Alison
@alisono.bsky.social
Erstwhile physicist now earning a living from medical statistics; tenth century scribe and early medieval reenactor; aspiring northumbrian pipe player (I'm trying); and mum to two cats 🐈 (+ a daughter doing PhD in classics who complained I'd forgotten her)
I like to think this is a little Anglo-Saxon cat peeping round the corner...
One of the least impressive but most fun carvings amongst the amazing Anglo-Saxon sculptures at Breedon-on-th-Hill
One of the least impressive but most fun carvings amongst the amazing Anglo-Saxon sculptures at Breedon-on-th-Hill
March 15, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I like to think this is a little Anglo-Saxon cat peeping round the corner...
One of the least impressive but most fun carvings amongst the amazing Anglo-Saxon sculptures at Breedon-on-th-Hill
One of the least impressive but most fun carvings amongst the amazing Anglo-Saxon sculptures at Breedon-on-th-Hill
Happy sunny spring weekend playing Northumbrian pipes
March 9, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Happy sunny spring weekend playing Northumbrian pipes
From a tenth century calendar for today: "here the birds begin to sing"
Not that they are singing much here - it's cold and drizzly
Not that they are singing much here - it's cold and drizzly
February 11, 2025 at 8:21 AM
From a tenth century calendar for today: "here the birds begin to sing"
Not that they are singing much here - it's cold and drizzly
Not that they are singing much here - it's cold and drizzly
Oh dear!
It's Candlemas morning, and the weather here is beautiful.
"If Candlemas Day is clear and bright, winter will have another bite."
It's Candlemas morning, and the weather here is beautiful.
"If Candlemas Day is clear and bright, winter will have another bite."
February 2, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Oh dear!
It's Candlemas morning, and the weather here is beautiful.
"If Candlemas Day is clear and bright, winter will have another bite."
It's Candlemas morning, and the weather here is beautiful.
"If Candlemas Day is clear and bright, winter will have another bite."
Outside is frost-white and icy-grey, so here are some medieval colours to brighten the day.
The opening of the Æthelstan Bede as it looks now and my reimagining of how it might have looked before time darkened the colours (oak gall ink and egg tempera on vellum)
#medievalmanuscripts
The opening of the Æthelstan Bede as it looks now and my reimagining of how it might have looked before time darkened the colours (oak gall ink and egg tempera on vellum)
#medievalmanuscripts
January 11, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Outside is frost-white and icy-grey, so here are some medieval colours to brighten the day.
The opening of the Æthelstan Bede as it looks now and my reimagining of how it might have looked before time darkened the colours (oak gall ink and egg tempera on vellum)
#medievalmanuscripts
The opening of the Æthelstan Bede as it looks now and my reimagining of how it might have looked before time darkened the colours (oak gall ink and egg tempera on vellum)
#medievalmanuscripts
Mr. Lapwing – from “hleape-wince”, the Old English for leaping and winking, describing the way the birds rise and fall and wink black-and-white in flight.
I met this grumpy specimen on Friday at the edge of a frozen lake. He looked as cold as I felt.
Not much leaping or winking going on here.
I met this grumpy specimen on Friday at the edge of a frozen lake. He looked as cold as I felt.
Not much leaping or winking going on here.
January 7, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Mr. Lapwing – from “hleape-wince”, the Old English for leaping and winking, describing the way the birds rise and fall and wink black-and-white in flight.
I met this grumpy specimen on Friday at the edge of a frozen lake. He looked as cold as I felt.
Not much leaping or winking going on here.
I met this grumpy specimen on Friday at the edge of a frozen lake. He looked as cold as I felt.
Not much leaping or winking going on here.
A cheerful gargoyle playing bagpipes at Gloucester cathedral.
January 7, 2025 at 10:02 PM
A cheerful gargoyle playing bagpipes at Gloucester cathedral.
Enjoyed a wonderful, and slightly snowy, twelfth night feast at Regia's permanent site, Wychurst.
Ne seah ic wídan feorh
under heofones hwealf healsittendra
medudréam máran.
