— Roy Harper, The Green Man (The Green Man, 2000)
…
the stone carvings above the door (bottom left), a grotesque (bottom right)
February 6 – little green men
the stone carvings above the door (bottom left), a grotesque (bottom right)
religion
the stone carvings above the door (bottom left), a grotesque (bottom right)
January 29 – Pilgrim’s Choice*
“But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more“
— The Proclaimers, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) (Sunshine on Leith, 1988)
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340s-1400) is probably best known as the man who wrote The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories in Middle English told by a group of fictional pilgrims as part of a storytelling contest during their journey from London to Canterbury cathedral.
January 23 – local history II: death in the cathedral
“I saw you from the cathedral
You were watching me
And I saw from the cathedral
What I should be”
— Tanita Tikaram, Cathedral Song (Ancient Heart, 1988)
In 701 CE, Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and that position went on to become the highest in the English church. Initially under the authority of Rome, the Reformation in 1533 resulted in the Archbishop of Canterbury being established as the de facto head of the Anglican communion. This comes with the title of ‘Primate of All England’, to which you can insert your own monkey joke if you really must.
January 2 – David’s day
“This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”
― Arthur Dent in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
Good morning!
And so, the second day of the year dawns. Thursday is notable in my house for one reason – my friend David’s afternoon visits.
When I moved to my small village in rural Kent in 2001, I was surprised to find that it was home to a Christian community of Anabaptists (who favour adult baptism, when a person is old enough to decide for themselves whether they wish to commit to the faith or not) known as the Bruderhof (German ‘brotherhood’). A Canadian friend who visited immediately recognised them as related to The Hutterite community she had grown up knowing in Alberta.
Living With Narwhals 