I'm back, with more stuff I like.

I like walking on a bracing autumn afternoon, and I like that I could take these photos about 2 minutes away from my house.

Except this one, which is in my own garden.

Meeting all sorts of people

Do I really need to learn to drive a car?

Enjoying autumn

Assyrian bull harp in the British Musem

Helmets in the British Museum:

Celtic horned helmet

Persian

Assyrian

Arab

Early Medieval stuff in the British Museum - including a bowl of eggs over 1000 years old!

Mushroom spotting.

Sutton Hoo mound 2 - a ship burial but had already been robbed.

The mound of the famous ship burial.

More burial mounds.

Whetstone from ship burial (in British Museum).

Silver plates from Byzantium found in ship burial (in British Museum).

Gold buckle from ship burial (in British Museum).

The famous helmet (the real one in the British Museum).

Apple and blackberry muffins with blackberries freshly picked and apple from mum's allotment.

Going back in time

Trying to think of interesting things to have for dinner

favourite wiki of the week

St Guinefort

St Guinefort is a French saint, whose shrine was a popular site for blessing children. The reason he was so awesome, was that he was actually a dog.

The greyhound Guinefort was entrusted by his master to watch over a baby. When the master returned, the baby's room was full of blood, and Guinefort had a bloody mouth. The master killed Guinefort on the spot, believing the worst. As the dog let out a yelp, he awoke the baby, who was safe and sound - the blood was from a snake, as the master discovered. In his remorse, the master buried Guinefort in a well, a Celtic custom for dogs, and planted a grove of trees around to make a shrine.

Guinefort was revered as a saint, and local people brought their babies to his grave to be healed.

In the mid 13th Century, a Catholic Inquisitor, Stephen de Bourbon, visited the area, and after hearing of the many healing miracles of St Guinefort, decided to find out more about this holy 'man'. Upon discovering the Saint was in fact a dog, he had Guinefort officialy declared a heretic (dogs can't be saints, but can be heretics OF COURSE), and destroyed the grove, the shrine and the remains of the dog.

Despite the Catholic Church's complaints and efforts (including spreading rumours that babies were thrown down the well at Guinefort's shrine, and enlisting local henchmen to confiscate property of people going near the site), the cult of St Guinefort continued until the 1940s. There is a ruined chapel for him in Brittany, and there have been several films made based on the story.

The other reasons I particularly like St Guinefort were that he was on the Wikipedia lists of 'Famous Dogs', 'Folk Saints', and '13th Century Animal Deaths' - and also that his day of veneration is my brother's birthday, August 22nd.

Wondering if I should start using my bike. And wanting to get a dog.

1. 750g plums, 100g dried figs, one onion, garlic, cardamom, 150 ml white vinegar, 100g sugar. 

2. Simmer for 30 minutes. 

3. Add 50 ml more vinegar, and 100 ml red wine. Simmer for another 30 minutes. 

4. Put into sterilised jar. 

5. Store it away for at least a month before eating delicious plum chutney. The other things are plum liquor and gooseberry liquor, still with at least a month to go before being ready. 

Enjoying Tate Modern

favourite wiki of the week

My favourite wiki of the week, and favourite person of the week, or possibly the month, is Bessie Coleman.

Born in Texas in 1892, she was a very hard-working and successful student despite poverty and hard conditions. When she finished school she went to the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University, but all her savings only paid for one term, and so she moved to Chicago to be with two of her twelve siblings. 


Hearing about First World War pilots inspired her to want to fly planes. Despite backing from influential men in the black community, as a black woman she could not get admitted to any US flight schools. However, she knew that in France, women were already being trained as pilots.


She learned French while  in Chicago, and got financial backing to travel to Europe from Robert Abbott, a wealthy black Chicago businessman. On June 15 1921, she was awarded an International Aviation Licence  from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.


This meant she was the first African American woman to hold any pilots licence, and the first African American to hold an international pilots licence. 


After a brief return to the USA, once again finding herself unable to get training there, she took further tuition in France, the Netherlands and Germany in advanced aviation. She continued learning with the aim of becoming a stunt pilot, the only real way to make a living as a civilian aviator before the age of commercial flights. 


She achieved great popularity and success as a stunt pilot when she went back to the USA, while never compromising on issues of race. She would not participate in flying displays in any venue that didn't admit people of colour, and she walked off the set of a film which would have starred her, when she discovered the script required her to appear in stereotypical tattered clothes. 


Her aim was to make enough money to set up a flying school for black aviators, of both sexes. Sadly, she died when the plane being flown by her mechanic went into a tailspin and she was thrown to the ground. The plane crashed, also killing the mechanic. Although this cut short her ambitions, and her life (she was only 34), she had already inspired a generation of African Americans, and opened the eyes of some white Americans.

I made this handy reference guide.

Captain Haddock (oil paint)

favourite wiki of the week

Fakelore: stories made up to seem like, and purporting to be, genuine folklore. For example, in the Soviet era there were attempts to replace genuine Russian folk tales- often morose, religious and fatalistic- with 'fakelore' government-approved up-beat 'progressive' stories.

Sort of like viral marketing eh.

I love this new deely on my phone: RetroCamera

I just made these rhubarb and lemon scones, and they are delicious.