No, its not a spelling mistake, its the name of the Anglo Saxon goddess of fertility who was honoured @ the Spring Equinox each year - yep Easter is yet another celebration adopted by the Christian church to appease the non believers.
Whatever your belief system, we all like a bit of chocolate and even if the bunnies and eggs have more to do with a pre christian goddess than the death of an equally mythical chap from the eastern Med, don't feel too bad about it.
So, this week. Well the weather has been quite kind, early frosts have given way to low teens in the afternoons, there have been Eostremonat showers but its largely been bright and sunny here in the UK (i know its not been so clement further east but your time will come!). On Thursday i set out for an east bound ride to try to miss the showers which worked until lunch, the return had several falls of haitch two oh and even light hail! 110km at the GPS turn off.
Friday was actually quite good, the sun was out and i took the opportunity for an almost 11km walk/hike taking in the Stoke Park estate and Longleaze Down. Its not proper countryside but its better than walking the streets!
Saturday was to Imber Day. I've spoken about the ghost village of Imber on Salisbury Plain previously and Eostre weekend is the first public access of the year. There are four routes open to the public on such days, essentially one from each compass point, on my last visit by bike i rode three of them, this time i wanted to collect the fourth, the route from the North! I set off early to take advantage of the morning cool but even so, long before i reached Trowbridge, the hat and jacket were stowed, it was starting to feel quite warm by the time i started the climb up to the Plain from Bratton.
It's quite a long, shallow ascent up a narrow valley with a little kick near the top, one of the easier routes onto the MOD lands and i was soon at the access point. I wasn't really sure what to expect of the road, it has been described as difficult by some but it started out well metalled and with a downward tilt. Maybe a mile in the tarmac changed to gravel, Foxy wasn't quite so keen on the bits of looser stuff but we eventually reached the 'main' east - west road and headed down into Imber, still some 2 miles away.
I joined the throng at the church for tea and my sandwich lunch in the sunshine before taking the East route out to public roads to start the return leg. It was by now, not hot but pleasantly warm, the market at Castle Combe was busy and there were plenty of other bikes on the road, seems no one wanted to miss the good weather. Not only that but for a lot of the run back from Devizes the wind was in my favour giving me a gentle nudge homeward. And a good day's effort, almost 1100m across the 136km, a fair workout ahead of the Spreewald in a fortnights time.
And so to today, I cooked a roast turkey dinner earlier - the price of the traditional lamb skyrocketed in the run up to Eostre, well we've not had a roast for a few weeks and a holiday weekend is as good an excuse as any! Once i've finished here i'll galvanise myself into action and take myself for a short walk, short indeed, afterall today is my day of rest!
Of course there is new Gaby today, chapter 24 of Only Five Minutes, the Bond's finally make it to Schloss Harburg for the New Year celebrations.
In other news, i've actually nearly finished the first chapter of book 28, Patreon supporters should see those efforts tomorrow and i'll push on through the week. I have a last couple of trip jobs to sort out, currency and airport bus which i'll sort out midweek.
Thats it for now tho', i'll be back on Wednesday,
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid
Comments
I'm always telling folks
I'm always telling folks about this. Christian celebrations are often superimposed on "pagan" ones. Like many churches were built over pagan worship sites.
Sunday and Monday are named after the celestrial bodies, Sun and Moon, but the other days are named after Norse gods; Tyrs's day, (W)odin's day, Thor's day and Frigg's day.
Leeanna
Mythical?
On the date that celebrates his arising from the tomb, I have to challenge your statement of Christ as a myth.
Most historians agree that He did exist.
There is substantial debate as to the veracity of His miracles. . .which doesn't diminish His impact on mankind.
I firmly believe in His message of Love and Compassion.
I also believe He lived a life that preached Acceptance and Inclusivity.
A person could do a lot worse than being Christ-like. (I would agree that many have used His name to distract from the horridness of their actions.)
Whatever . . . I hope your basket is filled with chocolate bunnies. I will be delivering three baskets to grandchildren that have enough candy in them to create dozens of sugar highs.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Sugar highs...
when I drove a school bus, I hated the teachers who, every holiday, would give their students copious quantities af candy.
whether the sugar, food coloring, or simple excitement, my bus was a madhouse on those afternoons.
Hugs!
Rosemary
Saints
School bus drivers are saints. All winter our streets in St. Paul have been covered with ice and narrowed by all the snow. How those drivers maneuver those buses around their routes is a mystery.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
The only evidence outside the
The only evidence outside the Bible is the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote a history of Judaism around AD93. He has two references to Jesus. One of these is controversial because it is thought to be corrupted by Christian scribes, but the other is not suspicious – a reference to James, the brother of “Jesus, the so-called Christ”.
Roman politicians Pliny and Tacitus, at the beginning of the second century AD. Tacitus say that Jesus was executed while Pontius Pilate was the Roman prefect in charge of Judaea AD26-36, that fits with the timeframe of the gospels.
Pliny wrote that, where he was governor in northern Turkey, Christians worshipped Christ as a god. Pliny writes of their “pig-headed obstinacy” and Tacitus calls their religion a destructive superstition.
There is a lot less evidence for King Arthur, who supposedly lived around AD500. The major historical source for events of that time does not even mention Arthur, and he is first referred to 300 or 400 years after he is supposed to have lived. Much of the rest comes from Robin Hood is probably a myth cobbled together from folklore too.
Leeanna
Happy Eoster to you...
And Hope you had a great Eoster and Easter...
TGSine --958