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Here is a thing I painted.
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On Rame Head
Aug. 3rd, 2014 04:53 pmRandomly we went to Rame Head: a long tall bulge of land pointing out into the sea.
It has a little building on it that from a distance looks like a chapel. Wikipedia calls it an 'intact shell' and says it is dedicated to St Michael, but at close quarters, it is fairly clear that the people who are mostly using it nowadays are equine. Possibly they still say horsy prayers to St Michael for providing them with a horse-shelter with such fine views.
( Read more... )
It has a little building on it that from a distance looks like a chapel. Wikipedia calls it an 'intact shell' and says it is dedicated to St Michael, but at close quarters, it is fairly clear that the people who are mostly using it nowadays are equine. Possibly they still say horsy prayers to St Michael for providing them with a horse-shelter with such fine views.
( Read more... )
Chocoholic Vole
Jun. 30th, 2014 09:19 pmSummer time, and the windows and doors are open. The first time I saw the vole zoom across the floor and take refuge under the sofa, I was a little surprised, but assumed it had been imported by a cat. Then I thought that it has been a long time since any of our geriatric cats bestirred themselves to hunt, so this seemed odd.
This afternoon, I surprised the vole half-way up our Ikea shelves, tucking in enthusiastically to a small bar of chocolate it had found there that I had put safely out of reach of the dogs.
I now believe it to be not a sad Victim Vole, carried in by predators, but a bold Raiding Vole, nipping in through the french doors in the hope of finding loot.
Definitely a vole. Not a rat, not a mouse. Vole: little round face, short tail.
This afternoon, I surprised the vole half-way up our Ikea shelves, tucking in enthusiastically to a small bar of chocolate it had found there that I had put safely out of reach of the dogs.
I now believe it to be not a sad Victim Vole, carried in by predators, but a bold Raiding Vole, nipping in through the french doors in the hope of finding loot.
Definitely a vole. Not a rat, not a mouse. Vole: little round face, short tail.
Some 'viking' graffiti I noticed in a tiny pottery (well, more of a hut with some pots in, if I'm honest. I love the tile colours. I think the graffiti commemorates the time that Vikings rowed up the River Tamar, past the pottery hut (although I doubt it was there then. Though you never know. It looked medievalish, though not the cement render, obviously) and then up the Tavy, all the way to Tavistock Abbey, which they sacked. The pottery is on the path to Danescombe Wood - a name I had not previously noticed as Significant.
I've been meaning to watch the new 'Vikings' TV series ever since![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sineala recommended it, but I didn't get around to it until finally the History channel (never was a TV channel more misnamed!) started showing it in the UK. My sister (who had seen it in Canada) seemed very sure that I would hate it. Having watched several episodes, I'm still wondering why she would think that.
Good things about Vikings:
1) there are lots of pretty vikings, and even more pretty ships. I would probably watch a TV show that was just viking ships sailing about the place being awesome.
2) there are embarrassing yet somehow loveable and bungling Saxons. I love Saxons, although admittedly these are only marginally more Saxony than the Sheepskin Saxonx in Arthur of the Britons. Why are there not more shows about Saxons???
3) It feels suitably Northern and epic. I think this is more important than quibbles like 'but the Vikings would have known where Britain was, and also we don't know for sure that they had sunstones, and they didn't have a death penalty, and where exactly is this supposed to BE anyway??'
I am enjoying it. I'm slightly baffled by the threesomes (it seems to be a thing in this series that Viking couples invite guests to join in), but I suppose they achieve the desired effect of making the point that this is a very different culture. I liked the 'We don't talk about Ragnarok' thing too. I must admit my first instinct there was 'wouldn't Athelstan (Saxon monk/slave) know about Ragnarok?' - but then, it's 793 and they just sacked Lindesfarne - Northumbria had been Christian about 166 years on and off. So maybe he wouldn't.
I've been meaning to watch the new 'Vikings' TV series ever since
sineala recommended it, but I didn't get around to it until finally the History channel (never was a TV channel more misnamed!) started showing it in the UK. My sister (who had seen it in Canada) seemed very sure that I would hate it. Having watched several episodes, I'm still wondering why she would think that.Good things about Vikings:
1) there are lots of pretty vikings, and even more pretty ships. I would probably watch a TV show that was just viking ships sailing about the place being awesome.
2) there are embarrassing yet somehow loveable and bungling Saxons. I love Saxons, although admittedly these are only marginally more Saxony than the Sheepskin Saxonx in Arthur of the Britons. Why are there not more shows about Saxons???
3) It feels suitably Northern and epic. I think this is more important than quibbles like 'but the Vikings would have known where Britain was, and also we don't know for sure that they had sunstones, and they didn't have a death penalty, and where exactly is this supposed to BE anyway??'
I am enjoying it. I'm slightly baffled by the threesomes (it seems to be a thing in this series that Viking couples invite guests to join in), but I suppose they achieve the desired effect of making the point that this is a very different culture. I liked the 'We don't talk about Ragnarok' thing too. I must admit my first instinct there was 'wouldn't Athelstan (Saxon monk/slave) know about Ragnarok?' - but then, it's 793 and they just sacked Lindesfarne - Northumbria had been Christian about 166 years on and off. So maybe he wouldn't.
Viking Queens & Shieldmaidens
Jun. 15th, 2014 05:52 pmHow did I do all that reading about Viking ships just now, and not realise that the beautiful Oseberg ship that you see photos of everywhere when you look for Viking ships, was not just a ship-burial, but a queen-burial? "The skeletons of two women were found in the grave with the ship. One, probably aged 60–70, suffered badly from arthritis and other maladies. The second was initially believed to be aged 25–30, but analysis of tooth-root translucency suggests she was older (aged 50–55)."
