I was going to title this “Sorry, it took me a while to find a phone. Perhaps it was Fulham’s tragic loss to at the weekend to Brentford and the concurrent loss of their star goal scorer Aleksander Mitrovitch to the Saudi league, but I have had a form of writer’s block. I have been writing and rewriting this blog entry, but all that has come out have been rants about pet peeves of mine. Today, I’ve come to the British Library and am sitting in the Humanities Reading Room determined to get a blog posted. Let’s see. Before I leave Fulham, it was a beautiful day for football and the team was looking physically ready for the season. Here’s hoping they can replace Mitro soon.

I have spoken, over the years, of my love for the Victoria and Albert (the V&A) Museum. A recent visit was quite interesting. Let me share some of what I saw. In the Cast Courts, my favorite place, there is a very unusual set of sculpted figures that surround the base of a sarcophagus of Marchese Spineta Malespina who died in 1407. Look at the faces of each one. There are such specific expressions captured in the faces

of these figures that were originally painted and gilded, it is thought.

Not far from these figures, I noticed some other rather compelling casts that I thought were worth sharing. The first depicts Christ’s descent from the cross, the main other figures are “the three Marys (Mary, his mother, Mary the mother of James and Salome; and Mary Magdaline). The gospel attributed to Mark, the earliest of the synoptic gospels, places only female followers of Jesus at the crucifixion with the soldiers. Mary, the mother of James and Salome and Mary Magdeline are said to have been the first two to have been at the tomb on Easter morning and “proclaim the Good News” of the empty tomb that Christians believe signifies the Resurrection of Jesus.

The second is an interesting depiction of the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus’ good friend. His sisters Mary and Martha are important figures in another of the synoptic gospels, the Gospel attributed to Luke. And in the Gospel attributed to John, the last of the 4 gospels written.

This was done around 1125-1150 but was hidden for many centuries and only rediscovered at Chichester Cathedral in the 19th century. Clearly, something about this family must have struck a chord to have been mentioned in both of these gospels but as you can see, neither of the women appear in this important foreshadowing of the Resurrection. I found it interesting.

As I was making my way out of the museum, I came across these Rodin sculptures. I had been discussing with my London gang, who among us had been to Paris’s Rodin Museum. This was a funny coincidence.

Finally, somewhere along the line, we had a very humid day, and I needed a bit of shade a few moments of quiet to sit and meditate and regaine my sense of peace. As I was just a block or so away from Brunswick Garden, the smaller garden that is just a block or so away from Russell Square but is less busy and almost a hidden gem. I sat down and soon did cool off in the shade. i was able to meditate and regain my equanimity. Then I noticed all the blooms and I heard someone mention the tree that was over 200 years old. So, I took some pictures to share with you.

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