A Word on Statistics

The article I posted about yesterday contained lots of disturbing statistics. As is the way with me, I was then reminded about this poem by Wislawa Szymborska entitled 'A Word on Statistics'. Whilst not a prolific poet, or it seems, widely known, she did win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996:

Out of every hundred people,

those who always know better:
fifty two.

Unsure of every step:
almost all the rest.

Ready to help,
if it doesn't take long:
forty nine.

Always good,
because they cannot be otherwise:
four, well, maybe five.

Able to admire without envy:
eighteen.

Led to error
by youth (which passes):
sixty, plus or minus.

Those not to be messed with:
four and forty.

Living in constant fear
of someone or something:
seventy seven.

Capable of happiness:
twenty-some-odd at most.

Harmless alone
turning savage in crowds:
more than half, for sure.

Cruel,
when forced by circumstances:
it's better not to know,
not even approximately.

Wise in hindsight:
not many more
than wise in foresight.

Getting nothing out of life except 'things':
thirty
(although I would like to be wrong).

Doubled over in pain
and without a flashlight in the dark:
eighty three,
sooner or later.

Those who are just:
quite a few,
at thirty five.

But if it takes effort to understand:
three.

Worthy of empathy:
ninety-nine.

Mortal:
one hundred out of one hundred-
a figure that has never varied yet.

From the Miracle Fair Collection translated by Joanna Trzeciak

A wing and a prayer

Quite by chance I picked up a copy of the Guardian newspaper this weekend. There was a really thought provoking article in it, written by the novelist Margaret Atwood. It is all about the decline of birds and how we ignore that decline at our peril. It's full of interesting, yet horrifying, statistics but there is a glimmer of hope for the precious albatross - (my own personal crusade) .The report writes how trends can be turned around with ridiculously small amounts of money... 'but it's a matter of time, and extinction is forever. Human beings, it seems, are like little children, who never quite believe that 'all gone' means there isn't any more, at all, ever.' (The whole article can be read here - its says link is broken but just click on google search)

Time flies

I don't want to be accused of wishing my life away but I have begun to wish our snow would come and go this quickly.

One year in 120 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

Feeding the five thousand

Well, of course we're not feeding five thousand birds but it does seem like we're supporting an avian crowd of biblical proportions in these freezing conditions. But it is great entertainment and virtually free so I'm not complaining really. In truth , I love them all. Yesterday I watched a robin peck a squirrel on the backside in order to shoo him off the ground feeder. It worked too, but only for a short while so my husband picked the feeder off the ground and rested it on top of the frozen bird bath. This way, the squirrel could no longer hog the thing as it put it well out of his reach. What did happen though was that it made it easy for me to sit in my chair, camera in hand at eye level and snap away at everything that came down to feed.

Picking up the seed left on the ground was left to a small cohort of the starling flock that inhabits the field next door. I love their plumage in the Spring with all those iridescent green and purple patches but their current markings are very striking too in close up. They are voracious feeders so we couldn't afford to keep them in seed for the winter....

Neither could we keep up with the nuthatch nicking the peanuts. Hmmm, I think there's a clue in the name there my girl.... so now I know why stocks get low.... anyway, this nuthatch kept coming back time and time again no matter what bird was on the table. He was not put off by Mrs Blackbird either despite that look she gave him....

The biggest thrill though was seeing a jay visit the table, a sure sign that times are tough for all our wild birds at the moment. After he came down on it the table wobbled a bit so we put it back to the ground. He then visited again, picking up about a dozen nuts, one after the other and storing them in his crop before flying off. I guess they're either to eat now or keep for later. It was fascinating to watch and cheaper than the TV licence.

My friend Sue has also been snowed in but she's used the time to get on with some work which she's written about here. With her tongue firmly in her cheek (I think... but maybe not..) she's taken a photo which she says could be her Christmas card for next time around! I feel lazy just sitting in the chair taking photographs so Sue, the robin is my Christmas card for 2010, what do you think? Is that cheating?

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