Word Wenches

What To Wear In the Rain?

Nicola here, rambling (literally) today on what to wear for a dog walk in the rain and adding in some historical sidenotes. Each day I go out with Angus, our pet Labrador, or April, our guide dog trainee in the inclement winter weather, generally getting soaking wet in the process. This has prompted me refine my outdoor wear to suit the different elements of winter – frost, snow and wind as well as rain – and make sure that I have the right clothes for the right activity, because you know the saying: “There’s no wrong sort of weather, only the wrong sort of clothes.”

On April’s training walks it’s relatively easy as we are walking on paths and pavements and it isn’t too muddy underfoot. Sometimes we’re even under cover! A pair of warm trousers, sturdy shoes and a rainproof jacket is usually sufficient. However, on a walk like that there is the question of whether or not to carry an umbrella.  April is partial to a nice stick and she needs to learn to ignore umbrellas, parasols, and walking sticks when she is working, whether I’m carrying them or we meet someone with one.

The River Sea

by Mary Jo

I'm madly trying to finish this year's book, Once a Laird, so I'm invoking Wenchly Privilege to rerun an older post. Since currently travel isn't happening, I thought it would be fun to go with one of my earlier travel posts, and cruising on the Amazon seems delightfully distant and exotic.  So here we go!  (The colorful straw frogs to the right were centerpieces on the dining room tables.)

These days when we talk about Amazon, we're probably referring to the mega-selling online site, but after visiting the real Amazon, it was easy to understand why Jeff Bezos chose to name his company after the mightiest river in the world. 

The longest river in the world can be disputed--just exactly where do the headwaters begin?--but everyone accepts that the Amazon River is the largest river in the world.

 Statistics abound: the water flow is greater than the next seven rivers combined.  The world's largest drainage basin by far.  The estuary at its mouth is 150 miles wide. The Amazon Basin includes parts of nine different nations. No wonder it's sometimes called the "River Sea."

The Amazon is a distant place of jungle and danger, myth and mystery, and Sean Connery movies.  Naturally the Mayhem Consultant and I wanted to visit. <G> 

For several years, I eyed an Upper Amazon cruise offered by the partnership between Lindblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society. 

 

 

I'm madly trying to finish this year's book, Once a Laird, so I'm invoking Wenchly Privilege to rerun an older post. Since currently travel isn't happening, I thought it would be fun to go with one of my earlier travel posts, and cruising on the Amazon seems delightfully distant and exotic.  So here we go!  (The colorful straw frogs to the right were centerpieces on the dining room tables.)

These days when we talk about Amazon, we're probably referring to the mega-selling online site, but after visiting the real Amazon, it was easy to understand why Jeff Bezos chose to name his company after the mightiest river in the world. 

The longest river in the world can be disputed--just exactly where do the headwaters begin?--but everyone accepts that the Amazon River is the largest river in the world.

 Statistics abound: the water flow is greater than the next seven rivers combined.  The world's largest drainage basin by far.  The estuary at its mouth is 150 miles wide. The Amazon Basin includes parts of nine different nations. No wonder it's sometimes called the "River Sea."

The Amazon is a distant place of jungle and danger, myth and mystery, and Sean Connery movies.  Naturally the Mayhem Consultant and I wanted to visit. <G> 

For several years, I eyed an Upper Amazon cruise offered by the partnership between Lindblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society. 

 

 

 

Why Shoot a Butler?

Christina here.  Why Shoot a Butler? is the title of one of Georgette Heyer’s country house mysteries/crime stories. It kind of makes it sound as though a butler isn’t even worth shooting, which is a bit odd! Or maybe that’s just the slant my mind put on it and it wasn’t what the author meant? It did make me think though …

I have just reread all Heyer’s mystery/crime books, and although most of them are ostensibly set during the 1930s (only the last one is after the war), the settings seemed to me almost identical to those of her Regency novels. They all take place either in stately homes or among people of the upper class. The characters are similar to her Regency ones as well – strong alpha males, sensible girls who triumph over the pretty but vapid ones, matrons with decided views on things, etc. And then there are the servants, particularly the butlers, whom I couldn’t help but notice even if the other characters don’t pay them much attention.

