ILLUMINATED FLORAL MANUSCRIPTS

“I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.” - Emma Goldman

It is Autumn in Melbourne and we are experiencing some wild weather, alternating with calm mild, sunny days. Yesterday we had high winds, reaching speeds of 130 km/hr and in the evening welcome rain. However, there were three casualties yesterday that the wild weather claimed. Three people lost their lives. A woman buried under a collapsing wall in a laneway, a man killed in a building site, and tragically an electric company linesman who was electrocuted while trying to restore electricity by repairing damaged lines.

Today it was cool but sunny. The leaves have started to shed from the trees and the chrysanthemums have started to bloom. Autumn is a beautiful season although it is usually more agreeable and milder. Climate change is an indisputable reality and the unpredictable nature of the weather is something we are beginning to get used to. I dare say things will get worse as the years go by. At my new job we have a “Greening the Campus” committee and we are looking at more and more ways of becoming more energy efficient, promoting recycling, cutting down waste, using environmentally-friendly products and inculcating into the staff and students a green culture and modified behaviour that is environmentally aware. Many little things carried out by many individuals add up to a lot on a worldwide scale.

Autumn is also the time of the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. This is a world-renowned event that is held in one of our oldest and most beautiful parks in the middle of the city, the Carlton Gardens and the adjacent, elaborately ornate Victorian landmark, the Royal Exhibition Building. The Flower is show is rated to be amongst the 5 best such events in the world and runs between the 2nd and 6th of April.

The show features floral displays both native and exotic, cut flowers and potted specimens, garden ideas, new products, award-winning landscape design, water-saving ideas, and numerous exhibitors from the garden and floristry industries. This event is always popular, despite the progressively rising admission prices. I walked by there today on my way to an appointment at St Vincent’s Hospital and I overheard two pensioners talking to each other outside the show, complaining bitterly about the high price (even though they were paying a concessional rate).

Another show that I am even more keen about is the exhibition of illuminated manuscripts at our State Library. This is another very fine Victorian Building situated on one of the main thoroughfares of our city with a magnificent dome and impressive façade. It has recently been renovated and is simply stunning. Definitely a place to visit if you are planning to stop by Melbourne in your travels. The State Library houses a fine collection of books, but also has several exhibition areas in which are housed both permanent and temporary exhibitions.

The free exhibition is called “The Medieval Imagination” and features illuminated manuscripts from Cambridge (UK), Australia and New Zealand. It runs from the 28th of March until the 15th June 2008. If you are a Melbournite you have no excuse for not seeing this magnificent exhibition and if you are planning to visit our City soon, put it in your travel diary.

Which brings me to the word of the day:

manuscript |ˈmanyəˌskript| noun
A book, document, or piece of music written by hand rather than typed or printed: An illuminated manuscript.
• An author's text that has not yet been published: Preparing the final manuscript | Her autobiography remained in manuscript.
ORIGIN late 16th century: from medieval Latin manuscriptus, from manu ‘by hand’ + scriptus ‘written’ (past participle of scribere).

Incidentally, did you know that if you interest yourself actively in cultural activities, your immune response is raised significantly? Going to exhibitions and museums means you get sick less often, how’s that?