his mum can be trusted to ensure that no animals were harmed during the preparations for this portrait she just sent me ...

i can still spot a mermaid at two hundred paces ...

after visiting the national maritime museum, we took a long slow walk up to the old greenwich observatory ...

... where they've always been serious about astronomy

at last ... a boat i'll be proud to show off around the lagoon in venice ...

... and not a loose screw in sight !

ta-ran ta-ra !!! lord nelson by spode, dating from 2005 via a charity shop in reigate

co-incidentally, we took a trip down the river this morning to the national maritime museum at greenwich and were able to study nelson's trafalgar over-coat, complete with fatal bullet hole on left shoulder

catch a falling star and put in your pocket, save it for a rainy day ...

some say that memory rot sets in earlier than you thought .... but i wonder if early memories are just buried under the avalanche of subsequent experience

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09658211.2013.854806

http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=88905

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Sforza_(il_Duchetto)

... kidnapped at the age of nine and never returned

and after the compulsory hoovering, you can polish my jewellery

looks like it'll be another wasted weekend of reeling and writhing

i've just discovered BBC radio 3's essay archive

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006x3hl/episodes/player

any old irons ? i'd quite like one of these 2500 year old bronze wine jars for my own dionysiac revels ...

http://inha.revues.org/3976

if you are interested in this spectacular relic, it is well worth downloading the pdf of beryl barr sharrar's essay with its fabulous pictures, via the above link

georgians revealed, at the british library ... loads of stuff, almost too much, but great fun !

http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/georgiansrevealed/index.html?ns_campaign=georgians&ns_mchannel=bl_website&ns_source=carousel&ns_linkname=more_link&ns_fee=0

and whilst we're on the topic of genome archaeology ... here's some recent stuff about the truly ancient origins of native americans, north and south

http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/02/2014/clovis-genome-settles-debate-on-indigenous-american-lineage

there's a fairy at the bottom of my garden ...

art amplifying human knowledge

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/foreign-bodies-common-ground/the-artists/katie-paterson.aspx

http://www.katiepaterson.org/fossil/Katie_Paterson_Fossil_Necklace_Drawing.pdf

and whilst we're thinking of beads, let's note that anne frank's tin of marbles has only just been handed in by a childhood friend who was asked to guard them ..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2551751/Tin-marbles-belonging-Anne-Frank-turn-Amsterdam-70-years-gave-neighbour-safekeeping.html

notes on how to watch television from the other room ...

in mid-week, the loved one likes to catch up with the popular television drama, "call the midwife"

she watches it whilst curled up on the sofa with her laptop and just when i'm creeping off to bed in preparation for an early alarum

i find there is almost always an opportunity before i sleep to pretend to share her fascination by calling out, "is someone in labour ?" in an anxious sort of tone at the appropriate moment

i hope it doesn't annoy her

an unexpected almost-nearly-juxtaposition last week in lyme regis ... flags on the stern of a beached fishing boat beside the harbour, the sticker perhaps only a hundred yards away on marine parade

http://antifalausitz.sytes.net/

yayoi kusama

http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/yayoi-kusama/survey-selected-works/image/page/35/

http://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/_31/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama

roy hewish aged 85 rampaging in the welsh mountains