Sunday!

Sunday is a feast day at the monastery, and they pull out all the stops (so to speak... I've yet to hear the organ) to celebrate.  Breakfast was it's own mini-feast as we had slab bacon, an incredible scrambled egg dish, cheese grits, strawberries, little chocolate pastries and I'm sure more as well.

We even had the sun, and the view across the river during breakfast was stunning.

During the morning I stayed busy packing and getting all my stuff to the car.  The monks get their time of rest from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday morning and the guesthouse is closed during these times. 

After packing, I went and sat in the dark chapel for a while until Diurum (Noon service).  I noticed a virtual image of the CFL bulbs projected out into space from the shiny side of the shades.  These were a phenomena we studied in physics, but back then it was dim and hard to see.  Here in the monastery chapel the effect was clear and it looked like a bulb floated out in space just a bit below the light fixture.  I guess you can take the boy out of the science lab, but you can't take the scientist out of the boy.

Something all the rest of you will appreciate more was the nice shaft of sunlight streaming in the window and lighting all the dust from the incense to form a nice sunbeam.

After Diurum, we had a great feast for Dinner (Noon meal) including roasted chicken, roasted local vegetables, a pear salad, a rice pilaf, and since it is Sunday, we got dessert!  What a way to end the week... with a scrumptous apple carmel cake.

After Dinner, I said goodbyes to the ladies from St. Marks, clarified some details with the brothers as to when I'm expected back for Tuesday's program and then hit the road, after one last look back at the monastery building (finally in sunlight).

Although I was going to stay in the area and do some photography, I decided to head home at least for the first night.  I figured with the cold snap we had last night, my son might be able to use help starting the heating system.  (He did a good job, though he didn't know our thermostat is broken, so the house was at 80 F  when I arrived.)

After an evening of laundry, sharing a pizza and finishing The View From a Monastery, I'm mostly ready to go back... I'll let tomorrow's weather decided if I go and do the area photography I wanted to do, or decided to take a lazy day and read.