OOPS!

Thanks to Ann.

QUALITIES IN LIFE

 

Thanks to wise man Doug.

ROSSLYN CHAPEL - MIDLOTHIAN

 

From the website of Rosslyn Chapel.

Dedicated in 1450 as the Collegiate Chapel of St. Matthew, William St. Clair founded the chapel for his family with a staff of a provost, six prebendaries and two choristers. Collegiate chapels like this were intended to pray for the soul of the founder and to spread intellectual and spiritual knowledge. Rosslyn's extraordinary architecture and carvings have also inspired generations and meant its fame has endured over the centuries.

 

The interior of the chapel is gorgeous. The chapel still serves as a place of worship for the congregation of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church.

 

The carvings and, indeed, the entire structure are extraordinary. I don't know why I didn't take pictures of the exterior of the chapel, but photography was not allowed inside, which didn't stop others from snapping away.

 

Pendant keystone in the roof

The chapel was filled with tourists and the voice of the guide, which detracted some from the visit, but what can I say? I was one of the tourists. I'd much rather have experienced the chapel within the context of a worship service, but I realize that I can't have everything.

 

The Apprentice Pillar

The "Apprentice Pillar", or "Prentice Pillar", gets its name from an 18th century legend involving the master mason in charge of the stonework in the chapel and his young apprentice. According to the legend, the master mason did not believe that the apprentice could perform the complicated task of carving the column, without seeing the original which formed the inspiration for the design. The master mason travelled to see the original himself, but upon his return was enraged to find that the upstart apprentice had completed the column anyway. In a fit of jealous anger the mason took up his mallet and struck the apprentice on the head, killing him. As punishment for his crime, the master mason's face was carved into the opposite corner to forever gaze upon his apprentice's pillar.

What an enchanting place. I'm so pleased that MadChauffeur thought to take us to visit the lovely chapel. I never saw a centuries-old church that I didn't love, so far as I can remember.

View a panorama of the interior of Rosslyn Chapel.

Those of you who have read The Da Vinci Code (yawn) know that the chapel is featured in the book.

Pictures and Apprentice Pillar legend from Wikipedia.

THE MARK OF THE BEAST

666 is the Number of the Beast

670 - Approximate number of the Beast

DCLXVI - Roman numeral of the Beast

666.0000000 - Number of the High Precision Beast

665.9999954 - Number of the Microsoft Beast

0.666 - Number of the Millibeast

/666 - Beast Common Denominator

666 x sq. rt (-1) - Imaginary number of the Beast

1010011010 - Binary number of the Beast

1-666 - Area code of the Beast

00666 - Zip code of the Beast

1-900-666-0666 - Live Beasts! One-on-one pacts! Call Now! Only
$6.66/minute.

$665.95 - Retail price of the Beast

$692.60 - Price of the Beast (including 4% Louisiana state sales tax)

$769.95 - Price of the Beast with all accessories and replacement soul

$606.66 - Wal-Mart price of the Beast

$566.66 - Costco price of the Beast

Phillips 666 - Gasoline of the Beast

Route 666 - Way of the Beast

666 F - Oven temperature for roast Beast

666k - Retirement plan of the Beast

666 mg - Recommended Minimum Daily Requirement of Beast

6.66% - 5-year CD interest rate at First Beast of Hell National Bank, $666
minimum deposit.

Lotus 6-6-6 - Spreadsheet of the Beast

Word 6.66 - Word Processor of the Beast

i66686 - CPU of the Beast

666i - BMW of the Beast

DSM-666 (revised) - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Beast

668 - Next-door neighbor of the Beast

- Number of the Blonde Beast . . . uh . . . what was that number again?


Cheers,

Paul (A.)

Paul (A.) must not have had much lawyering to do today.

ON THE ROAD TO SCOTLAND

 

Pictured above on the right is the flag of Northumberland and on the left, Scotland's flag, the flag of St Andrew, at Carter Bar, where the Mad Three (MadChauffeur, Cathy, and me) crossed the border from England into Scotland.

Note: The following commentary does not match up with the pictures, which were all taken after we crossed the border into Scotland.

 

Even after the final plans for the trip were arranged, I told my travel companions that I would not really believe that the trip would happen until we were on the road to Scotland. Not until we crossed the border, did I became a true believer. Before that time, I feared that someone would get sick, or die, or back out, or some other roadblock or tragedy would get in the way. But finally, we were there, in the fast lane, making our way to Oban.

 

The evening before we left, we had dinner at La Tasca in Newcastle, MadChauffeur having made the arrangements in quite a satisfactory manner. Gathered around the table were the Mad Three, Mrs MadChauffeur, Themethatisme, his wife, Petty Witter, their German houseguest, a lovely 14 year old girl, Lisa, and a friend of MadChauffeur and his missus. As arranged, we ordered dishes we liked, and we all passed the dishes around, each of us serving ourselves whatever foods we liked. Thus, we had the opportunity to sample a large variety of very tasty Spanish food. After the meal, we took a walk along the River Tyne and across the Millennium Bridge.

