Michaela
Annotations and comments
Michaela has posted 30 annotations/comments since 19 March 2021.
The most recent first…
Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Michaela has posted 30 annotations/comments since 19 March 2021.
The most recent first…
Comments
Third Reading
About Tuesday 26 May 1668
Michaela • Link
Interesting that it seems quite unexceptional in Sam’s time to persuade a stranger to read aloud from her book for your entertainment; I wonder what would happen if I asked someone to do that for me the next time I’m on a train?
About Saturday 4 April 1668
Michaela • Link
Thank you Mary for explaining about “an”. As a child I was puzzled by the rhyme because it was written in my book as “if ifs and ands…”
Second Reading
About Saturday 15 February 1667/68
Michaela • Link
Dawn suggested that Elizabeth might have endometriosis - I’ve just been listening to Hilary Mantel’s autobiography on Radio 4 “Giving up the ghost” and she suffered horribly with this. If it’s what Elizabeth had, I hate to imagine the agony she must have gone through in her times.
About Friday 15 November 1667
Michaela • Link
It must be all that time in the dark unable to read or write - the devil makes work for idle hands
About Wednesday 23 October 1667
Michaela • Link
I wonder if Pepys has bought a new watch recently? Today he seems fairly precise in mentioning the time: “ there staid till two o’clock” and “ Here mighty merry (there being a good deal of good company) for a quarter of an hour”
About Friday 7 September 1666
Michaela • Link
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/…
So close!
About Saturday 29 September 1666
Michaela • Link
It is I, the future from 2022, Christopher; I’m almost nostalgic for 2020…
About Thurday 16 August 1666
Michaela • Link
I can’t find any previous insinuation by Sam that Nan was admiral Penn’s mistress. He warned that Creed wouldn’t be interested in marrying her because she doesn’t have money, and he says that she’s pretty, but those seem to be his only comments. Have I missed it?
About Monday 31 July 1665
Michaela • Link
I also remember the Raising the Body ritual, I was also around 10 years old at a new school. The girls were friendly and invited me to take part as one of the lifters, I was amazed how easy it was to lift the “body”. It really seemed like magic. I had forgotten about it until now - it would have been in 1972, almost 300 years after Mr Brisband’s experience.
About Thursday 20 July 1665
Michaela • Link
It’s fascinating to read very logical opinions about how insouciant Sam’s behaviour was towards the plague danger - I would have agreed in 2008, but now, after our own plague, I feel we are seeing another proof that despite 357 years having passed, human behaviour has changed very little. Until we truly face the reality of imminent doom we have a sense of invincibility, that things like that only happen to other people.
About Monday 17 July 1665
Michaela • Link
San Diego Sarah, that’s a wonderful picture - I can imagine his glee!
About Saturday 10 June 1665
Michaela • Link
Is anybody reading this after our own pandemic and feeling a chill of empathy?
About Wednesday 5 October 1664
Michaela • Link
Could this be a more successful version of what Sam witnessed?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS9c76V4RDE
Seems as if it wasn’t such a new idea, having been invented by Da Vinci.
About Saturday 23 May 1663
Michaela • Link
Here’s the song of a blackbird, my favourite bird:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB1lgjg9e4Y
About Thursday 6 November 1662
Michaela • Link
11 months earlier Sam mentioned a disturbing dream about his wife falling off a horse and breaking her leg.
About Wednesday 29 October 1662
Michaela • Link
The Canaletto - What a beautiful picture, thank you for sharing it; how different the Thames looks now
About Tuesday 26 August 1662
Michaela • Link
Tales from the Green Valley! I absolutely loved this series and it’s hard to believe it is now 16 years old - I think still available on YouTube though. I suppose I realized even then that it was highly unlikely that the people involved really spent a whole year living in the 17th century, but it was such a fascinating insight into rural life not long before Sam was born.
About Tuesday 17 June 1662
Michaela • Link
This is nearly 30 years after today, but it gives an idea of the dressing process for a Lady - possible without help, but better with it. Probably less intricate for Liz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-GWY73isOE
About Monday 12 May 1662
Michaela • Link
Sam isn’t writing as a journalist, and he isn’t imagining eager readers from hundreds of years in the future frustrated by his lack of detail. Things that we long to hear about are just everyday background stuff to him. I suppose if we had a day trip to a local place of interest we would write a similar account in our own diary.
(I know I’m replying to a comment 16 years too late, this is beginning to remind me of Tom’s Midnight Garden”)
About Saturday 2 November 1661
Michaela • Link
I am also very grateful for annotations and links, it is only unexpected information presented without warning in the comments which affects the feeling that I am living alongside Sam. Like being yanked by the scruff of the neck back into the present. I also know that it’s impossible to eliminate spoilers already given, I was only requesting that no more be made by people still posting.