Kestrel Pictures

Earlier, I said that it was almost impossible to take an image of a kestrel -- even though I saw so many of them in England.

In the end, I had to wait until I reached Germany, before I managed to take a couple of good photos. Here's one of the better ones.


And here's one of my favourites -- with the kestrel just entering flight. This was actually a setup photo. This kestrel sat in one of three trees for about 5 hours (we saw it earlier in the morning, and when we came back in the evening, it was still there). Throughout that time, it kept flying from tree to tree.

I tried for about half and hour to get a natural picture of it -- but by the time I had inched close to it on one tree --- it would fly to the next tree.

I realized that from Tree A, the kestrel would always fly to Tree B -- so, when he took off from Tree A, I focused on Tree B.

Well -- for the one and only time -- the bird flew to Tree C, bypassing Tree B.

I began to think that that bird had it in for me.

Well, finally, when the bird sat down at one of the trees, I focused on it -- and then got my mum to yell and spook the kestrel -- startled, it started to fly away -- and I got the picture below (after more than 30 minutes of freezing, hard work).

 

The Autobahn

On the subject of the autobahn, here's proof that we were moving too fast to get a good picture of a fox.

(By the way, I wasn't driving -- my dad was.)


At the risk of switching topics (and countries), the autobahn really is an amazing road system. The beauty of the system is not merely the high speeds.

From place to place the autobahn does institute a speed limit (for example, on sharp turns). However, the smazing thing is that the speed limit that they give is exactly what you probably could handle on such a curve -- i.e. the curve was banked to a proper degree, so that such a speed is probably the maximum bearable (for everyone outside of Michael Schumacher).

I wish Canadian highways were so comfortable to drive on. We drove 1400 km in one day on the Autobahn, and still had time to sightsee when we reached our halfway point, before driving on. -- and it took only 8.5 hours of driving total.

(I think the secret is in the banked curves -- curves here in Canada are not banked as much as the ones in Germany.)

Anyway, back to England and Longleat. 

More fauna

I was particularly proud of this picture of a fox, that I took in Algonquin Park. In more than a month in Algonquin Park (not consecutively), this was the only sighting of a fox that I made.


In contrast, here is a picture of a fox (one of over 10 I saw), taken in Germany (near Munich). We saw more than 5 foxes in 3 days of driving around the countryside, looking for them.

Indeed, we even saw foxes just standing next to the autobahn as we drove along (obviously, we were driving too fast to actually take a picture).


I guess the reason you see so many wild animals in Europe (vs. in Canada), is simply that they have been interacting with humans for much longer (1000s of years), in contrast to Canada (a few 100 years).  

Normal British Fauna

Here's an addition to the normal British birds.

British?!

Yes, phesants have been stocked on Nobelmen's estates for centuries, and nowadays, you can see them on the sides of almost every country road in Britain.

Interestingly, I took this photo at Longleat, with the pheasant moving about among some Indian Baboons, and Water Buffalo, in Longleat park.


It is rather odd -- in Canada, pheasants and animals such as Foxes, which have not been hunted for generations are still extemely secretive, and hard to spot.

Yet, in Europe, these same animals -- though (in some areas) still being hunted -- are so used to man, that it is "relatively" easy to catch a good sighting.

No, I did not suddenly change my plans, and head to Mongolia!

Then, how did I get a picture of a bacterian camel?

Well, I headed off to the world's oldest (and probably still one of the largest) drive through Safaris.

Longleat Safari Park is found in the voluminous estate of a modern day British Lord -- the Lord of Bath.

It is extremely incongrous to find yourself surrounded by giraffes, in the middle of 300 year old Oak trees, and normal British fauna.


But the setting is extemely beautiful. 

Bacterian Camel???

 

Returning to the Blog

Sorry for the second major delay in the blog.

Though it seems that Europe is much more well-connected than North America, I haven't found that really to be the case.

Even most roadside hotels back in Canada have some form of internet connectivity that the guests can use. In contrast, in France (and other areas of Europe), even Internet cafes are not easy to find.

In Paris, to give one example, we were staying within a 10 minute walk of the Lourve (i.e. very central). However, there was only 1 internet cafe within a 15 minute walk around us. --- and, to make matters worse, the internet cafe only had French keyboards -- an extreme irritation.

Anyway, that explains some of the reason of why I haven't been able to update my blog.

However, I am back in England now -- which seems much improved versus "the Continent". So, I hope to get a couple more blogs in before I get back to Canada, and I will then finish whatever I haven't finished after I return.

Anyway, onwards!

The Nutcracker and REM Sleep

I just saw the Russian Stateballet perform Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, last night. The performance was okay (not spectacular), but I presume that is because they were on tour. However, at least the Nutcracker story is a happy one, and so the whole performance made for a fun night.


