“Beauty is how you feel inside,
and it reflects in your eyes.
It is not something physical.”
~ Sophia Loren
31.3.12
29.3.12
Maiden’s Garland, Old St. Stephens Church,
Fylingdales, North Yorkshire
(via Memento Mori)
An old English custom that survived until the early
years of the 20th century, a maiden’s garland was
carried at the funeral of a young unmarried girl
and then hung above her pew in the church
until it disintegrated.
The young girl’s friends and family would make
the garland from strips of fabric and ribbons,
sewn onto a hoop of bendy willow bound by
strips of calico, decorated with silk or paper flowers
and rosettes, even bits of birds’ eggs and shells.
A white glove was often placed in the centre.
The silk and muslin ribbons that make up the
four garlands at Fylingdales were once mostly white
or cream, but also show flashes of colour and
prints, probably taken from best dresses.
Bedraggled by the centuries
(they date to the mid-1800s), they now hang in
a sealed atrium at the back of the church.
28.3.12
Trees cocooned in spiders webs,
an unexpected side effect of the flooding
in Sindh, Pakistan.
An unexpected side-effect of the flooding in parts
of Pakistan has been that millions of spiders
climbed up into the trees to escape
the rising flood waters.
Because of the scale of the flooding and the
fact that the water has taken so long to recede,
many trees have become cocooned in spiders webs.
People in this part of Sindh have never seen
this phenomenon before - but they also report
that there are now less mosquitoes than they would
expect, given the amount of stagnant,
standing water that is around.
It is thought that the mosquitoes are getting
caught in the spiders web thus reducing the
risk of malaria, which would be one blessing for
the people of Sindh, facing so many other
hardships after the floods.
27.3.12
26.3.12
~Tower of Faces
Known as the Tower of Faces this three-story tower
displays photographs from
the Yaffa Eliach Shtetl Collection.
Taken between 1890 and 1941 in Eishishok,
a small town in what is now Lithuania,
they describe a vibrant Jewish community
that existed for 900 years.
In 1941, an SS mobile killing squad entered the
village and within two days massacred
the entire Jewish population.
24.3.12
22.3.12
First-Order Lighthouse at Punta de los Reyes,
Seacoast of California, 296 Feet Above Sea
(4136) by Eadweard Muybridge, 1871
From the exhibition ‘Helios: Eadweard Muybridge
in a Time of Change’ at SFMOMA
(via Art Blart)
20.3.12
photographer, Joseph Trompette, 19th c.
A.D. White Architectural Photographs,
Cornell University Library
16.3.12
~Unicorn
Take this bone, this ivory,
This slender pyramid, this spear,
This walking stick, this cornucopia,
This twisted Instrument of fear,
This mammoth tusk, this pearly horn,
This mythic spike, this maiden’s bier,
This denticle, this rib of time,
This alabaster harrow—here
We start the beast, we give it name,
That world will never be the same.
by Jane Yolen
art by Anne Stokes
14.3.12
8.3.12
~Icetunnel..
This up to 1000 years old snow has metamorphosed
into highly pressurized glacier ice that contains
almost no air bubbles.
Thus it absorbs the visible light despite the
scattered shortest blue fraction, giving it its distinct
deep blue waved appearance.
This cavity in the glacier ice formed as
a result of a glacial mill, or moulin.
Rain and meltwater on the glacier surface is
channelled into streams that enter the glacier
at crevices. The waterfall melts a hole into the
glacier while the ponded water drains towards lower
elevations by forming long ice caves with an
outlet at the terminus of the glacier.
The fine grained sediments in the water along
with wind blown sediments cause the frozen
meltwater stream to appear in a muddy colour
while the top of the cave exhibits the deep blue colour.
Due to the fast movement of the glacier of about 1 m
per day over uneven terrain this ice cave cracked up
at its end into a deep vertical crevice, called cerrac.
This causes the indirect daylight to enter the ice cave
from both ends resulting in homogeneous
lighting of the ice tunnel.
Source
7.3.12
6.3.12
~Mortsafe
This is a grave from the Victorian age
when a fear of zombies and vampires was prevalent.
The cage was intended to trap the undead
just in case the corpse reanimated.
How interesting!
These cages are called mortsafes,
which were to used to prevent body theft;
a significant worry in 19th century UK due to
the demand for bodies for anatomical studies
for medical students. The Anatomy Act was passed in 1832, allowing medical universities to use unclaimed
bodies as cadavers. After this the need (or desire)
for these cages diminished. While the truth may
not be as romantic as vampires breaking out
of their graves, mortsafes are still an intriguing
relic of a time long past.
Source
5.3.12
Newton Suites Singapure
(36 floors)
by WOHA Architects
The exterior of the tower uses sunshading elements,
patterned planes of textured panels and
protruding balconies to create a façade
that is functional yet expressive.
Source
3.3.12
2.3.12
~The Blossom
Merry, Merry Sparrow!
Under leaves so green
A happy Blossom
Sees you swift as arrow
Seek your cradle narrow
Near my Bosom.
Pretty, Pretty Robin!
Under leaves so green
A happy Blossom
Hears you sobbing, sobbing,
Pretty, Pretty Robin,
Near my Bosom.
by William Blake
