Lenora Rogers's Blog, page 13
December 18, 2017
Indian Classical Music Fever to Grip Kolkata in this Winter
Swara Samrat Festival –
This is organized by Shree Ranjani Foundation Trust under the stewardship of Sarod maestro Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, his vocalist wife Manasi Majumdar and their enterprising son I...
Christmas Alphabet : M for Joni Mitchell – River
It’s coming on Christmas.
They’re playing, ‘Jingle Bells’ and, ‘White Christmas’ in the shopping malls.
A marching Salvation Army brass band wrings the heart with, ‘In The Bleak Winter’.
There’s a tree dressed in tinsel and flickering lights in the Town Square.
Someone said the Reindeer are arriving soon.
Words like Holy, Saviour, Joy and Peace fill the Winter air.
Yet, yet, for some Christmas is not a time of unalloyed Joy.
It’s a time when, whether you want to or not,...
December 17, 2017
Interview for Recombinant Love
Tell us a bit about your latest novel? I think the synopsis tells just enough without giving it all away:While hiking the mountains and deserts of Arizona with her best friend, D.O.G., Ryley Graham hears a whirring noise. Thinking D.O.G. has cornered a rattlesnake, she rushes to protect him and is blinded by a light seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere simultaneously.
Waking up 510 years later, she is confused by the unfamiliar machinery and ‘people’ that surround her...
Sifting through history for interesting ladies!
Fascinating
History... the interesting bits!
Earlier this week, it was a pleasure to drop by Anna Belfrage‘s blog and have a chat about Heroines of the Medieval World and my love of history in general.
Anna posed some very interesting, thoughtful questions and finished off with a wonderful review of ‘Heroines’ – for which I am still smiling.
Here’s a taster of the interview:
Why this passion for history?
I honestly don’t know. I have always loved history – I just can’t get enough of it. The...
December 16, 2017
Elizabeth FitzGerald, ‘Fair Geraldine’
History... the interesting bits!
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, painted by Steven van der Meulen
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, a great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Woodville, had been born in Ireland in about 1528 and was the second daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Kildare. Her mother was Lady Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Sir Thomas Grey, Marquess of Dorset and only surviving son of Elizabeth Woodville, Edward IV’s queen, and therefore 1st cousin to Henry VIII.
A wealthy, cultivated family, her earl...
December 12, 2017
Abigail Adams and the Inoculation Decision
Young Abigail and John Adams. A composite picture.
Smallpox was an extremely contagious disease. The mortality rate was at least 30%.
George Washington’s Decision
Shortly after the battles of Lexington and Concord in mid-1775, George Washington, a former Colonel of the Virginia Militia and the highest ranking professional soldier in the American colonies, was appointed General of the Continental Army. He was sent to Boston to consolidate the militia troops, brin...
Art and Insanity: Séraphine Louis, Naïve Genius
On the 11th of December 1942, a naïve painter, Séraphine Louis, also known as “Séraphine de Senlis“, died in a Villers-sous-Erquery hospital in northern France, although according to her mentor, Wilhelm Uhde, she died at Clermont’s lunatic asylum in 1934. It is questionable then whether Uhde wanted to withdraw from being associated with the mentally ill painter or he simply did it to round up the story of her life to a reasonably respectful ending.
Séraphine Luis was a poor and s...
December 11, 2017
Cuper’s Gardens, Lambeth’s pleasure ground
Cuper’s Gardens were described as a ‘scene of low dissipation… noted for its fireworks, and the great resort of the profligate of both sexes’. Opened in the late 17th century, they were pleasure gardens (and later a tea garden) in Lambeth on the Thames shoreline and named after Abraham Boydell Cuper, the original proprietor of the land which he leased from Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel (Cuper was the earl’s gardener). In the early days, the site was also known as Cu...
Richard III’s Thunderous Proclamation against Henry Tudor
On the 7th of December 1484, Richard III issued a thunderous proclamation against Henry Tudor (then) Earl of Richmond. Richard had sworn to protect his nieces and welcomed the eldest two (the once Princesses, now Ladies) Elizabeth and Cecily of York to court. Henry Tudor had been a nuisance to Richard ever since the Christmas of ’83 when he pledged to take the crown and marry Elizabeth of York, thus uniting both Houses. But for the first time during his reign, after...
Children’s Christmas Letters 2
Christmas History 29. Last time we looked at some letters from children published in a January 1910 edition of the Iowa Homestead. The following is another, heartwarming selection:
Christmas eve we were surprised with a Christmas tree. There were about twenty candles burning, and mamma bought lots of decorations, so the tree looked real pretty. We all got many presents. Christmas Day, as my cousins were over, we all went sleigh riding. We took a long ride and came hom...