Ne seah ic wídan feorh
under heofones hwealf healsittendra
medudréam máran.
January 7, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Enjoyed a wonderful, and slightly snowy, twelfth night feast at Regia's permanent site, Wychurst.
Ne seah ic wídan feorh
under heofones hwealf healsittendra
medudréam máran.
Ne seah ic wídan feorh
under heofones hwealf healsittendra
medudréam máran.
Just been to the excellent Medieval Women exhibition at the British library. So many amazing things, but I loved the advice in a 13th century guide for anchoresses allowing them one cat 🐈
December 17, 2024 at 4:52 PM
Just been to the excellent Medieval Women exhibition at the British library. So many amazing things, but I loved the advice in a 13th century guide for anchoresses allowing them one cat 🐈
How to prepare for St Nicholas’ Day:
1. Visit St Nicholas Church, Oddington
2. Become obsessed with their wonderful doom painting
3. Spend a disturbing St Nicholas’ Eve reimagining how the Oddington demons and the mouth of hell might have looked when freshly painted
#medieval #oldchurches
1. Visit St Nicholas Church, Oddington
2. Become obsessed with their wonderful doom painting
3. Spend a disturbing St Nicholas’ Eve reimagining how the Oddington demons and the mouth of hell might have looked when freshly painted
#medieval #oldchurches
December 6, 2024 at 3:39 PM
How to prepare for St Nicholas’ Day:
1. Visit St Nicholas Church, Oddington
2. Become obsessed with their wonderful doom painting
3. Spend a disturbing St Nicholas’ Eve reimagining how the Oddington demons and the mouth of hell might have looked when freshly painted
#medieval #oldchurches
1. Visit St Nicholas Church, Oddington
2. Become obsessed with their wonderful doom painting
3. Spend a disturbing St Nicholas’ Eve reimagining how the Oddington demons and the mouth of hell might have looked when freshly painted
#medieval #oldchurches
Here's a better picture:
December 1, 2024 at 11:14 PM
Here's a better picture:
27 Nov: St Congar, 6th century hermit & founder of a minster at Congresbury.
He allegedly sailed from Wales to marshy land in Somerset, was shown the site for the minster by wild boar, and miraculously changed the marsh to fertile land.
So here's another Regia boat & some marsh woundwort.
He allegedly sailed from Wales to marshy land in Somerset, was shown the site for the minster by wild boar, and miraculously changed the marsh to fertile land.
So here's another Regia boat & some marsh woundwort.
November 27, 2024 at 8:58 PM
27 Nov: St Congar, 6th century hermit & founder of a minster at Congresbury.
He allegedly sailed from Wales to marshy land in Somerset, was shown the site for the minster by wild boar, and miraculously changed the marsh to fertile land.
So here's another Regia boat & some marsh woundwort.
He allegedly sailed from Wales to marshy land in Somerset, was shown the site for the minster by wild boar, and miraculously changed the marsh to fertile land.
So here's another Regia boat & some marsh woundwort.
Anyone else out there have a bagpipe cat who sits on their lap every time they try to play?
I suspect it's a non-too- subtle way to tell me to stop that awful noise.
#bagpipecat #NorthumbrianSmallPipes
I suspect it's a non-too- subtle way to tell me to stop that awful noise.
#bagpipecat #NorthumbrianSmallPipes
November 27, 2024 at 10:44 AM
Anyone else out there have a bagpipe cat who sits on their lap every time they try to play?
I suspect it's a non-too- subtle way to tell me to stop that awful noise.
#bagpipecat #NorthumbrianSmallPipes
I suspect it's a non-too- subtle way to tell me to stop that awful noise.
#bagpipecat #NorthumbrianSmallPipes
Ooh, I was so busy sheltering from the storm this weekend that I missed St Clements's day... patron of seafarers. He was a popular saint among early medieval mariners, so here's my favourite boat to celebrate.
(Regia Anglorum's boat, The Bear, at Llangors)
(Regia Anglorum's boat, The Bear, at Llangors)
November 25, 2024 at 11:53 AM
Ooh, I was so busy sheltering from the storm this weekend that I missed St Clements's day... patron of seafarers. He was a popular saint among early medieval mariners, so here's my favourite boat to celebrate.
