22 September, 2009

Kreativ Blogger Award




My thanks to Jen Black who kindly nominated me as one of her recipients for the Kreativ Blogger Award. To play, one is supposed to:


  • List 7 of your favourite things

  • List 7 of your favourite activities

  • List 7 things no-one knows about you

  • Pass the award on to 7 others



Favourite things:


Favourite activities:

  • Reading

  • Writing (as someone famously said, writing is the most fun you can have on your own)

  • Cycling on quiet country lanes

  • Hillwalking

  • Dressmaking

  • Embroidery

  • Cookery



Seven things no-one knows about me. I am going to adapt this, as I have with similar lists in the past, and list seven things about someone much more interesting than me. In this case, seven things you probably didn’t know about Bede:

  • He was born on the lands of the monastery at Wearmouth-Jarrow, went into the monastery for his education at the age of seven, and lived there all his life;

  • He died on Ascension Day 735, aged about 62. (Age deduced from his autobiographical note at the end of his Ecclesiastical History, written in 731, where he refers to “…my fifty-ninth year….”, implying he was 58 at the time of writing);

  • His scribe was called Wilbur;

  • He liked pepper;

  • His relics were wrapped in “a robe of fine silk” given to Abbott Cuthbert of Wearmouth Jarrow by the Archbishop of Mainz;

  • He applied logic and observation to deduce that the prevailing explanation for the rise and fall of the tides was wrong (It was thought that the tide rose when extra water was added to the oceans from some unknown source, and fell when water drained out of the oceans. Bede reasoned that if this were the case high tide should occur at the same time in all locations. As he knew that high tide actually occurs at different times in the different harbours along the Northumbrian coast, he deduced that tidal rise and fall was something to do with the water in the oceans moving from one place to another, not to alterations in the total volume. He even figured out that tides were associated with the Moon. So much for the “Dark Ages” being an age of ignorance and superstition);

  • He is the only Englishman ever to be recognised as a Doctor of the Church.



Seven recipients of the Kreativ Blogger Award:


Over to you!

10 comments:

Kathryn Warner said...

Thank you for the award, Carla! I'm off on holiday very soon, so will do my lists when I get back.

That's great that Bede's scribe was called Wilbur!

Gabriele Campbell said...

Aw, thank you so much, Carla.

Carla said...

Alianore, Gabriele - you're welcome, and I'll look forward to seeing your lists :-)

Jen Black said...

Carla, choosing the VB is a cheat of the highest order!
You know those links you mention - are they all accessible by the woman in the street, or do I need university status to access them?
Jen

Carla said...

Jen - I was being 'kreativ' :-)

All the links I mention are public domain, free access by anybody. That's why they are so wonderful :-)

Rick said...

I'd guess that Bede also spoke to some sailors. To a landsman, the fact that tides times vary by location is hard to notice (since you can only see the tide at one place, wherever you are). But knowing the tides is crucial to coastal pilotage, and must have been part of the working knowledge of seamen.

Carla said...

Rick - yes, the sea was the highway in Bede's day, and a lot of people up and down the Northumbrian coast would have needed knowledge of its ways for their livings. Bede's monastery at Wearmouth-Jarrow probably communicated with other important monasteries on the Northumbrian coast (Lindisfarne, Whitby, etc) by sea. Its likely that some of Bede's fellow-monks were familiar with sea travel, even if Bede himself wasn't. He may not have had to go very far to find someone with expertise.

Passages to the Past said...

This is great, thank you so much Carla! And congrats on your award! You and I have some similar interests!

Constance Brewer said...

Thanks, Carla. :)
(You saved me, now I have something to post for the week besides Corgi pics. LOL)

Carla said...

Amy, Constance - you're welcome, and I'll look forward to seeing your lists!