Gunsmoke and Knitting

Where am I living?

July 23, 2015

Tree house architect, Takashi Kobayashi, created this marvelous tree house for Risonare resort in Atami, Japan.

The rambling structure is built around a 300 year-old camphor tree. It was . . .

Completed in March of 2014, Kusukusu (it borrows its name from kusu-no-ki, Japanese for camphor tree) is a marvelous feat of architecture, engineering and technology. Working with Hiroshi Nakamura of NAP Architects, the team came in and 3D-scanned hundreds of points on the tree. Based on that 3D data they then created a steel trellis that threaded through the tree, interlocking perfectly and acting as an architecturally weight-bearing yet visually stunning support system. What’s amazing is that the treehouse in its entirety, never touches the tree. It’s completely self-standing so as to not harm the tree.

Home

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged architecture, travel, tree house | 2 Comments »

In a different interpretation of Cristo’s wrapped landscapes, Portuguese artist Joanna Vasconcelos covers animal sculptures in fine, crocheted lace. The pictures below show her recent work in which she covers the sculptures of Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro.

The artist states:

Each of the pieces “are ambiguously imprisoned/protected by a second-skin in crochet-work,” says Vasconcelos. At once both beautiful and strange, the work stands as a testament to the extraordinary craftsmanship of the artist but also as a one-upmanship of maternal femininity and domesticity. The use of crochet to mummify the ceramic animals “opens up a vast and rich field of interpretation” that challenges our preconceptions of femininity, as well as our notions of tradition and modernity.

Yeah, well . . . I’m not a fan of the whole wrapping movement, but I like the little crab – and the frog – and maybe the snake.

From Colossal

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged animals, art, crocheting, knitting, Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, style, whimsey, yarn | Leave a Comment »

What am I sappy cat blogging?

July 17, 2015

A 2,000-year-old burial mound discovered in the area that’s now Illinois contained the remains of a young bobcat, new research reveals.

The ancient bobcat was wearing a special collar and was found in a ritual burial mound normally reserved for humans.

“It really looked like it had been buried not because it was a feral accessory for a human, but because it was, in some way, kind of respected on its own,” said study co-author Angela Perri, a zooarchaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany.

There is more to the story here at Live Science.

Thanks to HMS Defiant for the tip.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged animals, bobcat, burial mound, cat, cats, Friday, sappy cat blogging | 2 Comments »

What do I find super cool?

July 15, 2015

Shamelessly stolen from HMS Defiant

I am looking forward to the images to come.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged astronomy, geeky science blogging, NASA, nature, New Horizons, Pluto | Leave a Comment »

Why am I wishing for a blank wall?

July 15, 2015

I really can’t help myself. Give me a blank wall, piece of paper, surface, and I must draw something on it. Mona Caron, the artist in the video above, seems to feel the same way.

The story is a Colossal.com

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What am I celebrating on tattoo Tuesday?

July 14, 2015

La Fête nationale de la belle France – le quatorze juillet!

Americans have The 4th of July; the French have Bastille Day. On July 14, 1789, an outraged group of Parisians stormed the Bastille, a fortress and prison in France where prisoners of influence were held, in hopes of capturing ammunition.

Shortly thereafter, King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette took refuge in Versailles as the violent peasants pillaged and burned châteaux, and destroyed records of feudal dues—this reaction is known as the grande peur (great fear).

For the peasant class, the Bastille stood as a symbol of the hypocrisy and corruption of the aristocratic government – controlled mostly by nobility and clergy. This important event marked the entry of the popular class into the French Revolution.

The French recognize Bastille Day as the end of the monarchy and beginning of the modern republic. The lasting significance of the event was in its recognition that power could be held by ordinary citizens, not in the king or in God.

Credit: Ricco Villanueva Siasoco

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged architecture, Bastille Day, France, holidays, Paris, tattoo Tuesday | Leave a Comment »

What am I sappy alpaca blogging?

July 10, 2015

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alpacas, animals, cats, Friday, sappy cat blogging, whimsey | Leave a Comment »

What am I growing?

July 8, 2015

I posted earlier this season about the potatoes I am growing in barrels in my back yard.

This is what they looked like in late May, 2-3 weeks after planting.

This is what they looked like in mid-June, shortly before we went on vacation.

They have produced flowers.

Some of the flowers look as if they are making potato fruit. I’ll have to keep and eye on these.

This is what they looked like when we returned at the end of June.

The container potatoes have several advantages the chief one is that since they grow underground, the deer, bunnies, etc., are not eating them. Some little rascals beheaded all of my hosta flower stalks and I have given up on growing tomatoes – the deer eat them.

I am getting a kick out of seeing how potatoes grow.

And they are still growing. I hope we get potatoes and not just vines – but the vines are impressive!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged gardening, gardening in containers, nature, photography, potatoes | Leave a Comment »

Whose birthday am I noting today?

July 7, 2015

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

– Robert A. Heinlein, born today in 1907.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged birthday, books, Robert Heinlein, science fiction | 4 Comments »