We are celebrating the return of the Bayeux Tapestry with Norman Day. If you recall from a previous blog a French guardian of the tapestry was taken completely by surprise and horrified when he heard President Macron casually come out with the news that the tapestry was going to be sent to England – back to England as it was made here. A grand gesture of friendship.
A recent visit to France by the King and Queen.
There were great fears the whole thing would fall to pieces, hence the monumental planning that went into the mission. A new home was created for it at the British Museum. The French requested it be displayed flat lest the characters we have come to know so well succumb to gravity and fall off the pictures. Apparently it had been hanging up and went round a corner, not ideal.
It arrived safely and now is finally ready to be displayed to the public. King Charles, President Macron and our latest Prime Minister had a private viewing last night. It tells not just the story of the Battle of Hastings, but the stories leading up to the invasion.
Lincoln Castle, hundreds of local homes flattened to create wonderful views and a great castle and a display of Norman power.
Norman Day on BBC Radio is featuring lots of programmes perhaps with the theme ‘What Did The Normans Ever Do For Us?’ A lot, but that’s for another blog. Salient points, they were not French, they were Vikings. They inherited plenty of culture from the Anglo Saxon including… here we come to the exciting bit, this great work was created by Women! What can be more civilised and peaceful than a sewing circle and this must have been a Sewing Circle writ large. As men continued fighting over the past millennium this remarkable piece of history survived.
Lincoln Cathedral shares the historic quarter of Lincoln with the nearby castle. Castles and Cathedrals are a vivid reminder of the Normans changing our landscape.
And what has been going on in the rest of the world? A lot, but let us zoom out and leave our troubled planet for a moment. I like to liven up housework and cooking listening to radio programmes with intelligent presenters talking to very intelligent guests about their lives and important things other than politics. I always forget names, probably just as well in case I misquote, but the gist of one conversation was this… The guest had been a cosmologist, but one day she realised that the universe was actually very boring, just piles of rocks floating around, so she decided to study our planet instead, which is far more interesting. This led me to wonder if the creation of the whole multiverse had gone drastically wrong, with Earth accidentally evolving against the odds?
Have you ever seen the Bayeux Tapestry or even better, been part of a sewing circle that created a wall hanging?
Would you rather study the whole universe or potter in your garden?
I remember hearing about the Bayeux Tapestry, but I didn’t know the details of its history. I would much rather potter in my garden than study the whole universe.
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Hello Liz,I realised I don’t know a lot about it, how it survived the invasion of France in WW2, not to mention the centuries before that and its creation. Hopefully I will be finding out more.
I can’t cope with the universe and have to retreat to the garden!
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I can’t cope with the universe either!
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Janet, I would have opted to study the universe. That is, until “they” declared Pluto was no longer a formal planet. Now, I just potter in my yard. I have never been part of a sewing circle, and fear my qualifications for joining one at this time are limited due to my finger non-nimbleness.🧵
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Yes Bruce, the universe is very hard to study when they keep changing the rules.
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I can’t study thr universe because the concept of infinity is so hard to believe. And a the universe has no beginning and no edges, it is beyond me. 🙃
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Yes I so agree Marie.
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Being part of a sewing circle would be my idea of hell, so pottering in the garden is my choice. As to studying the universe, when I was a kid I thought I would like to do that, until I learned that I would need to be better at mathematics. Now I too listen to clever people talking about cosmology, space telescopes, etc. and find it all pleasantly mind-boggling.
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Yes Audrey the maths needed to study the universe would be mind boggling, best to let other people do that and enjoy their work vicariously.
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What a fascinating piece of history! I love the connection between the Normans, the Bayeux Tapestry, and the women who created it. ❤️
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Thanks, imagine how surprised those clever women would g=have been if they had known their work would last so longand be so treasured.
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You’re most welcome 🤗
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Well, the more that is discovered about the universe, the more mind-boggling it becomes. I’d definitely study that.
And potter in the garden.
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Hello Mick, good idea, a little pottering in the garden will be a break from being mind boggled by the universe!
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I like earth with all its amazing flora and fauna. I do study these plants and creatures. I’m not overly interested in space. It’s to distant and lacking in tangible gratification. I have made a wall hanging by myself. Doing things in groups rarely occurs to me as I am a loner.
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Hello Robbie, we were all supposed to be living on the moon by now, but that would have been rather boring!As for going to Mars, they would probably pick people who are loners as it would be a long journey.
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I couldn’t agree more 🌺🍒🍇
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No I have not. But quite fascinating. 😊
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