Category: culture

Eternal Magpie on Tumblr

Over the past few months I’ve also been keeping a blog on Tumblr. I’m using it mostly as a way of collecting and sharing images that interest me, or that I’d like to keep hold of for future reference. (This screenshot is of the archive, where you can view lots of thumbnails at once.)

I mostly use the “queue” function, which automatically publishes content as often as you tell it to. That way I’m not spamming people’s feed readers with dozens of images in one go whenever I find something particularly interesting.

I don’t use Tumblr for posting my own pictures, or for writing about anything, but if you feel like having a sneaky peek at some of the images that I find inspiring, you’re welcome to come and follow me.

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

A couple of Saturdays ago we went to the Natural History Museum. We booked tickets for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition (which was the reason we’d made the trip), and also booked ourselves onto a Spirit Collection Tour. There are a few things-in-jars on display in the new Darwin building, but the 30-minute behind the scenes tour was absolutely AMAZING.


Photo © Natural History Museum

The first room was quite like library storage, full of floor to ceiling grey metal shelves. There was a little map on the end of each row, to show where you are and what’s in each cupboard. We learned that “Xenarthra” is the latin name for the group of mammals that includes sloths, anteaters and armadillos. (There was only one cupboard of those.) My favourite thing was the Victorian onion jar that was full of tiny opposums. Bless. (My least favourite was the stomach contents of a dolphin. Yuk.) Apparently the museum spends a fortune on specialist glassware for the Spirit Collection, so they re-use old jars as often as they can. I’d never seen mammals in a spirit collection before, which was interesting. It hadn’t occurred to me that of course in taxidermy you’re getting rid of all the internal organs and soft tissue, so you need spirit collections to preserve those aspects.

The second room was more like a lab, with shelves around the walls for the jars that are much too big to go in the cupboards. Mostly these contained large fish, or great big snakes in very long, thin jars – hence the need for specialist glassware. There were maybe a dozen enormous closed stainless steel vats, one of which apparently contained a male orangutan that had died recently at a zoo. There were three echinda nestled together in a jar, a rather startled-looking fox, and lots of rays each with a piece of paper tucked inside their gills. The highlight of that room was “Archie” the giant squid. She was stored in a glass tank which ran the entire length of the room. Absolutely amazing. There was also a small cabinet with some of Darwin’s original specimens from the Beagle voyage, which was pretty exciting too.

The tour is free, although you do need to sign up for a ticket in advance. I can’t recommend it highly enough! It’s also inspired me to do some volunteering at my local Zoology Museum, which I’m really looking forward to.

On Short Hair

Written c. 1998 by Joan Juliet Buck, the editor-in-chief of French Vogue from 1994-2001:

Hair is time.

Women with short hair always look as if they have somewhere else to go. Women with long hair tend to look as if they belong where they are, especially in California. Short hair takes a short time. Long hair takes a long time. Long hair moves faster than short hair. Long hair tells men that you are all woman, or a real woman, or at the very least a girl. Short hair always makes them wonder. Short hair makes children ask each other –usually at the school-yard gate, when parents are late– “Are you a boy or girl?” Men married to women with short hair should not have affairs with women who have long hair kept up with many little pins and combs. Once you have cut your hair you have to remember to wear lipstick, but you can put away the brush, elastics, and the black barrettes in the form of shiny leaves with rhinestone hearts. When you cut your hair you lose a nose and gain a neck. A neck is generally better than a nose. It does not need to be powdered, except on extreme occasions. It does, however, need to be washed more often.

With short hair you suddenly dislike the month of March, when the wind blows down the back of your neck. With short hair you begin to crave pearl necklaces, long earrings, and a variety of sunglasses. And you brush your teeth more often. Short hair removes obvious femininity and replaces it with style. When it starts growing out a little and losing its style, you have to wear sunglasses until you can get it to the hairdresser. That’s why you need a variety. Short hair makes you aware of subtraction as style. You can no longer wear puffed sleeves or ruffles; the neat is suddenly preferable to the fussy. You eye the tweezers instead of the blusher. What else can you take away? You can’t hide behind short hair. Your nape is exposed. Men put their hands around your neck instead of stroking your long locks. You can only pray they have friendly intentions. The backs of your ears show, your jaw line is clear to anyone watching, and you realize –perhaps for the first time– how wide the expanse of skin is between cheekbone and ear.

