Illuminations, Part 3rd and last

Great Kenneth Grahame quote. The actual illumination is not as oddly shaped as it appears in the scan.



This is part of St. Patrick's Breastplate.

Not an illumination, but a painting I did. I think I took the scene from a postcard.

Part 1

Part 2

Happiness is...

leaning out of your window at ten o'clock at night while two of your friends search for the middle of your tape dispenser which one of them had thrown out of said window.

Ah, college life!

The final controversy

Evidently Tsarevitch Alexei's remains may have been found. From the article:

Prosecutors said Friday they have reopened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the last Russian czar and his family nearly 90 years ago after an archaeologist said the remains of Nicholas II's son and heir to the throne may have finally been found.

The announcement of the reopened investigation, while a routine matter, signaled that the government may be taking seriously the claims that were announced Thursday by Yekaterinburg researcher Sergei Pogorelov. [...]

The find comes almost a decade after remains identified as those of Nicholas and Alexandra and three of their daughters were reburied in a ceremony in the imperial-era capital of St. Petersburg. The ceremony, however, was shadowed by statements of doubt — including from within the Russian Orthodox Church — about their authenticity.

That's the truth! Probably most people accepted the story about the remains that were found in 1991, but there is definitely doubt about whether those remains are actually the saints'. "Bones of Contention" from the Orthodox journal Road to Emmaus is a good exposition of those doubts.

Notes of an inconsequential sort

A busy day here--I finished The Children of Hurin (loved it, hopefully more complete review soon), picked up fallen pears and trimmed kiwi plant vines, harvested blackberries, cut out 9 1/2 inch squares for a quilt, and worked on my book inventory.

Now everyone has left but my father and he's taking a nap. I'll get to the library later on; I already have a list of books to look for.

I go back to school in two weeks. That's nothing short of amazing.

Today is the last day before the Dormition fast. I believe that it's actually the strictest fast except for Great Lent.

And that's about it for now.

Saturday book reviews

I haven't reviewed a book in over a month (shame upon me) but here's a link to the Saturday book reviews at Semicolon anyway.

My brother has just returned from a camping trip, so I must away!

July reading list

I haven't reviewed any of these. Whoops! But here's my reading list for July anyway. I may post reviews of some of them eventually.

I'm just going to list the books I read. If you want to know more about any of them, just ask.

The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
The Ersatz Elevator--Lemony Snicket
The Vile Village--Lemony Snicket
Blood Feud--Rosemary Sutcliff
The Eyre Affair--Jasper Fforde
Death Comes to the Archbishop--Willa Cather
Midwinter Nightingale--Joan Aiken
Bird by Bird--Annie Lammott
The Nursing Home Murder--Ngaio Marsh
Killer Dolphin--Ngaio Marsh
The View from Saturday--E.L. Konigsburg
Clutch of Constables--Ngaio Marsh
The Book of Three--Lloyd Alexander
The Witch of Clateringshaws--Joan Aiken
The Road to Yesterday--L.M. Montgomery
A Long Way from Chicago--Richard Peck
The Mysterious Benedict Society--Trenton Lee Stewart
The Hollow Kingdom--Claire B. Dunkle
Ella Enchanted--Gail Carson Levine
When in Rome--Ngaio Marsh
Lost in a Good Book--Jasper Fforde
The Quest of the Fair Unknown--Gerald Morris
The Book Thief--Markus Zusak
Tied Up in Tinsel--Ngaio Marsh
The Black Cauldron--Lloyd Alexander
Taran Wanderer--Lloyd Alexander
The High King--Lloyd Alexander
The Red Fairy Book--Andrew Lang
Jill the Reckless--P.G. Wodehouse
The Giver--Lois Lowry
The Dark is Rising--Susan Cooper
The Orthodox Veneration of Mary, the Birthgiver of God--St. John Maximovitch
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club--Dorothy Sayers
Strong Poison--Dorothy Sayers
Lord Emsworth and Others--P.G. Wodehouse
Squire's Tale--Gerald Morris
Calling on Dragons--Patricia Wrede

Slogging on

It's so easy to for me, to fall into a victim mentality, to start thinking about how wronged I am. I should have this, I should have that, I should have some money, I should have more books, I should be in a relationship, I should have nice clothes, I should have a farm, I should have a perfect family, I should have a perfect church.

I mean, everyone else does, right?

Well, even laying aside the fact that everyone else definitely does not have all of that, it shouldn't matter. God made me who he made me and gave me what he gave me. Josh Harris has a great story about that in Boy Meets Girl. He likens life to a painting class where everyone is told to paint a certain subject but they are all given different tools to work with. I'm just starting to really realize it for myself.

Of course, it's one thing to have a realization. It's another entirely to put it into practice. I think when we come to that point, we can only put our faith in God, gird up our loins, and jump in. We will undoubtedly fall, but as St. John of Kronstadt said, when you fall, get up. When you fall down again, get up again. I have to think this way or else I'll remain in the Slough of Despond and that way lies spiritual death.

So instead, let me remember St. Paul's words. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light."

Illuminations, part II

A little later than I said they would be, but better late than never!



Another one that's just pure watercolor.



From the Psalms. This was really an experiment with different Celtic designs.



This was a present for a friend. The words are an Orthodox prayer, the knot is often used as a representation of the Trinity.

Part 1 here
Part 3 here

Old friends

Yesterday was a delightful day. Almost a year after moving into this house, I finally got all of my books unpacked! (Well, except for the box that's coming back to school with me--but there was no room for those ones anyway.)

Let's think about what this means:

All of our L.M. Montgomery books--all 15 of them.
All of my Elizabeth Goudge books
Five Agatha Christies
The Boat Who Wouldn't Float
Barrie and Daughter
The Avion My Uncle Flew
Our picture books! Barbara Cooney, and Minnie and Ginger, and Drummer Hoff Fired it off, and...and....

I was very excited. Excited to the point of standing in front of the new bookcase with all of the books on it and cooing, the way people usually do when confronted with a new baby or a romantic picture, while my sister rolled her eyes.

I have my books back!