It was St Valentine’s Day this past week, a day for pairs. This of course can create potholes in the path of those un-paired or de-paired. When I entered the local supermarket on Tuesday morning, I was as mentally ready for it as I could be. I’d seen the red and pink displays in previous weeks, lurking in wait just inside the front doors. There was still a twinge, although we never really ‘celebrated’ St Valentine’s day – perhaps we’d buy ourselves a small treat, like a book or a craft item. It was simply a reminder of a pairing that had been lost, a de-pair-ment.
Storm-tossed
Further into the store, the next eye-catching display was for Easter – chocolate bunnies, creme eggs, chocolate chicks . . . and Easter Eggs. Little ones in little bags, medium ones with a surprise inside, big hollow ones with extra chocolates. It caught me unprepared. Gordon always wanted a big chocolate egg for Easter, and it was mandatory that I have one too. After a few deep breaths and wiping tears away, I passed by – there was nothing on this aisle I needed.The gansey is coming on, a bit more slowly this week.
‘Ocean currents’. Multiple exposure of foam in the river
While I knit, I’ve been listening to talking books, keeping up our custom of listening to one of an evening. The current audiobook is a history of the medieval world. So far it’s covered Europe and Asia, starting with the end of the Roman Empire. The author has elegantly aligned the timelines of the various kingdoms and cultures of Britain, Scandinavia, continental Europe, the Byzantine Empire, the Middle East, and North Africa, eastward to China, India, Korea, and Japan, providing a concurrent view of events. It’s very dry at times, but one little story stood out.
Back yard snowdrops
During the reign of Charlemagne (768-814), King Offa, he of Offa’s Dyke, ruled the kingdom of Mercia in Britain, whose kingdom ranged from the Welsh Marches in the West to the East Anglian coast, from the Humber in the north to the Sussex coast. Late in his reign, he had some gold coins minted. On one side there are mysterious symbols. On the other side, it says ‘Offa Rex’ surrounded by a design – but if you rotate it 180°, it reads ‘There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet’.
Offa’s dinar. (c) British Museum
What happened here? The author Susan Wise Bauer surmises that due to a lessening in political tensions between the Abbasid Caliphate, based in Baghdad, and their neighbours to the north on the shores of the Caspian Sea, Arab traders were able to travel north safely. These merchants took their coins with them, which were stamped with ‘There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet’, in Arabic script. This little coin then travelled north through eastern Europe to the Baltic Sea, and thence westward, eventually coming into the hands of King Offa’s silversmith, who copied the linear designs from the Arabic coin onto the Christian coin of King Offa. And because the silversmith didn’t realise the pattern was a script, he engraved the design on the die upside down.
And finally, last week I forgot to include a pic of the very happy recipient of the last gansey:
Lovely pictures….
The idea of depairment….unusual…
Some folk never get paired….
Solitary is OK….having been paired and now solitary….
But it can be like marmite at times..
It takes time, sometimes quite a long time, to get easier, but it does.
The gansey is a perfect fit! gorgeous!
Dear Margaret, thank you once more for a beautiful, poignant posting. Personally I have never cared for Valentines Day with its focus selfishly on pairs without a care for those who aren’t in that situation.
Lovely photos once more, and your “0cean foam” line somehow spoke to me.
The gansey is simply gorgeous.
Spring is almost here. The tulips have begun to point through the ground – safely so far in defiance of the squirrels! We shall see!
Kindest regards.
My husband passed away at the beginning of this month. His funeral is next week, 3 days after what would’ve been his 89th birthday. Valentines Day wasn’t a problem for me but I’d already been grieving for more than 3 months before he died as his health deteriorated. I’d imagine an unexpected death comes with a sharper, harsher shock of grief.
For me, first it was shock, and disbelief, for about three days. Then grief, disbelief, reality. It takes a long time to come to terms with it, and I’ve got a ways to go yet.
I hope you are keeping well, and have family and friends near by to help.
Margaret
Though the years Gordon would always include in the Easter blog something about his chocolate egg and there were times that I thought he was just teasing his readers. Buy the small chocolate egg and enjoy that memory – part of the grieving process is remembering those enjoyable times.
You’re doing a great job with the blog – and the GANSEY! Wonderful! And doesn’t he look smart in that red!
Thanks, Lynne. You’ll make me blush . . .
Margaret
Thank you for continuing to share those little moments. They mean a lot on as you continue on this unexpected path.
And thank you for sharing what you are listening to as you knit. It’s nice to learn about the seemingly odd things that occurred long ago and to have some context.
Thanks for the extraordinary story about the Offa’s Dyke coin. Who would have thought it eh?
The photo of Ocean currents is superb
I am fairly new to this blog, having found it on one of my internet searches regarding ganseys a while back, but hadn’t really read through until four or more months ago. I would check in more and more often since then, enjoying the progress of Gordon’s knitting and other bits and pieces he shared. It was a lovely interlude. I was shocked and saddened by Gordon’s death and have thought much about him and your loss since then. It was nice to follow the finishing of his last gansey and see the picture of the recipient wearing it. Thanks for sharing and continuing the blog.
That’s a great and fascinating story about the coin – thank you for that.
And again very many thanks to both you and to Gordon from the recipient of that gansey in the picture. I can promise that it’s every bit as well fitting and comfortable as it looks, and it’s a great honour to wear it.