An Ode to the Unsung Heroes and Heroines of History

Andrea here, In honor of Martin Luther King Day, a national holiday here in America, I’m going to highlight a wonderful story of a remarkable figure in history, whose contribution to enriching the artistic tapestry of history has long been lost in the shadows.

As I’ve mentioned here before, I love that historians are bringing to light so many people who’ve been ignored by the traditional narratives of history. It’s inspiring in so many ways, and makes the past come alive with all its real textures and colors.

The New York Times has been running a series of articles on some of these unsung heroes and heroines, so I’m going summarize one of them that caught my fancy—the story of George Bridgetower by Patricia Morrisoe. Bridgetower was a biracial virtuoso violin prodigy who won Beethoven’s admiration—and in fact, the famous Kreutzer Sonata was dedicated to him. (You can read the full article here.)

Ask A Wench - The Influence of the Seasons

Nicola here, introducing this month’s Ask A Wench topic, which was sent in by Valerie Moore, who wins a book from me as a thank you. Valerie asks:

“How do the seasons affect your style of writing, if at all?” 

It’s an excellent question and gave us all much to ponder on. Do the seasons affect our actual writing style or is it more that the seasons affect our moods and this affects our writing? Certainly in my case, I find it extremely difficult to write about a season that is very different from the one that I’m in. At the moment I’m writing a book set in July whilst I’m in an English winter. I’m trying my best to remember the heat of the sun and the scent of roses whilst stepping out into the stinging rain and the cold wind. Winter can sometimes bring my mood down as well; that definitely affects my writing if not my style, and makes it more difficult. So here are the Wenches’ thoughts on this ever-fascinating topic, some lovely “hygge” ideas and some wonderful photography of the seasons from around the world.

Who needs happy endings?

 Anne here, having a bit of a rant. There's a strange thing about happy endings — a lot of people think they're rubbish. Not serious. Not real. Not worth reading. Or watching. 

Me, I love happy endings in books and movies. And I get grumpy when I think books or movies are needlessly miserable at the end. Of course I'm not condemning all books and movies with sad endings — only those where I don't think the sad ending is justified.

Most of the comments below should be preceded by Spoiler Alerts. I'll highlight the book or film titles in bold so you can be warned. 

I remember when I was a kid reading Henry Treece's The Children's Crusade. Boy, was that ever a sad ending. It was a story about the religious crusade made by children in 1212,  where hundreds of children left their homes to join a crusade, believing they were sent by Jesus, and that their innocence and righteousness would convert Muslims to Christianity. It ended very badly. Many of the children starved and died along the way, some (the lucky ones) returned home, and others were sold into slavery, believing the ships they sailed in were taking them to the Holy Land. Instead they went straight to the slave markets.

I could cope (just) with that kind of a tragic ending — it was history, after all — and there were important lessons to be learned. But for years I fretted about those children.

But in a lot of fiction people die and bad things happen just for effect, and a book or a film ends badly simply because the writer thinks it will make for a better, more dramatic ending. Or they think it's "more realistic" — as if happy endings are unrealistic.

Sleeping, Dreaming, and Creating

Me, sleeping creatively

Joanna here, talking about one of my favorite things in all the world, aka sleeping. Writing is another thing I’m fond of. There’s a bit of an interconnection between these.

I tend to generate new material when I’m relaxed in the bathtub or lying in bed. I even get good work done in dreams. If I were talking about the creative process I might say I try to sleep a lot.

Let me talk about Coleridge who is a more interesting topic than many of those going

Coleridge in 1795

through my mind these days. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, of  course, is the English poet who gave us such popular thrillers as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner which many of us read in Middle School. It includes the poignant lines

“Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea! 
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.”

As I say, Middle School. This is stuck in my memory forever.

The Wee Lewis Set

Susan here – our Christmas tree is still up, lights still glowing each night, the year has scarcely begun, and it’s been quite the week since New Year’s! Hang on, it’s bound to get better! In that hopeful spirit, and perhaps to dispel some of the cloud of 2020, I’m hanging on to Christmas a bit longer. We had a lovely holiday, even managed to see some family (appropriately masked and distanced, and we even staged Christmas on the Porch in the sunny cold with a few). There were great gifts and lots of smiles, though no hugs this year. Some of the presents are still out where we can enjoy them before they find their various nooks and niches. Christmas and Hanukkah and any holiday gift-giving isn’t just about gifts—the loving, caring thoughtfulness behind them is what matters, makes the difference, lasts a lifetime.

