The ones that didn't make it

The title of today's post sounds like something from World War II, but it's about birds.
Last month, when I didn't have time to do anything but slave over those papers there was a couple of Parus major nesting in our carport. The little hatchlings crying out for food all day long. I don't know how many hatched in total, but there must have been three or more, because, sadly, three fell out of the nest with two day intervals. They were already done for, so I couldn't put them back. You can see the rapidity of arrested growth between the tiny cadavers.

Feeding the Jay

I noticed some Garrulus glandarius (Eurasian Jays) hanging around the garden about a week ago. I start my study cycle each morning about half eight in the conservatory. I put down bread now every day on the fence so they can have a nibble. It's mostly just one solitary bird checking everything out.
They're very shifty, just like magpies. I decided to get the camera out and take a few snaps while drinking my first cup of coffee. No sooner had I started waiting in true paperazzi-style and three (!) of them showed up. I got some nice pictures, I even shot one through the screen and it gave me a lovely Marlène Dietrich effect.

Antihydrogen Atoms Trapped For 1000s

Or 16 minutes and 40 seconds. Enough for a cookery show to produce a three course meal and maybe enough to finally have a break-through to help answer the question why we live in a matter universe and not an antimatter one.

The question I'm most concerned with is, if we can, in a not too distant future, harness antigravity so I don't break stuff when it slips from the hand and is attracted to the floor. And have teleportation. And loads of other cool stuff.

Kitteh Jungle Gym

I don't know what's wrong with the kittehs. Mouser went ballistic too yesterday morning. Must be the odour Bonnie left behind or something.
They love those chairs for some strange reason. It's being used as a kitteh jungle gym. I have a picture of Mouser just before it slid through the gap at the side and fell off.

Hot, hotter, hottest

It is nearly 2 pm and the temperature in the conservatory has already reached 34ºC. Yesterday it peaked at 38ºC. It's currently 29,3ºC in the shade outside. That's where I'm at. I managed to keep the house inside at a cool-ish 24ºC. Without airconditioning or fans. \o/ If it'd be isolated (ceiling, walls, windows) it could probably be kept even cooler. Mind you, I didn't really open up all windows during the night to let the night air in. Because that'll also let in all the midges. And Dr Livingstone is not here to get stung in my place.
Mouser is also inside the house, reposing on a bed. It doesn't want to come out at all. Usually Velvet Claws is in the kitchen in a flash when the fridge door is opened. But not so now.
I wish I was be able to have a nice lie down in my hammock right now.
But no. I need to get through the First World War and the Interbellum. Bleh. I hope I'm all done by this evening, then I can finish up Music History tomorrow.

Impertinent cat is impertinent

Apart from Mouser this other cat, Bonnie, roams around the garden too. I hadn't seen it in a while, but yesterday afternoon it was back with a vengeance to get some attention.
Making a lot of kitteh noises and jumping on seats which is out of bounds, even to Mouser [Kitteh has been trained not to do that kind of thing].

I had to shake the chair ferociously to get that darn Bonnie to jump off it. I couldn't overturn the cushion because it would hiss and lash out at me with its Super Sharp Claws™. It really clung to the chair. I managed to take a snap of the cat hanging on to the arm rest while I was trying to remove the Garden Panther™.
I also took a shot of Bonnie while kitteh was rather miffed at having been ousted from the sitting implement.

Lazy cat is lazy

Not much going on here. Me cramming for the upcoming exams. That's about it.
Getting up, bucket loads of coffee, some things on people long dead, more coffee, sleep.
I'm already lagging behind my study schedule, no thanks to that annoying illness which has lasted up till Monday. My head is starting to clear up, but tissues are still on the table at arm's reach.

Mouser has granted me the privilege to grace me with its presence and hang around within strolling distance. When I'm in the conservatory teh kitteh takes up half of the bench. When it's too hot, Mouser goes and sleeps under one of the shrubberies just outside so it can still see me. Yesterday it did engage in stalking some pigeons and brought me two mice. Saves me giving Velvet Claws dindins I'm not supposed to give.

Anyway, I should be getting back. I need to do a 100 page chapter today. Joy.
I hear yelping at the front door. I expect that'll be another fresh mouse for brekkers.

Royalty in the carport

The lovely climatis is in full bloom. When we came to live here I didn't notice it at first. But now it is bringing forth wonderful bright pink flowers and attracting loads of bees to match. Now correct me if I'm wrong here, but this variety is called 'Comtesse de Bouchaud'. So now every time I have to take the car out I need to curtsy.