(Regia Anglorum's boat, The Bear, at Llangors)
(Regia Anglorum's boat, The Bear, at Llangors)
24 Nov, Eanflæd's day, a strong woman in violent times. Baptised as a baby in thanks for her (then) pagan father, Edwin, surviving an assassination attempt; exiled as a child; sent back to Northumbria to marry a warlord king from a rival family; & finally, joint abbess at Whitby with her daughter.
November 24, 2024 at 7:57 PM
24 Nov, Eanflæd's day, a strong woman in violent times. Baptised as a baby in thanks for her (then) pagan father, Edwin, surviving an assassination attempt; exiled as a child; sent back to Northumbria to marry a warlord king from a rival family; & finally, joint abbess at Whitby with her daughter.
To celebrate St.Cecelia's day 🎶 (22Nov) & also St Æbbe of Minster-in-Thanet (19th), here are some 8th-century musicians from the Vespasian Psalter, perhaps made in Minster.
Original+my display copy
I loved rolling back time & imagining how bright the picture was before the silver tarnished.
Original+my display copy
I loved rolling back time & imagining how bright the picture was before the silver tarnished.
November 22, 2024 at 5:58 PM
To celebrate St.Cecelia's day 🎶 (22Nov) & also St Æbbe of Minster-in-Thanet (19th), here are some 8th-century musicians from the Vespasian Psalter, perhaps made in Minster.
Original+my display copy
I loved rolling back time & imagining how bright the picture was before the silver tarnished.
Original+my display copy
I loved rolling back time & imagining how bright the picture was before the silver tarnished.
Visited Otmoor to see 10000 starlings at sunset.
The word “Murmuration” doesn’t do it justice. Murmuration better describes a group in a tree, the murmuring chatter from hidden birds.
At dusk, it’s movement you notice, the rushing, wheeling & turning: a river? a flood? a synchronicity? a symphony?
The word “Murmuration” doesn’t do it justice. Murmuration better describes a group in a tree, the murmuring chatter from hidden birds.
At dusk, it’s movement you notice, the rushing, wheeling & turning: a river? a flood? a synchronicity? a symphony?
November 21, 2024 at 10:39 PM
Visited Otmoor to see 10000 starlings at sunset.
The word “Murmuration” doesn’t do it justice. Murmuration better describes a group in a tree, the murmuring chatter from hidden birds.
At dusk, it’s movement you notice, the rushing, wheeling & turning: a river? a flood? a synchronicity? a symphony?
The word “Murmuration” doesn’t do it justice. Murmuration better describes a group in a tree, the murmuring chatter from hidden birds.
At dusk, it’s movement you notice, the rushing, wheeling & turning: a river? a flood? a synchronicity? a symphony?
To celebrate St Edmund's Day (20 Nov), here are some wonderfully unconvincing vikings slaughtering Edmund of East Anglia (d. 20 Nov 869) from the 14th century wall paintings in Pickering... no sign of the wolf who guarded Edmund's head until it was miraculously reattached to his body.
November 20, 2024 at 6:36 PM
To celebrate St Edmund's Day (20 Nov), here are some wonderfully unconvincing vikings slaughtering Edmund of East Anglia (d. 20 Nov 869) from the 14th century wall paintings in Pickering... no sign of the wolf who guarded Edmund's head until it was miraculously reattached to his body.
To celebrate St Margaret of Scotland's day, here's my version of a page from her gospel book. Her most famous miracle was that the original book fell in a stream and was undamaged. Not bad for a book written in waterproof ink on waterproof vellum.
(From my manuscript display with Regia Anglorum)
(From my manuscript display with Regia Anglorum)
November 16, 2024 at 9:31 AM
To celebrate St Margaret of Scotland's day, here's my version of a page from her gospel book. Her most famous miracle was that the original book fell in a stream and was undamaged. Not bad for a book written in waterproof ink on waterproof vellum.
(From my manuscript display with Regia Anglorum)
(From my manuscript display with Regia Anglorum)