn't get his BT Internet email to load.  Gmail was OK but crumbs I spent hours on trying to sort it. Eventually I discovered that it & a lot of other Internet email systems just aren't compatible with Windows 8 because they're using old technology.  Just wonder why my bills are so huge if they're not updating their stuff.  Spending too much time with their BT Infinity broadband kingdom!  Their advert is running as I type, hence the large bills.  Wonderful!  Well he'll just have to manage with Gmail.  Now I have to train him to use Windows 8. Takes a bit of getting used to after XP & Vista but I do like it.  Works great with my phone too.  I've written this post on the little Nokia Lumia tablet & it's been so easy uploading the photos from One Drive & so fast too.  I treated myself to a keyboard cover with an extra battery & it's brill!  Great for when I'm on tour.

What else?  Well I've been making lots of different things over the last few weeks. 

Sorry the picture quality isn't brilliant.

Some knitted poppies to wear for Remembrance Sunday. I always buy them but keep losing them so I decided to make some.  I don't have a pattern so every time I make one it's slightly different which is nice. 

Some candy cane ornament holders for the Christmas Fair at my granddaughter's school. 

The pattern is here.  There are some good patterns there you just have to register there first.

...... and some little snow socks to hold the candy canes too! 

The pattern for these is here 

Still need to make some baby doll's clothes for one granddaughter for Christmas before they go to France & to crochet a matinee coat for a niece's baby who is due this week.

I'm trying my hand at designing a scarf in lace wool & writing the pattern.  Don't bother watching this space, it may not come to anything with everything else that's going on.

Oh I nearly forgot.  I made a crocheted snowman hat for my granddaughter (which I forgot to take photograph of)!  My daughter bought her the mitts but there wasn't a snowman hat she liked to match so I had to make one!

Apart from the crafty stuff I've helped load a container from our local churches with aid for a community in Zambia.  I couldn't believe how many sports T shirts & running gear from marathons & fun runs there was.  Zillions!  It took groups of us three mornings to fill it.  One of our priests goes out to Zambia each year to work with a congregation & their priest comes back with him to our parish.

I'm still listening to children read at my granddaughter's school & they've very kindly invited the volunteers to go on the pantomime trip with the whole school. I had a wonderful time last year.  The bus ridge was great before we even got there.  Not sure whether I enjoyed watching & listening to the children's reactions or the pantomime.  The comments were great.  One boy asked whether the ugly sisters were really women!  They weren't but I wasn't going there!  Loved every minute of it.  Well apart from the numerous trips to the loo!  This year it's Little Red Riding Hood.  Goodness knows what the comments will be. 

Also went on a retreat last month.  I haven't done that since I was at school.  It was nothing like those ones.  I haven't laughed so much for years.  The photo at the top is of Holy Island, Lindisfarne, where we spent the time.  I'll do a separate post on it as I took a few photos & it's a lovely place.

I was asked to apply for a tour manager post with another tour company which specialises in UK tours & cruises.  Wasn't too keen at first but filled the application form in which took hours!  Full of what you would do in hypothetical situations & what kind of person I am.  Crumbs!  Then they wanted a CV!  Think I must be daft.

What haven't I done?

No decorating unfortunately.  Light isn't good enough now, a great excuse.  Not a lot of housework either but as my friend says "nobody on their death bed ever wishes they'd done more housework".  I keep saying I might be the first. 
No cruise booked for my 70th birthday, dithered around too long & the one I'd been considering is fully booked.
Not much Christmas shopping done either.  Mainly because I don't know what to buy.  For once my granddaughters haven't asked for anything much.  Nor has my grandson but there's time yet.  It's his birthday next week so it will probably be a money job.  Will have to get onto the Internet methinks.

Well time to go!

The Lindisfarne Gospels Exhibition

                           

"One Amazing Book – One Incredible Journey", that's how the press described The Lindisfarne Gospels which has been on display for three months in a wonderful exhibition staged on Durham’s World Heritage Site in the Palace Green Library. Even the buses were customised with the exhibition's logo.

The Lindisfarne Gospels is one of the greatest books ever created, a masterpiece of European book painting. The exhibition presents the full story of how and why it was created.  

The Lindisfarne Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John was created by one man, the monk Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne at the end of the 7th and beginning of 8th Centuries in the priory on the holy island of Lindisfarne in Northumbria. 

Lindisfarne Priory, Lindisfarne           Source Wiki Commons

They were written "in honour of God and Saint Cuthbert". Saint Cuthbert is one of the North's honoured saints who is buried in Durham Cathedral. 

It would have taken 129 calf skins to produce this book. The text was written in Latin and beautifully illustrated, bound in leather and studded with precious jewels and metals. The Lindisfarne gospels is the most amazing example of 7/8th Century Anglo Saxon Northumbrian art. In the 10th Century an English translation was added between the lines and it is the earliest surviving English translation of the gospels. 

The illustrations are amazing. The colours are still vibrant despite the passage of time. This is the page that was on display when I visited the exhibition, it's the page which begins St Mark's Gospel. 

Source Wiki Commons

Each gospel has an illustration of the saint and then a carpet page follows it. 

They are named carpet pages because they resemble oriental rugs. 

This is the carpet page for St Matthew's Gospel. The detail is absolutely wonderful.

Source - Wiki Commons

You can see more here on the British Library's website. However this doesn't give you any perception of the beauty and the amazing detail of this manuscript or how on earth one man produced it in such difficult conditions. No central heating, no electricity, and no modern equipment.

The Lindisfarne Gospels was written at a time of great upheaval in Britain and you can read more about them on the BBC website, how due to the Viking invasions they had to leave Lindisfarne and eventually found their home in Durham Cathedral along with the body of Saint Cuthbert. The Gospels survived in almost perfect condition despite Viking raids, the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry V111, wars and the ravages of time. The book is now kept in the British Library in London and only goes out for exhibition every seven years for a maximum of three months. 
I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition, seeing the wonderful collection of artefacts brought from a wide range of sources telling the amazing story of people's faith, creativity and courage.

Sadly now the exhibition has ended, the book has travelled back to the British Library in London where it is kept on display for the world's visitors to view. I must admit I feel very strongly that it should remain in Durham Cathedral with Saint Cuthbert, the saint it was created to honour. Religious books don't belong in museums, they belong in places of worship like this. 

If you ever get the chance to visit Durham Cathedral, take it! It was recently voted the UK's Number One Landmark by Tripadvisor users. It is often described as the greatest example of Romanesque architecture in Europe however the US author Bill Bryson described it as "The best cathedral on planet earth" and I agree with him!

Durham Cathedral

Durham Cathedral