And also, here is a little Viking person I've just stumbled upon; the Harby Valkyrie, thought to date to around 800AD. I love her hairstyle and Big Sword and patterned dress. (I'm not sure why valkyrie rather than shieldmaiden? Maybe it's the hair.). I may see if I can carve a version of her.
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Lots more really good photos of her here : http://www.finefynskefund.dk/valkyrien/
And also, here is a little Viking person I've just stumbled upon; the Harby Valkyrie, thought to date to around 800AD. I love her hairstyle and Big Sword and patterned dress. (I'm not sure why valkyrie rather than shieldmaiden? Maybe it's the hair.). I may see if I can carve a version of her.
( Read more... )
Lots more really good photos of her here : http://www.finefynskefund.dk/valkyrien/
Sutcliff Swap!
Jun. 10th, 2014 09:34 amThe 2014 collection is open! I haven't read all the stories yet...
But I have read my gift, Fiat Justicia by opalmatrix. It's all about Aunt Honoria, a minor character in The Silver Branch who I personally consider to be more interesting than the protagonists, and she really lives up to that billing in this story, being both awesome and ruthless!
motetus drew me an Aunt Honoria as a treat, and she is a perfect fit with the story. There is even more Aunt Honoria to look forward to in the other stories too. She seems to be turning into something of a third century version of Judi Dench's M, which is a move that one can really only applaud delightedly.
With bonus extra Vikings!
I wrote two things for Sutcliff Swap this year, and both of them were kind of Vikingy:
Born in the Purple is ostensibly a Blood Feud story - although to be honest there is a bushel of history in there and not much more than a teaspoon of Sutcliff. My heroine, Anna Porphyrogenita, the princess of Constantinople who was sold to the Viking Rus in 988AD in return for an army, only appears by report in Blood Feud, and was a real person.
I had a lot of fun researching Constantinople and the Rus (although in the end there was less Rus than I'd intended). It was a difficult story to write though, because it's basically the story about forced marriage that I managed to wangle my way out of writing when I wrote about Flavia. I don't know why I chose to come back to that theme, given that I'm sure I've complained before that historical fiction has way too much rape in it, and far too few people with hernias or toothache or being trampled by cows. Maybe next time I should make an effort and have everyone tragically trampled by cows or killed by a randomly collapsing building.
The second thing I wrote was:
Audrsaga, forosprey_archer. It's a Sword Song story, based on Sutcliff's last and posthumously published novel about a hot-tempered Viking boy who is given a five-year sentence of exile for murder in around 890AD, and spends the time wandering around Dublin and the Western isles as a sword-for-hire. He ends up in the Hebrides and Caithness, working for first Thorstein the Red, and then his mother, Aud the Deep-minded. Like Anna, Aud and Thorstein were real people. Aud is one of the founder-figures of Iceland, so she appears in a number of the Icelandic sagas, as well as being one of the more memorable characters in Sword Song. The prompt asked what Aud did after she sailed out of the book to settle on Iceland.
This was much easier to write! According to both the sagas and Sutcliff, Aud was a portly lady in her early sixties, a Christian in a period when most Vikings weren't, and very definitely a personality. If I hadn't been struggling to write about Anna at the same time it could easily have been much longer, and I think I may try to take it up to at least the point where Aud sets up her own settlement at Hvamm.
But I have read my gift, Fiat Justicia by opalmatrix. It's all about Aunt Honoria, a minor character in The Silver Branch who I personally consider to be more interesting than the protagonists, and she really lives up to that billing in this story, being both awesome and ruthless!
motetus drew me an Aunt Honoria as a treat, and she is a perfect fit with the story. There is even more Aunt Honoria to look forward to in the other stories too. She seems to be turning into something of a third century version of Judi Dench's M, which is a move that one can really only applaud delightedly.With bonus extra Vikings!
I wrote two things for Sutcliff Swap this year, and both of them were kind of Vikingy:
Born in the Purple is ostensibly a Blood Feud story - although to be honest there is a bushel of history in there and not much more than a teaspoon of Sutcliff. My heroine, Anna Porphyrogenita, the princess of Constantinople who was sold to the Viking Rus in 988AD in return for an army, only appears by report in Blood Feud, and was a real person.
I had a lot of fun researching Constantinople and the Rus (although in the end there was less Rus than I'd intended). It was a difficult story to write though, because it's basically the story about forced marriage that I managed to wangle my way out of writing when I wrote about Flavia. I don't know why I chose to come back to that theme, given that I'm sure I've complained before that historical fiction has way too much rape in it, and far too few people with hernias or toothache or being trampled by cows. Maybe next time I should make an effort and have everyone tragically trampled by cows or killed by a randomly collapsing building.
The second thing I wrote was:
Audrsaga, for
osprey_archer. It's a Sword Song story, based on Sutcliff's last and posthumously published novel about a hot-tempered Viking boy who is given a five-year sentence of exile for murder in around 890AD, and spends the time wandering around Dublin and the Western isles as a sword-for-hire. He ends up in the Hebrides and Caithness, working for first Thorstein the Red, and then his mother, Aud the Deep-minded. Like Anna, Aud and Thorstein were real people. Aud is one of the founder-figures of Iceland, so she appears in a number of the Icelandic sagas, as well as being one of the more memorable characters in Sword Song. The prompt asked what Aud did after she sailed out of the book to settle on Iceland.This was much easier to write! According to both the sagas and Sutcliff, Aud was a portly lady in her early sixties, a Christian in a period when most Vikings weren't, and very definitely a personality. If I hadn't been struggling to write about Anna at the same time it could easily have been much longer, and I think I may try to take it up to at least the point where Aud sets up her own settlement at Hvamm.
