Thursday, 10 November 2011

Something unexpected from Paraguay

I searched for Paraguayan Harp and found something that took me completely by surprise...

Wednesday, 9 November 2011

Grasshopper's treasures - Part I - UPDATE

A few weeks back Grasshopper mentioned an auction that was going to take place near him. He even offered to bid on our behalf if anything caught our eye and ship it to us, as long as it wasn't a car. Peter wouldn't settle for anything less than a Packard, so it didn't happen (ha ha ha). Joking aside, our friend was successful in securing the lot that had captured his imagination and sent me many photos of his treasures. Grasshopper put his experience in context:

Hi Regina, as you know, I can be an excitable boy and not a very materialistic one at that, but as soon as I heard "arrowheads" (as a gardener and digger of many holes, I was always half looking for one) and laid eyes on this auction display photo, 6 weeks ago, I knew it had to be mine. I became obsessed, lost sleep and when I finally got to examine everything close up I thought it would be way too expensive. At the preview there were 4 people with a magnifying glass hovering over MY stuff for about a half hour, taking notes and pictures so I figured they KNEW. Apparently not. Not knowing what the auctioneer was even talking about I just held my card up in the air and magically the bidding stopped at a very comfortable level for me, so my heart soared like an eagle (much like the one on the root club). Needless to say, I'm just about as happy as a grasshopper can be.

Grasshopper's treasures

We decided to show the photos in batches and here's the first one, of a couple of carved root clubs:








The intricate handle "chip" carving may mean that these belonged to a chief, or shaman/medicine man.

They're made from the root ball/burl of a young birch tree and the carvings release the spirit of the sacred animal and then they go out and club the crap out of each other with it for fun on Saturday nights. The two I have definitely have battle scars.

Well done and thank you for the colourful description of the clubs, Grasshopper!

There are more photos to come, stay tuned for future posts.

[Please click on images to see all the details in full glory.]

UPDATE

Grasshopper has been doing some research on various items and found something fascinating about the root clubs HERE.

Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Living architecture

View_From_Here sent me this inspiring video:



Thank you, View. This shows humans CAN work with nature...

Euro fun and games

Dominique, our former next door neighbour, sent me this photo:

Angela Merkel babysits Sarkozy 

Perhaps it was taken during a break in the Eurozone discussions?

Monday, 7 November 2011

Murmuration

HelenNPN sent me the link to a lovely nature story:

This is one of the most spectacular animal phenomena known to man.

A murmuration, which this is, consists of thousands of tiny starlings (birds) collectively flying and swirling about. The mesmerizing act is typically seen at the beginning of winter, right before dusk, as the birds look for a place to roost for the night.



Read more and see some photos HERE.

Thank you, Helen.