• intel play
    intel play
    At last I’ve got software to make my old intel play microscope work. I don’t know what took me so long to look for it and down load it. Of course now that it works, the quality is a little sad, but then it is quite old and we’ve come to expect so much of digital imaging in the meantime. Maybe I should put down a new microscope on my Christmas present list.

    Either way, it’s much more fun than squinting down an optical microscope.

    I’ve noticed a bit of an invasion of flatworms in the pond this summer. I love the way they glide through the water, just under the surface, using the surface tension to hold them up. The Flatworms, or Planaria, are about 12 to 15 mm long. They are related to tapeworms and liver flukes. They are carnivorous. As they have no blod, if you split them in two, two new flatworms will grow.

    The microscope doesn’t do that well with bigger things like this, but I did make a little movie of it gliding around a blob of water that shows you how graceful they are. They move by using hair like cillia as little rowing oars. I should try to get closer in and show that movement. Flatworms are not to be confused with leeches – I’ve got them in the pond too!

  • Pot from Mycenae
    Pot from Mycenae

    We visited Mycenae while on holiday in Greece. The views were stunning, the size of it all was awesome, but what I enjoyed most was the museum and their collection of pots.

    The designs of the Mycenae period are quite sublime and I think we can learn a lot from the works of those masters. Their patterns are simple and beautiful, probably refined and refined and passed down from father to son over a long period. We only get to see what is left. How much wonderful stuff must there have been at the time.

    My poor, long-suffering wife and children obviously wanted to pop into the museum, look at the stuff and move on. I wanted to stay all day and draw the patterns. Taking photos or buying postcards is not enough. You have to trace the lines yourself and recreate the marks to really understand them.

    Many of the designs are determined by the brush and the way the brush works. You really need a brush to recreate the style. We use pens so much these days, because they are so convenient. What a hassle to get a brush out to draw! I must have a go with a brush myself and see what I come up with.

    Many of the designs would make lovely logos today. I wonder what the Mycenaen designers would have made of computers and bézier curve drawing. I’m sure they would have loved it. The simple shapes are very similar. So often I looked at a pot and thought how modern it seemed, as if the design had been drawn on Illustrator just the day before. Plus ça change…

  • Cathedral - Forest of Dean
    Cathedral – Forest of Dean

    All Saints Church in Newland is unofficially known as the Cathedral of the Forest, but if you ask people where the cathedral is in the Forest of Dean, most will think of the stained glass piece on the Sculpture Trail at Beechenhurst.

    I’ve known it for 20 years now and it has stood up to the elements pretty well. I visited it last week and took this photo. It was made to last. The glass is protected in a polycarbonate sandwich and has resisted the various air pistol pot shots and stones that have been thrown at it. But it looks like it could maybe do with a bit of a clean to get some green off it and there are a few white holes where the colour seems to have worn off.

    Some of the sculptures have had a hard time or have simply been stolen or had parts nicked. A new one was recently graffitied and the most popular, Melissas’s Swing, which was meant to be a place of quiet contemplation, is treated more like a theme park ride. At least they get people out in the woods and connecting a little with nature. You don’t have to go far off the way-marked trail to find you have the whole forest to yourself. I guess people are scared to get lost. I don’t think you’d be lost for very long. The forest is criss-crossed with roads and track.

    My new series, Monster Boy is set in a Forest not dissimilar to the Forest of Dean. Perhaps I should have a few walks and take a few pictures of the places that inspire the stories. Actually, that’s a great idea.