Mysteries of the Upper Air

Yesterday, I tried to book on to a course happening in Bristol in March. Running over two days it is all about making and using a pinhole camera, something I have wanted to do for quite a while. I am fascinated by early photographers and their pioneering methods and I was getting frustrated when the phone went unanswered every time. My husband suggested the office was unmanned because of the snow and I know Bristol had it bad yesterday so perhaps he was right. Anyway, as is the way, I started to think about snow and I remembered that I had a read a while ago about Snowflake Bentley so I refreshed my acquaintance with him and want to share it because it is a testament to one man's passion - or obsession (same thing?) - for something.

Wilson Bentley was known as Snowflake Bentley because of his extensive work in the area of photomicrography, all of it done with snowflakes. He was the first person to photograph them in 1885 (!) and he then took over 5000 pictures of them in his lifetime. He said 'Under the microscope I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty.... every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind'.

Many of his snowflake photos can be seen here, on a website dedicated to his photomicrographs. In an age when we can pick up our digital cameras and switch to macro to get pictures up close it is worth remembering that we can only do that because of the road already travelled by the photographers who pushed boundaries and discovered these amazing things.

I think I would have liked Wilson 'Snowflake' Bentley. I admire dedication and discipline in people with a passion. He also said 'The mysteries of the upper air are about to reveal themselves, if our hands are deft and our eyes quick enough' . Lovely words, but I hope we don't get any more mystery from the upper air today. Perhaps then I'll get through and book that course!

all mapped out....

and finally.... I promise... Rachel Young went to Google maps whilst being out sick from work. It took 15 hours but she found a whole alphabet in the aerial photos. See all 26 here.

Artists using maps

I thought I'd post a few photos of my favourite artists who use maps as part of their portfolio of work. The first I ever came across was Tracey Bush who makes wonderful artists books using maps and other papers cut into butterflies which take their names from their source i.e the Atlas Moth. I have one of Tracey's books and love her work. If you like it, take a look at some others too.

James Aldridge

Sublime artistry from Susan Stockwell

Jennifer Collier

Shannon Rankin

X marks the spot

Yesterday's post got me thinking about all the books I have about maps and map-making as well as the many other artists I have found who use maps in their work. More of them another day perhaps, but these pictures are from a couple of interesting books I searched out from my shelves , the first being 'The Atlas of Experience' by Louise van Swaaij and Jean Klare. From the Bay of Wisdom to the Sea of Plenty and up to the Sea of Ideas, The Atlas of Experience covers the water-front and explores all the inland territories of life's moods, emotions and other states of being.

On the map of Chaos, a mountain range is labelled the Heights of Exasperation and a city named Entree is located on the map of Haute Cuisine. In the map from Here to Everywhere you can sail and get carried away or go by air and fly in the face of destiny. Either way, the direction you take is towards infinity.

This atlas is also included in one of my favourite books. It's called 'You are Here' and it's put together by Katharine Harmon. Subtitled Personal Geographies and Other maps of the Imagination it is a wide ranging collection of superbly inventive maps. These are not your traditional maps - they're the maps to heaven and hell, maps of moods and mythical places. There are maps to popular culture, from Gulliver's Travels to Gilligan's Island, speculative maps of the world before it was known and maps to secret places known only to the mapmaker. It is a book I come back to and find something to interest me every time.

Geographical Guide to a Woman's Heart Emphasising Points of Interest to the Romantic Traveller

Geographical Guide to a Man's Heart with Obstacles and Entrances Clearly Marked

These two maps were inspired by a pair of Victorian lithographs but produced for a magazine in 1960. I love the titles, particularly the fact that there are obstacles to a man's heart. Really?

There are pages of books where maps were integral to the story. As a woman of a certain age I'll always be able to picture the maps on the covers and end pages of Swallows and Amazons and I'll never forget poring over the maps just inside my first copy of The Hobbit. There's even a great episode in Roald Dahl's The BFG where the Head of the Air Force and the Head of the Army are chasing after the BFG and fly completely out of the atlas finding themselves in the blank pages that are at the end of every atlas. When they ask the pilot where they are he tells them they always put blank pages at the back of the atlas. 'They're for new countries,' he says,' You're meant to fill them in yourself'.

