Apologies

'I have slept and have taken my rest: and I have risen up, because the Lord hath protected me.' Psalm 3: 6. Image from the Utrecht Psalter: Utrecht, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS Bibl. Rhenotraiectinae I Nr 32 (Rheims, c.830), folio 2v, detail. By permission of the Utrecht Library. Please click on the image to go to the online digital facsimile.

Hello readers, or should that be 'blessed ones'?

I thought I should apologise for the lack of new posts the last few months, here on my Anglo-Saxon Monk blog.

Unfortunately, I've been ill. For those of you who follow me/the Anglo-Saxon Monk on Facebook, you probably already know that I was diagnosed with pernicious anaemia, an autoimmune disorder that means I can't absorb vitamin B12 from my food, and so need to have B12 injections.

Without the injections, it causes serious neurological and cognitive problems as well as anaemia and often heart problems, so I've been feeling pretty rubbish to put it succinctly. Thank goodness I don't actually live in the Anglo-Saxon period – or any time before the 1920s, in fact – because I'd eventually be pushing up the daisies, as untreated pernicious anaemia kills you.

However, the good news is that I've been feeling much improved this last ten days, now that I've had an initial course of 12 injections, and although there are some complications that need to be looked into over the next few weeks and months, and the regularity of the injections needs to be worked out, I do hope to be back posting material on here as soon as possible.

Pynnonade, served with Manuka honey. Recipe based on Richard II's cookery book, Forme of Cury (c.1390). Photo: Christopher Monk © 2019

Many of you will know that I have a big project that I'm working on, Monk's Modern Medieval Cuisine, and this will be taking priority for a while, so I still might not get that many new posts on my Anglo-Saxon Monk blog for a while. Please bear with me.

I do hope you will join me on my new website where I've just posted my latest recipe experiment: Pynnonade, a spiced pinenut affair. Surely, I've tempted you!   

Christopher Monk