Arty maps

From the "The Map as Art" by Katherine Harmon, recently rediscovered on the bookshelf -

These "rock maps" are photographs taken in the Costa Rica forest -

The artist is 8 years old -

"Everywhere I look, I see maps, out of habit," he says, and indeed, that's what happens when you focus on an idea - seeing its manifestations gets to be a sort of habit.

Thursday antiques market

Every week at Spitalfields - 

Many stalls with many things

jewellery bits

old photographs, of nowhere in particular

bricabrac with hefty pricetags (that one says £220)

Deluge kills 35 film stars? surely not!

bright beetles and taxidermied ducklings

indigo cloths, ethnic beads

coveted: a waistcoat

exemplary: a folding photo album with luxurious leather cover

Misty morning

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" said Keats ... and there it was, the morning mist, perfect for a short walk before the world got busy. I wended my way through the streets - and rediscovered the Parkland Walk -

It's known locally as The Old Railway, running along the discontinued line between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace -

Since being declared a local nature reserve in 1990, it's been rejuvenated, signposted, maintained -and "of course" grafitti'd. It runs over roads and under roads, with some high and open spaces -

but is mostly sunken into cuttings and enclosed by trees -

In half an hour I encountered 4 walkers (all men, most on the way to somewhere), 8 dog-walkers (all women), 10 cyclists, and 21 joggers. The blackberries have been well picked, with incursions into the bramble jungle well stamped down to allow access. Traffic noise is distant; there is birdsong. There is a patch of rare acid grassland, a sort of mini site of scientific interest -

How could anyone forget having this pleasure path almost on their doorstep?

Insides

This is coconut fibre. The grey stuff is what's used in upholstery - it's got some sort of rubbery stuff that holds it together.

The brown stuff is what it looks like after many (50?) years, just before it crumbles into dust. We're having some "vintage" sofa cushions redone, and I have bags of this curly, springy stuff - surely it's good for something?

Could this be a new filling for an art quilt??

Posture check!

Do you carry your head too far forward? Many people do, and it gets more common, the older you get.

By dropping your head forward, you are forcing your neck and/or spine to support the weight of your head without help, which puts great stress on your spine. Stress = problems, such as neck and shoulder pain, and even unto tingling fingers.

It's not enough to change your position when you walk around - you're most likely to get into bad postural habits when you're sitting (slouching?) at the computer, or hunched over the sewing machine, or involved in some other engrossing but ergonomically bad activity.

The site from which the picture comes says: "When your head is in a forward position in front of your shoulder it places excessive strain on the muscles of your neck.  This causes the rest of your body’s posture to shift and compensate for the weight of your head.  The change in the position of your head compresses the joints of your spine, chronically fatigues the muscles of your neck, creates trigger points, causes abnormal wear and tear your spinal discs, affects your lung capacity, and affects the blood supply to your head. "

Alexander technique talks about the "golden string", which in imagination supports the rest of the body from the top of your head. It's a good concept to keep in mind!

Here are some exercises to do if you're getting neck and shoulder problems, or to help prevent them.

1. At the computer or sewing machine, every 20 minutes or so, pull your neck back toward your spine and try to make a double chin; and relax the shoulders.

2. Lying down with support, such as a rolled towel, behind your neck, do that same motion, then relax; try to do it 20 times a day. (I have a neck-support pillow and try to remember to do a few before dropping off to sleep.)

3. If you have a stretchy band (or use a towel on the bias), put it around something solid and stationary, holding each end in a hand, then stand firm and pull your hands back so that you push out your chest and push your shoulders back. Aim for 30 repetitions, twice a day.

Also, any time you are sitting for long periods, you're not doing your health any favours, recent research shows - inactivity is bad for you even if you exercise as well. This is where a little disorganisation might be useful, such as having to get up from the sewing machine regularly to use the ironing board, or leaving the computer to search for papers elsewhere in the room (or make another cup of coffee); even better, set your online alarm clock to remind you to take a break. If you're watching tv, when the commercials come on, do a little housework and get a double benefit, why not?

