Curse you, Thursday!
Woke up to driving rain and gale-force winds this morning. I lay and bed and thought, “hey, at least it’s Friday.”
Shit.
To be fair, Uncle B tried to persuade me to accept a lift in this morning, but I was all like “no, no…it’s going to clear by noon! I’ll be fine!”
Shit.
Never trust an English weather forecast. It pissed down all day and both ways, and my end-of-the-week bike battery wasn’t up to a head wind. I’m counting the minutes to Gin o’Clock. See you tomorrow, when the sky will clear and it really will be Friday.
December 7, 2017 — 9:45 pm
Comments: 10
Things that are on my Christmas list that probably aren’t on yours
Caput mortuum. It’s a pigment. An earth pigment. An iron oxide, to be exact. It looks like a dull brown, but mixed with white it becomes a lovely velvety purple. Very popular for painting pope robes.
The term means “dead head” and it’s derived from alchemy. It refers to (presumably worthless) stuff left in the bottom of your alchemical vessel after the more important things had…evaporated off. Or whatever they do. My alchemy is rusty.
The original pigment may indeed have been a byproduct of alchemy. All the early artificial pigments were.
Because alchemy is full of flowery metaphors, caput mortuum is also symbolic of your mortal remains after the soul has floated away. Its alchemical symbol is therefore a stylized skull, often just three dots in a circle.
Just to confuse matters, the pigment mummy was sometimes sold under the name caput mortuum, though they aren’t similar colors at all. That is an even more interesting paint, but it turns out I already wrote a post about it years ago.
I’m thinking of making paint again, but not really caput mortuum. I love the name, but I’m not really into purples.
December 6, 2017 — 10:18 pm
Comments: 8
Muh hat!
This is a thing that I ordered from Canada that came today!
The tail is raccoon, the hat itself is rabbit. I’d’ve splashed out the extra money for an all-raccoon hat, but it looks all wrong. It’s way too big and puffy for a coonskin cap. Stupid Canucks.
I admit, the ones with the faces on are cool. The fox, the coyote (it has legs!). Ooooo…and the skunk! Are those glass eyes I see? Honestly, though, I think you have to be Jeremiah Man-Mountain to pull off one of those. The hat model looks mighty silly in ’em.
In defense of my sartorial choices, I was born 20 miles from Crockett Tavern.
Hm. I think this thing is shedding. Is rabbit fur supposed to do that?
December 5, 2017 — 7:49 pm
Comments: 24
Hahaha…uh, no
A tayberry is a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry (some sources say loganberry). Uncle B used to grow heaps of them in London and they were very nice.
I had forgotten how nice until we picked up a jar of tayberry jam at a church fete this Summer. Honestly, I think it’s the nicest jam I’ve ever eaten. We both raved over it. We have made sad face at every jar of jam since.
So, naturally, I thought I’d try to get us some for Christmas. Turns out, I got one Google hit on tayberry jam, and it was this one at Fortnum and Mason.
A 200 gram jar is £9.95, plus £5.95 shipping. Folks, that’s like twenty-five bucks for a little jar of jam!
Heh. Check out the rest of their Christmas stuff. Must be nice to have monies.
December 4, 2017 — 11:07 pm
Comments: 8
Happy December!
‘Tis the month of Christmas. Yes, we do that. It helps to have an advent calendar.
This one’s mine — Uncle B bought me the Lindt one.
For the record, today was no improvement over yesterday. It HAMMERED down with rain this morning. It was like biking in through a shower of freezing cold needles. Then I had a doctor’s appointment (diagnosis: plantar fasciitis), an accountant appointment and I had to buy chicken food.
But behind Door #1 was a tiny Lindt bunny. All is right with the world.
Have a good weekend, all!
December 1, 2017 — 7:38 pm
Comments: 10