The Kingdom of God - 100 Years and Counting Exhibit

Galileo challenges the church.

You think a suitcase on wheels is an idea of the last few decades, but here in 1908 these cases were used to hold a collection of books called the Millennial Dawn.  The wheels could be folded up at the end of the day to go home on the street car.

These are just a few of the slides from The Photo Drama of Creation, first released in 1913.  It was a combination of glass slide pictures, moving film and coordinated with voice sound, well ahead of the talking movies of it's time.  This was presented around the world and over 9,000,000 people saw this.

Here is some of the original equipment used and the photo in the background shows how much luggage had to be taken from town to town.

Conscientious objectors during the First World War in Dartmoor Prison, Richmond Castle Prison and working on the Welsh Dams.

During the Second World War in Nazi Germany.  Above are photos of ones who died in the concentration camps or were executed.  All Jehovah's witnesses in the camps had to wear a purple triangle on their prison garb.

 

Just a few photos form these exhibits.

Christy

The Bible and The Divine Name Exhibit, Brooklyn

Hi Dear Folk,

Today is absolutely glorious, 75 F ten degrees above what is normal for this time of year, the sun is shining and the trees are glowing, like the embers of a fire.

An exhibit that Jean and I have long wanted to see is located at Brooklyn Bethel in NYC.  The Bible and The Divine Name, this exhibit represents the intense struggle down through the ages to preserve God's word the Bible and the use of his divine name Jehovah.

At the exhibit you will find an original first edition King James Bible, how does one know that it is a first edition, well there are unique printing variations, at Ruth chapter 3 verse 15 in the first edition it says "He went out of the city."  In following editions it was changed to "She".  The first edition King James Bible has become known as the "He Bible".

The Latin Vulgate translated from old manuscripts obviously was not in the language of the common people but in the language of the Catholic clergy, however the 1708 edition, edited by Sebastian Schmidt did use the name Jehovah throughout, although other editions do not.  This Bible too is in the collection.

Another Bible is the Julia E. Smith Bible, she was the first woman to make a translation into English from the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and chose to use the name Jehovah.

This proved to be interesting to us, see above, the mention of Thomas Cromwell, because the next day we went into NYC and visited the Frick House on Central Park and there are two paintings by Hans Holbein in the sitting room, one of Thomas Moore and the other of Thomas Cromwell.

The Bay Psalm Book was the first book printed in England's American colonies.

Here is the Nuremberg Polyglot a compilation of the Greek Scriptures in twelve languages, done by Elias Hutter.

These are just a few of the Bibles in the exhibit, along with copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Moabite Stone, which can be seen in the British Museum.

If you would like to watch further information on this exhibit, go here to see a video about this collection.

Both Jean and I share a love of history, so this was of great interest to us.

Christy

Down Under Brooklyn Bridge

Hi Dear Folk,

The day prooved to start out sunny and here we are down at the waterfront by Brooklyn Bridge, which I think is the loveliest of the NYC bridges, which are numerous.  The history of the bridge is fascinating with John Roebling being the designer and builder,  dying early on in the project and his son took over, gets the bends and form his sick bed sees the project forward.

Started in the late 1860's so just a few years after the end of the Civil War.  If you've never read or watched a documentary about the building of the bridge you really should it's an amazing feat of engineering.

Here is Jean walking down the pier, we found a nice stand where we actually got a very good hot cup of tea with milk, the with milk is very important in the US as you usually get given those awful little creamers.  We had a nice Lady Grey and sat down with our bagels.

Behind Jean you can see the new, I call it prism building, but they're like inverted isosceles triangles this replaces the Twin Towers, but certainly that skyline is so changed now and all very sad.

Here is a photo taken of a page in an old photo album circa 1976-77, as you can see the skyline is so different with the Twin Towers.  What I had totally forgotten was how the whole area along the waterfront here in Brooklyn used to look, totally run down.  Look at the old container warehouses and the pier area, how different from the photo below and how it looks now.

Christy

Pennsylvania Fall

Hi Dear Folk,

My favourite time of year here in Pennsylvania.  Sitting at a desk all day does nothing for ones body or psyche so I decided to get out at lunch time for a walk along with my camera.  Nature calms you down and what a glorious day last Friday was.

I'm wearing my fingerless crochet mitts, great for use with the camera.

