Archive | October 2015

Rings that remind me of things: Part 3

Oct28

The third in an occasional series about rings in my Etsy shop that remind me of things.

Ring:

Vintage Danish 830 silver ring by Viggo Pedersen of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Thing:

Cream horn.

To be honest, the cream horn was the first thing that came to mind. If I was a bit more cultured, it would have been the Roman horn of plenty (cornucopia). But no. Cake. Always cake.

A horn of plenty (Cornucopia).

Part 1 was a ring that reminded me of an Iron Age hillfort, and Part 2 was a ring that reminded me of an alien spaceship.

UPDATE, 2 November 2015: The ring has now sold. Sorry!

The progress of autumn at Stourhead

Oct22

The Pantheon at Stourhead underwent a restoration programme last year, and at the end of the project a webcam was placed on the roof, overlooking the lake. It takes an image every 15 minutes. A timelapse film of the advance of autumn was made available by the National Trust yesterday:

and more recent time lapse videos and a live feed can be seen on the homepage of the webcam company.

This is what Stourhead looks like right now:

Stourhead, 11.42 am, Thursday 22 October 2015.

And three days later:

Stourhead, 11.00 am, Sunday 25 October 2015.

and three days later again:

Stourhead, 9.00 am, Wednesday 28 October 2015.

UPDATE Wednesday 28 October: Don’t forget to listen to BBC Radio 4’s PM programme at 5 pm this afternoon – Alan Power, the Head Gardener at Stourhead, will be giving his annual impressions on autumn at Stourhead. Here’s last year’s lyrical offering. Last year Chap and I made our autumn colours visit to Stourhead on 28 October. We haven’t been this year yet – we’d better get a wiggle on. The katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) in our garden has already shed about half its leaves, and as we’re only about 10 miles from Stourhead I imagine progress there is similarly advanced.

UPDATE 2: Here’s Alan Power’s 2015 contribution to PM: piece starts at 50:25.

Quince harvest

Oct18

We picked our quinces today:

As usual, quite a few of them had split on the tree, but it was a good haul. We harvested about two weeks earlier last year.

Now off to find some more quince recipes …

Modernist bobbles

Oct13

A few pieces of silver jewellery for sale in my Etsy shop display a technique known as granulation: basically it’s the application of small silver bobbles or blobs to a surface using solder, or joining (fusing) them together to form a bobbly surface. It gives a wonderfully organic, blobby effect, and I love it!

Vintage modernist sterling silver ring with granulated bobbles, made in London in 1973. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Vintage 1970 modernist Swedish sterling dome ring, imported to London. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Vintage modernist malachite and sterling silver pendant necklace, with granulated decoration. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

Vintage modernist sterling silver pendant with granulated design. Imported to London, 1973. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

It’s interesting that two of the dated pieces hail from 1973, and another from 1970. It seems like there was a whole lot of bobbling going on back then!

Vintage modernist Aksel Holmsen ring. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).

This Aksel Holmsen ring isn’t strictly speaking granulated, but its bobbly so I’m bunging it in here.

Here’s a video of a clever jeweller demonstrating his (rather unorthodox) method of making granulation bobbles. As an added bonus, it also includes a cat, yay.

Filming locations: Wadi Rum

Oct9

Chap and I went to see The Martian in 3D the other day. I’m a sucker for a space movie, and I’m also a sucker for deserts. So a space movie set on a desert planet is right up my street. And I knew from the advance publicity for the movie that large parts of it had been filmed in the Wadi Rum in southern Jordan.

The Martian, filmed in Wadi Rum in Jordan.

I have a special spot in my heart for Wadi Rum, which I first visited 30 years ago. Half way through my first archaeological dig in Jordan we had a week-long break, and a group of us took the dig Land Rover and drove all around Jordan (not difficult to do as it’s a small country). We had a ball, visiting the Dead Sea, the desert palaces, driving down the King’s Highway to Kerak, and staying overnight in Petra with a bedouin, Dachlala, and his family (we had special dispensation from the Department of Antiquities – one of the perks of being an archaeologist). After Petra we drove deep into the stunning, massive grandeur of the Wadi Rum and camped there, digging hollows in the orangey red and incredibly soft sand in which to sleep and cooking our food on dried camel shit fires. During the day we went to swim in the coral reefs at Aqaba, and came back to the Wadi to sleep at night. The scale and the beauty of the place, and the absolute isolation, were so remarkable. (Only ten years later, when I last visited the Wadi in 1995, we camped again, but this time we could see the bonfires of other groups all around in the distance).

Location filming in the Wadi Rum for The Martian. Photo by Giles Keyte.

The Martian, starring Matt Damon, filmed in Wadi Rum.

Matt Damon in Wadi Rum. The photo hasn't been 'Marsified' as you can see some small camel thorn seedlings.

Matt Damon in Wadi Rum. The photo hasn’t been ‘Marsified’ as you can see some small camel thorn shrubs and seedlings.

Given its striking visual impact, it’s not surprising that Wadi Rum has been used many times in Hollywood film productions. Perhaps the most famous is, of course, David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia (on the way to the Wadi we drove alongside a spur of the abandoned Hejaz Railway that Lawrence and his tribesmen blew up further along the line).

Wadi Rum in Lawrence of Arabia.

It has also stood in for Mars in other sci-fi movies, such as Mission to Mars (2000), Red Planet (2000) and The Last Days on Mars (2013). Ridley Scott, the director of The Martian, had previously used Wadi Rum as an alien landscape in his 2012 film, Prometheus.

Wadi Rum, 1985.

Camping out in Wadi Rum, 1985. Our second camping spot.

Morning in Wadi Rum, 1985. In the background our trusty Series 3 long wheel base dig Land Rover.

Hannah (or is it Ug the Cavewoman?) cooking on the camel shit fire, wadi Rum , 1985.

Hannah (or is it Ug the Cavewoman?) starting the fire using camel thorn, Wadi Rum, 1985. Pile of camel shit to the left. Hannah’s hair looking wild due to sea salt, desert wind, dust and smoke.

Waking up in Wadi Rum, 1985. Left to right, Hannah, Mick, Fritdjof, Carenza, Bronwen.

Happy days. I’m very lucky.

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