Crammed

I have proof our house is not the only place that is crammed with a ridiculous amount of books.
I was on the fifth floor of the faculty library. There is not enough room to navigate the shelves. You have to walk in sideways to get at the book. And then you need to bend through your knees and squat in a very inconvenient manner if you want to reach for a book if it is on the bottom shelf.
I had to take a picture and post it here -for added dramatic effect- because no one would believe me if I just mentioned how small it was. The yellow notebook is A5 format. It leaves just a little space left and right of it. A4 fills up the entire space. That's how small it is.

Theft from new MAS museum in Antwerp

The MAS museum in Antwerp has barely opened its doors and already a thief has been active on the premises. The theft of a power horn was reported yesterday afternoon by one of the guards. After teh discovery they upped the security and 'searched the visitors'.
Qudos to the thief for nabbing that horn. It was child's play really. No alarm, not in a lockable display case. And apparently no guards around to see someone meddling with an artefact. Director Paul Depauw said: 'We now know what the critical points are and how we have to deal with the public. There will be extra camera's and also 'do not touch'-signs. Some of the objects will be moved behind plexiglass walls'.
Sorry to roll my eyes here, but I seem to recall an article that appeared in The Economist not two weeks ago where Depauw says: “if you don't take care of objects, who is going to tell us stories about the past?”

Yes, and who is responsible for taking care of the objects and telling stories?
How can you not notice the critical points before opening. Never heard of a risk assesment?
And the measures that will be taken; they're as useful as fitting an alarm to a house that has already been burgled. Or, to use Tom Flynn's expression: that will be as effective as installing an ashtray on a motorcycle. Or in Blackadder's: as useful as a cat flap in an elephant house.

Tragic as though it is, this goes to show (again) the sheer naieveté Belgian museums have concerning thefts from public musea. Putting up 'do not touch'-signs. Will you believe it.



x-posted from The Art Detective blog.

The night has eyes

I'm being guarded at night. By a female tawny owl (strix aluco) no less. She's been making enough noise outside the window to wake the dead. I'm not letting down the blind, I might frighten it away. How I wish Dr Livingstone was here to hear it, he is really keen on the winged little predators. Mouser not so, as they're eating all of its favourite food.
They're going to have to battle it out who's on the top of the food pyramid.

New life

Just like at the last house, there are horses on the other side of the fence. And as of last couple of days +1 horse to be exact.
There had been a lot of ruckus going on one night, in the morning when I opened the gate to drive the car out, there it was: a brand spanking new horsie. Its hooves are still pristine white. Poor dear is asleep every time I glance outside.

The new cow in town

I was a bit startled to find a cow on the Ladeuze square on Wednesday.
A socialist trade union had organized a spot of Crap yourself rich, proceeds would go to the Cancer Fund.
At 1.30 pm the beautiful beast was let out of its box.
When I came back from class around 4 it still hadn't crapped.
Never in my life have I ever seen so much people stand in expectation of a cow doing its business. Really.
It must be like watching wallpaper dry.
Honestly. If you were a cow, would you be able to go with all those people looking at you?

Sebastian Skywalker

Ok, just one more Star Wars lookalike.
Luke Skywalker and Sebastian Vettel.
Looks like the Red Bull Racing Team has been using The Force to win all those Grand Prix.
The International Automobile Federation probably have got a rule for this.

Quick lookalike

Same hair, different decades.
Joelia Timosjenko and Princess Leia.

Too busy for anything

No new posts since last week. Too busy doing stuff. I'm finishing starting a paper on Magritte which is due on Monday. And finishing another on an early sixteenth century panel, which is due on ... Monday.
So no rest for the wicked.
I finally managed to do some shopping today, which was long overdue, since I hadn't bought food since Dr Livingstone was home. Well, except for that loaf of bread at the start of the week.
I've been doing the full student experience this week, even eating at the student restaurant.
And subsequently having a gruelling cold and germs to match. Bleh. I hate being around that much people.
Anyhow. I'm going to resume my creative writing, shove some healthy fruit and veg down and then finish the day with a nice detective on the telly.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Dr Livingstone!

I posted you a blog entry but blogger ate it.
Blogger had issues on Friday and all posts I made disappeared. So I had re-post birfday greetz.