Masterly collage

My friends know full well that I am an obsessive paper collector and hoarder. One of my favourite things are books of maps, old linen maps.... anything to do with maps. No surprise then that I should buy this fabulous book about the collage work of Peter Clark. If his work is new to you go and look at more here. You will be entranced and amazed at what he can do with the paper other people have discarded.

Peter combs flea markets and boot sales on a regular basis looking for anything he can use from maps to beermats, old sheet music, record sleeves, sales ledgers, sales invoices, old cigarette cards.... you name it and he'll find a use for it creating these wonderful images.

Dogs have become a speciality and he now does them to commission, recreating people's pets in paper ephemera. He doesn't stop there though. There are other animals and clothing too - lots of suits, shoes and dresses - all conjured out of maps and the like and layered in his signature style.

If you've got a hoard of paper like me take a look at more photos on his website. It looks very straightforward but it is anything but and whilst I would love to be able to produce something like this , the phrase 'in your dreams' is echoing around my head. Still, I would get huge pleasure from the initial searching and shopping experience to start me off. If I could add anything like these gorgeous things to my hoard I'd be very happy indeed.

Wartime memories

Yesterday, Jill at Third Age Musings posted an advert from a Woman's Own of the late 1930's. It sent me off to read my Woman's Own from 1942 that I received for Christmas and I was caught up in the language of the time and the manner in which things were advertised. The headline of the ad above obviously had a completely different meaning to one that we might take today yet the topics covered are the same as we might currently read in the likes of 'Good Housekeeping' or 'Woman and Home' magazines.

Although heavily leaning towards the war effort the main items are about food, family, looking beautiful, knitting and sewing and making the best of everything. There were even problem pages - amongst the letters was one from a lonely girl in London asking 'Can you put me in touch with a lonely sailor?'

The reply was 'I would not take such a responsibility my dear, and can never help readers in this way. How can I know what sort of man would suit you and whom you would suit. If you are in a job, make friends with the people you meet or take up some voluntary work that will bring you in touch with other human beings. It is the only way: pen friendships are not any use except to an invalid who cannot get out and meet people' This seems so condescending to me but perhaps it was the way of it at this time. Everything was brought into sharp relief by the effects of the war.

On the cooking pages 'Judy' tells you how to zip up the family appetite by disguising the same old things in a different way. One of her specials is the 'Lettuce and Cheese Plate' where she tells Mum to thickly cover individual plates with very finely shredded lettuce, piling it up in the centre. Sprinkle with grated cheese and pattern round a zigzag of tomato sauce...... no, thanks Mum, I'll pass.

Unexpected snow...

We went to Bristol yesterday and on the drive back it started to snow. As it was not forecasted we thought it would peter out before we got close to home but we hit Swansea and there was a full blown blizzard on the motorway. Driving was a nightmare and there were a few scary moments but my husband is renowned for his calm ways and drove on unphased. There was a highlight when the snow seemed to clear around Carmarthen and a barn owl flew in front of the car silhouetted in the moonlight.. but it was short lived. The weather worsened closer to home and it took over 3 hours to do the journey, ending with us slithering up our drive in relief. Then it snowed over night, all of it a New Year surprise, so that when we went out this morning....

There was nothing going up the road....

Nothing going down the road........

And the garden was full of birds needing feeding in the cold. So we filled up the feeders, threw down extra seed and defrosted the bird bath for water supplies. My husband checked his hives to make sure the bees were OK because if snow collects in the entrance and reflects back into the hive, they are deceived into thinking it is light and sunny outside. They then come outside and die in the cold. Not to be recommended if we are to collect any honey this summer.

It's started to thaw now in the bright sunshine but the birds are still out in numbers. We've seen all the usual suspects this morning - all the tits, blackbirds, thrushes, robins, dunnock, greenfinches, chaffinches, starlings, jay, magpies, crows etc but there are no signs of any sparrows or goldfinches which is unusual. There was a beautiful male bullfinch hanging around but I could never get the camera focussed in time. I also spied my nemesis, the grey squirrel and a little wood vole. Why is it they all look more appealing with a white backdrop? I could even tolerate the rabbits in the snow if I saw them ....well, perhaps not....