Reading Museum

Oh Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You are our Potter, and we are the work of Your hand.

Isaiah 64 :8

An Australian platypus from the late 19th Century. In the 17th century they thought this animal a hoax. Why?

They lay eggs, feed their young milk, use electroreception (detect electrical signals generated by other animals) and the spurs on the male’s legs can inject venom.

A poem should be as odd as a small cast – iron platypus.

Dean Young 1955 -2022 ( American poet)

This Albertross is 4 to 5 years old, possibly from South America in the early 20 th Century.

An Albertross can fly 1,000 miles in a single foraging trip. It can drink sea water , the salt travelling in its bloodstream and excreted through a special gland above their eyes. They lay one egg every two years.

Today school children are looking up at this bird in awe as am I.

These two animals from long ago are amongst other things now let’s go upstairs…

Now for an unusual copy. A tapestry .

Elizabeth Wardle saw the Bayeux tapestry in Normandy and felt so strongly that England should have one that under her care 35 of the Leek Embroidery Society spent a year making a copy.

Here is a potted story told in the embroided pictures on 70m of linen.

Edward the king of England has no heirs he appoints Harold. Harald Hardrada, a Norwegian and William both want the throne and are in opposition. The tapestry shows the battles. The cutting down of trees to build ships, the horses in battle the death of Harald in a battle with Harold, then the 1066 battle between William the Duke of Normandy where Harold is defeated. William is then crowned the third King of England.

The tapestry is careful in its detail. An embroidery made in 1885/6 a careful neat copy.

A small free museum, filled with objects of interest. Time enjoyed. Thank you for sharing a little of what I saw.

Sandy 🙂

Here are a few thoughts about life as a tapestry.

The mind is like a richly woven tapestry in woven the colours are distilled from the experiences of the senses, and the design drawn from the convolutions of the intellect.

Carson Mc Cullers (1917-1967 American novelist, poet ,writer.)

We look at life from the back side of the tapestry. And most of the time, what we see is loose threads, tangle knots and the like. But occasionally, God’s light shines through the tapestry, and we get a glimpse of the larger design with God weaving together the darks and the lights of existence.

John Piper 1946 ( American New Testament Scholar)