The type of selfie I do.  Trying out a new hairstyle, braided down one side with an asymmetrical bun on the other side.

The all American picnic table, I know you see these in the UK now, but when I first came to the States you didn't, and I thought what a good idea to have a picnic table all ready for you, instead of having to bring your own fold up table.

I love this photo it reminds me of bears and Russia and I thought why does it remind me of bears and Russia, well when I was a child I saw in a shop window a Russian black lacquer box with bears playing on trees in the forest and it always stuck in my mind because I thought it was so exquisite.  So I guess the fallen trees in the foreground remind me of that, funny how the brain works.

The apple tree in no mans land, I have twice been at this apple tree, the second time I went laden with a garden rake to knock them off, but I couldn't reach these and they are bugging me to death, just sitting there.

Hope your weekend is good.  I hit the thrift and found an old 1960's Viking Husqvarna sewing machine, some of the cams are missing, but it runs fine.  Since I didn't pay much for it, I think I'm going to take all the covers off and take a good old look inside, vacuuming it out and oiling it.  One can always refer to You Tube.

My friends father used to be a Singer Sewing machine rep and she said her dad broke up so many old hand sewing machines for scrap, can you imagine how much all that stuff is worth on eBay now.  All those old wonderful Egyptian motives.

We fell back last night, so have an extra hour today.

Christy

Blue Willow Pattern Setting a Dinner Table

Hi Dear Folk,

Last time I had folk over to dinner I forgot to take a photo of my table, so this time I remembered, although it's a different dinner set.  I love my china as you well know and I love to set a nice table, but it does take time and is not something you can do all the time. The one thing I didn't like were the serviettes, but I couldn't find my all blue ones, so thought well they are colourful.

My roast chicken with home made stuffing, I always put apples and raisins in my stuffing, all the veg and everything else are in the serving dishes.

Christy

Brooklyn - On The Way To The Subway

Hi Dear Folk,

Continuing on our travels.  In our room there were lists of places to eat just around the corner from our Brown Stone where we were staying.  For breakfast here we are trying out LaBagel Delight  the best bagel I've ever had, baked right on the premises, they should be they're made in Brooklyn.  You have to think fast because the service is very speedy.

We both opted for the cinnamon raison and when we received them they were so large that we saved half for lunch.

A couple of buildings on our way to the Subway.

I like the man coming out from behind the car, I think he is in a hurry to catch a train.

If you are thinking of a visit to NYC, staying over here in Brooklyn just a thirty minute ride to Manhattan on the subway is the way to go, just a little less expensive and the pace is slower, staying in Park Slope we really felt that it was a little community, a place to wind down at the end of the day and a zillion great places to eat and not at Manhattan prices.

Christy
 

Air BNB Brooklyn

 Hi Dear Folk,

I just love Autumn, and this one is spectacular, my drive to work in the morning light is beautiful.  I always want to capture this in a photo, but never have time.  Shafts of light beam through the golds, rusts and oranges and leaves one in an euphoria of joy at the beauty.

Today is Saturday and has been beautiful now it is just clouding over, but has been sunny most of the day.  I've had two Saturdays this week, because yesterday I woke up and thought it was Saturday.  Not just that minute moment when you wake up and are confused for just a second, no, I was totally convinced it was Saturday.  Laying in bed thinking what I would do, make apple chutney from the apples we gathered at my friends house, and how I wish I had come across an apple peeler in the thrift and maybe I should look into finding one.

On I continued to pick up the book I'm reading, a Writer's Diary, Virginia Woolf, edited by Leonard Woolf, and then suddenly I thought didn't I go to the meeting last night , and that is always a Thursday, then if that was last night, today must be Friday and if today is Friday I should be at work.  No maybe it was the night before and I'm still trying to come to some conclusion on this, when I decide to go downstairs and look at the calendar on the clock radio and it says 23rd, oh my goodness, I am now very late for work.  I had to phone in and explain what had happened, I was an hour late.  This has never happened to me before.

So today being Saturday I am half way through making my apple chutney, from a tried and true recipe, while listening to Book at Bed Time on BBC Radio 4.  Reading Europe a series of Continental writers, Germany - The Truth and Other Lies and Austria - A Whole Life, plus Flush by Virginia Woolf.

