Categories
Animals

Planet Earth II

I could not be more excited for this. I’ve already watched the trailer five times this morning.

Categories
Animals Humanities Me Photography

My Summer Holiday

I’ve ended up doing a lot of holidaying alone this Summer which has been ok. It would’ve been nice to share some of the days out with other people but equally it meant in the evening I could tuck into some reading!

While I was away I read Half a King and Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. I didn’t realise they were supposed to be YA (not that I especially care now I realise!), the only real difference is that they are noticably less brutal than the First Law trilogy. Anyway, I really enjoyed them, the elf ruins and magic are very clever, I’m looking forward to reading the last one.

I also read Rat Queens vol 3, it’s still fantastic, if you like fantasy (and especially if you like D&D) you should be reading RQ but even if you’re not a huge fantasy fan it’s just damn good. That said it looks like there are all manner of shenanigans going on at the minute and it’s currently on hiatus.

Elsewhere on the comics front I read East of West vol 4 (still love it), Manhattan Projects vol 2 (I struggled with the first volume and did less well with this, I don’t think it’s the comic for me), finally read Black Science vol 1 (it’s soooo pretty! And I enjoyed it, though I don’t feel compelled to grab the next volume).

Right now I’m reading A Darker Shade of Magic on my Kindle, about a third of the way through, and enjoying it quite a bit.

As for my actual holidays I went camping in Pembrokeshire for 3 nights and have variously spent my days looking at old castles, old country houses, old gardens, and old burial chambers.

Pembrokeshire is stunningly beautiful and I highly recommend Dewslake Farm Campsite near Lamphey.

Some Bees I met at Canons Ashby

bees
bumble

Carew Castle

carew

Pentre Ifan

dolmen

One of the oldest and best preserved man made structures in the UK (well, the world too I guess). 5,500 years old. It’s apparently part of a burial chamber, though oddly no bodies have ever been found.

St Govan’s Chapel

govans

This is the view facing out from the chapel in the cliffside.

King’s Quoit

kingsquoit

Not a bad view for grave.

Manorbier Castle

manorbier

The castle is beautiful but it’s more of a lovely wedding venue than a great visitor experience. This photo was pretty cool though.

Lamphey Bishop’s Palace

lamphey

I had the run of this place for a good hour or so one morning. If you like a ruin it’s worth a visit.

A lunchtime companion

sparrow
Categories
Animals Art Photography

An Art That Nature Makes

Beautiful (occassionally macabre) still life photography from Rosamund Purcell.

kereru

These are the sorts of curios I could pore over for hours.

Categories
Animals Words

Shield-Toad

TIL that the Dutch and German words for Tortoise (or Turtle) literally translate as Shield-Toad (schildpad ‎and Schildkröte).

Of course, neither are toads, nor (it turns out) did shells arise as a protective adaptation:

For almost a century, biologists argued about how turtles got their shells—a debate almost as slow and plodding as the creatures themselves. Paleontologists mostly argued that the shells evolved from bony scales called osteoderms, which are also responsible for the armor of crocodiles, armadillos, and many dinosaurs. These scales simply expanded to fuse with the ribs and backbone, creating a solid covering. But developmental biologists disagreed. By studying modern turtle embryos, they deduced that the shell evolved from ribs, which broadened out and eventually united.

Everything changed in 2008, when Chinese researchers discovered a 220-million-year-old turtle with a shell that covered just its belly and not its back. They called it Odontochelys semitestacea—literally, the “toothed turtle in a half-shell.” It was as beautiful an intermediate fossil as they could have hoped for. And strikingly, it had no osteoderms at all. It did, however, have very broad ribs. The developmental biologists were right!

First, the lower ribs became wider and fused with each other to give half a shell—the plastron. Then, the upper ribs followed suit and merged with the spine, creating the carapace. (This means that, contrary to cartoons, you can’t pull a turtle out of its shell.) Eventually, through an intricate bit of evolutionary origami, the ribs started growing over the shoulder blades, rather than sitting below them as in you, me, and most other land-living vertebrates.

That takes care of how the shell evolved. “For me, the next question was: Why?” says Lyson. “And there are two huge reasons why not.”

How the Turtle got its shell.

Categories
Animals Design Games Me

The Whispered Song

Ruled by Queen Aeleth, Ardenia is famous for its bardic college: the College of the Whispered Song (aka The Whisper) led by Master Troubadour Cristoph. Ardenia’s bards travel the kingdoms from the high city of [I dunno what] all the way to Titan’s Gate, collecting and spreading news!

Suspected by the other nations, but never proven, Queen Aeleth uses her bardic college as a spy network keeping the larger, more prosperous kingdoms of Haldrim and Cardus at bay.

whispered-song

A starling seems a good fit.

  • A flock of starlings is a murmuration and the collected bards are knows as The Whisper; murmur/whisper works for me.
  • Even the most commonplace are decked out in a shining coat of stars (which seems to befit a bard), and some can be pretty stunning.
  • They’re effective mimics, and the Bards of The Whisper will repeat many a carefully crafted lie or overheard secret
  • Starling means little star and as a Kingdom of the Northern Sanction Ardenia is represented by a star; while it may not be as strong a kingdom as the others netwrok of its little stars keep the larger star aloft

I also took inspiration from a personal favourite heraldic bird: the martlet. A martlet is a swift or swallow depicted without feet, often (but not always) used to represent to represent fourth sons. There’s a poetic explanation that as the fourth son they won’t inherit land or title nor will they join the priesthood so instead are sent out as landless wanderers to make their own fortunes. Whether or not that’s true I don’t know but I like the idea that it symbolises the Bards of the Whispered Song as ever-moving.

In slightly sad related news, while I was working on this my cats found a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest :( He didn’t seem hurt, but no idea where the nest is so I’m hoping ma and pa pigeon manage to find baby bird in my garden.

Categories
Animals Design

Three Lions

Some real-life heraldry fun.

If you ever see an animal in a crest, coat of arms, whatever, there’s a decent chance it’s been drawn with its junk.

Which makes sense if you think about it: male mammals totally have penises same as they have legs or claws or a tail or whatever.

Some modern depictions will miss them out (for example, if you have a British Passport the front cover does *not* have nine lion penises and a unicorn member on it) but traditionally they’re there. Check out this £1 coin containing no fewer than three penises:

The dragon doesn’t get one but the lions totally do. And if you head to Europe they are everywhere (totally SFW).