If anyone took pictures at the gathering, I don't remember. I did not, because I was too busy enjoying myself.

 

The following morning, we left Newcastle, but not as early as MadChauffeur would have liked. There were ongoing negotiations each evening over the time we'd start out in the morning, because neither Cathy nor I is a morning person, and I believe that most days the negotiations went our way. We were two against one, after all. Of course, MadChauffeur may take a different view.



My fellow travelers, MadChauffeur and Cathy (with her seemingly ever-present shopping bag), headed, I believe, toward a ferry which we never caught, because it was not running that day. The memories of what we did on which day begin to run together.

More to come, of course, continuing in helter-skelter order with regard to the timetable.

UPDATE: By popular demand, another picture of MadChauffeur by Cathy. That's him on the right and Mimi (or is it Mimo?) on the left.

BUTTERFLIES ARE COMING!

 

The big picture. All the caterpillars which will become beautiful Swallowtail butterflies are in the big picture. Scroll down to see the close-ups. We plant the parsley for ourselves and for the Swallowtails. The sad news is that there are only four. We've had the plants covered with caterpillars in years past.

 

No. 1

 

No. 2

 

Nos. 3 and 4



Here's what the caterpillars will become if all four make it. Beautiful!


Bottom photo from Wikipedia.

UPDATE: Here's a photo of the latest edition to the caterpillar family. Click on the picture to enlarge and look at the bottom and a little to the left, and you will see a small black and white critter. The others looked like that day before yesterday. Now we have five caterpillars feeding on the parsley.



And then there were eight!


Word has gone out in Caterpillar Land that Grandpère and Grandmère have parsley, and the caterpillars are a-comin'. We should plant a whole plot of parsley next year. I'll suggest just that to the gardener, who is GP.

CONSECRATION OF BISHOP JOHN SMYLIE FOR THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF WYOMING

Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop John Smylie



Bishop Smylie presiding at the Eucharist



Our own Ann Fontaine at the podium



Our Ann again giving out orders. She practically ran the whole show, you know, with a little help from her friends. See how attentively the others listen.

Thanks to Dr. Richard Schori for these.

Thanks to Ann for the link. View the rest of the photos here.

OH NOOOO! ANOTHER WELL EXPLODES IN THE GULF

From NOLA.com:

The Coast Guard is responding to a report of a rig explosion and fire "and people in the water'' in the Gulf of Mexico south of Vermilion Bay, authorities said.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel said the rig is around 90 miles south of Vermilion Bay and that a helicopter earlier today reported that it was in fire "and that there was smoke and there were people in the water.''

In an interview with CNN, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough said there were 13 people on the rig and that all were accounted for. Twelve of the workers are in immersion suits and one is injured, he said.

Immersion suits protect the wearer from hypothermia.
All 13 people abandoned the rig after the explosion and are accounted for, but have not yet been rescued from the Gulf, the Coast Guard said.

Colclough said the rig was not actively producing at the time of the incident, but is still on fire. The explosion was reported around 9:30 this morning.
....

She said the rig, Vermilion Oil Rig 380, is owned by Mariner Energy, but that details were scarce.

Vermilion Oil Rig 360 is a gas and oil rig in 450 feet of water in South Timbalier Block 316, according to company records.

Vermillion 380 is a fixed, manned production platform. It's not a well being drilled for oil, like BP's Macondo well and it's not a floating rig like the Deepwater Horizon.

Offshore and onshore drilling for oil will never be safe.

THINGS FALL APART....

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

From "The Second Coming" - W. B. Yeats

Do you ever get the feeling that we live in the age of Yeats' poem?

O Lord, bring order out of chaos.
Bring healing to the hurting.
Let light shine in the darkness.

FAMILIES OF TRAPPED MINERS LEFT WITHOUT INCOME?

From the Telegraph:

The 33 Chilean miners trapped underground may not be paid for months while rescuers try to reach them, leaving their families above with no income.

The San Esteban mining company that operates the facility has said it has no money to pay wages and is not even participating in the rescue.

It has suggested it may go bankrupt and its licence has been suspended by the government.

Evelyn Olmos, leader of the mining union, called on Chile's government to pay the workers' wages starting next month.
....

But Chile's Mining Minister Laurence Golborne said the government was prevented from paying the miners' salaries or pensions by the country's labour laws. Instead, they would offer the miners training to find other jobs when they come out.

He said it was up to the company to pay them and the issue would have to be worked out in the courts.

The courts? The wheels of justice grind slowly. And in the meantime? The miners set the world's record for being trapped underground, and who knows when they will be rescued, and all the government of Chile can offer them is job training when they get out? What about an emergency session of the Chile's legislative body to pass a law, which the president could quickly sign, to allow the government to pay the miners' salaries and severances?

The trapped miners face enough challenges without the added burden of worrying that their families will have no income.

Thanks to Paul (A.) for sending the link to the story.