I popped out to the cleaners to pick up my J. Jill jacket that I bought at a thrift while up in Ithaca, I did debate hand washing it, but in the end opted for the dry cleaners and it was only $5.00 to clean, so think it was worth it, as it has a lot of embroidery on it and is a linen.  It reminds me a little of a Fu Man Chu jacket with wide bell sleeves and a big Chinese designed circle on the back, in shades of blue.  Then on to Joanne Fabrics, for which I had a 60% off coupon and bought a yard of quilted fabric to line a basket which I bought in the Amish country.

While my friend Jean was over from the UK we took a day trip up there and at the very end of the day we came upon a lovely Amish shop, where Jean bought two pillows which open up to quilts and fold back inside, and I happened upon these Amish made baskets.  I love baskets, but most seem to come from China, so was thrilled to find a lovely oval basket.  The bottom is wood, so I'm going to line the bottom with quilt fabric.  I have enough over to make a cover for my Mac.

From here to Aldis to buy things for dinner tomorrow, as I'm having over four guests for dinner.  I'm sticking with a traditional English roast dinner, well roasted chicken and stuffing, roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pud and vegetables, plus gravy of course.

So now I'm actually here and back to a little blogging.  I have lots to blog about with my two weeks off work and our travels together.

I met Jean up in NYC at my corporate HQ, it's a very central location to meet in Manhattan, unfortunately I was well over an hour late, having miscalculated how long it would take Jean to get there from Newark airport and I was definitely running late.  But all was well and we made our way from there over to our digs in Brooklyn.

Have you heard of Airbnb? Well this was our first time trying it out, I had booked us a place in Brooklyn.  We went down into the subterranean dungeon of the NYC Subway system, not the easiest to work out.  Jean had down loaded some directions, so we were doing well, well that is except for the tickets.  OK you buy a ticket at the machine and to get through the turnstile you swipe the bar code on the ticket, here lays the cusp of the problem, however we swiped that card we were unable to get the turnstile to turn.  Well after you have swiped it a couple of times, you no longer have any money on it and have not been able to turn the turnstile.  Off we trot to find an actual person, they amazingly do have manned booths somewhere at each station.  Eventually we found one, with a person, we decided that it would be best for Jean to ask, as she has the stronger British accent, and we can plead total ignorance of the system.  So they open the gate for us and let us through; this did not happen once but every time we used the Subway, you see you just can't practice your swiping, because the money is lost off your ticket.  First it says, swipe too slow, and then it says, swipe too fast, we could never get it right.

Up we come from the Subway, and follow the directions.  I only have a small case, but Jean has a large suitcase and a smaller one, so quite a haul.  We are the correct numbered street and have walked quite a few blocks to the correct one, but when we get there, there was no house for the number we were looking for.  Now I'm wondering is Airbnb legit?  I phoned the number I had and fortunately Emma answered straight away, it seems we were East numbered street and we shouldn't have been.  So back to the Subway and a couple of stops back, here we emerge in the right sections of Brooklyn, Park Slope.  Up steps and several blocks we eventually locate the Brown Stone house that we are staying in, and let ourselves in.  It is absolutely lovely, and here are some photos of where we stayed.

The kitchen where we were able to have a nice morning cuppa tea, also one morning Joe treated us to Danish pastries from a wonderful Jewish Bakery.

Just at the bottom of the street is an Italian restaurant and this is where we ate dinner, we were well and truly ready for a nice sit down meal.  I think this photo almost looks like a Renoir.

Sorry mine is half consumed here, but you can see how good it is.

More to come on our two weeks of travel.

Our apple picking was at my friend Cindy's house, and she had dinner for us which was totally unexpected and very nice.  After which she showed me her latest jewelry creations, which combines her love of jewelry making with her love of essential oils; which her and her husband use in their Deep Muscle Therapy business.

Cindy gave me what you could call a hinged pendant in which she added very small lava balls, onto which you drop essential oils, that soak into the very porous lava rock and make them smell wonderful.

The essential oil I like is called On Guard by Dotera, it contains wild orange, cloves, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary, I am in love with this fragrance.  It seems grave robbers used to use this combination and is meant to help with keeping colds at bay.  In any case I am addicted and have worn my pendant all week on a long silver chain I had.  Like having one of those smelling balls the ladies of Regency times used to carry around, all day I'm drinking in the aroma.

Good things and more to come.

Bye for now,
Christy