However, what struck me during the performance was what a sleep researcher would think, watching the Nutcracker.

As you might know, the entire Nutcracker is a dream of a little girl, after her uncle (a magician) gives her a nutcracker for Christmas. During one scene, the characters of the dream world, surround the little girl, swaying back and forth. She, herself, is carried aloft by the magician, swaying back and forth. The beautiful effect was to simulate her sleeping, and then slowly getting awakened.

Awash in Tchaikovsky's beautiful lullaby, a little voice in my head said: Well, now the REM sleep is ending. There will be a period of non-REM sleep before she reawakens. Alpha wave activity will slowly begin in the EEG scanner.

Though I managed to quash that little voice in my head -- I can only say that I doubt a sleep researcher would appreciate the Nutcracker (if he kept thinking like that).

:) 

The Messiah

And here's the violin itself -- Le Messie or The Messiah.

It has never been played, and is almost in the same condition as when it was found in 1737 in Antonio Stradivari's workshop. It was built in 1716, during Stradivari's Gold Period, during which his greatest violins were made.

As such, it is viewed as one of the greatest of the Stradivari violins existing today.


(It was named The Messiah, because of the fact that it has never been played -- its owner said that it was like the Jewish Messiah -- he is always said to be coming, but he never arrives.) 

The piece of wood below seems rather ordinary. However, it isn't.

This was the last item I saw in the Ashmolean, and probably the most spectacular.

I am not sure if you can read the words on the piece of wood below, but it says Stradivari 1716, Le Messie.

This is one of the pieces from a violin made by Stradivari , thought to be the greatest violin maker ever.

Painting by El Greco

This painting by El Greco surprised me.

The british museum do not seem to have a lot of painting by El Greco, but what is immediately evident in his painting, is that it does not seem to fit in the late 16th century. It seems to have no link with da Vinci, Raphel, and Michaelangelo, whom he followed. His painting is much more modern (it looks like it comes from the 19th, or even the 20th centuries).

Still, he clearly was one of the masters of the later 16th century.

 

Here a painting by Eduard Manet.

 

Degas: Dancer Putting on her shoe

This is one of Degas's Ballerinas (or Dancers).

This is a little unusual because most of Degas's famous dancers are not sculptures but paintings.

However, here you can clearly see the mastery of Degas over this second medium.

 

Rodin's Age of Bronze

Here, a rather unusually titled piece by Rodin -- The Age of Bronze.

Rodin would normally sculpt something, before coming up with a title for the piece. That might explain this odd title.

 

Rodin's Eve

Here, Eve -- also by Rodin.

This, like the thinker, was originally developed for his monumental "Gates of Hell". However, here, Rodin developed it into a separate piece.

Note that there are many recasts of Rodin's pieces -- these pieces, unusually, were original casts created by Rodin, himself.

They are slightly unusual, in their smaller size (I think). I later saw another Rodin original, and that was much bigger.

 

Rodin's Thinker

They had a really spectacular group of sculptures by Rodin.

Here, probably his most famous sculpture -- Thinker.

 

Here a portrait by Sir Anthony van Dyck -- very similar in style to works by his teacher Rubens.

Powhatan's Mantle

Sorry for the poor picture, but I hope that you can make out that this was a mantle, worn over other clothing.

This mantle seems a rather ordinary piece of Native American Clothing -- however, its true history is anything but ordinary.

You might remember the story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. Though most of the story is really just an embellished legend, the main characters of Powhatan (Pocahantas's father), Pocahontas, and Capt. John Smith are historical.

Well, when Capt. John Smith met Powhatan, he was presented with the mantle of the chief. He, in turn, brought that mantle back to Europe with him. He then presented that mantle to the founder of this museum (as part of a bequest at his death).

So, the mantle pictured above was actually owned by Powhatan, of the Pocahantas story.

Pretty interesting!

(If you aren't familiar with the Pocahantas story, the historical version of the story can be found at: http://www.apva.org/history/pocahont.html.)

As an example of other oddities in the collection -- a Native American War Club.

In hand-to-hand combat, this would really be a fearsome weapon.

 

Here's a very characteristic painting by Titian (in his middle period).

 

European Art

Michaelangelo did not leave many paintings (or drawings).

I saw one in the National Gallery, London, but they didn't allow pictures.

However, here is another -- from the Ashmolean.

 

And here is a cheeky looking Egyptian God, Sobek.

 

This is a really well preserved chariot axle from Ancient Egypt (almost 3000 years ago).

I'd never seen wood, this well preserved, from Egypt, before.

 

This is more of the typical greek sculpture -- however, it is a beautifully preseved one (admittedly the arms are reconstructed).

 

Greek

Here is a beautiful greek marble (and it isn't even recreated much).

Most greek marbles have no expression -- this girl certainly does.