Wriffing with the riting group

BACK STORY

I belong to a local writing group which meets once every two weeks. To help the members keep in contact between those meetings there is a WhatsApp group where ideas, thoughts and mutual support in our creative efforts are exchanged.

Occasionally something will land on that platform and what could best be described as a "verbal riff" will ensue. My contributions are in bold italics.

Came across this word in a parish magazine "vernalising". It is what I cannot do when the central heating isn't working properly, if at all.

DP As we have the Bernal equinox in the spring is it something to do with warming up and being spring like?

DP vernal equinox I meant

"Bernal"? There is a St Bernal in the Christian deities. He was a 9th century monk in Berne in Switzerland. During one extremely harsh winter, when dogs were frozen to the trees with yellow strands of ice, the kitchen in the monastery collapsed under the weight of ice and snow. The monks were desperate for some hot and warming sustenance. It was then that Fr Bernal had the idea that he could cook meat and some root vegetables in an outdoor grill. He invented, purely through need and desperation, what we now take for granted and no as the barbecue.

He was deified in the 13th century but the church did not allocate a specific saints day for him. His saints day is what is known as a "moveable feast".

Notta a lotta people know dat.

DP I always thought the patron saintof the barbecue was Satan himself...because the food is often burnt and tastes like ash.

Oh well we learn something new everyday.

BJ St Lawrence was martyred on a gridiron over a live fire, so I think he's a good candidate.

DP I am learning more than something!

BJ He pissed off the Roman authorities by giving away the church's riches to the poor, instead of handing it over to the authorities.

BT I thought that was Robin Hood, or is that where the idea came from?

You are referring to the barbecue?

BJ I used to run an SCA (medieval reenactment) event called Winchester Pilgrimage at St Cross Hospital. Part of the vent was a mini Pilgrimage from there to the cathedral (in garb). We had checkpoints on the route where pilgrims would get quizzed on things that pilgrims would have known (all the attendees got an info pack pack beforehand with everything in)., and many of the questions concerned saints. So, I learned a lot of things about saints in preparing for the event. Sometimes we had little encounters - the sort of things a pilgrim might have experienced - a beggar (actually a thief), a poor woman needing alms (we gave each pilgrim a handful of toy money and a bread roll at the start) and a guy selling pieces of the "True Cross" (actually just slivers of olive wood)

DP Has anyone noticed how surreal our little chats are becoming? Great fun though.

Unspoken "Yes"

Nothing like a good riff on a Thursday morning which started with the word "vernalising".

Please note "riff" is not a gaseous bodily function.

This is the point at which I felt the riff on "vernalising" had overrun its course and further comments about saints, pigs knuckles had become just a bit tangential from the starting point.

By the way, vernalising is the cooling of seeds during germination to encourage flowering after planting.

Where I encountered the word was in the parish magazine of Hurley on the Thames in Berkshire. It was used in the farming column to explain the process seeds go through in early winter.