You may look a little androgynous, a little unfinished, a little bare. You will look elegant, as short hair requires you to keep your weight slightly below acceptable levels. However, the first time you wear a bathing suit with short hair, you will feel exceptionally naked. People who used to look straight at you will love you in profile. Short hair makes others think you have good bones, determination, and an agenda. The shape of your skull is commented on, so are its contents. They can pick you out in a crowd, and you can be recognized from behind, which can be good or bad. But your face is no longer a flat screen surrounded by a curtain: the world sees you in three dimensions.

Chase to the cut.

I’m slightly concerned about the references to washing your neck and brushing your teeth – I hope I do those things often enough already! I also have absolutely no intention of keeping my weight “slightly below acceptable levels”, whatever that means. But I am absolutely loving having very short hair.

I’ve had short-ish hair for quite a while now. Like many women I grew it a little longer for my wedding in 2009, but almost exactly a year later I bought myself a set of clippers and simply shaved it all off. Not as short as Agyness Deyn’s hair in the photo above – I cropped it down to a grade 8, which is about an inch long. Now I’m in the process of growing myself a sort of a mohawk – keeping the sides at about a grade 3, and leaving the crown to grow until I find myself bored of it.

The most frequent comments from other people have been “you’re so brave” and “you have a lovely-shaped head”, which is a bit of a weird one – I mean it’s not as though I had anything to do with the shape of my own skull! I have been surprised by the level of maintenance that’s required by having hair so short. It really needs to be washed every single day, whereas slightly longer hair often looks better on a day when it hasn’t been. I also find myself shaving the sides every couple of weeks, simply to keep it from looking as though I couldn’t be bothered. I don’t wear earrings or make-up any more often than I would have done before I shaved my head, and I’m not really fussed if passers-by can’t tell whether I’m male or female. Why do they need to know?

Also, Joan? I’ll damn well wear ruffles if I want to, short hair or not.

Enchanted Palace

Keys

Yesterday I went to the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret, where I arrived just in time for a talk. I was glad of that, because the museum would have made a lot less sense without it. It’s mostly three hundred years of medical history (including bit of bodies in jars) without a great deal of explanation. There’s all sorts of interesting things in there, but it makes a lot more sense if you happen to have spent the past few months reading books about the history of medicine!

In the afternoon I made my way over to Kensington Gardens, where Alice and I enjoyed a very decadent afternoon tea in the Orangery, and then went on to be thoroughly Enchanted by Kensington Palace.

Most of it’s closed at the moment, because of ongoing work to make the palace more accessible. So they’ve put together the most amazing exhibition/installation in the State Apartments. You’re given a little map and a “dance card” as you go in, and you have to collect the names of seven hidden princesses as you go round. The princesses are all real, and all connected to the history of the Palace, and the regular guides are all still there, so if you have any actual historical questions they can answer you. There are also a bunch of vaguely steampunky people with drapey coats and head lamps (and in one case an accordion) wandering about the place, and if you ask them nicely they’ll let you play with the soldiers.

It costs £12.50 to get in, which seems like a lot, but it’s absolutely worth it. You can’t take photos inside the royal collections, so I can’t show you what it’s like, but enchanted really is the word for it. It’s on until February, and I heartily recommend it.

Shaharazad

This is a little picture of “Shaharazad”, a mechanical organ owned by Boz Oram.

Today we went to Crofton Beam Engines with the Aldbrickham Clog & Step Dancers, to dance at their end of season gala. There were some vintage cars, a few different steam engines and this mechanical organ. (And the enormous beam engines, of course.)

It was very loud, but we stood and listened to it for ages, and I eventually plucked up the courage to be a little bit cheeky and ask Boz if I could have a look inside.

Oh my goodness, it was AWESOME.

Boz showed me all the cards of music, and how they fed through, and explained how he makes them (he makes them himself!) and I was gutted to have to run away after only a few minutes because it was time for me to play the recorder again.

It was absolutely mesmerising to watch the wheel turning and the holes in the cards slowly moving along – I was surprised how quickly I could read the holes, and understand what the music was going to do next.

When I run away and join the circus, I’m definitely going to have a mechanical organ. (And some earplugs. Very loud!)

I had an absolutely fabulous day. Apparently I’m even more of an Industrial Revolution nerd than I’d thought.

Joana Vasconcelos

Joana Vasconcelos

While I was at the Haunch of Venison, I also saw an exhibition of work by Joana Vasconcelos.

I particularly liked the large ceramic pieces that had been covered with crochet. There was a lovely contrast of texture between the matt cotton thread and the shiny glazes underneath. The animal heads, mounted on the walls like hunting trophies, were particularly beautiful.

There was also a fabulously bonkers installation which consisted of a moving track with large ceramic dogs suspended from it. As the dogs swung around like a surreal canine carousel, they would bump together and occasionally smash into pieces. Weird, but mesmerising. I heartily recommend it.

