Winding the Clocks of Windsor

This morning I started to write a longish Talking Tuesday post about something else, but lost steam the longer I worked on it.  I sense we are all rather fatigued by the season we are in, and perhaps I don't need to add my voice to the fray.  (There are so many other people writing extremely articulate things I am a bit surplus to the requirements).  

Some of my ennui is my reading stack at the moment.  After reading three intellectually-stimulating-but-dense books in quick succession (but in tandem with some lighter reading), I need to read something else for a while.  I plodded through Anthony Esolen's latest book last week with ill humor, as it was rather like force-feeding turnips rather than a feast of delightful things.  Full of vitamins maybe, but lacking in taste.  

I confess I was disappointed, as I expected better from the brief tome.  Esolen strikes me as an erudite and learned man who could add a lot to a conversation about the pursuit of Truth, goodness, and beauty, but instead, he chooses to spend more than 2/3rds of the book sounding like a cranky old man.  I suppose I am tired of reading about the reasons why a deep understanding of the human condition is important and more interested in simply pursuing that knowledge for myself.

I have a long list of people to whom I owe letters, and it seems that there are never enough hours in the day to write them.  (If you are one of those people: I'm sorry!  I will get to it, I promise!)  My pre-quarantine stamina has not returned as I'd hoped, so I find I must carefully pace my days in order to get through them and remain present with my children and their ever-changing needs.

So, with that in mind, I present something charming and interesting, with the added bonus of a bit of history: the clocks of Windsor Castle, which will all be wound by a single conservator this week in preparation of the time change this weekend.  

photo by Antonio Olmos

Several of the clocks featured were given to Queen Victoria, which interests me because I am currently obsessed with the Masterpiece show about her.  

And thus was the white wedding dress born.

I couldn't get past the pilot when it first aired (I forget why exactly, as it is the sort of show that is right up my alley), but have loved all three seasons and am eager for the fourth.  I bought a book of Albert and Victoria's correspondence because I am so interested in their relationship, brilliantly brought to life by Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes:

The show reminded me how much the world changed between the beginning of Victoria's life and the end.  She was born in the midst of the Napoleonic wars, and died at the turn of the 20th century.  Wars, revolutions, social and cultural change, the Industrial Revolution: the 19th century is so full!  

In any case, it is a highly diverting rabbit hole to fall into at the moment, and I am grateful for it.