January 31, 2008

• Xanga Guilt and Ely
  
  I feel guilty posting this new entry when I know full well that I’ve not been reading YOUR new entries and don’t have plans to do so in the near future.  I got a job (woo!) writing sections of a 12th grade teacher’s manual for a literature book. It makes me happy to be “in” with the English side of the publisher instead of with the math folks, but it does make for a busy Teacherperson, especially given the homeschooling and traveling plans. (Yes, I know your heart aches for me that I’m so busy jaunting around here in England that I can’t read your blogs.  HA!)
  
  But, I was also feeling guilt because certain folks (cough, cough, MOM, cough, LISA) had mentioned that I’d not posted in a bit.  So, feel free to read this entry and leave no remarks at all.  Or, if you do comment, you can tantalize me with all the wonderful entries I’m missing at your site.
  
  Tuesday we went to Ely Cathedral.  The place is named Ely because it used to be in the middle of a fen which would flood regularly and make an island.  There were many eels around, hence the name Ely (eel-ee).  The first religious house was built on the site by Etheldreda, a Saxon princess, who remained a virgin despite having two different husbands. She left hubby #2,  became a nun, and built a monastery on the Island of Ely (which had been a wedding gift from Hubby #1).  This happened in 673 A.D.    The Danes knocked it down 200 years later.
  
  In the late 1000s, the church was built in its present state. It became a cathedral in 1109. To earn coveted cathedral status, you have to have a bishop’s throne. They do. It used to be a Catholic throne, but now it is an Anglican one.
  
  This place has the most gorgeous stained glass I’ve ever seen. We went on a sunny day, and it was amazing. My pictures won’t even begin to do it justice.  (Warning: entirely too many pictures coming.)
  
  We walked from the train station and had a picnic lunch at a playground within sight of the cathedral.
  
  

   
  
  
  As we ate lunch, there was much debate as to whether the animals we saw in the distance in front of the cathedral were horses or cows. As you can see, they were horses (or ponies).
  
  
  Two of the many windows.  Pictures fall far short of their thousand words.
  
  
  

  
  As the light shone through the windows, it would make colored patterns everywhere.  You can see how the light-brown something-or-other marble (which is actually polished limestone) caught the colors. So did the floor, our hands, etc.
  
  
  
  
  Some close-ups which do a better job of showing just how vibrant the colors are.
  
  
  
  
  Esther getting crowned.
  
  
  
  
  “Ho, hum. All I do is hang around all day, leaning on my arm, surrounded by gorgeous stained glass.”
  
   
  
  
  This is the Lantern Tower. It’s like a stained-glass skylight.  In warmer times, you can go up into it if you are over 12 years old. The children were bitterly disappointed that it wasn’t open. So was I!
  
  
  One controversial thing in the Lady Chapel is this statue of Mary unveiled in 2000. She’s rather large (hippy) and has gold hair.  Even though they are Anglican, they don’t like Mary to be so–curvaceous–I guess.  Or, as the museum guide said, “Nine feet tall and two tons.” Some Madonna!
  
  
  
  There was an excellent one-hour tour of the cathedral. One of the most interesting things our guide pointed out to us were The Green Men. They are all over the church, and apparently are all over churches from the 1100s to the 1500s.  Why are these pagan symbols of fertility all over Christian churches?  One theory is that the folks of that time wanted to “hedge their bets.” As they carved their St. Pauls and John the Baptists, they stuck a few Green Men in just to be safe.  Interestingly, when Henry VIII’s goons came in and smashed all the faces off the statues, they didn’t touch the Green Men, nor did they smash off the faces of the carvings if there was a Green Man near it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Wit looking out a window near The Lady Chapel and the cool, huge cross which is at the main entrance of the church.
  

  • 11:36 am
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