Polly Morgan


Photo © Polly Morgan

The other day I went to see an exhibition of artwork by Polly Morgan at the Haunch of Venison. The exhibition is called “Psychopomps”, after the mythical creatures that conduct souls into the after-life.

This piece is “Atrial Flutter”, and it’s a human ribcage and spine, suspended from balloons.


Photo © Polly Morgan

Inside the ribcage is a beautiful taxidermied cardinal.

The pieces were displayed in a darkened space, accessed by a mezzanine walkway. You could also go into the room underneath, so you could see the sculptures from above and below and really get into the amazing detail and skill of the pieces.

Polly Morgan shadow

My favourite aspect was that the room had been lit so that each sculpture left a delicate shadow on the wall or the floor. In this one you can see the colour of the balloons, but this angle makes the little bird disappear.

Polly Morgan‘s work is a little bit heartbreaking, but absolutely beautiful.

Stitched Self at the Science Museum

Stitched Selves

Here I am, in the Science Museum, with my Stitched Self!
Which, in fact, looks nothing like me. But a few months ago the resemblance would have been uncanny, I promise.

Just in case you can’t spot my Mini-Me, here’s a close-up:

Stitched Selves

I’m not sure what’s happened to my hair, or why my scarf’s all over my face like that, but never mind. Something I made has been exhibited in a museum in London! Even if it was for just one night.

If you want to see more pictures of all the Stitched Selves, Stitch London have written a great long blog about it. You can even see me in it a couple of times!

The last time I went to the Science Museum was in 2003 for a Lord of the Rings exhibition that turned out not to be very much fun. (Too many people, not enough space, very hot, lots of shoving. Yuk.) I didn’t really recall the rest of the museum, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Who Am I exhibition was really interesting, and also great fun. There are lots of buttons to press and games to play, as well as some very thought-provoking exhibits.

I was rather excited to spot a Wheatstone concertina in the Making the Modern World exhibition, which I particularly enjoyed. The next time I’m in London I’d like to go back and see Glimpses of Medical History and The Science and Art of Medicine. I also need to find out what the steel wedding dress is all about, as I didn’t have time to go and look at the Challenge of Materials gallery. The only thing that worries me about that is the glass bridge across the main hall, which I don’t much like the sound of! I’m definitely making plans to go back though.

Living History

Civil War

A couple of weekends ago we went to see the Fairfax Battalion putting on a Civil War re-enactment at Mapledurham. As always, I took a bunch of photos.

We spent a long time chatting to the barber-surgeon, and I was surprised to find out about some of the more delicate operations that could be done at that time. (Paul took some photos of the surgical instruments.)

Civil War

When we got home, Paul immediately looked up how much it would cost to buy a match rifle. As you do. Aside from the pesky matter of needing a firearms license, I’m not totally convinced that the lure of a big gun outweighs the requirement to wear the silly trousers that go with it. We’ll see.

We’re planning to go to a few more re-enactment events over the summer. There’s a military history event at Reigate Hill and Gatton Park, a multi-period event at Broadlands, and a 1940s weekend at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. Hopefully Paul won’t come home from that one with a desperate urge to drive a tank!

Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

This is the Natural History Museum in London. Quite a typical view – looking over the central hall from the giant sequoia tree, over the top of the big dinosaur skeleton, to the statue of Darwin on the main staircase.

Usually people are so busy looking at the dinosaur that it simply doesn’t occur to them to look up.

Natural History Museum

This is the ceiling of that same central gallery, and it’s absolutely covered with the most beautiful botanical illustrations. They’re scientifically accurate, apparently, and decorated with gold that catches the light streaming in from the windows below.

Natural History Museum

This is one of the single illustrations, close to the end of the gallery with the sequoia tree. Epilobium Angustifolium is known as Fireweed in the US, or Rosebay Willowherb in the UK. The café (the one with the panda) also has these single illustrations above it.

Natural History Museum

This olive tree is right above the famous dinosaur skeleton, and is one of many images – mostly of larger trees – which spread across six panels like this.

I found out about the ceiling while I was watching the Museum of Life programme, which made me want to know much more about the Museum’s collections than they have on display. I’d been hoping to go on a Spirit Collection Tour, but apparently it’s not safe to run them when the weather’s too hot, so I’ll have to do that another time.

My favourite part about the Natural History Museum is that it’s completely free. This allows you to really take your time when you visit, knowing that you can go back any time and it won’t cost you a fortune. Well worth the train fare to London, and I really must remember to go more often!