The Politics of Traditionalism in French Art (19000-1914)

Just got back from an entertaining lecture by Neil McWilliam on the politics of traditionalism in French art (1900-1914).
I was familiar with the work of Emile Bernard just up to the point he left for Africa. This because I had recently read 'The Yellow House'. What I didn't know was how Bernard's work evolved from the cloisonist to the idéalist style he later defended within his favoured approach of art (dubbed traditionalism). Very enlightening and very elegantly worded by Professor McWilliam.
I refrained from asking a question as I didn't want to make a complete arse of myself in front of my two professors who organised the lecture.
I don't know why but throughout the words Marcel and Proust leapt to mind...

Book worms mice

I made my way to yet another faculty library to get some books -well, duh- for my paper. Looks like they haven't been read much at all over the past 100 years. They're the type that has pages that had to be sliced open before you could start readig.
The sides look like there have been mice at it.

Metallica in the library

When I was strolling from the faculty library to the central library, the belfry was playing. Every Wednesday during lunch hour sweet tunes emerge from the tower. Not your some unknown music, but the musician manipulating the bells adapts contemporary pop songs. Yesterday, during my brisk walk, I heard 'Killing me softly' by The Fugees and an excellent 'Nothing else matters' by Metallica.
The library is absolutely dead silent (except on market days), but when the big bell is struck you can feel the sound going through the whole building.

It's .... another book!

I brought this beauty of a book home with me on monday. Het Vlaamse Wandtapijt by Guy Delmarcel. The student club had put in an order for a massive amount of this work and was able to sell them to us at a discount. A bargain at just 15 €. It's sold out at most bookstores.
I'm taking a course on decorative arts next year, and it was recommended to us by a professor.
I'd say tapestries are one of our most successful export products to date. That and vertical windmills.

Statler & Waldorf at the archive

I was at the Mechelen city archive today working on my next paper due at the end of next week. Very friendly people. The reading room is in an attic. Tables are shoved underneath the sloping roof. So tall people like me need to be cautious not to bump our heads when standing up or moving around. I bumped into a roof beam, although I managed to dodge most of it. I didn't hit it head-on like Dr Livingstone hit our glass door last month.

The archive opens up at half past eigh, I got there around quarter to nine, traffic was slow. Next to my working area were already two pensioners hard at it. They were reading aloud to each other. They were like Statler & Waldorf.

Anyhow, I ordered tons of archive material to thumb through. I was halfway into a box of stuff and found something of interest. I'm currently doing research on a cycle of 25 paintings on the life of Saint Rumbold.
I discovered a missing tableau. Hurrah!
Alas, that was not really the focus of my angle. I was writing about them from an iconological viewpoint, more specifically the nachleben of some panels in 19th century building 'restauration'.
Ah well, can't win them all.

A colour orgy

If someone knows what these flowers are called, please post me a name. There are three stunning bushes which I can see from the living room and kitchen and are all of them sporting three different kinds of coloured flowers. One of them is the bush I so drastically pruned earlier this season. In the old place there were lots of these kinds of bushes and they used to blossom two to three times a season. The only thing I know about these coloured bee traps is that I am allowed to prune them just after they've flowered.

Greetings from the garden

A very lovely surprise when I opened up the front door to let Mouser out. A solitary flower greeting me in the morning.
All prim and white, slightly glistening with morning dew.
It exceeded all expectations of what would come out of the buds I posted on earlier. I thought they were going to be some king of ordinary orange or pink. But this pristine white bloom is so pretty. If I were a bee I'd choose this one to gather pollen. It has these attractive folds. Nature really outdid itself again.
Pitty Dr Livingstone is not around to see them.

The Veg Patch

This is how the veg patch has evolved after some time. Some leaves are appearing on the berry-stick-things and the onions are rearing their heads. Still no sign of the potatoes, they should be on the right. Well, they are on the right, underground. My guess is they've already been eaten by earth worms and ants. A big, short rain and hale storm swept of this part of the country yesterday, so it got a good drenching. All the plants need some massive amounts of water. Some even have drooping leaves.

From studying to soldering

It's back to fixing stuff for the mo. I handed in my paper this morning. Finally done with it. It turned out to be a good 46 pages of full text and I added another 9 or so image mash=ups. My eyes are a little sore from staring at the computer screen.
Ah well. All in a good cause.
Now on to the next ones. I have just under three weeks to write up another two. Wish me luck.