Colour mixing 4

Work on the painted dictionary continues (making language colourful?).

 insecure-insist to jump-jury 651-685
ultramarine, red oxide, titanium white, mixing white, naples yellow,
yellow light hansa, magenta, cobalt blue

 humanity-humph to innards-inosculate 611-649
light blue violet, bronze, titanium white, payne's grey, hooker's green, french ultramarine

 head-health to housel-Hubble('s) constant 577-609
ultramarine blue (red shade), cadmium yellow, titanium white,
payne's grey, mixing white, light blue violet

gold-gonad to haunch-hawk 539-575
cadmium red medium hue, cadmium yellow medium hue, titanium white,
payne's grey, ultramarine

fuero-full to go-god 505-537
emerald, prism violet, titanium white, payne's grey, cadmium red,
cadmium yellow, mixing white

facet-fade to frontier-frugal 451-503
magenta, yellow light hansa, payne's grey, titanium white, mixing white, emerald, violet

 emblem-embroil to eyelet-eyrie 407-449
naples yellow, emerald, titanium white, mixing white, crimson,
payne's grey, yellow light hansa

Page edges, recording the sequence of each session -

401-449

451-503

505-537

539-575

577-609

611-649

651-685

Which is my favourite? I really couldn't say, and there are better questions to ask: the mixed colours in each session are linked, but would you use all of them in one painting ... and if so, in what proportion? Would you add any other colour, either as a background, or for an accent? Would you also mix up intermediate hues, or further tints and shades?

Writing systems

One of 40 maps at http://twistedsifter.com/2013/08/maps-that-will-help-you-make-sense-of-the-world/

See the original at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WritingSystemsOfTheWorld.png

Done and dusted

The view, last weekend, from the weekend studio -

The scaffolding makes it dark, but will be gone soon, as soon as the new roof is on.

Part of the roof project was to clear out the loft; having a worker to bring the boxes down the ladder, and the use of an industrial hoover on 40 years of dust, were a big help. Tony spent several long days sorting, boxing up, labelling.

Suitcases were easy enough to haul up through the hatch, and we improvised a hoist for the boxes.

Ominous shadows as the workers put the tiles in place, and the loft becomes a place of darkness once more. But not so dusty, rather less crowded, and very, very organised. Demons of disorder, be gone from this place!

Blackberry and apple

What started as a Sunday-morning trip to Ikea got sidetracked - we were early, an hour early, so decided to go for a walk round the nearby reservoir. As soon as we saw the blackberries, we knew we needed to pick some - but had no bag with us, and thought long and hard about what items of clothing could be sacrificed to juice stains. Fortunately at the end of the path someone had dumped several boxes full of (clean) cardboard boxes to be folded, and we rescued some to fill with berries.

Berry picking is one of my most favourite things to do - in the quiet of a Sunday morning, with the traffic distant and a bit of birdsong, wonderful.... In about an hour we picked five boxes full - 400g each - one box went into a nice big blackberry and apple crumble -

and in the pan is the first lot of fruit for blackberry and apple jelly, which made nearly three jars of jelly, and another lot is cooked and dripping through the jelly bag.

The apples on Tony's tree look like they should be ripe, but even the red ones don't come off when you give them that quarter-turn twist that signals readiness -

So many apples - most are still very green, and some are rotting on the branches. Every day the ground is littered with more windfalls, and it's hard to keep up. We still have last year's apple jelly on hand. Time to give some away!

The hunt for apple recipes is on - there are only so many crumbles you can eat, after all.

If you go down in the woods today ...

"you're sure of a big surprise", the song goes ... and indeed you would have been on Saturday, had you come across this dappled glade on Hampstead Heath, populated by a pop-up photography exhibition and a crowd of picnickers. Photos, idea, and execution are by Sabine Thoele, who is fascinated by and enamoured of crows, but can turn her hand to any subject. Have a look at her photos here, and crows specifically here.

...flying...

...landing...

The photographer photographed

Smiling for the camera (photo by Sabine Thoele)

Other, better, photos of "A Murder of Crows" (by Andrew Smith) are here.

Note the old coppiced tree, which would have been cut back every 10 or so years to obtain firewood - originally this part of the Heath was common land, used for gathering wood (to be sold in London, just down the hill) and also for obtaining sand. This mining for sand and gravel (for making bricks and for the railway) makes for a pocked landscape, which is part of its charm.

Stormy weather

The storms photographed by Mitch Dobrowner are serious storms (how does he get those fabulous pix??). His photos are on show in Los Angeles from 7 Sept to 26 Oct - see here for more details.

Capturing these raging, chaotic, noisy natural phenomena in a single still paradoxically heighten their power; the devastating, incomprehensible beauty of nature at its most destructive is almost overwhelming [says this blog, source of the pix]. Mitch is celebrating the natural world on its own terms: “Landscapes are living eco systems and environments. They have existed well before, and will hopefully be here way beyond the time we are here.”