Though some gifts are just so cool, right?! This year my husband surprised me with something I’ve drooled over for a while: a set of Lewis chessmen. And I wanted to share it with you, because here at Wenches, we love Christmas, we love kindness, and we loooooove historical stuff. This set was produced by the National Museum of Scotland, a beautiful reproduction, gorgeous and fascinating. I don’t really play chess (my dad taught me years ago, my husband followed up with more hours of play, but it just didn’t stick) – though I’ll be picking it back up again if just for the excuse to play with these remarkable, adorable little guys, with their serious and perplexed little faces, and their incredible detail. (The photos here are of my own wee Lewis set, not the beautiful museum originals -- and yes, my wee chessmen are seated on a cheese board, since their board had yet to be delivered.)

The original chess pieces were discovered in 1831 at Uig on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, when a farmer found a horde of little carvings exposed on a beach after a storm. Today, 11 pieces are in the National Museum of Scotland and 82 pieces are in the British Museum, renowned as unique and priceless treasures. An additional piece was discovered in 2019 in the back of a drawer in Edinburgh, purchased in 1964 for a few pounds--the price today of a creamy latte; wrapped in a cloth, stuck in a drawer, forgotten for a generation.

Made of walrus ivory, a few of whale teeth, intricately carved, whimsical, rustic, they are exquisite, tough, and beautiful despite the wear and tear of sand and centuries. The 93 pieces belong to four incomplete sets, which in mix-and-match provide a full two teams for warfare on an outsized board--they are hefty little thugs and royals.

The Epiphany after Twelfth Night

Today, January 6, is Epiphany for most of the Western Church, (Eastern churches use a different calendar) the celebration of the arrival of the Magi and introduction of the Messiah to the world. (image: "Adoration of the Magi" by Lawrence OP )

The Magi, or the Three Kings, are only mentioned in the English translation of the Bible as men who studied stars, presumably astrologers who foresaw the birth of a Messiah. (Or my cynicism speaking—astronomers who predicted the convergence of the planets and wanted to find the best spot to observe, but I could be wrong about that. <G>)

Regency Twelfth Cake!

Nicola here. It’s Twelfth Night today, marking the end of the Christmas festivities (assuming that you count the twelve days from Christmas Day. Some traditions start counting on 26^th December meaning you can keep partying until the 6th!)

There are a number of different ways in which Twelfth Night has been celebrated through the centuries. In the Georgian period they were keen on baking a special cake to mark the occasion. The Historic Food website has some fascinating information on this.

The earliest printed recipe for an English Twelfth Cake appears to date from 1803 and was recorded by John Mollard in his cookery book of that date. Originally the Twelfth Cake contained a pea and a bean and whoever found these in their slice were elected as King and Queen of the Twelfth Night festivities. In the early Victorian period, this tradition developed into “Twelfth Night Cards.” All the guests at the party would be invited to choose a card from a special pack illustrating the different “characters” of Twelfth Night. Along with the King and Queen these might include Sir Bob Bergamot the fop, Fanny Farcical the actress, Priscilla Passion… Well, you can imagine her profession! You then had to act in character for whichever card you had picked until midnight. Allegedly, Queen Victoria eventually banned the Twelfth Night parties for fear they were getting out of hand!

Partying may be banned at present as well but at least we can still eat cake. So if you fancy baking up a slice of Twelfth Cake, the original 1803 recipe is below:

Take seven pounds of flour, make a cavity in the centre, set a sponge with a gill and a half of yeast and a little warm milk; then put round it one pound of fresh butter broke into small lumps, one pound and a quarter of sifted sugar, four pounds and a half of currants washed and picked, half an ounce of sifted cinnamon, a quarter of an ounce of pounded cloves, mace, and nutmeg mixed, sliced candied orange or lemon peel and citron. When the sponge is risen, mix all the ingredients together with a little warm milk; let the hoops be well papered and buttered, then fill them with the mixture and bake them, and when nearly cold ice them over with sugar prepared for that purpose as per receipt; or they may be plain.

From John Mollard, The Art of Cookery. (London 1803).

There is a more modern recipe on the National Trust website.

Alternatively, you may prefer a different sort of Twelfth Night feast? What would your choice of special sweet or savoury treat be to celebrate the last night of Christmas?