Grassplantation gone wrong

Dr Livingstone's grassplantation has gone awry. It hadn't rained in a fortnight and it has gone all brown. Hopefully it will start to grow again, after the few drops we've had over the last two days. It isn't much, bit it might spark a bit of life into the bits of lawn, now looking very much like crude band aids.

I love the smell of sewage water in the morning

Before Dr Livingstone left to tour he managed to borrow a water pump and pump out all the water that was in a pit in front of the garage. Funny Tragic thing is, the tank has no outlet. Very strange. The water can't sink into the bottom either, as it has a concrete floor. This is puzzling. Luckily it is now nearly empty. It is where the dirty water from the washing machine goes. And possibly even the rainpipes from the car port. But we haven't figured that one out just yet, as it hasn't rained here for weeks. Well, it did very briefly on Friday afternoon, but that barely lasted more than half an hour.
There was also a toilet hooked up to it, but we removed that one. It currently resides in a skip at the container park.
Needles to say the odor coming from the tank was a strange blend of sewage water with a hint of lavender fabric softner.
As I said to Dr Livingstone at quarter to seven in the morning: 'I love the smell of sewage water in the morning'.
We pumped the lot in the adjoining field very early so our nosy neighbours didn't have to inquire in our waste removal activities.
So another job well done! And a big thanks to S. for lending us his pump!

Interesting blooms

With great anticipation I'm watching these flowers at the front door. This week some extra's have popped out and are keeping me interested every time I'm passing. Wonder how high they'll grow before they change colour/open up/do something else to confuse me.

A glass of flowers

I decided to cheer the place up a bit now Dr Livingstone is out on the road again for a three month stint.
Like Mrs Bucket says: 'Bring the outdoors indoors'. So I cut off a whole bunch of lilies, bound them up together with some string and put them in a champagne glass. I'm not the sort of woman to hoard vases in all different kinds of shapes and sizes.
They smell absolutely yummy. I hope they last a good while.
There are enough in the garden anyway, I might as well enjoy them inside as I can't go out in this beautiful hot weather. The sun blinds the computer screen and I need to finish this paper I've been slaving over this week.

From dull things comes beauty

I love all the pretty flowers outside. I made a small round up of the ones emanating their lovely intense colours and smells.
We've got skimmia (bottom right) all around our circle patio and climatis (bottomon left) the car port! Still waiting to find out what kind, I'm not very good at determination by leaves or other stuff. Also, the garden is simply teeming with lily of the valley (centre). I do miss the lovely magnolia we had in our old garden. That smelt terrific too.

We've also got some awesome red flowers (top left) and lovely light pink blossoming trees (I hope their fruit, but that would be a bit too much to hope for). There is a tree that is supposed to be a cherry tree. The neighbours told us it was dead. It isn't it is just bothering them I think. I trimmed some dead branches away, I need to get onto the ladder to do it, but that'll be for another season.

Emmanuelle chair

Mouser giving away an impersonation of Sylvia Kristel.

Under two hours

Not even two hours. That's how long it took.
Yesterday I put some junk at the roadside so passers-by could take it. All I added was a sign: Free lawnmower.
It was an electric mower that the people who we bought the house from left behind. It was junk. The electric leads were bare, the traction was broken. And I have trouble mowing with a cable anyway. It takes way too long to shift it so I don't run over it.
The mower was gone when Dr Livingstone got home. I had only put it there just two hours before.
Looks like people here are pretty desperate to mow their lawns.
I hope the sucker who took the thing home doesn't electrocute himself.

Plans have been found

The plans have been found. They'd gotten buried under tons of other stuff that had nothing to do with my research.
So it was off to the archive again. Took some pictures, put my brain to work. I'm transforming it into text as we speak. Still a long way to go, but we're getting there. I'm on page 13 or so and steadily progressing. I've also done some illustrations and worked out some visual comparisons which I'll shove in somewhere in the back.
I was also working on an interactive website, but I'll see if I still have time to finish that up.
Anyway, must get back to creative writing before my cup of coffee runs out and writer's block sets in again.

Mystery Morph

I'm keen to find out what everything will be turning into when it flowers. There's some strange looking leaves shooting up in front of the front door. They're ultra thin. This week something that will become a flower of some kind popped up in between. It's just as flat as the leaves. Strange. I think it could be some kind of gladiolus. But I wouldn't put any money on it just yet.

