Tuesday, March 06, 2018

More Mushrooms and the Medieval Attitude Toward Cats

More mushrooms in progress.  Which means that I've been watching more Netflix.

I've altered patterns multiple times, experimenting with various sizes and shapes.
Many don't work very well, and some are quite fiddly because they are so mall. Nevertheless, I've enjoyed the process and have several more ideas to try. :)




 I recently finished a novel by Minette Walters called The Last Hours.  Although Walters is best known for her dark, psychological crime novels, The Last Hours is a historical novel set in 1348 during the first onset of the plague.  Like many others, I've always been fascinated by the Black Death, and Walters explores an avenue that intrigues me.  

An interesting side-note:  The plague has devastated the countryside, entire villages dead or fled.  The Dorset countryside is largely bereft of the living when a character investigates an abandoned building that, unaccountably, has no evidence of rats.  He is initially terrified when a strange creature jumps out at him. A demon with strange eyes?  The young man had heard of cats, but never seen one because the Church considered them familiars of witches. 

When I read the section about the Church associating cats with evil, I was surprised.  I'd never heard that before--which is when I did a little research and found plenty of authentication.   The Church at the time preached against cats, which were associated with witches and the devil and were often killed.  In some areas, cats were essentially unknown.  Some authorities believe that the prejudice against cats was one of the reasons the plague was so devastating in certain areas--the rat population had no predators.

Our cats, however, eat and sleep, confident that their needs will be taken care of by their humans.    

14 comments:

  1. What an interesting post! I love your mushrooms. To think that cats could have prevented the Plague!!!

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    1. Not that cats could have prevented the plague, but could perhaps of lessened the impact by control of the rat population. Still...an intriguing thought about the effect cats may have made in limiting the rapid spread of the disease!

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  2. Your mushrooms are fantastic!! x

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    1. Thanks, Connie! I have enjoyed playing with the mushrooms!

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  3. Our cats only tolerate us until someone comes up with doors, heaters, and can openers that can be operated by a paw!

    Interesting, isn't it, that only a century or so later, the farm cat or yard cat is an expected character in an community....

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    1. Yep, cats know how to get the most out of people! On the other hand, we had to change door knobs with handles because our cats opened the doors with ease.

      Also interesting that although Pope Gregory IX issued an official Papal Decree that the Devil was half-cat in 1233, Nuns often kept cats even as the general population killed them.

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  4. Interesting cat info in this post. There have been a lot of crazy notions in history. Right now we are watching Mindhunter on Netflix. It's hard to imagine that there was a time when doctors knew little about how the mind of a criminal worked. Your mushrooms are diverse and pretty.
    xx, Carol

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    1. My daughter recommended Mindhunter, but I've not been inclined to watch it yet. She said it was fascinating.

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  5. Love how your mushroom crop is progressing. They are the most creative ever. Poor kitties having such a devilish history! Do we have a national cat day yet?

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    1. Of course I had to check, and yes, Oct. 29 is National Cat Day! :) Or every day, as lucky cat servants realize.

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  6. Wow, the information about how people felt about cats in medieval times is fascinating. I had no idea people ever had such a negative attitude about cats.

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    1. Strange belief that the devil took the form of a cat. Why not a rat?

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  7. Mushroom Factoid from my niece that I think of every time I see your mushroom art: Did you know that gathering mushrooms in the forests is the most popular hobby in the Czech Republic, and children are taught from an early age which mushrooms are safe to eat? When Ricky and I went to the Czech Republic a few years ago, I brought back a large bag of dried mushrooms gathered by the grandfather of my niece's Czech husband.

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    1. A wonderful excuse to get out in nature, forage, and have a delicious reward as well! Exercise, education, and edibles--can't beat that! :) Other than the usual white ones that appear on lawns, I don't even know what other varieties are common in our area.

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