On This Day – 23rd April 303

According to tradition, Saint George was beheaded in Nicomedia near Lydda in Palestine on the 23rd of April 303.

George is one of the most venerated saints in the Roman Catholic, the Anglican, the Eastern Orthodox, the Oriental Orthodox , and the Eastern Catholic Churches.  He is the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia, as well as the cities of Amersfoort, Beirut, Fakiha, Bteghrine, Cáceres (Spain), Ferrara, Freiburg, Genoa, Ljubljana, Gozo, Milan, Pomorie, Preston, Qormi, Rio de Janeiro, Lod, Barcelona and Moscow.

It is generally agreed that George was born in Cappadocia, in what is now Turkey, sometime between 275 and 281. Some believe that both his parents were Christians.

George enlisted into the Cavalry of the Roman Army at about the age of 17, during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian. He quickly reached the rank of Tribune in the Imperial Guard stationed at Nicomedia.

Continue reading “On This Day – 23rd April 303”

Gates

My parent’s house has a gate to the front driveway. It isn’t the sort of gate that comes with matching gatehouse or which opens on to a long driveway that winds around the corner to lead to some unseen mansion, it’s the sort of gate that the postman or dustman never bother to close after them. In days long past when the post office managed to get a delivery in before dawn I could roughly gauge when it was time to get up by the whine of the battery driven milk float straining up the hill, accompanied by the rattlling of milk bottles. By the time I heard the rattling cough and wheeze of postman wheeling his bike up the road and dragging the open gate, I knew it was time to be making a move.
Continue reading “Gates”

A better place to be

Bearsy,  just a quick thank you for all the hard work and time that you are putting in on this site.  I really do appreciate it.

I particularly enjoy  your rubric to ‘DNmyT’ -that’ll be ‘rubric’  as a Scots legal term, by the way, without prejudice and for the avoidance of doubt.

Maybe only Rainer the Cabbie will enjoy this. Don’t know and don’t care. Still the best song by the late, great Harry Chapin, in my opinion. Thanks again.