Gardening schemes (part 3)

We did this about a month or so ago, but due to lack of time I haven't blogged on this part of the garden. We pulled out plants with the car before (read all about in Diggin' in the dirt), but this small adventure kind of got on our nerves. It was car vs plant. Needless to say the plant won. Dr Livingstone put a noose around the thing, hooked it up to the tow and drove off. We only managed to pull off some bark. The rest, annoyingly, stayed in the ground. I did manage to clean some stuff up, but we're far from having accomplished the tabula rasa action.
I trimmed the bush that will sport some pink flowers later this year (yes, I don't know the name of that bush either). The only thing I did was cut away all the dead twigs and the ones growing in the wrong direction. It does look rather unscrupulously done, but it's all for the best.
It looks really neat from the before and after pictures I took.
When term is over and exams are finished I will dig around some more.

Gardening schemes (part 2)

The gardener in Dr Livingstone has awoken. I thought he wasn't serious about wanting a veg garden, but when I got home from the mill he had already prepared a little bed to plant some stuff. I had bought three roots of red gooseberry. I'd like to have fruit I can simply pluck off and eat. [With a good wash of course. That darn black Bonney cat sprays everywhere, I assume these new plants will not escape the obligatory baptism.]
He had preformed a grasplantation and filled up the lawn where the conifer had once stood and its acid in needles eaten away everything.
I also bought some onions to plant, but far too many.
There wasn't anything else to put into the ground, so I got a couple of potatoes and some garlic from the kitchen.
Yeah, that's right. We actually haven't got a clue what we're doing.
I think he even forgot to water everything after he buried the lot.
Lulz.
The veg patch is of a very discreet nature if you can see the scale of (a small part of the garden which goes on and on behind the wall of (yet more) conifer.

Prepare the guest room

Well, they weren't at home to Mr(s) Cockup. I was in front of the building I'm doing a paper on. Neighbour who was getting rid of all the moss on his drive way with a water pressure hose shouted they weren't in. 'Their car isn't there so they must be out'.

Fantastic. They're not in the phone book, there's no name on the letter box. Just my luck they're not in on the day I drive 252 kilometers (with the price of diesel this time of year!).

So no trick or treat. And yes, I guessed correctly, they are old age pensioners, very reclusive. The man across the street doesn't even know them.
Even the woman down the village library Oh, I know everyone in the village except them didn't have the foggiest.

Anyway, I took some pictures from the outside, sat in the pub till the local library opened, rang the bell again (still no one home) and then returned home.

The paper is coming along nicely now though. I've typed up eleven pages and still haven't scratched the surface of it. Ah well.

Plans are missing

I spent all day in the archive yesterday. I was planning on thumbing through some plans of the project I'm currently working on.
I've already waded through some extensively boring administration and letters penned in ink & gruesome 19th century handwriting.
So on to the plans. And I found out they ... weren't there. -_-
Someone had already taken them away to archive heaven. The archivist there yesterday (there's about 5 of them, all working part time or something) didn't know anything about it. So I emailed the archivist archiving the archives I'm working on to see if she could find the plans for me once again.
My paper is due at the end of the month and I'm starting to get a little bit worried now.

Bleh. Today I'm going to visit the little town and the building I've been doing research on.
I'm going to play trick-or-treat. I have to ask the people who live there if I can come in and have a look around.
Wonder how that's going to be.
'Hi there, I'm a student from the x University, currently writing a paper on the architect of your house.
I do not look like a student, as I am already in my thirties. It's ok if you do not trust me to let me in, especially with all the break-ins that have been happening in the area. Yes, I have a camera with me to photograph the building, not to inventorise your belongings to flog them after I've cleaned the place out.'

I wouldn't let me in if I was them.

Business as usual

Went down to Brussels to meet up with some friends on tour with Jamiroquai. Very nice to see them all again. Some of them I haven't seen since touring with that band.

They were all well. Mending and healing from broken bones, limping on busted kneecaps and nursing their hangovers.

Solidarity Button

I bought my solidarity button at the faculty library last week. All proceeds of the sale are going to the Japanese Red Cross.

Here's a link to the Japan Earthquake and tsunami donation page.

Gravity map

ESA presented new results of the GOCE gravity mission. Here's an example of a gravity map. This is what earth looks like if modelled on the strenght of gravity. Blue areas (the flat ones) have less pull on objects, red and orange parts (the bulges) more.