Musings on colours

I have been reading more of The Gentle Art of Domesticity (I have to take it back to the library today, wah!), and it set me to thinking about colour.

Whilst I loved all the colour I saw in Spain, I think the overall effect meant I lost some of the detail at times, whereas on my way home through London on the coach, I saw in the midst of the grey of a rainy London, a flowerbed planted with bright yellow tulips - and that patch of colour admist all the grey was the most wonderful contrast.

I do actually like grey cities in the rain, just because you get wonderful patches of colours like that, or on people's umbrellas. But only if I can view them through a window - I have no desire to be out in that rain!

More on the Medieval Season

I have been catching up on what I can of the Medieval Season on BBC4 thanks to the wonder of the iPlayer. My thoughts on what I have managed to watch:

Heist
I watched this 'live' as it were, not on the iPlayer, and I don't think that was the best idea I have ever had, as I was still so very tired from the journey the day before. Having said that, I did enjoy Heist  - it was a really entertaining. But so it should be. The medieval period was not all doom, gloom and seriousness, any more than any other period is. I thought it was a good retelling of the episode.

The Last Duel
This was a very interesting drama-documentary (although there wasn't much drama, just costumed talking heads), that also had animated medieval-style art, about one of the last judicial duels ever to be fought. The background to the case was fully explored, as were the motives of all the parties. Including the king. Who seems to have sanctioned the fight just because he wanted to see one - the legal grounds for it being somewhat shaky! What is more disturbing, was that the move away from duels in cases where there wasn't much witness evidence was due to the increasing use of torture to obtain 'the truth' - not really progress.

In Search of Medieval Britain
I saw the last 10 mins of this after I got home from evening duty on Thursday, and I liked what I saw, except for the presenter. Her voice really grated on me. But never mind, the information on small beer reinforced what I have read/heard elsewhere, but it was fascinating to see what the caves at the Trip to Jerusalem would have been used for (it also pleased me that the brewer was a proper beardy brewer)!

Sacred Music
I am not sure if this was part of the season, or not, but as it was dealing with Medieval music I watched it anyway. It was well worth it, the plainsong in particular was beautiful. One of the most interesting sections was where they made a monochord - such a simple thing, but so clever! I finally began to understand the connection between music and maths. It was also interesting to see how the method of writing music developed during this period.