Just Another Manic Monday

I returned to St. John's today for interior photographs.  I think the only ceilings I've seen that are more majestic than this are in the chapel at King's College, Cambridge and at Westminster Abbey.  I spent so much time in churches (again) today, that I should have titled this something like, "A Tour of Churches," but the title of the 1980s Bangles song, Manic Monday, came to mind instead!  The plan for this trip was for me to spend most of my time sitting in Princes Street Gardens reading novels at the foot of Edinburgh Castle - just BEING in this city  .  .  . just  .  .  . being  .  .  .  

Instead, I'm running around like a crazy woman again.  I guess this is just how I do things.

The first time I was in Edinburgh, spring 2016, I was on sabbatical and had about half a dozen mathematicians to research (homes, graves, memorials, works, archival materials, environment, etc.) in as many days.  I was on my feet 10 hours a day back then.  A year and a half after that, David and I had a chance to take a quick two-and-a-half day trip. He had never been here, and I wanted him to see everything I had seen in my previous 6-day trip, so we were on our feet all day then too.  This time it isn't research, and it isn't "show and tell," but I'm still on my feet 10 hours a day.  I guess it's just me, and it must be what makes me happy deep down, so I'm just going to accept it and go with it.  Given how much walking I'm doing and how little eating I'm doing, I might even lose weight!!  This is a REALLY FUN weight loss plan!  

And now, on with the tour of churches!  

Back to St. John's .  .  .  I keep getting pictures of it from the grounds of St. Cuthbert's, so I wanted to capture it on it's own, best I could.  It's kinda hard to do since it's on such a busy intersection.  And you can still see St. Cuthbert's and the castle in the background.

I've found that some churches have the Eagle of St. John at the front, but others have a pelican, which also is a Christian symbol.

The pews here and at St. Cuthbert's are VERY narrow!  Nobody is going to fall asleep during the sermon!

The aisle is marble-tiled, but the flooring under the pews is rough wood - both here and at St. Cuthbert's.  Thank goodness for kneeling cushions!

I couldn't help but wonder during the service last night where the organist was!  Not here under the pipes in the north aisle  .  .  .

Ah!  Today I figured it out!  The organist was tucked away on the side behind the choir.

There were gorgeous windows and memorials throughout.

For today's evensong it was St. Mary's, so off I went further west  .  .  .  to yet another Episcopal Church of Scotland.

The windows in the following two pictures are by Eduardo Paolazzi, a pioneer of Scottish pop art.  As I said in my very first post, Edinburgh does an excellent job of integrating the old and the new.

The entry:

Can you see the two doors?

And here we have a pelican rather than St. John's eagle.  The pelican became a Christian symbol because it was thought to pluck blood from it's own breast for the nourishment of its young.  In this supposed giving of blood, it became a symbol of Christ.

High altar

Sculpture behind the high altar:

For evensong we were seated between the choir and the high altar.  I loved this pattern on the floor in front of where I was sitting - love how the outer elements run into the inner square.  There must be some cool mathematical thing going on here  .  .  .  (David, do you remember this from our trip?)

The organ wasn't hard to find here - on the right between me and the choir -

Whew - four manuals - but a flat pedal board -

PIPES! :-)

The choir!  I couldn't take pictures or video during the service, but one of the things at love about the UK, and its Anglican/Episcopal churches are the boys (and now girls) choirs.  A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  Nothing soars like those voices in a cathedral!  It is truly heaven on earth!  (If you don't know what I'm taking about, just google any royal wedding or other royal event and check out the choral pieces.)

On the way back out  .  .  .

Churches actually aren't the only things I saw today.  I also saw the Ross Fountain at the west end of Princes Street Gardens.

And I got two new views of the castle.

AND, not being one to procrastinate, I got my National Library of Scotland library card.  Now I don't have to worry about that next spring before my sabbatical!  I actually did some archival reading today - that I had set up a month ago.  I read letters from 1560 of Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, to Sir Archibald Napier, father of mathematician John Napier - 'cause I'm a mathematician with an interest in math history, so why not?!  I'm here, after all!  Well, I say I "did some reading" - the 16th century quill-pen "English" writing may as well have been Mandarin Chinese - I kid you not!

But I have a new library card, and that's super cool!!  Yet another to add to my burgeoning collection!

When I got on the elevator to go to the special collections room, I had to press the button for the 15th floor.  Does the picture below look like a 15-story building?  It turns out that most of the building is underground.  Apparently there are at least 10 floors underground, and even that isn't enough; it has acquired additional buildings as well.  It's a "national deposit library," like the the U.S. Library of Congress.  It gets EVERYTHING.

And, look, it's right at the top of Victoria Street (aka Diagon Alley)!

OK, so some of you were waiting for news of my organ playing today, and two churches probably doesn't seem like a "tour" of churches  .  .  .  actually, there was a third  .  .  .  I was back at St. Cuthbert's at 3:30 for my meeting with Graham the organist at 3:45.  I waited more than 45 minutes, but he never showed :'(

At least that means I was sitting and relaxing for 45 minutes!  But I'm super bummed to not have played the St. Cuthbert's organ - especially as I have come to understand that it is one of the best in Edinburgh, which I'm pretty sure is saying something, and also since I took up luggage space for my organ shoes!  Here are me and my shoes, waiting very, very, very patiently, at the door of St. Cuthbert's:

On the plus side, I did get to hear a WONDERFUL postlude last night at St. John's, the Nun Danket by Karg Elert.  I probably shouldn't have recorded, but there weren't any signs saying not to, so I split the difference and kept my camera down and with the lens cap on.  If you want to listen, you may want to click "play" and then scroll down to the picture of the pipes that this music was playing through.  I started partway in but then taped to the end.  ENJOY!

Tomorrow I'll still be back at St. Cuthbert's - for reasons I'll explain then - but if the weather is decent, I hope to head in an easterly direction, finally, towards Duddingston and Craigmillar Castle - if it isn't too wet a day.  I think churches have gotten more than their fair share of this visit, and it's time to include a castle or two.  Tomorrow's weather will tell!